Birth of Town
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The town of Dexter was built in what one resident remembered as "a veritable swamp." The area now occupied by downtown was once a shallow marshy pond full of waterfowl, tangled branches, roses, and dense underbrush. It's location in this low lying area plagued the town for years, especially during the rainy months of winter and spring.
Before the town was laid out by the railroad, a couple of settlements were established in the area. One small settlement was centered around a mill located on Dex Creek (I refer to the creek that ran on the east side of town as Dex because that is what most early residents referred to it as, Dex was derived from Deck's Creek, named for the Deck family that owned the land). This settlement was probably as old as the Civil War, but it did not have a name. Another settlement was located on the ridge on the eastern edge of Crowley's Ridge about 1872. This area is known now as "Old Dexter."
Dex Creek before 1900 (photo: Paul Arnold).
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Dex Creek (known as Deck's Creek named for the Deck family that owned the land) before 1900 (photo: Paul Arnold)
The original town site that became Dexter was laid out in July 1873 by the Cairo, Arkansas, and Texas Railroad (CAT). Colonel Henry J. Deal of Charleston was contracted to build the railroad bed and track through Stoddard County west to Poplar Bluff. In March 1873 Deal advertised in newspapers for 3,000 workers to paid sixteen to twenty-five cents an hour. Deal purchased eighteen acres of land located where Dex Creek and the Bloomfield Road intersected, this was where the railroad planned to go through. The railroad laid out lots and named several streets where the proposed heart of the new town would be built.
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Dexter City
The Ste. Genevieve newspaper, Fair Play, reported the naming of Dexter was a result of the line, "...at the crossing of the creek and road line, and was laid off a town thereon, named, in honor of the creek and Mr. Bonner's famous horse, 'Dexter City.' A store has already opened at this place and numerous shanties erected for the accommodation of workmen." The name Dexter City remained until it was shortened to Dexter in 1887 when the town applied for official incorporation as a city.
**Note** A November 1906 edition of The Dexter Messenger said that Dexter was named after "Deck's Gap" and a racehorse.
**Note** A November 1906 edition of The Dexter Messenger said that Dexter was named after "Deck's Gap" and a racehorse.
Dex Creek near the railroad tunnel, a popular swimming hole during certain times of the year (photo: Paul Arnold).
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The first businesses were located on the north side of the railroad tracks in 1873. In 1874, J. N. Miller built a large general store on the corner of Stoddard and Walnut.
The first city marshal was Wash Davis, the first doctors were A. D. Hill and a Dr. Dodd. The first bank was the Stoddard County Bank, and the first telephone lines were established by E. C. Mohrstadt in 1893 (the first telephone line was strung in 1878 between Slack's Drug Store and the residence of E. W. Hill. It was made of waxed string.
In 1874, the first school was raised and the following year the first newspaper, The Dexter Enterprise was published (weekly). By 1886 Dexter had sixty businesses. The first jail was built in 1876.
The First Child Born in DexterAccording to a 1906 article in The Dexter Messenger, the first child born in Dexter was Charles Dexter Jeffers.
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Dexter 1968 - 1970s
From 1970 to 1975, Dexter's population increased from 6,000 to 6,500. According to Mayor Willis Conner (elected in 1966), it was because of the large influx of industry that moved to Dexter. There were 23 churches, 2000 students, a fifty bed hospital built in 1968, and city admin building built the same year. Plans were called for Boone Park to be built north of the football field (The Daily Standard, November 23, 1975).
Dexter Links
Believed to be Dexter's first fire engine.
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Cotton pickers near Dexter.
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Dexter WWI Soliders
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Mobile Station, Dexter, 1913
Dexter Tidbits
From a November 1906 issue of The Dexter Messenger:
A former slave boy that belonged to "Jimmy Sprinkle's brother" was buried in the front yard of Jack Throwers residence.
A federal soldier was buried on the outside of the eastern side of the Dexter cemetery fence.
In 1876 there was village called "Alpha" located in front of John Owens' residence.
In 1876 General Ulysses S. Grant traveled through Dexter on his "special" train.
In 1876 three blacks lived in Dexter; Aunt Mary Riggins, Pomp and Sam Dowdy.
The first inhabitants of Stoddard County were Delaware and Shawnee Indians which left in 1829.
Dexter's first lots were surveyed by George N. Boughton.
