Mountain Grove History

In 1841, the McClurg Fur Company of Linn Creek sent Sam Hardin here to trade with hunting parties of the Osage Indians.  A settlement was built on land East of Mountain Grove near a spring in a grove of hickory timber.  Sammuel Hardin was named postmaster of Hickory Spring on August 18, 1853.

  In 1859, Sam Hardin died at Hickory Spring and his brother-in-law established a general store at the crossroads of Springfield Road and Lebanon Road about one mile West of Hickory Spring.  This became known as the "Mountain Store", "Mountain Grove" or "The Mountain" because the elevation is 1525 feet and settlers coming from any direction traveled upgrade.  In 1861, the post office was moved from Hickory Spring to Mountain Grove.

  The old Mountain Grove was near present day Ninth and Darrel Streets and is still owned by the city of Mountain Grove, including the property that was laid out for a square and a well.  It is known as "Old Town."

  The railroad surveyed land near Mountain Grove in 1880 and the settlement grew in expectation.  However, the railroad company had a change of mind and put the lines south of Mountain Grove near a community called Fyan.  Fyan came about when Joseph Fisher, Jr. of Saline County made his appearance on the scene in April 1882.  He bought two adjoining tracts of land lying along the railroad, confident that the depot would be built on one of them.  He named the community "Fyan" in honor of Congressman R.W. Fyan, a popular political figure of the time, who later became a judge.  Fisher got his depot.  The new community began to grow.

  Later in 1882, Dr. Issac R. Lane bought land lying north of the Fisher property, called it Lane's addition to Mountain Grove, laid out the square and began selling lots on the west, north, and east sides of the square in January 1883.  There was general exodus of businesses and homes to either Lane's addition or to Fyan from Old Town.  Bitterness erupted in the town over the name of the depot, the location of an $1,100 newly completed school house in Old Town, and the location and name of the post office.

One of the most famous incidents in Mountain Grove history occurred in the middle of May 1883.  What was called a "nipping frost" on a Monday night caused every "tree, sapling and shrub on the little strip of land laying between Lane's addition and the depot to be cut as clean and close to the ground as if done with an axe." 

  Thus, the south side of the square was cleared and the joining of Mountain Grove and Fyan was an accomplished fact.  In June 1883, the name of the depot was changed to Mountain Grove.  The town reapplied for a charter in 1886, changed its boundaries and held its first elections.