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Springfield is the county seat of Greene County and is known as "Queen City of the Ozarks" and "Birthplace of Route 66".
History
The native Kickapoo and Osage, and the Lenape (Delaware) from the mid-Atlantic coast settled in this general area. The Osage had been the dominant tribe for more than a century in the larger region.
On the southeastern side of the city in 1812, about 500 Kickapoo Native Americans built a small village of about 100 wigwams. They abandoned the site in 1828. Ten miles south of the site of Springfield, the Lenape had built a substantial dwelling of houses.
The first European-American settlers to the area were John Polk Campbell and his brother, who moved to the area in 1829 from Tennessee. Campbell chose the area because of the presence of a natural well that flowed into a small stream. He staked his claim by carving his initials in a tree. Cambell was joined by settlers Thomas Finney, Samuel Weaver, and Joseph Miller. They proceeded to clear the land of trees to develop it for farms.
In 1833, the southern part of the state was named Greene County after Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene. The legislature deeded 50 acres of land to John Campbell for the creation of a county seat in 1835. The town was incorporated in 1838. In 1878, the town got its nickname the "Queen City of the Ozarks."
The United States government enforced Indian Removal during the 1830s, forcing land cessions in the Southeast and other areas, and relocating tribes to Indian Territory, which later developed as Oklahoma. During the 1838 relocation of Cherokee natives, the Trail of Tears passed through Springfield to the west, along the Old Wire Road.
At the start of the American Civil War, Springfield was divided in its loyalty, as it had been settled by people from both the North and South, as well as by German immigrants in the mid-19th century who tended to support the Union.
The Union and Confederate armies both recognized the city's strategic importance and sought to control it. They fought the Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861. The battle was a Confederate victory, and Nathaniel Lyon became the first Union General killed in the Civil War. Union troops retreated to Lebanon to regroup. When they returned, they found that most of the Confederate army had withdrawn.
On October 25, 1861, Union Major Charles Zagonyi led an attack against the remaining Confederates in the area, in a battle known as the First Battle of Springfield, or Zagonyi's Charge. Zagonyi's men removed the Confederate flag from Springfield's public square and returned to camp. It was the only Union victory in southwestern Missouri in 1861.
On January 8, 1863, Confederate forces under General John S. Marmaduke advanced to take control of Springfield and an urban fight ensued. But that evening, the Confederates withdrew. This became known as the Second Battle of Springfield. Marmaduke sent a message to the Union forces asking that the Confederate casualties have a proper burial. The city remained under Union control for the remainder of the war. The US army used Springfield as a supply base and central point of operation for military activities in the area.
Promptly after the Civil War ended on July 21, 1865 Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in a shootout over a disagreement about a debt Tutt claimed Hickok owed him. During a poker game at the former Lyon House Hotel, in response to the disagreement over the amount, Tutt had taken Hickok's watch, which Hickok demanded he return immediately. Hickok warned that Tutt had better not be seen wearing that watch, then spotted him wearing it in Park Central Square, prompting the gunfight.
On January 25, 1866, Hickok was still in Springfield when he witnessed a Springfield police officer, John Orr, shoot and kill James Coleman after Coleman interfered with the arrest of Coleman's friend Bingham, who was drunk and disorderly. Hickok provided testimony in the case. Orr was arrested, released on bail, and immediately fled the country. He was never brought to trial or heard from again.
On April 14, 1906, a white mob broke into the Springfield county jail, and lynched two black men, Horace Duncan and Fred Coker, for allegedly sexually assaulting Mina Edwards, a white woman. Later they returned to the jail, where other black prisoners were being held, and pulled out Will Allen, who had been accused of murdering a white man. All three suspects were hanged from the Gottfried Tower, and burned in the courthouse square by a mob of more than 2,000 whites. Judge Azariah W. Lincoln called for a grand jury, but no one was prosecuted. The proceedings were covered by national newspapers, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. In the immediate aftermath, local Missouri people reportedly issued two commemorative coins.
Duncan's and Coker's employer testified that they were at his business at the time of the crime against Edwards, and other evidence suggested that they and Allen were all innocent. These three are the only recorded lynchings in Greene County. But the extrajudicial murders were part of a pattern of discrimination, repeated violence and intimidation of blacks in this city and southwest Missouri from 1894 to 1909, in an attempt to expel them from the region. Whites in Lawrence County also lynched three black men in this period. After the mass lynching in Springfield, many blacks left the area in a large exodus.
During the 1950s, Springfield ranked third in the U.S. for originating network television programs, behind New York and Hollywood. Four nationally broadcast television series originated from the city between 1955 and 1961: Ozark Jubilee and its spin-off, Five Star Jubilee; Talent Varieties; and The Eddy Arnold Show. All were carried live by ABC except for Five Star Jubilee on NBC and were produced by Springfield's Crossroads TV Productions, owned by Ralph D. Foster. Many of the biggest names in country music frequently visited or lived in Springfield at the time. City officials estimated the programs meant about 2,000 weekly visitors and "over $1,000,000 in fresh income."
Staged at the Jewell Theatre (demolished in 1961), Ozark Jubilee was the first national country music TV show to feature top stars and attract a significant viewership. Five Star Jubilee, produced from the Landers Theatre, was the first network color television series to originate outside of New York City or Hollywood.
The ABC, NBC and Mutual radio networks also all carried country music shows nationally from Springfield during the decade, including KWTO'S Korn's-A-Krackin' (Mutual).
The Springfield Chamber of Commerce once presented visiting dignitaries with an "Ozark Hillbilly Medallion" and a certificate proclaiming the honoree a "hillbilly of the Ozarks." On June 7, 1953, U.S. President Harry Truman received the medallion after a breakfast speech at the Shrine Mosque for a reunion of the 35th Division. Other recipients included US Army generals Omar Bradley and Matthew Ridgway, US Representative Dewey Short, J. C. Penney, Johnny Olson, Ralph Story and disc jockey Nelson King.