Side 1:
Neosho is named from the Osage Indian word Ni-u-zhu (Main River). Settled about 1833 near 3 large springs, Neosho became the seat of Newton County, 1839. Upon the Ozark tableland prairies of the area, an "Eden of Fertility," settlers from many states and countries made their homes.
In this well-favored county, rich also in minerals, is Granby (8 miles east), southwest Missouri's oldest lead and zinc mining town. Discovery of lead in early 1850's brought thousands of miners and speculators here in a "Granby Stampede." Granby lead was used for Confederate bullets before the furnaces were wrecked in 1862.
Newtonia, 12 miles to the east on Oliver's Prairie, is the county's first settled area, 1829. This town was devastated by Civil War engagements of 1862 and 1864. Nearby is the Hugh Shannon Homestead, 1829, a restoration of one of first pioneer homes in southwest Missouri. Near Diamond, 12 miles north on Diamond Grove Prairie, is the birthplace of Negro scientist George Washington Carver (ca. 1861-1943). The site is a national monument.
Side 2:
Neosho became the Confederate capital of Missouri when deposed Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson and the "rebel legislature" met here Oct. 1861. Although an act ratifying the Constitution of the Confederate States and an Ordinance of Secession were passed, the State Convention, which had deposed Gov. C. F. Jackson, kept Missouri in the Union. Approach of the Federals brought removal of the legislature to nearby Cassville, Barry Co., and adjournment, Nov. 1861. Later Marshall, Texas, served as Confederate capital of Missouri.
Throughout the war, skirmishes, raids, and guerrilla warfare swept the area inflicting a reign of terror upon the people. Union troops were driven from Neosho by General Joseph O. Shelby's Confederates, 1863.
Near Neosho, an area where fruit crops predominate, lived the Swiss Herman Jaeger (1844-1896), who developed a grape resistant to "grape louse" from the wild Ozark vines. Neosho is the birthplace of artist Thomas Hart Benton. In town are a county museum collection and a Federal fish hatchery. Nearby is Camp Crowder, and 15 miles west is Seneca, center of a tripoli mining area.
1950s text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people. The Society's journal printed these inscriptions as continuous text, not in the form they are cast on the markers.
The State Historical Society of Missouri created these markers with the State Highway Commission and tells their fuller story in its book Marking Missouri History. Current marker program ↗