|
Lone Oak Township.
Lone Oak township is irregular in shape and is bounded by its sister townships as follows: On the north by Summit
and Mt. Pleasant, on the west by New Home, on the south by the Marais des Cygnes river and on the east by Prairie
and Pleasant Gap.
Lone Oak has abundant water and timber, and a variety of soil from low bottoms to bluffs, from bluffs to high prairie
land, all good grass, grain and stock lands. The principal tributaries of the Marais des Cygnes in this township
are Miami, Mound branch, Double Branches creek and Willow creek, with smaller streams tributary to these. Formerly
some large lakes were along the river, but with the recent drainage projects they are nearly all dry land now.
Among the pioneer settlers of Lone Oak was Dr. William C. Requa, who bought out a Mormon fugitive from Jackson
by the name of Daniel Francis, in 1837, just before that part of the county had been surveyed and sectionized by
the government and he continued to reside there with his family until he died, about 1886 at the ripe age of ninety
one. The story of Doctor Requa will be found elsewhere in this book. William R. Thomas located in section 11, township
39, range 31, in 1844, and died there. Abraham Towner and Daniel Francis, Mormons, who had been driven out of Jackson
county, came in 1835. Francis died here before the Civil War and Towner moved to California some time in the fifties.
Philip Stanford lived north of Doctor Requa. He went to Texas. George Requa settled in the township in 1834. He
was one of the Union missionaries in 1820. He died here before 1860. He left the following children and his widow:
William, Austin, James, George, Cyrus J., Martha J., and Lucy E., several of whom, and possibly all, are now dead.
James H. Requa opened a farm in 1840, and he was probably the first school teacher in the township.
Enoch Humphreys, A. G. Ellidge, Lindsey Wine, John H. Thomas, Joseph Jones, John and C. Columbus Blankenbaker,
John O. Starr and John Daniel were all pioneers and good men and farmers.
The first apple orchard in the township was set out by Dr. W. C. Requa and it was probably the first one in the
county after the one set by the missionaries at Harmony, a few miles south of Prairie township.
W. R. Thomas erected a windmill in 1856 which ground corn and wheat. He operated it until the war came on and it
was destroyed.
Lone Oak has never had a town or village, but Peru is the community center of the township. Athol is a railroad
coal station, and while several families and a club house are near the stopping, not a station, of the trains,
it has never been laid out into lots or become a village.
|