Thrower's Hill was a small settlement of Irish railroad workers made of tents and shacks.
A former slave boy that belonged to "Jimmy Sprinkle's brother" was buried in the front yard of Jack Throwers residence.
A federal soldier was buried on the outside of the eastern side of the Dexter cemetery fence.
In 1876 there was village called "Alpha" located in front of John Owens' residence.
In 1876 General Ulysses S. Grant traveled through Dexter on his "special" train.
In 1876 three blacks lived in Dexter; Aunt Mary Riggins, Pomp and Sam Dowdy.
The first inhabitants of Stoddard County were Delaware and Shawnee Indians which left in 1829.
Dexter's first lots were surveyed by George N. Boughton.
Thrower's Hill was a small settlement of Irish railroad workers made of tents and shacks.
The Infidels of Leed's Woods
Published in the July 4, 1976 edition of The Daily Statesman- Messenger. Originally published in the May 6, 1976 issue of The Hobbs Flare, published in Hobbs, New Mexico. Agnes Kastner Head wrote the article and lived in Hobbs, but had raised in Dexter. I have shortened and summarized the article, but all of the information came from the above mentioned article.
Agnes Kastner Head remembers when she was a child there was a walled community near Dexter (most likely on the east side of Crowley’s Ridge, maybe in or near present day Cotton Belt section of town). This area was known as Leed’s Woods because the original member of the group John Leed owned title to the land. The entire woods was surrounded by a large wooden wall with only one entrance. At the front gate was a large bell that anyone wishing to speak or possibly enter the community had to ring in order to get someone to speak with. The community had at least been there before 1895 because Head remembered that her mother said the group was located there when they themselves moved to Dexter in 1895.
The group were called “infidels” by the locals because they did not believe in God or any religion for that matter. They grew most everything they needed within the walls of the compound and only came out long enough to buy supplies they needed to survive but could not grow or make themselves. Occasionally the group would cut one of the large trees on the place and haul the wood to one of the various handle and furniture makers in Dexter.
The group kept themselves and bothered no one. They were counted in the census at least once and the sheriff visited there to have the male members register for the draft after WWI began which they complied with. The inside of the compound had several “shepherd” type dogs that guarded anyone from the outside getting in. Some of the children from the compound went to the local school but they kept themselves and rarely interacted with other children except when it was required. John Leed’s who was a barber in Leed’s woods traveled to St. Louis one day and bought a barbers chair which he brought back to Dexter and opened a barber shop, which he tended until his death of a heart attack one day at his shop. As the years went by there were fewer and fewer members left of the community. They buried their dead within the walls of the community and as of 1976 when Head wrote the article, the cemetery was still there.
One incident that bothered locals was when a man left the community and went to a local store where he bought carbolic acid, walked to the outside of the drug store on the corner, drank it, and died right there on the street.
Eventually there was only one elderly lady left that refused any help from outsiders. One winter when a bad snow storm hit, locals would watch for smoke from the elderly woman’s home to make sure she was okay. One day, the woman whom no one had seen or heard from in quite some time was found sitting in her rocking chair in front of the big window in her home, dead. No one ever moved into any of the homes after that.
Agnes Kastner Head remembers when she was a child there was a walled community near Dexter (most likely on the east side of Crowley’s Ridge, maybe in or near present day Cotton Belt section of town). This area was known as Leed’s Woods because the original member of the group John Leed owned title to the land. The entire woods was surrounded by a large wooden wall with only one entrance. At the front gate was a large bell that anyone wishing to speak or possibly enter the community had to ring in order to get someone to speak with. The community had at least been there before 1895 because Head remembered that her mother said the group was located there when they themselves moved to Dexter in 1895.
The group were called “infidels” by the locals because they did not believe in God or any religion for that matter. They grew most everything they needed within the walls of the compound and only came out long enough to buy supplies they needed to survive but could not grow or make themselves. Occasionally the group would cut one of the large trees on the place and haul the wood to one of the various handle and furniture makers in Dexter.
