Seligman is a city in Sugar Creek Township, Barry County, Missouri, United States. As of the 2020 census, Seligman had a population of 813. The town is named after Joseph Seligman, a prominent 19th-century businessman.Fanschon Mitchell, Zelda Relethford, Gwen Hilburn, and Clyde G. Mitchell, Looking Back Over The First Century of Seligman, Missouri 1881-1981, 1981, p. 8. The name Seligman (זעליגמאן, זעליקמאן) is of Yiddish derivation and means "a jolly, cheerful person".Retrieved 2013-01-29. History
Before the Louisiana Purchase During French exploration, what was to become Seligman was in the heart of the Osage Nation. The French claimed it as part of the Illinois Country, selling it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Osage claims were ceded by the Treaty of Fort Clark, which was ratified in 1810.
Early settlers Seligman originally developed from a small trading post that built up around or near the homestead of Andrew, George, John, Joshua, and Jacob Roller from Scott County, Virginia, some of the first permanent European settlers to arrive in the area in the 1830s.Mitchell et al, p. 8, 213. At that time the region was a rough-hewn wilderness covered with large timber.
In May 1841, the county court approved construction of the first road through the territory, known today as Old Wire Road. This road originally was a trace cut by hundreds of Cherokee in 1838 as they wound their way across Missouri to Tahlequah, Oklahoma as part of the federal government's Indian Removal Act of 1830 or "Trail of Tears", which passed about five miles west of the Roller homestead. Shortly thereafter, a telegraph line was built which followed this trail, and Old Wire Road was built following the telegraph line.Mitchell et al, p. 158.
By 1848 the Butterfield Stage Coach had established a route through the area from St. Louis, Missouri to Fayetteville, Arkansas,Mitchell et al, p. 12. and brought even more settlers into the area. By the 1860s, the site had developed into a trading post called Roller's Ridge, though the earliest original name of the community may have been Herdsville, named after Adam Herd or Hurd, who was also an early pioneer.Retrieved 2013-02-10.
Education and religion were avidly important to the early settlers. Two schools were built in the area for local children, one north of town about which little is known, and one south of town called "Red Chink", named for the red clay that was used to finish the log construction. These were both subscription schools, a common practice in which each child paid the teacher a dollar a month. School terms were only six months long, but sometimes semesters were extended if enough students enrolled.Mitchell et al, p. 229. A Baptist church was also constructed on the outskirts of town, but few records remain.Mitchell et al, p. 67.
Civil War During the Civil War development mostly ceased as the region was thrown into turmoil and became increasingly lawless. Bushwhackers attacked townspeople in their homes, robbing them of gold, silver, food and supplies.Mitchell et al, p. 11. Some bushwhackers were supported by the Union Army and encouraged to commit acts of terror and sabotage to undermine morale. Local government was apparently in disarray—county officials did not hold session from April 1861 to July 1864. During the war, General McCulloch, General Pearce, and General Price met at a private home in Roller's Ridge to discuss the proposed site to wage battle at Cross Hollows in Benton County, Arkansas, before the Battle of Pea Ridge.Mitchell et al, p. 13.
Reconstruction After the war, development in Roller's Ridge resumed and settlers continued to arrive. In 1866, Christian E. Fawver and his family came to the area from Illinois in a covered wagon and reopened Victory Mills, a gristmill on the upper arm of Big Sugar Creek north of town, and converted it to steam power.Mitchell et al, p. 194. This became an important site for local residents. Before the mill opened, locals had to haul their grain to the site of the nearest railroad in Pierce City, Missouri —- a two-day trip.Mitchell et al, p. 14. The population continued to grow, and on April 1, 1872, the U.S. Postal Department authorized the establishment of a post office to serve the community, designating it Herdsville. In 1876, another subscription school was built for the town's children, a two-story building with a regular attendance of 40 students.Mitchell et al, p. 221. The upper story was reserved for Lodge activities. A deep well was dug in the center of Main Street to supply the town's needs, which was named the "Exhaustable Fountain" [sic], but because of the growing population, this well later went dry.Mitchell et al, p. 221, 147. Commerce increased, and in 1880 a dray service began operation in town, hauling and delivering freight by wagon with up to three teams of horses or mules. It also operated occasionally as a taxi service.Mitchell et al, p. 44-45.
Arrival of the railroad In 1880, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad built a line from Pierce City to Herdsville. Arriving trains were loaded on a turntable and rotated manually to return to Pierce City. The company also gave of land for the purpose of building a town, and also designed its streets, complete with names. At this time, the town consisted of only one whiskey and drug store, and the population consisted mostly of railroad workers, but this store was later joined by a general store operated by Woodridge Anabel, and a hardware store operated by Drew Wilkerson.Mitchell et al, p. 14, 229.
In 1880 the town was platted, and on September 27 renamed Seligman in honor of Joseph Seligman, a wealthy railroad financier who had died the previous April. On March 8, 1881, the town was incorporated.Mitchell et al, p. 7. In choosing the name Seligman, the residents recognized that the arrival of the railroad had been a great boon to the small settlement. Apparently as an act of gratitude, Mr. Seligman's widow, Babet Seligman, gave the community $500 and one acre of land towards the building of a church.Mitchell et al, p. 16. Together with $300 raised locally, Benjamin McCann constructed the Union Church in 1884. The church still stands and was in continuous use by various Protestant denominations from the time it was built until 1959.Mitchell et al, p. 68.
