Lost Towns
Lost Towns of Greene County
Springfield! Magazine, April 1983
Arthur Paul Moser, researcher of lost towns, listed many of the towns and villages that he had located in Greene County for the 1983 Sesquicentennial Year of Greene County in this magazine article.
Some of the towns moved, changed their names or simply disappeared. Much of the success of the small towns was the village post offices. The post offices were located in stores, mills, blacksmith shops and in some cases, private homes. With the introduction of Rural Free Delivery in 1905, many of the post offices ceased to exist and the lack of traffic for postal purposes spelled doom for the commercial enterprises which kept the villages viable.
Some of the villages listed in this article are:
“Birdeye - Located in Robberson Township, Birdeye at one time included a store, a school, and a post office. Years ago, after a squabble, the schoolhouse was moved ‘lock, stock and barrel; west of Highway 13 to a place called Frog Pond. Another election was held and the schoolhouse was moved back to the original location.
Lon - This town held the distinction of being the easternmost village in Greene County while it lasted. The town, now extinct, was on the James River northeast of Turners near the Webster County line. Population in 1910 was eight persons.
River Park - Located in the southeast corner of Wilson Township, this village grew up during the years prior to the Civil War. Its post office closed in 1905 and the town disappeared shortly after that.
Plano - This town was located in the southwest corner of Greene County and once boasted a significant casket factory - now abandoned. Nothing remains except the ruins of the old stone factory building and a small service station.
Hazel Dell - Located three and one-fourth miles west of Park Central Square on the old John Robertson Farm later owned by George Young, this town is now a part of the City of Springfield.”
Arthur Paul Moser also published several volumes of lost towns for every county in Missouri. He researched place names in Missouri over a period of about twenty years, beginning in the 1960's. The first directory was for Greene County, Missouri, apparently as a volunteer project for the Greene County Historical Society. He then continued to research counties one at a time until he had completed a gazetteer of each county in Missouri. This work is now digitized and available online through the Local History webpage.
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