Another history of Novelty that was brought to my attention. This one was for a college class, written in 1975.
A
HISTORY OF NOVELTY, MISSOURI
By
Kathryn L. Easley,
October
12, 1975
(for
SS 326 History of Missouri)
I.
Founding and the early settlement
A. Hunter and Pendry
B. Naming of the village
C. Entering and plotting
D. D. Origin of the immigrants
E. Civil War Raid
II.
Growth
of the Economy
A. Additions to the village
B. Agriculture based economy
C. Newspapers
D. Coming of the railroad
E. Well-known horse breeders
III.
Decline
of the economy
A. The Depression
B. Leaving of the railroad
C. Mobility of the people
IV.
Education
A. Early schools
B. Oaklawn College
C. Education today
V. Religion and the people
Located in the Missouri county of Knox, Township of Salt
River, Range 12, Section 11 is the village of Novelty. It is situated on Missouri State Highway 156
and two miles west of Missouri State Highway 15. The following paper is a brief history from
its beginning in 1857 to the present.
The 1850’s was a time of great migration of Americans to
California. Settlers from all areas of the United States packed their belongings
into wagons and started west to California.
In Kentucky two families decided that they too would leave their homes
and make the long trip to the promised land in the west. These were the Nars W. Hunter family and the
Dr. Richard Thomas Pendry family. As
they passed through northern Missouri, they were impressed with the broad and
fertile prairie of Knox County and decided to settle in the area of what is now
Novelty.
The Pendry and Hunter families purchased large amounts of
land from the government and began to
build their homes. The first building
was that of Dr. R.T. Pendry, which was of the conventional horizontal log cabin
style: it served as his home, office,
and a store. The legend of the naming of
the village goes back to this first building:
Dr. Pendry’s office was difficult to find in the prairie wilderness so
he raised a red flag high above the cabin for all to see. His wife thought this to be such a novel
idea that they named the settlement Novelty.
On October 24, 1838 the Eastern ½ of the Southwestern ¼ of
Section 11, of the Salt River Township was entered for a town by Cleng
Pierson. Nothing more is known about
Cleng Pierson, where he went, or if he had plans to build a town. In June of 1857, nineteen years after the
land was entered, Nars W Hunter laid out or plotted the village of Novelty,
which at that time consisted of only four blocks. But it is evident that a United States Post
Office existed prior to plotting since the U.S. Postal Department files show
that the first Postmaster of Novelty was R.T Pendry in the year of 1854.
As was typical of Missouri immigrants, the early immigrants
of Novelty came from Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia. Among the early settlers were the following
families: Townsend, Ross, Norris, Doyle,
Hickman, McCullough, Botts, and Owens.
Dr. R.T Pendry and Nars W. Hunter both left Novelty some time after the
Civil War, the exact date is unknown:
the former moving to Bethel, Missouri and the latter moving to Hurdland,
Missouri. These founding fathers of
Novelty were both brought back “home” for burial.
During the Civil War the only activity that occurred at
Novelty was a rebel guerrilla raid in 1864.
Thirteen guerrillas from Chariton and Howard Counties led by Jim
Jackson, a noted desperado and cutthroat, robbed the stores and homes, and
stole a number of horses and mules.
After the raid, they fled into Clark County. The growth of the village
was slow in the three years prior to the Civil War. But after the war had ended, the village began to grow and prosper:
“The wilderness blossoms like the rose…once a broad prairied land is filled with fine homes, fruitful
fields and beautiful orchards…situated in the heart of a rich and beautiful
country….easily accessible from the farms on every hand.” **
In 1860 an addition was added to the
village and in June of 1877 the Mary Hunter Addition was added. These two additions not only increased the
size of the village but illustrated the economic growth and population
increases brought about by the new prosperity of the community. The economic base of the community was, is,
and will probably always be agriculture, and it was during the 1870’s
that the farms surrounding the village became well established and prosperous,
and when the farmers were prosperous the village was prosperous. Between 1879-1912 the village slowly and
steadily grew to accommodate the needs of the farmers. It was in April of 1882 that Novelty was
incorporated. The following is a quote of
a Novelty resident in April of 1885.
