STORIES ALONG YOUR 5K WALK AND RUN AT PAPINVILLE
This week
you will be reading historical short stories about Papinville as you go on the
5K WALK AND RUN. This event will be Sat. June 8 starting at 8:30 am at the
Papinville School and museum. Those of you that pre-registered will pick up
your shirts at this time. Those of you that have not pre-registered and want a
shirt have until May 20th to send in your registration. Go on line
under Papinville History on face book and print a copy of registration with
$20.00 if you order a shirt and send to the address on the registration. If you
have any questions call 417 395 2594 or 816 590 1029.
We are also
having a Corn Hole Tournament at 10:30am. Two people to a team at $25.00 a
team. The winning team of the tournament will receive a nice prize. Keep
following the stories to find out what the prize is going to be. If you have
questions call the numbers above. More events will be published next week.
The first story will be about the
courthouse to the east of the school. It set on the left side of Market Street.
(this the street that is in front of the museum). Papinville was named after
Melicourt Papin. He came to Papinville to work for the American Fur Company
that was located on the Marais des Cygne River at Papinville. He purchased
70 acres in 1847. At this time Vernon
County was part of Bates County and Papinville was the central location for the
courthouse. Papin gave the 70 acres to start building the town. There were many
people that came here to get the town started. Many houses and businesses at
this time were built. They built a hewn-log structure, on the north side of
Market street, but in 1853 a two story building was built out of bricks at the
cost of $4,200.00 . It is said that the bricks were made from the clay here in
Papinville. By the act of the State Legislature, Feb. 27, 1855 Vernon County
was organized and the courthouse for Vernon County was located in Nevada. In
1856 the court house was moved to Butler. It was more in the center of the
county. The courthouse was sold to Philip Zeal who occupied it as a store until
1861. It was destroyed by fire from Jim Lane’s troops. Most of Papinville was
destroyed and the bridge was burnt to prevent General Price from entering the
county with his troops. This happened two years before Order 11. You will go by
Court Street and the courthouse was located to the west side of court street.
The next streets are Prairie and
Market Street corner. You will go to your left on Prairie. To your right of
Prairie Street is the addition that
Andrew Jackson gave to the town in 1868. They were running out of room to build
more houses and two churches were built in this area. People were moving back
to find their homesteads that were burnt in Order 11. Many just found the
chimney as to where their house stood. The Civil war ended on April 9, 1865 with
the confederates surrendering. It was about
1866 when the people started moving back to Papinville. The town was booming , because
people were moving west to a new frontier.
Next week you will read about Main
Street and the river bridge. This walk and run will be a historical walk and
run for all to enjoy. Let’s hope the high water will go away so we can enjoy
the out of doors and enjoy the birds singing to us as we do the historical walk
and run. Next week we should know about more events for the day. We will be
serving lunch starting at 11:30am. If you have not registered for the walk and
run and want a shirt you need to do that by May 20th so we can get
the shirts ordered. This is a benefit to help us build a new museum and what is
now the museum will be turned into a hall so we can have programs and people
can rent the hall for family get togethers. Hope you will enjoy the stories and
come out to Papinville and see our museum, school, history walk way and the
wooden metal bridge that is 140 years old this year. Until next week with the
rest of the stories.
Submitted by
Phyllis Stewart
Posts
