The State legislature awarded $6,000 to the State Historical Society in Columbia in 1915 to collect the history of the 114 counties in Missouri for the State Centennial anniversary. In June 1916, the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce elected five…

    There is another interesting cemetery to be noted in this tour, but this one has a more pleasant history than the last. The Marble Hill Cemetery is the town’s first official public cemetery, and it is additionally one of the first public…

    The Will Mayfield College was the center for education in Marble Hill from 1880 to 1934. The co-educational school's enrollment peaked in the 1920s when it had over 200 enrolled students.      William Mayfield, a local doctor, and H. J. Smith,…

    Just 15 minutes outside of downtown Marble Hill and on the grounds of Bollinger Mill lies the Burfordville Covered Bridge. This landmark is Missouri’s oldest still-standing covered bridge, looming over the Whitewater River. Construction first…

The site began in 1896 with the purchase of the original 55 acres by Mr. John Homer Bothwell. In 1897, a seven-room “English style” stone cottage was constructed for John Bothwell and his friends and family to use as a warm weather retreat. In…

Spencer A. Stone was born on April 1, 1853 in Connorsville, Wabash County, Indiana to Kentucky native Spencer A. Stone Sr. and his wife Miss Ellen Daily. The death of his parents at an early age, left him an orphan. When he was fifteen years old, he…

Marion R. Jenkins was born in Audrain county on August 15, 1854. His parents Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Jenkins lived on a farm in Browning, Missouri of Linn County. After quitting the farm, M. R. Jenkins became the owner of the Jenkins Hay Rake &…

The State Industrial Home For Girls was approved by the Thirty-Fourth General Assembly of Missouri on March 30, 1887. Based on a cottage management plan and a domestic industry instruction program required by law, $50,000 was appropriated and the…

The Luella Theatre was the first opera house in Chillicothe, Missouri, to serve the patrons of the city for not only entertainment but as a place for social organization gatherings for important events in the late nineteenth century. In January…

The Federal Building and Post Office jointly located in one building on the corner of Locust and Clay streets in Chillicothe, Missouri, was constructed in a grand rectangular size, with three-floor levels in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, which…

Livingston County is located in northern Missouri north of the Missouri River that borders the Grand River. The land has several small streams with even smaller twisting water branches that flow southeast and drain into the Mississippi river. The…

John William Boone was born on May 17, 1864, to Rachel Boone in Miami, Missouri, in a Union army camp occupied by the Seventh Militia, Company I. Rachel Boone had been enslaved at birth in 1843 in Kentucky. It is unclear just exactly who enslaved…

When Willie was eight, Rachel Boone married Harrison Hendricks and moved into his home, which sat "just back of the old Land Fike's Mill [Eureka Mills] on Mill Street." Melissa Fuell Cuther noted: "The house was a one-room log…

Melissa Fuell was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, on May 15, 1886, and attended and graduated from the Howard School and was active in music. She went on to study at the Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, where she trained to be a…

The Magnolia Opera house, an 800 seat theater, was located at 145 West Pine at the corner of Washington and West Pine. Construction started on the theater in 1889, but the first performances did not occur until 1890. The Magnolia Opera house was…

Blind Boone passed away in Warrensburg, Missouri, on October 4, 1927, while visting his step brother at 408 W. Market Street. (The actual home is no longer extant.) African American men and women from Warrensburg attended Blind Boone's…

Blind Boone gave several concerts at the Christian Church in Warrensburg and, according to his biographer, Mellissa Fuell, he considered himself a member of the denomination. On December 19th and 20th, 1890, Blind Boone gave two concerts at the…

In 1880 John Lange entered into a written contract with Rachel Hendrix that he would pay her $10 a month for young Willie's musical talent until he was 21. His first concert was in Columbia and it grossed only $7. At that time the company…

In 1912 Walter and Perry Jones paid $26,000 to build what came to be known as the Jones Brothers Mule Barn. The barn played an important role in a thriving mule business that had developed in Johnson County and Warrensburg around the turn of the…