Warrensburg

Warrensburg, one of Missouri's early western prairie towns, was founded in 1836 as the seat of Johnson County, which was organized in 1834. The town was named for pioneer settler Martin Warren, and the county for United States Vice President Richard M. Johnson. Warrensburg was incorporated in 1855. During the Civil War, although largely pro-Southern, it was occupied by Union troops as a post and supply base. After the Pacific Railroad, now the Mo. Pac., reached the town in 1864, development centered around the station and the first townsite became known as Old Town. In the 1870's, quarries were opened near town in a huge sandstone deposit, and buildings made of Warrensburg Sandstone included those on the college campus and the courthouse built in 1896. Central Missouri State College was founded here in 1871 as the State Normal School for the Second Normal District of Missouri after Warrensburg and Johnson County gave 16 acres and raised $145,000 to secure the school; it was one of Missouri's first two state normal schools and maintained an Educational Museum and Essig Musical Instruments Collection. Warrensburg, the seat of justice and a training center for a grain and livestock farming county, stands in territory ceded by Osage tribes in 1808, and the county's first settlers, largely from the South, arrived in the 1820's. Local points of interest included the college campus and the Old Courthouse, where Senator George G. Vest delivered his famous Tribute to the Dog in a plea to the jury in a notable Missouri damage suit. Nearby were Pertle Springs to the south, an early resort and convention center, and near Knob Noster to the east, Whiteman Air Force Base and Knob Noster State Park. Warrensburg was the home of Francis M. Cockrell, a Johnson County native who became a Confederate general and U.S. senator from 1875 to 1905, and Thomas T. Crittenden, a Union colonel and governor of Missouri from 1881 to 1885. It was also for a time home to Wells H. Blodgett, a Union colonel and state legislator; Carry Moore Nation and Clara Cleghorn Hoffman, leaders in the temperance movement; John W. Boone, known as Blind Boone, the Negro musician; and George MacCurdy, a native of Warrensburg who became an anthropologist.

Warrensburg, Missouri · United States