Moberly

Omar Bradley called Moberly his hometown. Born poor in rural Randolph County in 1893, he moved to town with his mother after his father's death, graduated from Moberly High School in 1910, and went to work as a boilermaker for the Wabash, saving to study law at Columbia. His Sunday school teacher at Central Christian Church urged him to try for West Point. He placed second in the exam at Jefferson Barracks, and when the winner could not accept, the appointment passed to Bradley in August 1911. He married Mary Quayle, who grew up across the street.

What the plaque says

Moberly Moberly, the "Magic City," grew from the town platted by the North Missouri R. R. (Wabash) in 1866 to a transportation center with a 6,070 population by 1880. The North Mo. acquired the site when it took over the Chariton and Randolph R. R. after the Civil War. In 1860, the C. & R. had planned a road west to Brunswick from this point on the North Mo. then reaching toward Iowa. The Chariton and Randolph R. R. named its proposed junction for William Moberly, head of the road, and offered free land to residents of once nearby Allen to settle here. Patrick Lynch, who alone accepted, was given two lots by the North Missouri after the Civil War for holding the site without "the loss of a life or a house." Moberly has been a division point since 1867 when the North Mo. (Wabash) reached Brunswick. Huge railroad repair shops, one of the earliest railroad plants west of the Mississippi, were opened, 1872. The M. K. & T. formed a junction here, 1873. Transportation facilities brought industrial growth and the development of the soil, fire clay, and coal resources of the area. (See other side) Moberly (Continued from other side) Moberly lies in a glacial plains area in a county organized, 1829, and named for John Randolph of Roanoke, Va. In Missouri's Little Dixie Region, it was first settled by William Holman, 1818. William Fort boiled salt at a spring near Huntsville in 1820's. The Bee Trace, a pioneer trail, ran along the Grand Divide between the Missouri and Mississippi through the county. The Iowa, Sac, and Fox tribes gave up claims to the region, 1824. At Huntsville, county seat since 1831, a plank road was built to Glasgow, 1854, and the 1855-82 Mt. Pleasant (Baptist) College was founded. County legal business has been conducted at Huntsville and Moberly since 1885. Moberly Junior College opened, 1927. World War II Gen. Omar N. Bradley, first Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, was born in nearby Clark. Moberly's airport is named for him. Moberly is the home of novelist Elizabeth Seifert Gasparotti and birthplace of writer Jack Conroy. G. W. P. Hunt, first Governor of Arizona, was born in Huntsville. Hancock L. Jackson, interim Gov. of Mo., 1857; Lt. Gov., 1857-61, and the biochemist Victor C. Vaughn, were natives of Randolph County. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1957

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Union Covered Bridge State Historic Site — 18 mi
  An 1871 oak bridge over the Elk Fork of the Salt River on the old Paris to Fayette road, the last Burr-arch covered bridge in Missouri, mended after a century of floods.
• Boone's Lick State Historic Site — 33 mi
  The salt spring in the Howard County woods that Daniel Boone's sons worked from 1805, whose name spread to a road, a country and the first American settlement of central Missouri.

More markers nearby

• Fayette — 23 mi
• Glasgow — 25 mi