HISTORIC CHARITON...

SEIFERT

Posted By: David (email)
Date: 2/12/2005 at 19:00:35

The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa
Thursday, January 16, 1908

HISTORIC CHARITON

---------------

'The Old Stream is Not Without Its Tradition and Incident.'

New Cambria, Mo., Jan. 11. -- Following the stupendous work of reclaiming
the bottom lands of the Chariton from overflow, the hamlet known as Chariton
Station, bids fair to become a shipping station of consequence. The place
is located where the Burlington road crosses the river, and is the jumping
off place for hunters bound for "the Chain of Lakes."

For years nobody but the Nimrods knew there was such a place as Chariton
Station, and the railroad didn't even take the trouble to stop its trains
there unless a man got on the track and wouldn't get off, or some passenger
on the train wanted to get off there.

But with the reclaiming of the lowlands, Chariton Station has become
commercially important. The road has put in a long switch, and will keep
regular night and day men on duty there to handle its business. There is a
saw mill, a store or two and several houses already up, and more are being
constructed. There will be cattle pens, a good depot and more switch yards
by summer.

With the coming prestige of the hamlet is the demand for a new name. The
residents have learned there is a "Chariton" up in Iowa, and that there used
to be such a town where the little river empties into the Missouri. Three
Charitons in the course of a hundred miles is highly creditable to the
memory of the French trapper for whom the river was named, but the honor is
too excessive for commercial facility.

The spot now called Chariton Station will ever remain a tribute to the
energy and devotion of these two men, no matter whose name it goes by, for
it will be the outlet for an immense product of the erstwhile overflow lands

The site of the new town is historic. Just north of the track the
Government built a block house in the early days of the Civil War.
Bushwhackers had burned the bridge across the river several times and the
block house was headquarters for troops to guard the structure. The house
was assailed several times and a number of men on both sides were slain
during the various skirmishes. But the bushwhackers never succeeded in
entirely destroying the bridge after the block house was put up.

A few years ago sparks from a locomotive fired the roof of the quaint
structure and it was burned to the ground. It was the last of 13 of such
fortresses to go, the others being at various points along the road at other
bridges crossing large streams. At one time, Col. U.S. Grant, later
President, commanded the company protecting the bridge across Salt river,
the first large one east of the bridge at Chariton.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
January 19, 2005
iggy29@rnetinc.net