Tuesday, June 24, 2014
"Historic Huntsville Missouri" Website
About 13 years ago I created a website on Rootsweb Freepages called "Historic Huntsville." I never did much with it except provide an incomplete history and a bunch of links to other websites. And so it sat for 13 years with only minor updates a year or two later. Then last week after completing work on my "Historic Map of Randolph County" I decided to revisit it, perhaps complete the history and write my own pages instead of linking elsewhere. One week later it is done. In the meantime the web address has changed. Last Monday Ancestry.com had a Distributed Denial of Service Attack. This knocked Freepages offline for about a week. Freepages was operational for a few hours Friday which allowed me to complete the history, then again I did not have access until today. This gave me time to complete the biographies and other pages. I also decided to move the site to Google Sites. Google Sites allowed me more features such as a site search, and overall made the site easier to manage. The resulting site is much bigger than the old one with added features such as the "Historic Map of Randolph County;" a map of Huntsville; a photo gallery; a section for community news; new listings for Huntsville clubs, churches, government offices, and businesses; and all new biographies of famous people that have lived in and around Huntsville. I am rather proud of it although it could be so much more, and I am going to work to add to it. I need to bring the history up to present times, and I need to find news to add to the community news section. But for now it is a working and I hope informative site. If you wish to visit it go to: https://sites.google.com/site/historichuntsvillemissouri/ If you have any comments please email me at the links provided or comment here. I could have enabled site comments, and I am still considering it, but for now they are disabled.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
A Map of Historic Places in Randolph County, Missouri
A while back I got the idea of trying to document the villages and towns that have existed in Randolph County Missouri. In the early days there were places that were little more than a store and a post office that are now forgotten, yet they were important enough to make it on maps of the time. Among these are Bournesburg, Edwardsville, Oak Point, and Smithland. In the case of Bounresburg, Edwardsville, and Smithland their rough locations are known. Other early places have had their names and knowledge of their locations survive to the present day like Mount Airy and Milton. Still others like Elk Fork and Berthaville despite appearing on maps leave us confused as to their locations.
Later, after the early settlements, mining towns would be founded often within a couple miles of each other as competing mining companies did not wish to use the others' towns. Such is the case with Shafton and Tuanton which were within a mile or two of each other and only a mile or so from present day Renick. These too have largely disappeared and been forgotten. Some mining towns though despite having only a brief existence remain on the map. Kimberly and Harkes are just a couple of examples of such towns.
Some of the locations of places on this map are conjecture and where that is the case a question mark is placed after the name. With some places only a rough location is known, but in those cases I have hoped from directions given in old newspapers and histories to have located the places within a mile or two of where they were. Such is the case with Shafton and McMullen. The location of many places are well known in the county, and some remain on maps to this day. Outside of the major towns these are Darksville, Fort Henry, Grand Center, Hubbard, Kimberly, Levick's Mill, Milton, Mount Airy, Roanoke, Rolling Home, Ryder, and Yates. There is a special exception and that is Kribb's Corner (Kribbsville) which has never appeared on maps or had a post office. It was an attempt at a village that never gained traction in the mid to late 20th century. but remains in people's memories. Finally, there are villages and stores the location of which may never be known. From a post office list there were once places named Breckenridge, Clarno, Hillis Crown and Plum Point. Some such as Hillis Crown even operated post offices for up to 12 years. Yet they are now forgotten.
Towns, villages, and settlements are designated by stars on the map. Historic places are designated by circles. And diamonds designate geographic features. Settlements and mining towns listed besides the major towns are Allen, Belview, Berthaville, Bournesberg, Darksville, Edwardsville, Elliot, Elk Fork, Fort Henry, Grand Center, Harkes (Wilcox), Hubbard, Kimberly, Kribb's Corner, Levick's Mill, McClainsville, McMullen, Milton, Mount Airy (Uptonville), Oak Point, Penney's, Roanoke, Russell, Ryder, Shafton, Smithland, Sunshine, Taunton, Thomas Hill, and Yates. All of these are in Randolph County except for McClainsville which is over the county line in Macon County, and Russell which is right on the Randolph and Howard County line. Historic places listed are Bagby's Mill. the Battle of Roan's Tanyard, Burkhartt's Fields and the Monkey Nest Mine. Geographic areas that are listed are Dark's Prairie, Foster's Prairie, Grand Prairie, and Titherow Hills. To enlarge the map in another window, please click on the little rectangle in the upper right hand corner. You can zoom in and out by clicking on the + and -. And when you click on one of the icons (rectangle, circle, or star) you get little tidbits of information about the place.
If you see any corrections that need to be made to the map, let me know. And if you know of anything that needs to be added by all means let me know. This is very much a work in progress.
Later, after the early settlements, mining towns would be founded often within a couple miles of each other as competing mining companies did not wish to use the others' towns. Such is the case with Shafton and Tuanton which were within a mile or two of each other and only a mile or so from present day Renick. These too have largely disappeared and been forgotten. Some mining towns though despite having only a brief existence remain on the map. Kimberly and Harkes are just a couple of examples of such towns.
Some of the locations of places on this map are conjecture and where that is the case a question mark is placed after the name. With some places only a rough location is known, but in those cases I have hoped from directions given in old newspapers and histories to have located the places within a mile or two of where they were. Such is the case with Shafton and McMullen. The location of many places are well known in the county, and some remain on maps to this day. Outside of the major towns these are Darksville, Fort Henry, Grand Center, Hubbard, Kimberly, Levick's Mill, Milton, Mount Airy, Roanoke, Rolling Home, Ryder, and Yates. There is a special exception and that is Kribb's Corner (Kribbsville) which has never appeared on maps or had a post office. It was an attempt at a village that never gained traction in the mid to late 20th century. but remains in people's memories. Finally, there are villages and stores the location of which may never be known. From a post office list there were once places named Breckenridge, Clarno, Hillis Crown and Plum Point. Some such as Hillis Crown even operated post offices for up to 12 years. Yet they are now forgotten.
Towns, villages, and settlements are designated by stars on the map. Historic places are designated by circles. And diamonds designate geographic features. Settlements and mining towns listed besides the major towns are Allen, Belview, Berthaville, Bournesberg, Darksville, Edwardsville, Elliot, Elk Fork, Fort Henry, Grand Center, Harkes (Wilcox), Hubbard, Kimberly, Kribb's Corner, Levick's Mill, McClainsville, McMullen, Milton, Mount Airy (Uptonville), Oak Point, Penney's, Roanoke, Russell, Ryder, Shafton, Smithland, Sunshine, Taunton, Thomas Hill, and Yates. All of these are in Randolph County except for McClainsville which is over the county line in Macon County, and Russell which is right on the Randolph and Howard County line. Historic places listed are Bagby's Mill. the Battle of Roan's Tanyard, Burkhartt's Fields and the Monkey Nest Mine. Geographic areas that are listed are Dark's Prairie, Foster's Prairie, Grand Prairie, and Titherow Hills. To enlarge the map in another window, please click on the little rectangle in the upper right hand corner. You can zoom in and out by clicking on the + and -. And when you click on one of the icons (rectangle, circle, or star) you get little tidbits of information about the place.
If you see any corrections that need to be made to the map, let me know. And if you know of anything that needs to be added by all means let me know. This is very much a work in progress.
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