South Greenfield, Missouri
Encyclopedia
South Greenfield is a village in Dade County, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 136 at the 2000 census.

Geography

South Greenfield is located at 37°22′32"N 93°50′27"W (37.375496, -93.840812).

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the village has a total area of 0.2 square mile (0.517997622 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 136 people, 54 households, and 40 families residing in the village. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 798.1 people per square mile (308.9/km²). There were 59 housing units at an average density of 346.3 per square mile (134.0/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 99.26% White, and 0.74% from two or more races.

There were 54 households out of which 38.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.1% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.9% were non-families. 22.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the village the population was spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 19.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.3 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $19,000, and the median income for a family was $30,000. Males had a median income of $21,250 versus $13,125 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the village was $10,241. There were 28.1% of families and 30.0% of the population living below the poverty line, including 38.2% of under eighteens and 35.7% of those over 64.

History

Prior to the year 1881 there were no railroads in Dade County. In that early day Greenfield was the metropolis of the county and all the horsetracks in the road pointed in that direction. The old railroad survey to which Dade County had subscribed bonds in the sum of ,000.00 touched the townsite of Greenfield on the southwest but when the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad was built in 1881 it missed the town three miles (5 km). It followed a natural depression out of the Turnback and Limestone hills to the prairie leaving the county seat stranded on high and dry ground.

People in their enthusiasm and speculation expected to see Greenfield with her business interests and county offices move bodily to the railroad point. To facilitate this enterprise Levin W. Shafer, in company with John A. Ready, two Greenfield lawyers and real estate dealers having financial relations with the Dade County Bank, purchased a 41 acres (165,921.3 m²) tract of land and laid out the pretentious city of sough Greenfield, with its spacious Public Square upon which a Court House was to be erected when the county seat was removed to that point.

John A. Myers immediately platted an Addition on the northwest, G. W. Yeager an Addition on the southwest, Jacob Cox sold lots by metes and bounds on the south and L. J. Griggs Addition on the north, but this plat was never recorded. Many business men from Greenfield became interested in South Greenfield enterprises. Horace Howard embarked in the livery business, J. L. Wetzel sold general merchandise and many other lines were represented so that in a few years the new city attained a population of about 600.

At this juncture the unexpected happened. T. A. Miller, a man of action and great business sagacity conceived the idea of building a branch railroad from Greenfield to South Greenfield by popular subscription. Greenfield business men took kindly to the idea and in a short time the Greenfield & Northern railroad was a reality. Its original promoters expected to extend this line to Stockton and on the some Missouri River point, but the north corporate limits of Greenfield became and remained its northern terminus. The rolling stock of this road consisted of one little wheezy, jerky engine, one box car and one combination express-baggage-passenger coach, one hand-car with tools and equipment sufficient for the section foreman and one hand. Later on this road was extended southward thirty miles to Aurora and was sold to the Frisco system and is now one of its important branches.

With the building of this railroad the county seat hopes of south Greenfield gradually faded and finally vanished in thin air. The boom proclivities of the town subsided and its population gradually diminished until now it has something like 300 people within its corporate limits. Having Lockwood on the West, Everton on the east, Greenfield on the north and Pennsboro on the south its trade territory is restricted and yet, notwithstanding all this South Greenfield has made a substantial little city, junction railroad point and is the center of a rock-road district with about 20 miles (32.2 km) of permanently improved highways. It has privately owned electric light and water-works systems, a beautiful public park, is the home of the Cumberland Presbyterian Camp Grounds and is in every way a very desirable place in which to live.

Taken from http://www.dadecountymissouri.20m.com/custom2.html which was copied from "History of Dade County and It's People." Goodspeed Publishing, November 1, 1917. Submitter owns the web page and an original copy of the copyright expired book.
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