Everett, Missouri

This book examines the history of Everett, Missouri. The account follows the trajectory of a small town established on the prairie of western Missouri in 1867. The town reached its pinnacle of success in both population and number of businesses in the 1870s. The local farmers had access to their most urgent needs with dry goods merchants, grocers, druggists, blacksmiths and physicians available as well as a post office and the associated social opportunities that towns presented. Community leaders were not able to bring a railroad to their town, but other factors played a part in the demise of the town. These included the founding of competing towns culminating in the establishment of Main City in 1879 and Archie in 1880, declining rural populations and the acceptance of new transportation technology in cars and trucks. The town lost the post office in 1906, its last physician in 1909 and last store in 1940.