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The
town is situated in the southwest corner of the county
and 20 miles from the county seat, and four and a half
miles from Evansville, the nearest RR. Station. The
town site is a part of the old Ezra Fox settlement,
which was made in 1820, and was the first permanent
settlement in Monroe Co., and the name was derived
from its being a midway station between the Father of
Waters and the Big Muddy and also the central station
on the first mail route established between New London
and Fayette; and from being located in an area of belt
of timber stretching into the Grand Prairie, and was
called Middle Grove. John G. C. Milligan, a Virginian
by birth, built the first house that was put up in the
Grove, and in fact, in this section of the county. He
was also the first postmaster and the first hotel
keeper. Middle Grove claims the honor of being the
first place where the first store was opened in Monroe
Co. The house, as already stated, was built by John G.
C. Milligan and John Glenn. It is situated in
the southwest corner of the county on Milligan Creek.
--The State of Missouri, 1904 ,Williams
(submitted by Robin
Gatson)
The
town is situated in the southwest corner of the county
and 20 miles from the county seat, and four and a half
miles from Evansville, the nearest RR. Station. The
town site is a part of the old Ezra Fox settlement,
which was made in 1820, and was the first permanent
settlement in Monroe Co., and the name was derived
from its being a midway station between the Father of
Waters and the Big Muddy and also the central station
on the first mail route established between New London
and Fayette; and from being located in an area of belt
of timber stretching into the Grand Prairie, and was
called Middle Grove. John G. C. Milligan, a Virginian
by birth, built the first house that was put up in the
Grove, and in fact, in this section of the county. He
was also the first postmaster and the first hotel
keeper. Middle Grove claims the honor of being the
first place where the first store was opened in Monroe
Co. The house, as already stated, was built by John G.
C. Milligan and John Glenn. It is situated in
the southwest corner of the county on Milligan Creek.
From
the 1884 History of Monroe County
Middle
Grove is a substantial and business little town of
about 200 inhabitants, and is situated in the
south-west corner of the county, and 20 miles from the
county seat, and four and a half miles from
Evansville, the nearest railroad point. The town is
built upon a long sloping hillside, at the foot of
which runs Milligan creek, a small tributary of the
Elk fork of Salt river, and is surrounded by one of
the best farming communities in the State. The town
site is a part of the old Ezra Fox settlement, which
was made in 1820, and was the first permanent
settlement in Monroe county, and the name was derived
from its being a midway station between the Father of
Waters and Big Muddy, and also the most central
station on the first mall route established between
New London and Fayette; and from being located in an
arm or belt of timber reaching into the Grand Prairie,
became the halting place of the earliest pioneers, and
was called Middle Grove. These facts, in connection
with others, give this little town and neighborhood a
history and a civilization reaching farther back than
any other portion of the county, and almost to the
beginning of the present century, when the first
daring frontiersman crossed the Mississippi in search
of new homes, or new fields of fortune and adventure;
and some of the fields adjacent to the town, which now
annually yield their bountiful crops of golden grain,
were the first lands ever located in the county. The
first virgin soil disturbed by the ploughshare of
civilization, still preserves many lingering marks
of the husbandry and decayed habitations of the
pioneer fathers - the Foxes, Whittenburgs, Burtons,
Davis, Swinneys, Ownbys, Noels, Milligans, Fords,
Stephens and others of the early settlers, who first
sowed in the tracks of barbarism the seeds of
civilization, of which four of the youngest only
remain to witness the glory crowning the efforts of
their parents and of their young manhood, and that
four are Blufar Davis, Herndon Burton, Fountain
Swinney and ex-Sheriff James Ownby.
Thus
originated Middle Grove, around which settlers
gradually located, and in which John C. Milligan
started the first store about the year 1830 or 1831;
afterwards, in 1840, the town was properly laid off
into lots, by John G. C. Milligan, and from that time
rapidly grew into a thriving village, and one of the
best trading points in Northeast Missouri, and in its
inhabitants could be found some of the best blood of
Virginia and Kentucky, with its attendant qualities of
patriotism, hospitality and neighborly kindness; and
many of these distinguishing features yet remain to
mark the character of its people, and nowhere are
people more united and patriotically resolved for the
common weal and welfare of the community and country,
or the culture and advancement of the rising
generation. The town is pleasantly and healthily
located, and the mortality of the neighborhood will
compare favorably with any in the State, and none can
boast of longer lived and more aged citizens. The
oldest citizen of the town is Dr. John McNutt, who
settled in the Grove in 1848, and practiced his
profession until recent years, when he retired, and
now survives the hardships and reverses of fortune
that would have killed any ordinary man, at the good
old age of 74 years. John G. C. Milligan, a Virginian
by birth, built the first house that was put up in the
Grove, and in fact, in this section of country in
1825. He was also the first postmaster and the first
hotel-keeper. The mail route was between New London in
Rails county, to Old Franklin in Howard county, on the
Missouri river. John Myers was the first mail carrier
on this route. John Hedger was one of the early
blacksmiths of the town. Henry Lutz was the pioneer
carpenter and wood workman. Edward T. Tucker was the
first tailor. The first school-house was built in the
township about the year 1830, and William Maupin
taught the first school. He was from Howard county,
Missouri. The first church was erected by the
Christian denomination about 1825, on section 33,
township 54, range 12, two miles north-east of Middle
Grove. William Reid was the officiating minister. The
first church in Middle Grove was erected about the
year 1840, by the Christian denomination. A
Presbyterian Church was built in 1852, first presided
over by Rev. J. B. Mitchell; this organization was
discontinued in 1862 and the building was sold and
moved away in 1872. Middle Grove claims the honor of
being the point where the first store was opened in
Monroe county. The house as already stated, was built
by John G. C. Milligan and Glenn and Parsons sold the
first goods in it. An old colored man- Jesse Burton -
who now lives at Holliday, cleared away the brush for
the town site.
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