The services of a Kansas City architectural firm, A. Van Brunt and Brother, were obtained to design a spacious residence and complex of supporting structures. Adriance Van Brunt had come to Kansas City around 1880 and with his brother John enjoyed rapid success. He was a believer in the City Beautiful Movement and for a…
Robert M. Snyder’s triumphs had come in the natural gas, oil, real estate, and banking businesses, and he was the organizer of what became the Kansas City Life Insurance Company. While staying at a hotel in Lebanon owned by Major Kellogg, Robert McClure Snyder Sr. was told about fabulous Ha Ha Tonka by Colonel Scott. …
Origin of Ha Ha Tonka mythos In Damming the Osage, we wrote about the connection between Col. R.G. Scott and Robert M. Snyder, who built Ha Ha Tonka. Colonel R.G. Scott came from Iowa to the Ozarks around 1890 where he futilely attempted to promote a railroad linking Jefferson City and Springfield. He and a…
Between bank, stage, and train robberies, the Younger Brothers’ gang found refuge and recreation in the rugged hills of the Osage. Grandfather Younger had settled here in the 1840s. Relatives and even former slaves of the family took pride in sheltering the outlaws. Frank and Jesse James on occasion joined the Youngers at the billiard…
Joseph W. McClurg, 19th Governor of Missouri Joseph W. McClurg and partners grossed half-a-million dollars a year at their Linn Creek Big Store before the Civil War. The well-educated, dapper gentleman was a strong Union supporter. When hostilities erupted, rebels burned his store and warehouses. After the War, McClurg was elected to Congress three times…
This stern-wheeler worked the river below Warsaw delivering farm produce and timber to a rail connection at Osage City, or St. Louis, returning with merchandise. Log books in the collection of the Miller County Museum and Historical Society enumerated its 1904 cargo: “Here are items the Wells carried that year: 5,337 sacks of wheat, 2…
After the Civil War commenced, boat traffic on the Osage diminished. The Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers (1887) documents the reduced role of river transportation on the Osage: “There was no steamboat commerce above Tuscumbia during the year. Only $45,960 of shipments went upriver while $559,956 worth of railroad ties and lumber was…
Small steamboats, some pushing barges, delivered large parties from Osceola to Monegaw Springs, eight miles upstream, after commercial river traffic had almost disappeared. The effort to finance a railroad from Osceola to Monegaw Springs failed. Attempts to capitalize on Monegaw’s celebrated springs have been persistent, but largely unrewarded. Its geographic isolation has been problematic, and…
