Oakland
was one of the first
By Kirk Pearce
The Lebanon (Mo.) Rustic Republican, Thursday, May 1, 1975
One of the earliest villages in Laclede County was called Oakland.
Some of you folks know where Oakland today is located, but this "Oakland"
was located at the mouth of Cobbs Creek on the Osage Fork in the Drynob
vicinity.
It was in the 1820's that the first white settlers came to that area on the
Osage Fork. They were Abraham Munholland, Mose Bean,
John Honssinger, Eli Rippy, William James, Robert
Faires, Samuel Rippy and a few others.
Mose Bean ran the stage coach stop near old Oakland for several years
and also ran an inn. The Bean Ford was named after Bean since
he lived near the river. It was about 135 years ago that the first
post office was established in Laclede County and it was Oakland.
Mose Bean was the first postmaster and the office was located in the
inn. The inn was built in 1838 and was a large two-story double log
house to accommodate the traveling public. The house was adorned with
two nice brick chimneys. The bricks were made on the grounds.
There are not any photographs in existence today of the original village.
A mill was erected on the Osage Fork in 1830's which was called Cherry Mill,
taking the name from the family that built it. It supplied the
community with breadstuffs from many years. The mill has been gone
over 100 years. One of our Lebanon senior citizens, Jobe Barnett,
remembers seeing parts of the old log dam when he was just a boy and he is
past 85.
A general store, school, crockery, where earthenware was made, blacksmith
shop, mill and a saddlery made up the village of Oakland.
The school was called "Oakland" and it continued by that name until 1964,
when it consolidated with Gasconade C-4. However, the school had been
moved to a different location through the years. Oakland was the first
school in Laclede County that was known to be built. William James,
Thomas Honssinger and George Bean, who all lived to be old
men, were the first ones to attend the Oakland School and that was in the
1830's.
More business was done at this village than in all the rest of the county.
Oakland has been gone about 100 years.
At one time the railroad was supposed to come through Oakland, but those
plans were a failure. Many of the area's chimneys were made of brick
out of the clay at Oakland.
There were many get rich quick people in those days. Sharpers
made a plat of Oakland showing an inn, blacksmith shop, brickyard and
improvements adjacent showing the mill and pottery works and went to St.
Louis and borrowed a considerable amount of money representing Oakland as
destined to be the metropolis of the Ozark county. Considerable effort
was made by the St. Louisians to find out who swindled them, but this they
never learned. This information was recorded by the Drynob
correspondent in 1909.
After Oakland became non-existent, Drynob was established in 1876, a short
distance away. It is also not operating any more, so it is very true
that time changes things. About 100 years ago another post office was
established by the name of Oakland again, several miles away.
This news clipping was from my Aunt Barbara's personal collection.
