Coon Creek
Located in Roscoe Township
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History of St. Clair County, Missouri, 1883:
Mr. Reuben S. Nance, the first surveyor of the county, came in the spring of
1835. He started the second store in the county, whether before Calvin Waldo is
hard to say. Waldo was in full blast in June 1836, and Nance purchased two bills
of goods in St. Louis, one on April 4, 1836, and one on April 5, the following
day, and opened a store on Coon Creek on the arrival of these goods. Clardy
clerked for him the same year, for in November 1836, Clardy went to St. Louis
and there settled or paid all of Nance’s purchases up to that date. In 1837 it
became Nancy & Clardy, and continued until 1839. Nancy settled on section 34.
John Goots started a horse mill about a mile from Coon Creek, on section 20,
soon after his arrival. The third store and second blacksmith shop in St. Clair
County outside Osceola, were located on the north side of the Osage River, just
above the mouth of Coon Creek on section 11 in what is now Roscoe Township. The
store was run by Patrick Shields and the blacksmith shop by John Bedell. The
merchants hauled their goods from Boonville.
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History of St. Clair County, MO, 1883, p. 835:
Coon Creek - The third store and second blacksmith shop in St. Clair County
outside of Osceola were located on the north side of the Osage River, just above
the mouth of Coon Creek, on Section 13 in what is now Roscoe Township. The store
was run by Patrick Shields and the blacksmith shop by John Bedell. The merchants
hauled their goods from Boonville.
All kinds of produce and stock was low then. Pork sold at $1,25, cows and calves
from $6 to $8 and three and four year old steers from $8 to
$10. The merchants hauled their goods from Boonville.
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Now and Then – Reminiscence, By Rev. B.F.
Lawler:
About 1840 a Mr. Beach taught the first school on Coon Creek in a very frail
little house a little below and near where Ben Nance now lives.
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Missouri History Encyclopedia, 1901:
In 1833 Ebenezer and William Gash located on Coon Creek. The Culbertson
brothers, Isaac, Joseph and Ira, settled nearby in 1835, and later the same year
James and Robert Gardner settled farther southeast in the Coon Creek
neighborhood.
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Missouri History Encyclopedia, 1901:
The Osage River enters the central west and flows eastwardly to Osceola and
thence to the northeast. Its principal tributary is Sac River, which enters the
county near the central south and discharges into the Osage near Osceola. The
Osage receives Big Monegaw Creek from the northwest, the Peshaw, or Big Clear
Creek from the south west, and Little Weaubleau Creek from the southeast. Coon
and Brush Creeks flow into Sac River from the southeast. There are numerous fine
springs, the most noted of which are the Monegaw Springs.