The group kept themselves and bothered no one. They were counted in the census at least once and the sheriff visited there to have the male members register for the draft after WWI began which they complied with. The inside of the compound had several “shepherd” type dogs that guarded anyone from the outside getting in. Some of the children from the compound went to the local school but they kept themselves and rarely interacted with other children except when it was required. John Leed’s who was a barber in Leed’s woods traveled to St. Louis one day and bought a barbers chair which he brought back to Dexter and opened a barber shop, which he tended until his death of a heart attack one day at his shop. As the years went by there were fewer and fewer members left of the community. They buried their dead within the walls of the community and as of 1976 when Head wrote the article, the cemetery was still there.
One incident that bothered locals was when a man left the community and went to a local store where he bought carbolic acid, walked to the outside of the drug store on the corner, drank it, and died right there on the street.
Eventually there was only one elderly lady left that refused any help from outsiders. One winter when a bad snow storm hit, locals would watch for smoke from the elderly woman’s home to make sure she was okay. One day, the woman whom no one had seen or heard from in quite some time was found sitting in her rocking chair in front of the big window in her home, dead. No one ever moved into any of the homes after that.
The Spanish Influenza - 1918
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The first mention of the Spanish Flu in the Dexter paper comes from Earl Grojean's letter home to his parents in Dexter, dated September 25, 1918. "...after we arrived in France we found that the people were dieing there at a rate of 30-40 per day with Spanish Influenza and some kind of cholera that is reported to have been spread by the Germans."
The Spanish Influenza hit Southeast Missouri and Stoddard County hard beginning in October of 1918. Southeast Missouri suffered the highest mortality rate per population than any other section of the state. For every 1,000 cases of influenza, fifteen died. Doctors claimed that it was most likely contracted through the throat or nose and recommended a number of medicines to try and prevent it, but none were proven to actually work.
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Dexter Statesman, November 29, 1918
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Dexter - 1920s
Dexter was not immune to the national wave of KKK membership that occurred in the 1920s.
Dexter - 1930s
From Dexter Statesman, Dexter, Missouri, Friday, October 7, 1932
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Leslie "Crip" Lemmons was charged with killing Charles T. "Proc" Smith April 23, 1932 while he tried to rob him late at night. The prosecution had evidence that Lemmons was able to get a gun by having Dewey Lusk get a pistol out of pawn. It was the same caliber that was used to kill Smith. A woman said that a coat that matched that worn by Lemmons was given to him by her. The same woman, a Mrs. Bagby, said that when Lemmon left the Boone house where the two were staying, Lemmons said he was going to go on a "run" and when he returned she said that he said, "things had gone wrong." Mrs. Smith and her grandaughter who were home at the time testified that Mr. Smith had called Lemmons "Kid," a name he was well known for using in reference to Lemmons. Lemmons testified that he was not at the Smith home but had been downtown trying to get a ride to Butler County to get whiskey, but his alibi could not be confirmed. The jury was told by the judge to render a decision based on first degree murder or acquittal (October 7, 1932 Dexter Statesman).
In an April 29, 1932 issue of the Dexter Statesman, Mrs. Smith mentioned that Lemmons' parents were even scared of him because he had threatened them in the past. RalphBuchanan, a school boy, told police that on March 31, he skipped school and at the Dex Creek bridge on the Cotton Belt met with Lemmons who asked the boy if he wanted to make some easy money as a lookout while he robbed "Uncle Charley."
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Charles T. Smith had just put in a long evening at the grocery store he owned partnership in, it was Saturday night and as usual the business was steady. Smith returned to his home on North Elm just around the corner from his grocery store that was located on Stoddard St. Smith sat down in his rocking chair in the front room along with his wife and his thirteen year old daughter, Corita Eagan. Around 10PM, a masked man entered the home and said, "Hands up-this is a hold up." Smith believing someone was playing a prank on him stood up and caught the intruder by both of his arms, that is when the intruder pulled the trigger and shot Smith in the head, killing him almost instantly. The intruder ran out of the house through the backdoor into the darkness. The granddaughter ran to Zach Kirby's service station at the corner of the block and got help. Crowds remained on the street until nearly 2AM Sunday morning. Leslie "Crip" Lemmons, was a well known trouble maker that had already done a couple stints in the state prison. The clues he left were numerous and obvious. This led them to the Boone residence on North Walnut, near the corner of Market, where he was arrested by night marshal, J. E. Boyles along with Sheriff Beal, Stoddard County deputies, and officer Brooks of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Witnesses later recalled seeing someone with a limp come down the alley way from the Smith home. Lemmons walked with a limp due to a pitch fork run through his foot.