The Old Wire Road

 The Old Wire Road

The Hosmer Dairy Farm is located on The Old Wire Road about 18 miles northeast of Springfield, Missouri in Webster County.  Although much of the original road has been abandoned and absorbed into farmland, the Hosmer Dairy Farm proudly stands along some of the original roadway that is still in use today.  The road, named for the telegraph wires that were strung along the route from St. Louis, Missouri to Fort Smith, Arkansas to provide communication for the Union Army during the Civil War, has an amazing and lengthy history.

  Paths and trails were a necessity as soon as adventurous men set forth on Missouri soil.  Although early travelers sought to escape the dense forests and vast prairies by following navigable waterways, it was in the wilderness that they sought land and a permanent home.  Here the hunters, fur trappers and traders found wildlife for their food and fur, and here the miners found mineral wealth. 

  The first white men in Missouri did not always need to blaze their own trails.  Buffalo and animal paths were worn by continuous usage.  Indians established familiar paths and trails to hunting grounds, river crossings and neighboring tribes.  On the Indian trails the early traders conveniently set up trading posts.  Later roads followed closely some of the best-known Indian trails.

  The impressive Osage Tribe controlled most of Missouri south of the Missouri River so they developed most of the main trails in the region.   And because they would rather travel a few miles farther to use a beaten path, they made fewer paths but better defined ones. Two Great Osage villages lay on the Osage River headwaters in present Bates and Vernon counties in far western Missouri between Kansas City and Joplin.  From here the Osages walked or rode out along three well-worn trails.

  One of these trails, mainly used for hunting, led southwest, mostly in present Kansas and Oklahoma, to hunting grounds on the Verdigris, the Arkansas, the Red and the Canadian rivers. Their return trail was the longest and best known of the Osage trails.  From their hunting grounds, the Osage headed northeast for St. Louis to trade with the white man.  The route roughly followed the highlands between the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers, crossing the Gasconade River on its headwaters near present Waynesville in Pulaski County.  One historian reported the trail was “scarcely obstructed by hills” which leaves little doubt as to its general location because no other routes through this country could match that description.

  All of the Osages probably used this trail in early trading at St. Louis.  Later the Arkansas Osages made good use of it in their trade agreement with the Chouteau family of St. Louis.  But it remained primarily an Indian trail until the early nineteenth century because the white settlers had not pushed extensively into the area south of the Missouri River and west of the Mississippi.

  In the early 1800’s, however, they started pushing up the valleys of the Meramec, the Gasconade and Osage Rivers, lured by the rumors of rich minerals, furs, the valley land and timber along the Missouri, the Gasconade and Osage Rivers.  Discovery of iron ore along the Meramec, near present St. James anchored the white man’s use of the center of this old Indian trail.

  About 1828 Thomas James, along with Samuel Massey and more than one hundred laborers, started erecting the Meramec Iron Works.  By 1837 wagonloads of iron were rolling to many parts of the state, with much freighted overland to St. Louis.  And supplies for the mines came back the same way. Six years before that, in 1881, two post offices were operating in the area—one at Piney, about ten miles southwest of present Rolla, and one at Meramec.  So the white man’s needs were solidifying his use of the old Indian trail and making it a road.

   The other end of the old trail was going through the same evolution as settlers penetrated into southwest Missouri along the White River.  Legal complications, however, slowed the development of the area.  The U.S. Government had granted reservations in the area to the Delaware in 1818 and to the Kickapoo in 1819.  They started moving in on permanent occupancy in about 1822 and, of course, found themselves in a hassle with the white settlers.

  The government finally upheld the Indian’s rights and the white settlers moved out, some to the already established settlements on the Meramec and Gasconade headwaters.  But for the Delaware and Kickapoo the victory was only a delaying action. In 1832 they ceded their claims to the United States and many of the early white settlers returned to make their homes there. These settlers, like others elsewhere in Missouri, came from everywhere.  As the frontier advanced they moved with it.

  Greene county was organized in 1833 and a land office was opened in Springfield, on its way to becoming the most important town in the region.  A state road was authorized from St. Louis to Springfield, with authorization coming in sections.  The first legislation was approved February 6, 1837.  The road was opened soon after as a star postal route and so became the great artery of travel from St. Louis to Springfield and to the country to the southwest.  By then immigrants into the region were flocking over it and its niche in the history of Missouri highways –- past, present and future – was carved clearly.

Early settlers called it the “Osage Trail” or the “Indian Trail.”  Later it was called the “Kickapoo Trail,” “Kickapoo Trace,” or “White River Trace,” but the white man’s stamp was marked indelibly on it when it became known as the “Old Springfield Road” or the “St. Louis-Springfield Road.”  Then later “Military Road” and “Old Wire Road.”  Progressing through various names and numbers, the famous U.S. Route 66 and today, Interstate 44 have generally followed along this old Indian trail.  

  In the 1840’s traffic began to pick up on the St. Louis-Springfield Road.  In much of the country, through which it passed, most of the early pioneers settled along or in close proximity to the road.  It’s been said that almost every house on this road was considered to be an inn for weary travelers. Research has shown that a log cabin was built in 1838 on the land that later became the Hosmer farmstead.  This log cabin then became the Hosmers’ home.

  Ox teams hauling freight in huge, cumbersome wagons freighted over this road for several years before the Civil War.  All the supplies for this territory, as well as for all the settlers farther to the southwest, had to be carried over this old trail.  Much stock such as horses, mules, and cattle were driven over it.  Mrs. Eliza Jane Hosmer stated that it wasn’t unusual to see two men driving a herd of hogs up the road to the market in St. Louis.                

   The mail was also carried over this road by stage coaches and post riders.  Mrs. Hosmer said that the post rider from Springfield made his first stop on this farm to get a fresh horse.  For many years stage coaches made a stop on this farm to change horses and allow weary passengers to take a quick break.  They might get a cup of hot coffee, or a drink of cool spring water, possibly a meal or in some cases spend a night or two and catch the next stage.