Historical Marker
Dallas County
Dallas County · Missouri
Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1961
The commune on the plaque tried to live as one family. Alcander Longley founded the Friendship Community on March 15, 1872, a few miles west of Buffalo, on about 500 acres where members held property in common, voted together on community affairs and gave men and women equal rights. Longley also edited a reform paper he called the Communist. A county history says the members drifted away disillusioned and the community broke up in the 1880s. The same history says the county's first name, Niangua, came from an old Native phrase meaning roughly "I won't go away."
What the plaque says
Dallas County Dallas County, organized 1841, was first called Niangua for the river flowing within its borders, but the name proved difficult and it was changed to Dallas in 1844 for U.S. Vice Pres. George M. Dallas. Settled in the early 1830's by pioneers from Tenn., Ind., and Ohio, the county lies in territory ceded by the Osage Indians in 1808. Buffalo, the county seat, laid out 1841, is on an extensive plain named Buffalo Head Prairie for a buffalo skull landmark erected by first settler Mark Reynolds, 1833. In Oct., 1863, Gen. Joseph O. Shelby's Confederates burned the courthouse and raiders burned the Methodist Church in July, 1864, then used as a courthouse. A pro-Union county, Dallas suffered numerous guerrilla raids. In a futile effort to get a railroad, the county issued $235,000 in bonds in 1869-71, and contracted with the Laclede and Fort Scott R.R. Co., for roadbed and bridges. The contract was fulfilled, but the railroad was rerouted to miss the county and it then refused to pay. The debt plus interest rose into millions before it was compromised at $300,000 and finally paid off in 1940. (See other side) Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1961 Dallas County (Continued from other side) Dallas County, with timbered Ozark hills on the east and rolling prairies on the west, is a livestock, dairy, and grain farming area. From the late 1860's to the 1890's, lead and zinc were mined. In 1882 a vein of fuller's earth, one of first discovered in U.S., was found near Buffalo and worked briefly. Urbana, to the northwest, dates from the mid-1860's. Other communities developing after the Civil War are Charity, Celt, Plad, Redtop, Tunas, Louisburg, Windyville, Long Lane. In 1870's, near Buffalo, was Friendship, a communal colony founded by Alcander Longley; the mutualistic Home Employment Co-op. Co., at Long Lane, was founded, 1901. Bennett Spring State Park in Dallas and Laclede counties, dates from 1924. James A. Brice in 1837 was the first settler at the spring which wells up an avg. 71 million gals. daily in a gravelly basin. The area is described in "The Calling of Dan Matthews," by Harold Bell Wright. In Dallas County were born Philip A. Bennett, Lt. Gov. of Mo., 1925-29, Congressman, 1941-42; and Marion T. Bennett, Congressman, 1943-49. Near Buffalo is site of noted pioneer Reynolds Nursery. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1961
Where it stands
37.64380, -93.09170 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Bennett Spring State Park — 14 miMore than 100 million gallons a day out of a Niangua valley spring, a branch stocked with rainbow trout every day of the season, and the mill valley and CCC lodge that came first.
- Ha Ha Tonka State Park — 29 miCollapsed caverns laid open above the Niangua arm of the Lake of the Ozarks: a natural bridge, a sinkhole amphitheater, a spring in a gorge and the burned stone shell of a Kansas City businessman's castle.