Editing Webster County, Missouri (section)

==History==
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Webster County was organized on March 3, 1855, and encompasses some of the highest extensive upland area of Missouri's Ozarks. The judicial seat is Marshfield, which lies 1,490 feet above sea level. Webster County is the highest county seat in the state of Missouri. Pioneer Legislator John F. McMahan named the county and county seat for Daniel Webster, and his [[Marshfield, Massachusetts]] home.<ref name="About Webster County" />

Marshfield was laid out in 1856 by R.H. Pitts, on land that was given by C.F. Dryden and W.T. and B.F.T. Burford. Until a courthouse was built, the county business was conducted at Hazelwood where Joseph W. McClurg, later [[Governor of Missouri]], operated a general store. Today's Carthage Marble courthouse was built in 1939-1941 and is the county's third.<ref name="About Webster County" />

During the [[American Civil War|U.S. Civil War]], a small force of pro-Southern troops was driven out of Marshfield in February 1862, and ten months later a body of Confederates was routed east of town. On January 9, 1863, General [[Joseph O. Shelby]]’s troops burned the stoutly built Union fortification at Marshfield and at Sand Springs, evacuated earlier.  During Marmaduke's First Raid, on January 9, 1863, Confederate Troops under the command of Col. Joseph C. Porter, led by Lt. Colonel John M. Wimer, burned the Fort at Hazelwood.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077699704&view=1up&seq=215 | title=The War of the Rebellion : A compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. / Pub. Under the direction of the ... Secretary of War ... Ser.1:v.22:pt.1:Reports. }}</ref> By 1862, the telegraph line passed near Marshfield on a route later called the "Old Wire Road".<ref name="About Webster County" />

A part of the 1808 Osage Native American land cession, the county was settled in the early 1830s by pioneers from [[Kentucky]] and [[Tennessee]]. A [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] trail crossed southern Webster County and many prehistoric mounds are in the area.

The railroad-building boom of the post Civil War period stimulated the county's growth as a dairy, poultry, and livestock producer. The Atlantic & Pacific (Frisco) Railroad was built through Marshfield in 1872, and by 1883 the Kansas City, Springfield, and Memphis (Frisco) crossed the county. Seymour, Rogersville, Fordland and Niangua grew up along the railroad routes.

Early schools in the county were Marshfield Academy, chartered in 1860; Mt. Dale Academy, opened in 1873; and Henderson Academy, chartered in 1879.

On [[April 1880 tornado outbreak|April 18, 1880]], an intense [[tornado]] measuring F4 on the [[Fujita scale]] struck Marshfield. Its damage path was {{convert|800|yd}} wide and {{convert|64|mi|km}} long. The tornado killed 99 people and injured 100, and it is said that 10% of Marshfield's residents were killed and all but 15 of its buildings were destroyed. The composition “Marshfield Cyclone” by the African-American musician John W. (Blind) Boone gave wide publicity to the cyclone, which is still listed as one of the top ten natural disasters in the history of the nation.

Astronomer [[Edwin Hubble|Edwin P. Hubble]] (1889–1953) was born in Marshfield and attended through the third grade in the public school system. A replica of the Hubble telescope sits in the courthouse yard and the Marshfield stretch of [[Interstate 44|I-44]] was named in his honor.

Marshfield holds claim to the oldest [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]] parade west of the [[Mississippi River]]. Former [[President of the United States|President]] [[George H.W. Bush|George Herbert Walker Bush]] and wife [[Barbara Bush|Barbara]] visited the parade on July 4, 1991, while campaigning for the presidency through Missouri. Webster County also boasts the longest continuous county fair in the state of Missouri.

The annual Seymour Apple Festival, established in 1973, has grown to one of Missouri's largest free celebrations, with estimated crowds of more than 30,000 congregating on the Seymour public square each second weekend of September. The festival pays tribute to Seymour's apple industry, which began in the 1840s, with Seymour being called "The Land Of The Big Red Apple" around the turn of the 20th century, when Webster County produced more than 50 percent of the state's apple crop.