Christian County

The three men hanged at Ozark in 1889 went to the gallows for a night two years earlier. On March 11, 1887, younger Christian County Bald Knobbers, angry at things William Edens had said about them, broke into the Edens cabin and killed Edens and Charles Green and badly wounded James Edens. Captain Dave Walker, who had tried to restrain his men, was hanged on May 10, 1889 with his son Billy and John Mathews; Wiley Mathews had escaped the jail. The sheriff built the scaffold himself, the ropes were too long, and Billy's broke.

What the plaque says

Christian County Deep in the Missouri Ozarks, Christian County, organized 1859, was one of last 3 of the State's 114 counties to be formed. At the request of pioneer "Mrs. Thomas Neaves" it was named for her native Ky. county honoring Rev. War Col. William Christian. Ozark, platted in 1843 by J. C. and A. N. Farmer near a mill on beautiful, spring-fed Finley Creek, became county seat and J. C. Inman laid out an addition. Ozark, a thriving town in the 1850's with a fine academy, Ozark High School, was a Union post in the Civil War. An attack was repulsed in Aug., 1862, and in Jan., 1863, the town was evacuated at the approach of General Joseph O. Shelby who burned a blockhouse there. During the war, guerrilla bands and troops raided the countryside. To combat lawlessness following the war, the Bald Knobbers, organized as a law and order group, first met on a bald knobbed hill in adjacent Taney County in 1885. In time a number of Bald Knobbers were themselves accused of lawlessness and a number of trials were held in Ozark, and 3 members were executed there, May, 1889. (See other side) Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1958 Christian County (Continued from other side) Among the hills, valleys, and plains of Christian County are many earth mounds and rock cairns from prehistoric days. In modern times, Osage tribes ceded claims to the region, 1808. Delaware Indians held a land grant in the area, 1818-1829. Their trading post was near Ozark. In the early 1820's, Ohioans settled in the county and Tenn. and Ky. pioneers came in the 1830's. The town of Ozark, whose name derives from the French "Aux Arcs," meaning in the country of the Arkansas, serves a tomato, fruit, livestock, dairy, and poultry farming county. In 1883 the Chadwick branch of the Frisco Railroad reached Ozark. North of Ozark, in a beautiful setting, is Smallin's Cave having one of the largest openings in Missouri. Explorer Henry R. Schoolcraft, who visited the cave in 1818, called it "Winoca." Northwest at Billings a marker recalls the days when the stages of the Butterfield Overland Mail stopped at Ashmore's Relay Station, 1858-1861. Part of southeast Christian County is in Mark Twain National Forest. Over the line in Greene County is Wilson's Creek Battlefield. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1958

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wilson's Creek National Battlefield — 13 mi
  The farm valley southwest of Springfield where the first major Civil War battle west of the Mississippi was fought on August 10, 1861, and where Nathaniel Lyon became the first Union general killed.
• History Museum on the Square — 13 mi
  Springfield's history museum on Park Central Square, on Route 66 itself, with a gallery on how the highway got its number here in 1926 and another on the Osage, Kickapoo and Delaware.
• Shepherd of the Hills Homestead (Old Matt's Cabin) — 25 mi
  The Ross homestead above Mutton Hollow, which Harold Bell Wright's 1907 novel turned into Old Matt's Cabin, drawing readers into the White River hills from the year it appeared.
• Marvel Cave (Silver Dollar City) — 26 mi
  A sinkhole cave west of Branson that was mined for guano under a false name, toured by candle from 1894, and turned into Silver Dollar City by the family that leased it in 1950.

More markers nearby

• Butterfield Overland Mail in Missouri - 1858-1861 — 13 mi
• Springfield — 15 mi
• Galena — 21 mi
• Webster County — 27 mi