The Union and Confederate armies both recognized the city's strategic importance and sought to control it. At the start of the American Civil War, Springfield was divided in its loyalty, as it had been settled by people from both the North and South, as well as by German immigrants in the mid-19th century who tended to support the Union. News from point further west was brought to Springfield overland and then sent by telegraph to what was then called the New York Associated Press. In the late 1850s, telegraph lines, previously only to St. Civil War īy 1861, Springfield's population had grown to approximately 2,000, and it had become an important commercial hub. During the 1838 relocation of Cherokee natives, the Trail of Tears passed through Springfield to the west, along the Old Wire Road. The United States government enforced Indian Removal during the 1830s, forcing land cessions in the Southeast and other areas, and relocating tribes to Indian Territory, which later developed as Oklahoma. In 1878, the town got its nickname the "Queen City of the Ozarks." The legislature deeded 50 acres of land to John Campbell for the creation of a county seat in 1835. In 1833, the southern part of the state was named Greene County after Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene. They proceeded to clear the land of trees to develop it for farms. Campbell was joined by settlers Thomas Finney, Samuel Weaver, and Joseph Miller. He staked his claim by carving his initials in a tree. Campbell chose the area because of the presence of a natural well that flowed into a small stream. The first European-American settlers to the area were John Polk Campbell and his brother, who moved to the area in 1829 from Tennessee. Ten miles south of the site of Springfield, the Lenape had built a substantial dwelling of houses that borrowed elements of Anglo colonial style from the mid-Atlantic, where their people had migrated from. On the southeastern side of the city in 1812, about 500 Kickapoo Native Americans built a small village of about 100 wigwams. The Osage had been the dominant tribe for more than a century in the larger region. Long before the 1830s, the native Kickapoo and Osage, and the Lenape (Delaware) from the mid-Atlantic coast had settled in this general area. The presence of the Native Americans in the area slowed the European-American settlement of the land. "The town took its name from the circumstance of there being a spring under the hill, on the creek, while on top of the hill, where the principal portion of the town lay, there was a field." Early settlement When the authorized persons met and adopted the title of the "Future Great" of the Southwest, several of the earliest settlers had handed in their favorite names, among whom was Kindred Rose, who presented the winning name, "Springfield," in honor of his former home town, Springfield, Tennessee." "It has been stated that this city got its name from the fact of a spring and field being near by just west of town. The editor of the Springfield Express, J. #Unregistered hypercam 2 pbs kids free#One account holds that James Wilson, who lived in the then unnamed city, offered free whiskey to anyone who would vote for the name Springfield, after his hometown in Massachusetts. The origin of the city's name is unclear, but the most common view is that it was named for Springfield, Massachusetts by migrants from that area.
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