Osceola Library, May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler.
Courthouse & Gazebo, May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler
Once the First Baptist Church, today this building is home to the St. Clair County Historical Society.
May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler.
Used as the Osceola High School for many years, this building has been converted into an apartment complex.
May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler.
East entrance to the Square, May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler.
Another view of the square, entering from the east, May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler.
West side of the Square, May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler.
North side of the Square, May 2009 - submitted by Mary Zeiler.
Osceola has had a Post Office during the years 1842 through present.
Osceola Herald, 29 June 1871:
From a little ragged hamlet of perhaps half a hundred population, Osceola has grown to be a town of near a thousand inhabitants. Her growth has been steady.
St. Clair County History, 1883, pages 982, 983:
Osceola - Its Birth
The first house built upon the site of the City of Osceola was in the winter of 1835-36. Sanders Nance and his colored man, Martin, cut the
logs and hauled them to the bluff back of the residence of James H. Linney. Trouble as to who staked out the claim arose between Nance and Phillip Crow and Nance vacated the ground giving Crow possession. Phillip Crow put up the house and also a store of poles. He was joined by Richard P. Crutchfield and in March or April 1836 the first store
within the limits of St. Clair County was started on the banks of the Osage River. It was known as the “Crossing of the Osage at Crow & Crutchfields” for several years and the name “Osceola” was given it after the celebrated Indian Chief.
Crow & Crutchfield were soon joined by others. Dr. P.M. Cox, Joseph Cox and William Cox, all brothers, came in May 1836. Dr. Cox purchased the land adjoining Crows. Finding it a good trading point, Messrs. Cox and Crow decided to lay out a town. They located it mostly on section 20.
The Cox brothers opened the second store in Osceola in the spring of 1837. James Gardner opened the first hotel, a double lot with passageway between. Bridges & Dudley ran a blacksmith shop. Ministers were of the circuit riding class.
Steven Noel started the first saloon and was first road overseer in the county, having been appointed by the Rives County Court in 1836. William C. Thompson started a saddler’s shop in 1838.
In 1839 David Corbin and son built the first frame house put up in the town. The lumber used was whipsawed by the Corbins. It was used as a
tailor shop by a frenchman named Ernest Leming.
The next house which the owners extravagance led to fine lumber instead of logs for floors, etc. was that of Lawrence Lewis. The joints and planks in his house were sawed by hand and the plank floor of his residence was the second laid down in the county. By 1840 the population had reached 40 or 50.
Missouri History Encyclopedia, 1901:
Osceola – The county seat of St. Clair County, on the Osage River, and on the K.C., Fort Scott & Memphis, and the K.C., Osceola & Southern Railways, 107 miles southeast of Kansas City. Two railway bridges and county bridge, all of iron, span the stream. The water supply is derived from the adjacent stream, and is distributed by a private water company operating a plant established in 1899 at a cost of $12,000. The courthouse is a two-story building erected in 1866 at a cost of $15,000. In November 1900 the people were to vote upon a proposition to expand $25,000 in the erection of a new edifice. A public schoolhouse was built in 1895, at a cost of $6,000; it is of brick, two stories in height. A colored school is also maintained. Six teachers in all are employed.
The churches are Baptist, Christian, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, and Presbyterian, and colored Baptist and Methodist. There are numerous fraternal societies. The newspapers are the “Democrat” and the “Republican”, representing the political parties for which they are respectively named. The only bank is that of the Johnson-Lucas Banking Co., capitol $25,000, incorporated in 1896. The Kansas City Trust Co., founded in 1894, is operated by the same persons who conduct the banking business. The industrial establishments include a steam roller flour mill, a saw mill, a cheese factory, a fruit cannery and large kilns producing a superior line. Extensive quarries ship out quantities of white sandstone and limestone, and a variety much used for fine cement. Three crushers are operated in producing stone for railway ballast. From fifty to one hundred men are engaged in the neighborhood in cutting wood, which is brought to the place on barges drawn by a small steamboat; quantities of select wood are shipped weekly to Kansas City for use in smoking meats.
