One of six counties carved out of the Platte Purchase; added to Missouri in 1836; Nodaway County appeared to its first white explorers to be a rolling prairie; marginal for agriculture but full of opportunity for those willing to bring hard work and ingenuity to the land. Within a generation of building cabins and experimenting with a wide variety of agricultural enterprises; the county boasted at least 17 towns; four railroad lines; 16 newspapers; and all the economic and cultural institutions necessary for boosters to lay claim to progress and civility. While residents of towns and the countryside often drew distinctions between one another; their lives were intertwined by mills; horse farms; livestock shows; new technology; churches; schools; public entertainment of every sort; and occasional times of hardship. By the 1920s; the communities of Nodaway County; supported by a vibrant and diverse rural economy; reached a zenith of locally generated economic growth and community activity; captured artfully by photographers during the decades that bracketed the turn of the 20th century.
#3157257 in eBooks 2007-05-09 2007-05-09File Name: B0099F9UY4
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