История Адейр-каунти: от Гражданской войны до строительства центра конвенций

165 Years Ago, August 19, 1861 By August 1861, four months had passed since the outbreak of the American Civil War when Confederate forces fired on the Union arsenal at Fort Sumner, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. Three days later President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteer soldiers from the various state militias to put down the rebellion. Missouri was required to provide four regiments or 3,000 soldiers. The state's pro Southern and pro secessionist governor, Claiborn Fox Jackson, responded that Missouri would not comply with the request, and instead, he immediately mobilized the pro-Confederate state militia and prepared it for service in the Confederate Army. The people of the State of Missouri were deeply divided—pro Union and pro Confederacy. Union forces in St. Louis under command of General Lyon also responded and complied with Lincoln's request by providing 4,000 soldiers for the Union cause. Meanwhile, in Adair County, forces for both sides began to organize. The State Militia, now under command of Confederate General Sterling Price, began recruiting soldiers in Northeast Missouri. The organization and recruitment of men for the Union cause also began immediately with the formation of Home Guard Companies to stop Confederate recruitment and protect local citizens. In May 1861, a twenty-year-old man by the name of Hervey Dix, a native of Massachusetts, who had moved to Iowa, enlisted in the 3rd Iowa Infantry Regiment. He served as a corporal in the 3rd Iowa. In August 1861, the 3rd Iowa, including Corporal Dix, was ordered to Adair County to join the Adair County Home Guard Company in stopping Confederate recruitment efforts in the area. They were sent out to locate Colonel Green, a notorious Confederate recruiting officer. On August 19, 1861, a squad of men from the local Home Guard Company under command of Corporal Dix, stopped for dinner at the Westenhaver farm about ten miles northeast of Kirksville. While there they were attacked by a company of Confederates who were under the command of Captain Robert Hager of Monroe County, Missouri. In the fiery struggle that ensued, Corporal Dix was killed. He had gone outside the house but was forced back into a chimney corner where he fought as best he could until struck by a fatal bullet. This was the first military engagement of the Civil War in Adair County and Corporal Dix's blood was the first shed in the county. In 1866, when the Kirksville, Missouri Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post No. 37 was formed, the post was named in honor of Colonel Hervey Dix. 90 Years Ago, August 23, 1936 A plan that called for a school bus that would run from Yarrow and the southwest part of Adair County to the Kirksville High School, was approved by the state department of education. The plan was proposed by Kenneth Weber of Yarrow, who had previously used a private vehicle to transport Yarrow students to Kirksville to attend high school. State approval of the plan was necessary as the state paid part of the expense of transportation. The plan also included approval for the Brashear High School to run two buses the following school year. A similar plan to run a bus for the Novinger High School was abandoned for the upcoming year. The Kirksville school bus was to leave Yarrow coming over the crushed rock road to the junction with Highway 11 and then go west on that highway for nine miles before returning over the same route. 40 Years Ago, August 22, 1986 The developers of the new Holiday Inn Holidome Convention Center broke ground for the new facility. Tu-Bo-Da, Inc., consisting of Kirksville businessmen Ken Turner and Beverly Bonfoey, and St. Louis businessman Irv Davis, had been fighting to get their project underway for over two years. In his address Davis, the president of the Tu-Bo-Da organization emphasized the good the convention center would bring to Kirksville through jobs and the creation of interest in the city. The Holiday Inn facility was to have 108 guest rooms, an atrium lobby with waterfalls, trees, shrubs, and other landscaping attractions, as well as recreational facilities. A lounge with a seating capacity for 50 was included in the banquet and convention areas. The estimated cost of the Holidome was over $4.6 million. Construction was being financed through tax-free Kirksville Industrial Development Revenue bonds. 25 Years Ago, August 22, 2001 The announcement was made that the old shoe factory located on West Michigan Street had been sold to a construction company in Kansas. Carl Baldwin of the corporation Frank H. Baldwin, Inc., owner of the shoe factory, announced that the property was under contract to be sold to Bahm Construction of Kansas. According to Paul Frazier, city codes administrator, the company had plans to demolish the building in the following month and salvage the brick and steel beams. The Baldwin corporation purchased the property in 1973 at the time the shoe factory moved into its new facility on Shepherd Avenue. The city of Kirksville condemned the old shoe factory, but after a lawsuit, later rescinded the condemnation order and withdrew the order to have the building demolished. Shoes were manufactured in the large four-story brick building from the year it was constructed in 1908 until 1973, when the factory moved to a new 108,000 square-foot building on a 15 acre-tract at the south edge of Kirksville. In September 2000, the shoe factory then operating as Wolverine Worldwide, closed its doors and eliminated 241 jobs. Copyright 2026 by Larry Evans