Osceola was settled in 1835 by Philip Crow and others, among whom was Sanders Nance. Between these two occurred a dispute as to the ownership of a piece of ground, whereupon Nance vacated, and the first house and stone building was erected by Crow, who associated himself in business with Richard P. Crutchfield, and the firm existed for several years. In 1836 came the Cox brothers, Pleasant M., Joseph and William, and the two first named opened the second store in the place. The same year Crow established a ferry across the Osage; in 1838 a post office was established, with Crow as the first postmaster.
James Gardner opened a log tavern in 1837, about the same time John W. Bridges opened the first blacksmith shop, and P.M. Cox set up a horse saw mill. The first frame house was built in 1839. James Gardner. James Gardner was the first school teacher, Dr. Pleasant M. Cox the first physician, Littleton Lunsford the first minister, and Charles P. Bullock the first lawyer. The first white child born in the county was a daughter of William Cox, in 1837, and the second was a son of George M. Cox. The first newspaper was the “Whig”, begun in 1848 by P.C. Davis. Osceola was one of the first trading posts established in the interior of Missouri.
Beginning in 1844, small steamboats ascended the Osage River regularly until about 1861; while Osceola was considered the head of navigation, under favorable conditions their trips were extended to Taberville. The town became the shipping point for eleven of the great counties in that portion of the state, and goods were taken from it by wagon into Arkansas. In 1860 the population was about 1,500, with a rich bank and numerous wholesale stores. At many times one hundred wagons were in at one time to obtain supplies for stores at various distant points.
This trade disappeared with the beginning of the war, and when peace returned railways soon followed, and the old conditions were not to be restored. Until 1870 the work of rebuilding the town was but slow; the next decade, however, brought material development. The St. Clair County Bank was in operation, and the Eclipse Mills were built, this marking the beginning of various industrial enterprise. Osceola was made the county seat in 1841 and the town was laid out upon land donated by Philip Crow, Henry W. Crow, Joseph W. Cox and Pleasant M. Cox, taking its name from that of an Indian chief. A two-story brick house was erected in 1842, at a cost of $15,000; this was destroyed by Jim Lane in 1861, and in 1866 was replaced with the present structure. A brick jail, on a stone foundation, containing residence of the jailer, was afterward built.
The town was disturbed at various times during the border difficulties from 1858 to the beginning of the Civil War. In December 1860, about five hundred citizens were assembled for the defense of the city against an expected attack by General Jim Lane who, however, turned back after reaching Papinsville. September 23, 1861 Lane approached the city, with a force estimated at 1,500 men and with two pieces of artillery. Captain John M. Weidemeyer, with a Confederate company of about forty men, fired upon them from the brush. Instead of following Weidemeyer, Lane pushed on into the town. His men exploded a bank safe, but the contents, about $150,000, had been sent away for security. The stores were plundered, and the goods taken away in wagons. The courthouse was burned, the records being previously loaded into wagons for taking away. The greater part of these were afterward recovered, on payment of about $500 to those who knew of the place of their concealment. All the business houses and most of the dwellings were fired.
Osceola was incorporated by the county court August 6, 1868, and became a city of the fourth class March 28, 1883. Population, 1899 (estimated) 1,200.
History of Henry and St. Clair Counties, Missouri, 1883:
Clinton and Osceola were the trading points for this whole section of the country. Crow and Crutchfield, at Osceola, and the Wallace Brothers, at Clinton, were the leading merchants. John F. Weidemyer at Osceola a few years later did a large business. The roads were through the open woods and prairies, and pretty generally in a straight line, but the new farms fenced in makes the distance at this day some five to six miles greater.
There were seventeen business houses in the city of Osceola in 1875, besides six lawyers, five physicians, one saloon, two hotels, one dentist, three carpenters, one steam saw and grist mill, one cooper, one blacksmith and one paint shop, two livery stables, two banks and one newspaper. This was not much improved until 1880, the town remaining almost stationary in its growth. The trouble with the railroad debt caused general stagnation.
The Osceola Savings Bank opened for business 2 September 1872. John Hancock, president; W.O. Mead, cashier.
A hack line was established in January 1872 between Osceola and Appleton City.
The Osage Literary Club was in existence in 1872 and 1873, and a Philosophic-Literary Club was again started in 1879. They are of the past.
An Archery Club was organized which attained considerable skill.
