Miscellaneous Documents - WebRing

compelled to remove and readily gave away and removed five miles to the eastward. Messrs. Campbell
and Miller with their families, in all seven persons, took possession of the vacated cabin, 12x15 feet in
size, while their slaves, six in number, dwelt for a time in a stout, comfortable tent, which had been used
for sleeping quarters en route from Tennessee....
Among those who settled on and adjoining the present site in 1830 were Thomas Finney, Samuel
Weaver, and Joseph Miller. In the next year came Daniel B. Miller, Joseph Rountree, Signey S. Ingram,
Samuel Painter, and Junius T. Campbell. The latter opened a little store near where the public school
building is now. His stock, a small and by no means a varied one, was hauled from Boonville. Mr.
Campbell had a partner, one James Feland, an old Santa Fe trader....
The first settlers on the town site of Springfield were Wm. Fulbright, John Fulbright, A. J. Burnett, John
P. Campbell and Joseph Miller, in February and March, 1830.
The first house was a little pole cabin, built by A. J. Burnett, in January or February, 1830. It stood on the
hill a little south of the old "natural well," and a little northwest of the present brick public school building,
on Jefferson street. In size this cabin was 12x15 feet...A little later in the year 1831, Frank Miller, a son
of Joseph Miller, was born in a house which also stood near the old well. He is now residing at San
Diego, California. It is claimed, for these children, that they were the first whites born in Greene county.
The first death was that of a child of Joseph Miller, in 1831. The body was buried under a large oak tree,
near the Miller spring....Junius Rountree married Martha Miller, a daughter of Joseph Miller then
living about one and a half miles west of Springfield, August 7, 1831. Not long afterwards Junius T.
Campbell married Mary Blackwell, at a house a mile and a half southwest of Springfield. These are
believed to have been the first marriages within the present limits of Greene county....The first school
house was built in 1832. It was of small logs and stood where is now the old Christian church (used at
present as a private residence), on the north side of College street, a little west of Main, and near where
Gen. Lyon's general headquarters were, and where his dead body lay. But the first school house attended
by children who then lived on the present site was built in 1831, and was also of small logs. Of this school
house, John H. Miller says it stood a mile and a quarter west of town, and the first teacher was old uncle
Joe Rountree; the pupils were Henry Fulbright and some of his younger brothers, the Rountree boys,
John Miller, J. J. Weaver, and his two older sisters, Louisiana, late wife of Col. C. A. Haden, and Jane,
mother of Joe Farrier, and a few others....
Chapter 33
Campbell Township
The first marriage in Campbell township, is said to have been the first marriage of white persons in
Southwest Missouri. It was that of Junius M. Rountree and Martha J. Miller, and the marriage occurred
August 7, 1831, at the house of the bride's father, Joseph H. Miller, in section 22, township 29, range 22.
The ceremony was performed by Rev. Richard Kizee, a Baptist minister. The groom was a son of old
Joseph Rountree, and the bride a daughter of old Joe Miller. The parties had been acquainted in
Tennessee, the Rountree and Miller families being from the same neighborhood."
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Greene County, Missouri Land Deeds Index
GR= Grantor (Seller)
GT= Grantee (Buyer)
NAME Made
Filed Book
Miller, D. B. Com/Gr Cannefax, Benjamin/Gt 04-07-1838 03-02-1840 A/285
Miller, D. B., Com/Gr Hunt, T. R./Campbell/Gt 12-30-1837 12-30-1837 A64
Miller, D. B., Com/Gr Campbell, J. T./Gt 04-02-1838 04-27-1838 A101