FARMERSVILLE

On January 10, 1870 a plot was made for Farmersville, Missouri which is one-fourth mile south of the Grundy-Livingston County line. Farmersville is only on the west side of the road and is one fourth of a mile long. The ground was donated by Joseph Kinney and his wife Esther.

Sampsel Hessenflow was a huckster who traveled over the country buying chickens and eggs. His father, Francis was a preacher in Farmersville. Sampsel’s children and grandchildren lived with him. Jim Brown ran a general store, selling it later to Link Wolfe. Bill Kinney was a carpenter and ran a steam engine to pull a threshing machine for W. R. May.

At one time Farmersville had a post office and a drug store operated by Jerd Varney. The town had two Doctors, Dr. Huff and Dr. Badorf. The Farmersville garages were operated by Mr. Prewitt, Oscar Mace and Andy Kilburn, (partners), Fred Kinney and Ernest Carr.

In August 1923 Ted and Celina Hatfield opened a grocery store. They bought cream, eggs, poultry and at one time wild rabbits, for which they paid eight to twenty-five cents each. They sold bread for ten cents a loaf, coffee for twenty-five cents per pound and $1.98 for a forty-eight pound sack of flour. They also sold feed.

John (Chuck) Williams used to run a bus from Chillicothe to Trenton and back. He picked up passengers at Hatfields store and a ride to Trenton or Chillicothe cost twenty-five cents.

The west half of the highway was paved in 1928, and the east side was paved later. Electricity came in 1941 from the REA and water came in 1970 with the water district.

The only business left in Farmersville in 1980 is a store operated by Bob and Flossie (Butcher) King. They sell staple goods and sandwiches.

In 1980 the highway 65 was re-routed west of Farmersville. -- Mrs. Vernon Pray

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