Before the advent of railroads Osceola was considered as the head of navigation of the Osage River, and all Southwest Missouri and a portion of Arkansas came here for their goods. A city of about 1,500 souls stood here, one of the liveliest towns in the state, but Jim Lane laid the place in ashes and left not even a house to mark the point where it stood.
County Court, March term, 1883
To the people of St. Clair County:
Ordered, that in the matter of the railroad indebtedness:
Whereas, Judgments for a large amount have already been rendered against the county on the railroad bonded indebtedness, and mandamus proceedings are being continually served on the county court, commanding them to levy taxes sufficient to pay said judgements; and
Whereas, The entire bonded debt of the county, issued for railroad purposes is now due, and suits are being brought to recover judgments thereon; and
Whereas, It is the belief of the judges of this court that a fair and reasonable compromise of said indebtedness can be obtained by the people of the county; and
Whereas, we believe that an effort to that end should be made by the people in conjunction with the county court; therefore,
Resolved, That it is hereby recommended to the people of the county, that they meet in their respective townships on Saturday, the 5th day of May, 1883, and when so assembled, that they appoint and select, five delegates in each township, belonging to different political parties, whose duty it shall be to convene in the court house in Osceola, on the 7th day of May, 1883, and consult among themselves and with the creditors of the county, with a view of agreeing, if possible, on some terms of compromise of said indebtedness, that may be satisfactory to the people and acceptable to the creditors.
A petition for the organization of St. Clair county to become an independent municipality in 1840 was signed by: John Barnett, S.C. Bruce, R.P. Cocke, Dr. P.M. Cox, Thomas Cruthaid, J.A. Culbertson, G.B. Culbertson, J.C. Greenwell, Columbus Halin (Hahn?), H.N. Hester, John Howard, James Hoover, William B. Lawler, Z. Lilley, James Renfro, J. Ridgeway, W.H. Scobey, Albert Sheldon, George Short, Hiram Short, H.Y. Small, R.H. Sproul, Ervin Thomas, John R. White.
At that time, there were 350 heads of families.
Osceola Herald, 17 July1871:
Osceola and St. Clair County
We find the following interesting correspondence about our town and county, in the Cincinnati Times. We republish the letter entire, knowing it will be read with interest:
Osceola, St. Clair County.
Osceola, it should be remembered, was the name of the last great chieftain of the Seminoles of Florida, but that the name was bestowed upon this somewhat interesting town in honor of that wild prince of the Southern Red Americans, I am not sufficiently informed to say; but this I can speak in surety, to-wit: that the appellation is peculiarly appropriate, evincing a love of originality in nomenclature, and a fine taste in belles letters.
The Town of Osceola
Is situated upon the south bank of the Osage River, 220 miles from its mouth, and is the capital of St. Clair County. It was laid out in the year ’42, which makes it one of the old towns of the Southwest, and its history is not without interest to the lovers of Western life.
Long before the Missouri Pacific Railroad had pierced the State, the people of the interior depended upon such natural thoroughfares as the Missouri and Osage Rivers for commercial transportation – the people of the Southwest relying mainly upon the Osage. Consequently, along its course at certain points there sprang up heavy trading places, such as Linn Creek, in Camden County, Warsaw in Benton, and Osceola, in St. Clair.
From the Old to the New.
When the war closed there were but nine houses left standing in Osceola. But what of the new? Suppose there were a refuge who should stand now on one of the eminences overlooking the town from the north, seeing Osceola for the first time since he left it a blackened mass of ruins during the war, his startled impression would be that some wonderful working of the fabled Oriental magic had wrought the enchanting change presented to view. He would have before him a bright, new town, with its commodious brick court house, its elegant brick church, its ten stores, two printing offices, two hotels, two grist and saw mills, and pretty cottage residences, and a sprinkling of blacksmith shops, and the complement of mechanics and professional men that usually go to make up a country town population of near nine hundred inhabitants. In short, the returned wanderer would be so charmed with the growing beauty of Osceola the new, that he could afford to be consoled, in a measure, for the loss of the glory of the old.
St. Clair County.
I have been over two-thirds of Missouri, and in a dozen counties of the Southwest, and in no part do I see that combination of attractions in the way of water, timber, prairie & such, that I find in this county. A glance at the map will indicate how well watered we are by the Osage running almost centrally through from west to east, and by the Sac from the south to the centre of the county; besides which we have abundance of small streams and living springs. The great drawback to increase of population (for we have as yet but 8,000) has been the lack of railroads. This now, however, we shall not have to complain of long, as the Clinton, Springfield and Memphis Railroad is fast being finished through the county, and it is confidently expected that the rolling stock will be on as far as Osceola this winter.