Arriving trains soon brought a greater number and variety of visitors, traders and salesmen, and one of the first hotels, the Inmon House, was opened in 1881.Mitchell et al, p. 146. By this time, the town had also grown to include a number of general merchandise stores, as well as a store for agricultural implements, a druggist, two hotels, a meat market, a livery stable, a granary, a lumber yard, a billiard hall, a barber shop, a blacksmith, a photographer, a physician, the Cross & Diver of Eureka Stage Line, and seven saloons. In that year a town newspaper was established, the Seligman Sunbeam,The Seligman Sunbeam, Vol. viii, No. 20, Nov. 1, 1890, p.1. whose motto was "The Union, The Constitution, and The Enforcement of The Law". It was the first newspaper in the United States to endorse Grover Cleveland for the presidency.Mitchell et al, p. 8.
In 1882, work began on what became in 1906 the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad. This track went south and east of Seligman to, first, Eureka Springs and, ultimately, Helena, Arkansas. It poised Seligman toward greater growth and development, though the fare was $1.85 for eighteen miles —- a steep price at the time.
As many as six passenger trains passed through Seligman every day, and two of the hotels operating at the time, the Gladden and the Linden, had difficulty serving the large numbers of people who stopped to stay in town. Many of the travelers were salesmen, or "drummers" who would arrive with large trunks full of sample shoes, hardware, hats or costume jewelry and rent a buggy or dray wagon at the livery stable to transport their goods to outlying towns not connected to the railroad. Eventually six hotels opened in town at one point, which employed many local young people, especially women for cleaning, washing, filling water pitchers in each room, and cooking for boarders.
By this time, local industries included poultry farming as well as timbering and milling for production of railroad ties and whiskey kegs. Principal agricultural products included wheat, oats, corn, cattle and hogs, but residents also harvested peaches, apples, cantaloupe, strawberries, and spring water from Radium Springs. A 30-40 acre vineyard was also cultivated just east of Seligman, and the grapes were shipped to Springdale, Arkansas, to be processed into grape juice and wine.Mitchell et al, p. 120-121.
Setbacks A series of major fires had a disastrous impact on Seligman, beginning on January 22, 1883, when a fire broke out at the Exchange Hotel which destroyed it completely along with a large part of the town; W. J. Piper's Witchita [sic] House Hotel, four saloons, a grocery, a meat market, a barber shop, a general store, the Seligman Hotel, a drug store, a bakery, a hardware and a shoe store, as well as the office of the Seligman Sunbeam went up in flames. Exactly two months later, the stables of the Seligman and Eureka Springs Stage Coach Company also burned down. Then, on January 13, 1884, another fire destroyed part of the remaining town.
Residents began rebuilding immediately, and in the process constructed Seligman's first public school, a two-story frame building completed in circa 1892, replacing the subscription school.Mitchell et al, p. 229. It was a two-story frame building later replaced by a brick building, also used by the Masonic Lodge.
20th century In the early 1900s rebuilding continued, with many modern improvements. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company established an office in Seligman,Mitchell et al, p. 31. in 1904 postal rural routes were established,Mitchell et al, p. 29. Before rural routes were established, mail was delivered at the post office and outlying areas were serviced by contract carriers who would pick up the mail at Seligman and carry it to the country stores or trading posts in the region. in 1905 the Bank of Seligman was opened by C.C. Fawver,Mitchell et al, p. 22. and in 1910 George Finn established the Farmers and Merchants Bank.Mitchell et al, p. 24. Also in 1910, the North Arkansas line was extended from Seligman through Eureka Springs to Harrison, Arkansas.Mitchell et al, p. 46. Usual fare was three cents per mile. When this train pulled into the station in Harrison for the first time, crowds of people gathered to catch their first glimpse of the railroad engine. The engineer, being something of a practical joker, climbed atop the cab and shouted, "Everybody watch out! I'm gonna turn this thing around!" and the crowd scattered in panic, expecting it to turn around like a wagon. Then the railroad crew calmly pivoted the engine on its turntable. Two physicians set up practice in town, and one of them opened a four-room hospital.Mitchell et al, p. 230. In 1912, the Sure Pop Oil Company attracted investors from Seligman and built an oil rig just across the border in nearby Gateway, Arkansas.Mitchell et al, p. 44. Unfortunately, before they drilled deep enough to reach oil, the rigging caught fire and burned to the ground. In 1914, a tomato cannery was opened and operated by W.F. Turner,Mitchell et al, p. 20. a vinegar factory was opened, and there was a brief attempt to mine silver in the town.Mitchell et al, p. 43. See also for the poem Saga Of The Seligman Silver Mine. Before Prohibition, some five saloons operated in Seligman, and it had a reputation as the "wildest town in the west".Mitchell et al, p. 47. Nevertheless, around this time Seligman was still just half as large as it had once been.