Editing Seligman, Missouri (section)

===Arrival of the railroad===
In 1880, the [[Atlantic and Pacific Railroad]] built a line from [[Pierce City, Missouri|Pierce City]] to ''Herdsville''. Arriving trains were loaded on a turntable and rotated manually to return to Pierce City. The company also gave {{convert|80|acre}} of land for the purpose of building a town, and also designed its streets, complete with names. At this time, the town consisted of only one whiskey and drug store, and the population consisted mostly of railroad workers,<ref name="Mitchell et al, p. 14"/> but this store was later joined by a general store operated by Woodridge Anabel, and a hardware store operated by Drew Wilkerson.<ref>Mitchell et al, p. 14, 229.</ref>

[[File:JSeligman.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Joseph Seligman (1819 - 1880)]]
[[File:Union Church, seligman, missouri.jpg|thumb|Union Church, Seligman, Missouri]]
[[File:Seligman, Late 19th Century.jpg|thumb|A traveling circus arrives in Seligman, late 19th century]]
In 1880 the town was platted, and on September 27 renamed Seligman in honor of [[Joseph Seligman]], a wealthy railroad [[financier]] who had died the previous April.  On March 8, 1881, the town was incorporated.<ref>Mitchell et al, p. 7.</ref> In choosing the name Seligman, the residents recognized that the arrival of the railroad had been a great boon to the small settlement. Apparently as an act of gratitude, Mr. Seligman's widow, Babet Seligman, gave the community $500 and one acre of land towards the building of a church.<ref name="Mitchell et al, p. 16">Mitchell et al, p. 16.</ref> Together with $300 raised locally, Benjamin McCann constructed the Union Church in 1884. The church still stands and was in continuous use by various Protestant denominations from the time it was built until 1959.<ref>Mitchell et al, p. 68.</ref>

Arriving trains soon brought a greater number and variety of visitors, traders and salesmen, and one of the first hotels, the Inmon House, was opened in 1881.<ref name="Mitchell et al, p. 146">Mitchell et al, p. 146.</ref> By this time, the town had also grown to include a number of general merchandise stores, as well as a store for agricultural implements, a druggist, two hotels, a meat market, a livery stable, a granary, a lumber yard, a billiard hall, a barber shop, a blacksmith, a photographer, a physician, the Cross & Diver of Eureka Stage Line, and seven saloons. In that year a town newspaper was established, the ''[[Seligman Sunbeam]]'',<ref>''The Seligman Sunbeam'', Vol. viii, No. 20, Nov. 1, 1890, p.1.</ref> whose motto was "The Union, The Constitution, and The Enforcement of The Law". It was the first newspaper in the United States to endorse [[Grover Cleveland]] for the presidency.<ref name="Mitchell et al, p. 8">Mitchell et al, p. 8.</ref>

In 1882, work began on what became in 1906 the [[Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5103 |title=H. Glenn Mosenthin, "Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad"|publisher=encyclopediaofarkansas.net|accessdate=April 28, 2013}}</ref> This track went south and east of Seligman to, first, [[Eureka Springs, Arkansas|Eureka Springs]] and, ultimately, [[Helena, Arkansas|Helena]], [[Arkansas]]. It poised Seligman toward greater growth and development, though the fare was $1.85 for eighteen miles —- a steep price at the time.

As many as six passenger trains passed through Seligman every day, and two of the hotels operating at the time, the Gladden and the Linden, had difficulty serving the large numbers of people who stopped to stay in town. Many of the travelers were salesmen, or "drummers" who would arrive with large trunks full of sample shoes, hardware, hats or costume jewelry and rent a buggy or dray wagon at the livery stable to transport their goods to outlying towns not connected to the railroad.<ref name="Mitchell et al, p. 47"/> Eventually six hotels opened in town at one point, which employed many local young people, especially women for cleaning, washing, filling water pitchers in each room, and cooking for boarders.<ref name="Mitchell et al, p. 146"/>

By this time, local industries included poultry farming as well as timbering and milling for production of railroad ties and whiskey kegs. Principal agricultural products included wheat, oats, corn, cattle and hogs, but residents also harvested peaches, apples, cantaloupe, strawberries, and spring water from Radium Springs. A 30-40 acre vineyard was also cultivated just east of Seligman, and the grapes were shipped to [[Springdale, Arkansas|Springdale]], Arkansas, to be processed into grape juice and wine.<ref>Mitchell et al, p. 120-121.</ref>