Missouri State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1881:
Osceola – Originally settled in 1839, is situated on the Osage on the Osage River, in the eastern part of St. Clair County, of which it is the county seat, twenty miles south east of Appleton City, on the M.K.& T. Ry (Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway), its shipping point. A public school and several churches are sustained. Shipments, country produce. Tri-weekly mail stages run to Appleton City and also to Clinton, twenty-nine miles north; fare, $2 to ether place. Mail, daily. L.A. Mentzer, postmaster.
Amrine Thomas – hotel propr.
Bell, W.E. – physician
Carnahan & Son – flour mill
Conant, L. – general store
Conner, Stevens & Shaw – hides & wool
Cracraft, Mrs. Fannie – milliner
Daniels, F.P. – saddle & harness maker
Eclipse Flowering Mills
English, Joseph L. – hardware
Halley & Edwards – druggists
Hamblin, Cally – physician
Hirsch, S. & Co. – wholesale liquors
Hunt, Rev. W.E. – (Methodist)
Johnson & Lucas – lawyers
Latz Bros. – general store
Lilley, W.E. & Bro. – dry goods
Mentzer, L.A. – general store
Reese & Landes – lumber dealers
St. Clair Co. Bank – W.W. Sanford, President; Joseph P. Landes, Cashier
Settles & Emerson – blacksmiths
Scoby, W.H. – hotel propr.
Sheppard, W.G. – restaurant
Silsby & Silsby – general store
Stewart & Linney – drugs
Younger, C.F. – furniture
St. Clair County, MO History, 1883, pages 956-957:
THE FIRST MILL
The first water mill was put up in 1841 on the Sac River, southwest from Osceola about ten miles. It was known for miles around by the name
of Ritchie Mill. It was, with one exception, the only mill of the kind in the county for several years. It had two runs of burrs and did a good business.
The next mill that is remembered was put up in 1845. James Gardner, one of the first Justices of Peace in the county, erected a mill on
Weaubleau Creek in Polk Township. It was a grist and saw mill and had an extensive patronage, especially east and south. The mill stood for about ten years when high water carried it off.
In 1867, a practical mechanic and miller by the name of A.M. Fuqua settled in the county. He was the builder of nearly every mill in the county from that day to this. He is now a prominent citizen of Osceola and the proprietor of one and joint proprietor with his son in the two mills located in the county seat.
The Wagner Mill was built in 1867 with two runs of burrs.
Mr. Brown erected a mill the same year on the Osage near where the present flouring mills stand. It was taken down and moved to the Sac to saw the lumber for the $6000 bridge across that historic stream. From there it went to Vernon county, then back to Sac River and finally found a resting place at Osceola as property of Mr. Fuqua. A saw and grist mill was put up in 1869 with two runs of burrs.
One of these mills. before the war, was owned by James Talley, on the Osage, at Talley Bend.
Samuel Martin put up a mill on the Weaubleau in 1873 in the corner of Doyal township and it was kept running for four years. It was then
sold and taken to Roscoe.
History of Henry and St. Clair Counties, Missouri, 1883:
The Birth of Osceola - The people of Osceola concluded, like Roscoe, to become a body politic; so they also came before the county court to have their village raised to the dignity of a town. The petition was presented to the county court for action August 6, 1868, and reads as follows: Whereas, The petition of W.O. Mead, J.W. Ramsey, E.J. Smith, Thomas J. Monroe, Wm. D. Graham, J. Wade Gardner, Lindsey Barnes, Thomas D. Hicks, Alfred G. Clarke, T.B. Sutherland, W.F. Johnston, E.B. Daniel, Charles E. Spedden, W.S. Terry, Joseph P. Landes, R.S. Graham, E.P. Bartlett, W.P. Sheldon, William H. Scoby, G.W. Shields, E.T. Daniel.
