Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 487,061 in 2022 and includes the counties of Christian, Dallas, Greene, Polk, and Webster. Springfield is the largest city in the Ozarks region, and sits on the Springfield Plateau, which ranges from nearly level to rolling hills.
Springfield's nicknames include "Queen City of the Ozarks" and "The Birthplace of Route 66". The city has been called the "Buckle of the Bible Belt" due to its association with evangelical Christianity. The city is the headquarters for Bass Pro Shops and the adjoining Wonders of Wildlife Museum & Aquarium. It is also home to O'Reilly Auto Parts, which began as a family business with 13 employees in 1957. Springfield is close to Wilson's Creek National Battlefield and is along the national historic Trail of Tears. In 2020, Springfield's largest ethnicities were 87.6% white, 4% black, and 5% two or more races, placing it among the least diverse cities in the United States. The city is a regional center of medical care, with the two largest hospitals, CoxHealth and Mercy, being the largest employers in the city. Springfield hosts several universities and colleges, including Missouri State University, Drury University, and Evangel University. Springfield is an important regional center for distribution, logistics, and manufacturing.
Toponymy
The origin of the city's name is unclear, but the most common view is that it was named by migrants from Springfield, Massachusetts. One account is that James Wilson, who lived in the new settlement, offered free whiskey to anyone who would vote for the name Springfield, after his hometown in Massachusetts.Springfield Express editor J. G. Newbill said in the November 11, 1881, issue: "It has been stated that this city got its name from the fact of a spring and field being near by just west of town. But such is not a correct version. When the authorized persons met and adopted the title of the 'Future Great' of the Southwest, several of the earliest settlers had handed in their favorite names, among whom was Kindred Rose, who presented the winning name in honor of his hometown, Springfield, Tennessee." In 1883, historian R. I. Holcombe wrote: "The town took its name from the circumstance of there being a spring under the hill, on the creek, while on top of the hill, where the principal portion of the town lay, there was a field."
History
Early settlement
Native American peoples had long lived in this area. In the 1830s, the native Osage Nation, the Kickapoo people from Indiana, and the Lenape from the mid-Atlantic coast had settled in this general area trying to evade encroachment by European Americans on their lands. The Osage had been the dominant tribe for more than one century in the larger region.On the southeastern side of the town in 1812, about 500 Kickapoo built a small village of about 100 wigwams. They abandoned the site in 1828.
Ten miles south of the site of Springfield, the Lenape had built a substantial community of houses that borrowed elements of Anglo colonial style from the mid-Atlantic, where some of their people had migrated from.
The first European-American settlers to the area were John Polk Campbell and his brother, who reached this area in 1829 from Tennessee. Campbell chose the area because of the presence of a natural well that flowed into a small stream. He staked his claim by carving his initials in a tree. Campbell was joined by settlers Thomas Finney, Samuel Weaver, and Joseph Miller. They cleared the land of trees to develop it for farms. A small general store was soon opened.
In 1833, the southern part of the state was named Greene County after Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene. Campbell Township was one of the seven original townships organized on March 11, 1833, when Greene County was much larger.
An 1876 map shows its boundaries include all the sections in T29N and R21 and 22W. It was bounded by Center Township on the west, Robberson, and Franklin Townships on the north, Taylor Township on the east, and Wilson and Clay Townships on the south.
The county seat of Springfield is located in Campbell Township due to the efforts of John Polk Campbell. The township is named after John Polk Campbell, who donated the land for Springfield's public square and platted the town site. In 1835 he deeded 50 acres of land to the legislature for the creation of a county seat. Campbell laid out city streets and lots. The town was incorporated in 1838. In 1878, the town got its nickname as the "Queen City of the Ozarks".
The United States government enforced Indian removal during the 1830s, forcing land cessions in the Southeast and other areas, and relocating tribes from east of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory. This later developed as the state of Oklahoma in 1907.
