GORDONVILLE DEPOT REMEMBERED

In 1849 Missouri was out of debt, and there was a great demand for state aid to railroads. By 1858, a 85 miles of the Iron Mountain line had been built from St. Louis to Pilot Knob.

Financing and building the railroads were greater tasks than expected. Debts mounted, and with the coming of the Civil War, the project came to a halt.

According to Louis Houck, 20,000 or 30,000 acres were granted to Thomas Allen by Butler County to aid the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad.

This law was enacted in 1869, giving the counties power to sell and patent the land. Under the revision of the statutes, the counties sold the land at a dollar an acre and later at a $1.25. Much of the land sold at such prices.

Much credit is given to Tom Allen, for whom Allenville is named, for his determination and ability in building the Belmont branch of the Iron Mountain from Pilot Knob to Allenville. Construction began at both ends and was completed Aug. 14, 1869, with the last rail being laid in the middle of a tunnel in Bollinger County.

The branch of the Iron Mountain, from Allenville to Jackson, was completed in October 1884. The Gordonville station on the Jackson branch was laid out in 1878. The depot was built west of the railroad track and a little south of present Route Z. Two trains ran daily by 1888, and increased to four in later years.

In 1797, during the Spanish regime, Ithamar Hubbell from New York, who had been a soldier in the Revolutionary army, made the first settlement along Hubble Creek in what is Gordonville. The creek was then known as the Riviere Zenon, named after Zenon Trudeau, lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana. Sam Gordon built a flour mill on the creek and opened a store shortly before the Civil War.

The flour mill changed hands several times and was purchased in about 1888 by the Winkler family and became known as the Gordonville Roller Mills. Many carloads of flour were shipped to other states, and during World War I, flour from the mill was delivered to the military forces in Europe

The old depot, razed a number of years ago, held memories for many of us. Soldier boys boarded the train during World War I for military service.

The accompanying photograph was mailed Sept. 26, 1909, to my father, John Daume, while he was attending Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Ill., by Er. Albert Q. Myers, the depot agent. Myers later retired from the railroad to become a schoolteacher. Mr. Daume boarded the train with his trunk of clothes and books to study at Elmhurst College.