Russellville's history will be highlighted in the next installment of an occasional series by the Cole County Historical Society about its communities.
Town historians Jim and Eve Campbell will help host the society's "Getting to Know Our Communities" at 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Michael's Parish Hall in Russellville.
Previous programs have been well-received, even standing-room only, said committee co-chairman Leah McNay.
Those who attend are encouraged to bring photos, memorabilia and other family or community history to the event, McNay said. Doors will open early to allow guests to mingle and look at what others bring.
The town's history begins with a broken wagon wheel.
The earliest families left Central Tennessee in 1831, heading to northwest Missouri. Lammon Short and Enoch Enloe Sr. were among them with their wives, who were sisters.
They stopped in the area to repair a broken wheel and noticed they liked the land. They first settled on land once owned by L.A.B. Leslie on Route C west of town, where the pioneers found opossum, honey and a good spring.
"We are going to stay right here, where we have both sweetness and meat at the same place," Short is said to have told his family.
Enloe opened the town's first post office in 1837.
News of their good fortune reached friends and family back in Tennessee, and soon, more pioneers arrived.
The town was surveyed in May 1838 by three men including Buckner Russell.
During the Civil War, the town was the site of skirmishes between the fleeing Confederates following Price's avoided attempt to attack the Capital in October 1864 and the pursuing Union troops who would eventually catch up with them at the Battle of Westport.
When the Missouri Pacific Railroad's Lebanon Branch was completed in August 1881, it soon became the lifeblood of the town. The next several decades would see growth and prosperity.
Businesses emerged like the Dulle Milling Company, the Hunter and Stevens Lumber Company, and the Russellville Rustler newspaper.
Near the turn of the 20th century, Schubert Funeral, the Russellville City Hotel, Schubert and Weiler Mercantile and the Russellville Roller Mill opened.
From 1908-14, Russellville was known for its large, annual multi-day street fair.
The short-lived Ozark Chair Company in the 1940s produced wooden, folding chairs for the continental U.S. and even Hawaii.