History of Henry and St. Clair Counties, Missouri, 1883:
Birth of Osceola - By 1840 Osceola began to show signs of permanent improvements, and for the next two years grew steadily. In 1840 the population had reached the number of about fifty to sixty, and Crow and Crutchfield had a portion of their land platted. The first sale of lots, of which the deed was made of record, was two lots sold for $25 each, by the above named parties, to James Dudley and Washington Whitlow on February 21, 1840, and was recorded the following year after the organization of St. Clair County. The lots were lot 1, in block 20, and lot 1, in block 21, filed for record March 29, and recorded April 10, 1841.
The first lot sold by the county seat commissioner was lot number 5, block 16, for $13. 12 ½, on March 14, 1842, in three installments of six months each.
The growth of the town, and near approach of an independent organization of the county, caused the Osceoleans to be on their metal, for they wanted to secure for themselves the county seat. So, taking in the situation early, they prepared for the struggle and won.
The beautiful valley of the Osage and the magnificent region of country which lined its banks, extending back for miles, began to attract the attention of those seeking homes, in at that time called the region of the setting sun. Osceola from its commanding situation, its magnificent surroundings, comprising the valley and the uplands, the hills and prairies of Southwest Missouri became the Mecca, which brought its devotees from not only its own state, but from Arkansas and the Indian Territory.
It was one of the first trading posts established in the interior of Missouri, and at an early day steamboats navigated the Osage, making the town the headwaters of navigation. Yes, situated in the heart of Southwest Missouri, in the rich and fertile valley of the Osage, and has within easy and convenient access, and abundance of superior coal, lead, copper and iron; the celebrated Monegaw Springs, which possess superior medicinal qualities, and will some day be the great summer resort of the south and west, is it any wonder that she grew and prospered and became a city of 1,500 to 2,000 people. Then look at her productive capacity. If it is true that water, wood, stone and coal are requisites for a number one location for a town or city, all these are here. Water runs by the town in such quantity as to float steamboats six months in the year, and all who have lived or traveled in this country know that the Osage water is pure. Of wood, the finest bodies of hard timber in the west are found. On the Sac River, which empties into the Osage two miles above Osceola, are also some of the finest bodies of timber to be found anywhere.
Coal is everywhere, all around and probably under the city, nearly crowded out by an inexhaustible supply of water lime rock for manufacturing cement. Of this there are two different, independent stratums, a strata of at least twenty-four feet in thickness, which has an exposed front on the river bank from which the rock can be obtained for years without blasting, and is pronounced equal in every respect to that of the celebrated Louisville cement. Here are both the fosiliferous and non-fosiliferous formations. Another very important feature in this connection, is the fact that no other locality in the country possesses advantages over this, so far as cheapness is concerned in its manufacture, wood and coal in abundance and with an outlet to market by means of the Osage River. Any amount that can be required of fine building stone, either sand or lime stone, lies in the immediate vicinity of the town. Some of the very best of lime is that made from this limestone, while right adjoining Osceola is some as fine brick clay as is to be found west of St. Louis.
In the immediate vicinity of Monegaw Springs, eight miles up the Osage River from the city, there is a large and valuable deposit of iron, which can easily be brought down the river and smelted in the furnaces builded and operated there.
Such was Osceola and her surrounding up to the commencement of the civil war. She commanded the trade of an extensive circle of country. Her merchants kept stocks of all kinds of goods, exceeding hundreds of thousands of dollars in value. Osceola, then the pride of all Southwest Missouri and portions of Arkansas, was razed to the ground, not a house being left to mark the spot where a few hours previously had teemed and toiled nearly 2,000 souls.
After the war ended, as all wars do in time, and Osceola arose to a new life. The destruction of the old town had been complete, and a new city on the banks of the beautiful Osage was to be raised upon its ruins. All was not lost. The land was there, some of the owners still lived, and the spot nature had marked out for the homes of a generous and hospitable people was to be restored, and where all was ruin and desolation, a glorious city was to arise, and a cultured and refined people would make of it bright and beautiful homes, and for true and generous hospitality, an abiding place.
So new Osceola commenced life, not rapidly but steadily, and where but a few years since was ruin, now stands an embroyo city of some 550 inhabitants, with a future before it unsurpassed in all the length and breadth of this land. All her wealth of timber and mineral resources are still left her, the boundless prairies, the rich upland and imperishable bottom lands are still there to give up annually the richness of their inexhaustible nature, her water power and the enterprise of her citizens will yet place her in an enviable position before her sister cities.
