Created from the Lousiana Territory, the Territory of Missouri was established by an Act of Congress in 1812 and became the 24th state on August 10, 1821. Sixteen years later, in 1837, about sixty people lived here on the banks of the Osage, and that year the first hotel in the area opened to accommodate travelers in a double log cabin structure with a passageway between the cabins. The grounds of the present Commercial Hotel were platted in June 1850, and a frame building constructed there bore the names Pollard House and Union Inn. In 1861, during the Civil War, the hotel was destroyed by fire in Jim Lane's ferocious raid on the town, and Osceola was the only Missouri town so thoroughly devastated. The present Commercial Hotel building was erected in 1867, and after well over a century as a pleasant gathering place, it still bears the original bannisters touched by generations of guests, including Harry Truman, Tom Mix, Sally Rand, Jesse James, Frank James, and Cole Younger.