Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
Old Sherwood (also Rural)
Among the historic old towns of Jasper County, which were destroyed during the Civil War, and are now remembered for what they once were, is the town of Old Sherwood which was built at the junction of the main traveled road running west from Webb City and the road running north from what is now (1912) called Bell Center. This town was founded in 1847. In 1856, it was formally platted and at the beginning of the Civil War had perhaps 200 inhabitants, several stores and a good brick school-house in course of erection. The town of Sherwood or Rural, as it was first called, grew up around the farm and store buildings of Judge Andrew McKee, who came to the county in an early day...
Several Negro soldiers had been killed in a skirmish at the Rader farm house near Sherwood. Their bodies, together with a man named Bishop, a Southern sympathizer whom the United States troops had killed, were placed in the Rader house, after which the structure was fired and the bodies of the eleven colored soldiers and the white man were cremated.
On the 20th day of May, 1864, a detachment of 300 Federal soldiers came over from Baxter Springs, Kansas, and burned the town of Sherwood, together with the farm houses of Southern sympathizers in the neighborhood. (The report of Major Torn Livingston was contradicted by the Federals, who lay the burning of the Negroes to the Confederate bands who retaliated. In his official statement, however, Colonel Williams reports the destruction of the town.) (--History of Jasper County, 1912, Vol. 1, pp. 39, 40, 59 & 60.)
Among the historic old towns of Jasper County, which were destroyed during the Civil War, and are now remembered for what they once were, is the town of Old Sherwood which was built at the junction of the main traveled road running west from Webb City and the road running north from what is now (1912) called Bell Center. This town was founded in 1847. In 1856, it was formally platted and at the beginning of the Civil War had perhaps 200 inhabitants, several stores and a good brick school-house in course of erection. The town of Sherwood or Rural, as it was first called, grew up around the farm and store buildings of Judge Andrew McKee, who came to the county in an early day...
Several Negro soldiers had been killed in a skirmish at the Rader farm house near Sherwood. Their bodies, together with a man named Bishop, a Southern sympathizer whom the United States troops had killed, were placed in the Rader house, after which the structure was fired and the bodies of the eleven colored soldiers and the white man were cremated.
On the 20th day of May, 1864, a detachment of 300 Federal soldiers came over from Baxter Springs, Kansas, and burned the town of Sherwood, together with the farm houses of Southern sympathizers in the neighborhood. (The report of Major Torn Livingston was contradicted by the Federals, who lay the burning of the Negroes to the Confederate bands who retaliated. In his official statement, however, Colonel Williams reports the destruction of the town.) (--History of Jasper County, 1912, Vol. 1, pp. 39, 40, 59 & 60.)
