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Historic Downtown
In the "heart of town," you will find the Square, where Sarcoxie's
retail area began. Still a congregating place, the centerpiece of the
Square is the gazebo built in 1831 and park where monuments commemorate
the town's proud past. Rich in Civil War history; both the North and
South fought in Sarcoxie. It is the site of the first flying of the
Confederate flag in Missouri.
Town History
One of the first known settlers at Sarcoxie was Chief Sarcoxie, head of
the Turtle Band of the Delaware Tribe. Historians have translated
Sarcoxie's name as meaning "As Tall As He Is". This is said to mean he
was high up in tribal government, but photos reveal that he also looked
"tall".
The first permanent settler to Jasper County in 1831 was Thackery
Vivion from Kentucky, who located near Sarcoxie Spring and built a mill
of logs on Center Creek a quarter mile east of the present town square.
Platted in 1840, Sarcoxie is the oldest town in Jasper County and the
only town in the United States with that name.
Sarcoxie was considered a hot point during the Civil War. The first
Confederate Flag, the "Star and Bars," was flown in Missouri on the
Sarcoxie Square. Legend has it that the 100-foot wide flag flew from a
100-foot flag pole and was guarded closely for weeks. Following the war
years, Sarcoxie became a major cow-town as a stopping point where Texas
cowboys moved their herds north to the railhead at Sedalia during the
1890s.
The first electric lights in Southwest Missouri appeared in 1887 at the
mill where J.J. Sprague invented a dynamo and sent an order to Edison
for ten incandescent bulbs.
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