During the 1838 relocation of most of the Cherokee, the Trail of Tears passed through Springfield to the west, along the Old Wire Road.
Civil War
By 1861, Springfield's population had grown to approximately 2,000, and it had become an important commercial hub. In the late 1850s, telegraph lines, previously connected only as far as St. Louis, reached Springfield. News from points further west was brought to Springfield overland. It was sent by telegraph to what was then called the New York Associated Press.At the start of the American Civil War, Springfield was divided in its loyalty. It had been settled by people from both the North and South, including slaveholders. It also attracted many German immigrants in the mid-19th century, who tended to support the Union.
The Union and Confederate armies both recognized the city's strategic importance and sought to control it. They fought the Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, a few miles southwest of town. The battle was a Confederate victory, and Nathaniel Lyon was killed here, the first Union General to die in the Civil War. Union troops retreated to the nearby town of Lebanon to regroup. When they returned, they found that most of the Confederate army had withdrawn.
On October 25, 1861, Union Major Charles Zagonyi led an attack against the remaining Confederates in the area, in a battle known as the First Battle of Springfield, or Zagonyi's Charge. Zagonyi's men removed the Confederate flag from Springfield's public square and returned to camp. It was the only Union victory in southwestern Missouri in 1861. The increased military activity in the area set the stage for the Battle of Pea Ridge in northern Arkansas in March 1862.
On January 8, 1863, Confederate forces under General John S. Marmaduke advanced to take control of Springfield and an urban fight ensued. But that evening, the Confederates withdrew. This became known as the Second Battle of Springfield. Marmaduke sent a message to the Union forces asking that Confederate casualties have a proper burial. The city remained under Union control for the remainder of the war. The US army used Springfield as a supply base and central point of operation for military activities in the area.
Promptly after the Civil War ended on July 21, 1865, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in a shootout over a disagreement about a debt Tutt claimed Hickok owed him. During a poker game at the former Lyon House Hotel, in response to the disagreement over the amount, Tutt had taken Hickok's watch, which Hickok immediately demanded be returned. Hickok warned that Tutt had better not be seen wearing that watch, then spotted him wearing it in Park Central Square, prompting the gunfight.
On January 25, 1866, Hickok was still in Springfield when he witnessed a Springfield police officer, John Orr, shoot and kill James Coleman after Coleman interfered with the arrest of Coleman's friend Bingham, who was drunk and disorderly. Hickok provided testimony in the case. Orr was arrested, released on bail, and immediately fled the country. He was never brought to trial or heard from again.
Race relations
Lynchings
From the period after Reconstruction into the early 20th century, lynchings of freedmen and their descendants occurred in some cities and counties in Missouri, particularly in former slaveholding areas.On April 14, 1906, a white mob broke into the Springfield county jail, and lynched two black men, Horace Duncan and Fred Coker, for allegedly sexually assaulting Mina Edwards, a white woman. Later they returned to the jail, where other African-American prisoners were being held, and pulled out Will Allen, who had been accused of murdering a white man. All three suspects were hanged from the Gottfried Tower, which held a replica of the Statue of Liberty.
Their bodies were burned in the courthouse square by a mob of more than 2,000 white residents. Judge Azariah W. Lincoln called for a grand jury, but no one was prosecuted. The proceedings were covered by national newspapers, including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
Duncan's and Coker's employer testified that they were at his business at the time of the crime against Edwards, and other evidence suggested that they and Allen were all innocent. These three are the only recorded lynchings in Greene County.
But the extrajudicial murders were part of a pattern of discrimination, repeated violence and intimidation of African Americans in this city and southwest Missouri from 1894 to 1909, in an attempt to expel them from the region. Whites in the bordering Lawrence County also lynched three African-American men in this period. After the mass lynching in Springfield, many African Americans left the region.
A historic plaque on the southeast corner of the Springfield courthouse square commemorates Duncan, Coker, and Allen, the three victims of mob violence.