“When asked why Novelty has succeeded so when all other towns except railroad towns were going down…only one reason to give… and that is because our people pull together in all public enterprises and all work for our home interest. This must be the secret to success in all towns large and small.” *
Some of the early industries of
Novelty were: a creamery (1878), a mill (1883), a mammoth grain elevator and feed stable
(1891), a corn mill (1892), The Novelty State Bank (1893), and an ax handle
factory (1901). Many times the life of
the businesses were short, for example in 1878 a creamery was started in the
west part of town (the present site of the Verna Taylor residence), in 1901 it
was changed to an ax handle factory and later to a steam powered saw mill
which was later abandoned.
The village supplied its residents
and surrounding farmers with many shops and stores from which they could obtain
their needed supplies. The 1911 Industrial
Issue of the Edina Sentinel listed
the village of Novelty as having the following stores: one bank, three general stores, two
restaurants, one implement store, two livery and feed barns, two barber shops,
two blacksmiths, and two carpenter shops.
Most of the store owners made trips to either St. Louis Missouri or
Quincy Illinois to get their merchandise.
Three different newspaper
publications have existed in the village of Novelty. The first was the Novelty Register, published from February to May, 1885 by two
men—a Mr. Frost and a Mr. Downing. The
second publication was the Novelty News published only a few months in
1914. The fhird was the Knox County
Herald which was first published on
March 24, 1916 and is believed to have ran for six or seven months. The lack of community support may be the
reason for the failure of these publications.
In a village of its size, where everyone knew all that happened and
where everyone knew what the stores had for sale, why buy a newspaper?!
The population figures prior to 1900
are not available but it is believed that the figure may have reached three
hundred and possible as high as four hundred in the 1880’s and 1890’s. The population declined from 1900-1970 with one
marked sign of prosperity between 1910-1920.
The prosperity was a result of the coming of the railroad. (population
in the 1970’s was about 150)
In 1911,
Novelty became excited about the prospect of a railroad coming to town. Representatives from the Shelby Northwestern
Railroad met with the community and after a subscription was raised the company
decided, in 1912, to build a railroad to
Novelty. On August 31, 1913, the train
nicknamed “Old Smoky Jim” made its first arrival in Novelty and at last the
village was connected with Shelbina and the Burlington Railroad. The railroad brought about an economic boom
in the now thriving village. New
industries soon came: a broom factory, a
produce compay, a grain company, and a lumber company. The farmers used the railroad to ship cattle,
sheep, hogs, wheat, corn, and oats. The
businesses received products for sale and a mail contract was issued to the
railroad to carry the mail to and from Novelty.
And the railroad served as a welcome means of transportation in and out
of Novelty.
Between 1900 and 1920 the Novelty
area became well known for its abundance of fine horse breeders. Some of these breeders were: W. Elmer Throckmorton, Martin Arment, S.A.D.
Pond, and perhaps the most well-known was C. R. Porter and his Paramont Stock
Farms.
During the late 1920’s and early
1930’s the prosperity of the Novelty community began it’s decline. There are three major reasons for the decline
1. The first major reason for the decline was the
Great Depression which struck the entire nation after the collapse of the stock
market in 1929. The people had no money
to buy the goods for sale in the stores, so one by one the stores began to
close. On October 15, 1931 the Novelty
State Bank surrendered its charter and transferred all deposits to the Security
Bank at Edina, Missouri, thus adding to the financial problem of the community.
2. The second reason for the decline in
prosperity was that in 1933 the Shelby County Northwestern Railroad
discontinued train service to Novelty.
The major reason for this was that the tracks were so bad that the train
could no long run safely upon them, but in order to fulfill their mail contract
the railroad adapted a truck to the tracks to haul the mail and light
freight. In March of 1938 the Shelby
County Northwestern Railroad declared bankruptcy, discontinued truck operation
and began to take up the tracks.