At the close of the war a new order of things were inaugurated and the town soon took a reasonable start and grew, not so fast as could be wished for, but steadily and solidly. The want of railroad facilities were a drawback, for the road north of her and one south drew the travel away, but a brighter day is dawning, and before the present decade has passed two railroads will be at her door, bringing and receiving wealth as they pass. Her growth required the incorporation of the village into a town, and to this end a petition was circulated, with the following result.
The people of Osceola concluded, like Roscoe, to become a body politic; so they also came before the county court to have their village raised to the dignity of a town. The petition was presented to the county court for action August 6, 1868, and reads as follows:
Whereas, The petition of W.O. Mead, J.W. Ramsey, E.J. Smith, Thomas J. Monroe, Wm. D. Graham, J. Wade Gardner, Lindsey Barnes, Thomas D. Hicks, Alfred G. Clarke, T.B. Sutherland, W.F. Johnston, E.B. Daniel, Charles E. Spedden, W.S. Terry, Joseph P. Landes, R.S. Graham, E.P. Bartlett, W.P. Sheldon, William H. Scoby, G.W. Shields, E.T. Daniel, William Williamson and Henry Florsheim has this day been filed, praying that they may be incorporated in the following metes and bounds, to wit: As the same is laid out and described in the original town plat of said town of Osceola drawn by Phillip Crow and R.P. Crutchfield, and now remains on file in the office of the clerk of the circuit court and recorder of said county of St. Clair, and also described and set out in the plat of Cole's addition to the said town of Osceola be, and the court being satisfied that two-thirds of the inhabitants of said town be incorporated within the bounds above mentioned, and they shall be known as the "Inhabitants of the town of Osceola", and the court appoints as trustees William O. Mead, T.B. Sutherland, William Williamson, Charles E. Spedden and Henry Florsheim until legal termination.
The above named trustees failed to qualify in the time prescribed by law, and their appointment was revoked, and on December 14, 1868, E.T. Daniels, William Williamson, Thomas B. Sutherland, J. Wade Gardner and William O. Mead were appointed as trustees upon the same condition as the others, "until legal termination thereof". The same year, 1868, Cole's addition was added, but before the date of incorporation.
St. Clair Co., MO History 1883:
Sheldon Family of St. Clair County - James Gardner was among the oldest pioneers of this county. He was originally from Georgia, but emigrated to Tennessee in an early day, going thence to Marion County, Missouri, and later to this county in 1833, before it was organized. He, together with Crow and Crutchfield, located the town of Osceola, erecting the first store above the government trading post, conducted by Bishop and Hogle.
1883 History of St. Clair County MO, National Historical Co., pg. 1159:
UPPER OSCEOLA MILL
JAMES FLETCHER CORBIN, one of the earliest settlers of St. Clair County, was born December 31, 1831. His father, David Corbin, a Virginian by birth, born in 1790, was married in 1813, to Miss Annie Erwin, originally of Kentucky. Their family consisted of eleven children, of whom James was the youngest. In 1839 the senior Corbin removed with his family to St. Clair County, Missouri, they being among the pioneers here. In the fall following his arrival (1839), he erected his first dwelling of round logs, it being just fourteen feet square, and in this house of one room, fifteen persons ate and slept for seven months. The next spring an addition was placed upon it, which when completed, measured 20x18 feet. During this time the meat used by them was procured with the rifle. Mr. Corbin and his sons built the first frame house erected in Osceola. This structure was constructed of whipsawed lumber, sawed by them, and after being finished it was occupied by a Frenchman as a tailor shop. This was located near the present site of the Upper Osceola Mill. James F. Corbin resided with his father until 1853, when he was married to Miss Nancy O. Beckley of this county, and a daughter of John W. Beckley. They have eleven children: Anna L., David F., Susan M., John H., James W. Nancy B., Carolina B., Joseph P., William T., Leona M., and Mary J. Mr. C., through his own industry and good management, has accumulated a good competency, now owning a farm of 200 acres.
St. Clair Co., MO History 1883:
The first postmaster of Osceola was Philip Crow, 1n 1838. In 1862, Daniel H. Webster became postmaster, and in 1870, L.A. Mentzer, a very popular gentleman, became postmaster, and is still in charge of the office.