Edina

The county's namesake started out selling books in Boston. Henry Knox, born there on July 25, 1750, opened the London Book Store in 1771, and in the winter of 1775-76 led the expedition that hauled about 60 tons of cannon from Fort Ticonderoga some 300 miles over ice, snow and the Berkshires. Mounted on Dorchester Heights, the guns preceded the British evacuation of Boston on March 17, 1776. Knox became the army's chief of artillery and, under the Constitution, the first secretary of war, serving until 1794. He died in 1806.

What the plaque says

Edina Edina, the seat of Knox County, was laid out here in the glacial plains of northeast Missouri, 1839, by W. J. Smallwood. Scotsman S. W. B. Carnegy, who surveyed the new town, named it the poetic form of Edinburgh. The county, formed 1843 and organized 1845, is named for Rev. War Gen. Henry Knox. An area rich in soil and water resources, Knox County lies in territory ceded by the Iowa, Sac, and Fox Indians in 1824. Some 70 Indian mounds have been found in the county. The county was first settled near Newark, to the south, by James Fresh in 1833. Early pioneers coming mainly from Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, and Kentucky were followed by a large Irish immigration and also a number of Germans in the late 1830's. One of first Catholic parishes in northeast Missouri was St. Joseph's, formed here in 1837. Today's St. Joseph's Church was built, 1873-75. Early schools in Edina were St. Joseph's Academy (now a grade school) founded, 1865; Lyon Academy, 1866; Edina Seminary (Knox Collegiate Institute), 1878; St. Joseph's College for Boys, 1883; and at Novelty, to the south, was Oaklawn College, founded in 1876. (See other side) Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1957 Edina (Continued from other side) Centered in rolling prairie land of Knox County, a grain and livestock farming area, Edina lies north of the South Fork of the Fabius (name probably derived from early trapper). Also in the county are North and Middle Fabius and the Salt and North rivers. During the Civil War, Edina was occupied July 30, 1861, by Colonel M. E. Green and the pro-Southern State Guards. At Newark, Union troops led by Capt. W. W. Lair surrendered to Confederates under Col. Joseph C. Porter, August 1, 1862, after a sharp skirmish. In the railroad boom after the war, Knox County subscribed $184,000 in bonds by 1870 to the unsuccessful Mo. and Miss. Railroad. By 1899 the debt was paid. The Quincy, Mo., and Pac. R. R. (C. B. & Q.) reached Edina, 1872. Edina was the birthplace of noted jurist George Turner (1850-1932). Union Gen. T. T. Taylor edited an Edina newspaper, 1868-73, and Confederate Capt. Griffin Frost, author of "Camp and Prison Journal," edited another paper here, 1874-1905. Henry E. Sever, book publisher, born near Hurdland to the south, bequeathed $100,000 to Knox County for a Wildlife Sanctuary, 1941. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1957

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of Osteopathic Medicine — 22 mi
  Kirksville's museum of Andrew Taylor Still, the frontier doctor who gave up drugs after losing his children and founded the first school of osteopathy here in 1892.

More markers nearby

• Kirksville — 21 mi
• Bethel — 22 mi
• Scotland County — 22 mi
• Clark County — 30 mi