3. The third reason for the decline I
prosperity was the increased mobility of the people. The advent of the automobile and its
availability to all people made it possible to go more placeds more easily: it no longer required an entire day to go to
town and people didn’t have to limit their buying to a certain community. The larger towns like Edina, LaPlata,
Kirksville, and Quincy were tough competition for the village general
store. This competition added to the
already financially troubled community and may have caused the premature
closing of some stores in Novelty. The
number of businesses in Novelty has gradually declined through the 1940’s,
19950’s, and 1960’s, until today (1975) there are only seven businesses in
Novelty.
Throughout its history the Novelty community has had a deep
interest in the education of its children.
The first school building was a log house built in the east part of
town, but as the community grew, the people realized that more room and more
teachers were needed. So after the Civil
War a two-story building was erected to accommodate the growing number of
students. However it was soon evident
that some type of institution of higher learning was needed and in September of
1 876 a High School was established by Professor W. N. Doyle and occupied the
upper floor of the public school building.
After only one year in session Professor Doyle realized the need for
much larger facilities. In June of 1877
he purchased ten acres of land from Samuel Reaugh on which to erect the required
buildings. In 1881 a three building campus
was completed—a main building, a women’s dormitory, and a men’s dormitory. The name of the school was changed to Oaklawn
College for the grounds were dotted with natural forest oaks. The main college building was very ornate
both in the exterior and interior design, with many frescoes, motties, and
classical figures adorning the pillars, porches, and cornices.
Oaklawn College was very successful. It concentrated in Normal training,
shorthand, and business. The college was
advertised as “an institution of many advantages, a quiet and healthful
location away from the temptations and vices so common in large towns and
cities”. And as the best and cheapest school in the west. Oaklawn College served not only the commun
ity of Novelty, but also the entire county of Knox, and many of the surrounding
counties. Students came from all areas
of northeast Missouri, from Iowa and Illinois.
Oaklawn discontinued service in 1899 as the Normal School (Kirksville)
offered better equipment and the public school increased their efficiency. In the early 1900’s the main college building
was dismantled and taken to Hurdland, Missouri and assembled as a dwelling
house.
In 1907 the community built a new public school building, a
two-story building. In the 1920’s the
present (remember this is 1975) building was erected with two additions
added in the 1950;s. This building is
now used as the Novelty Elementary Schools, grades one-through-eight. The high school students attend the Knox
County R-I High School located east of Edina, Missouri. In 1962 Knox Count was the first county in
the state of Missouri to reorganize into one district with a central high
school for all students in the county.
During its
history, Novelty has had four churches:
the Baptist, the Methodist Episcopal, the Methodist Episcopal Church
South, and the Christian Church. The
M.E. Church was organized in 1855 and erected a building in 1866. The M.E. South Church was organized in 1884
and united with the Masonic Lodge in erecting a building in 1885. The first building of the Christian Church
was a little brick building erected in 1868.
The present church was built in 1897; a basement wasw added in 1921, and
an addition in 1964 (another addition added in 2020). This is the only church in Novelty today.
The Novelty community has always been small, but this doesn’t
mean the town has lacked excitement.
During the 1870’s, 1880’s, and 1890's, Novelty had one of the biggest
Fourth of July celebrations in northeast Missouri, with as many as three or
four thousand people attending the activities.
The day started with a parade led by the Novelty Cornet band, to a grove
at the northwest edge of the town. The
people would listen to concerts and lectures, have picnics and during the
evening enjoy a dance and fireworks display.
Between 1900 and 1920 the Chautauqua would come to town for
4-6 days of lectures and concerts. The
two main activities of the community today are the horse show and the tractor
pulling contest sponsored by the Novelty Community Club.
Novelty, like many small towns and villages in Missouri, may
at first glance appear to be nothing but a wide spot in the road, but each is
rich in heritage of the past and filled with the hope of tomorrow.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Edina Sentinel
1875-1975
The Edina Sentinel, Industrial and Souvenir Edition. April 27, 1911
History of Lewis, Clark, Knox and Scotland Counties
1887
The Knox County Herald March 24, 1916
The 22nd Annual Catalogue of Oaklawn College
1897-98
Interviews with many citizens of the Novelty Community
