Information Sheet

 

 

R         Lane’s Prairie (Mo.).

314                  Daybook, 1860.

                                    One folder, photocopies.

 

 

 

This is a daybook from an unidentified general store at Lane’s Prairie in Maries County, Mis­souri, thought to have been operated by Francis M. Johnson.  With the daybook is an undated let­ter by Maries County historian Everett M. King which contains speculation about the vol­ume’s prove­nance.

 

Lane’s Prairie is located in the northeastern corner of Maries County, about twelve miles east of Vienna.  The area is named after Charles C. Lane, the first recorded settler of Maries County, who entered the large Paydown tract on the west side of the Gasconade River in 1826.  Lane re­mained at that location only a short time before moving to the east side of the Gascon­ade at Lane’s Ford.  Family members Benjamin, Hiram, and Peter Lane also settled east of the river on the roll­ing prairie which came to bear the family name.  By the date of Charles Lane’s death in 1850, a small community existed at Lane’s Prairie.  A general store was probably al­ready in op­eration at that date, and a post office was established in 1851.  The latter remained in opera­tion until 1914.

 

The daybook from the general store at Lane’s Prairie contains entries of daily transac­tions from 3 January through 26 November 1860.  The volume is unindexed, but an examina­tion of the surnames of the store’s customers reveals the mixture of Germans and Old Stock Americans who made up the population of Maries County before the Civil War.  Frequent customers were Wil­liam Ammerman, William Davidson, Elias Gradolf, Benjamin, Hiram, and Peter Lane, John Moreland, John Nagle, Thomas Oliver, Frederick Overmayer, and William Wentzel.

 

There is nothing in the daybook which reveals the proprietor of the business, but each page bears the heading “Lane’s Prairie.”  In an enclosure with the volume, Maries County his­torian Everett M. King expressed the belief that the store was operated in 1860 by Francis M. Johnson.  King also referred to a claim made by Johnson against the United States for dam­ages to the store during a skirmish near the store during the Civil War.  King indicated that the claim, which ap­par­ently no longer exists, led him to believe that the contents of the store were the real objects of rebel forces in the skirmish.  The fight is known locally as the Battle of Bloomington, after the post‑war townsite platted on Lane’s Prairie.

 

 

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