County of Ghost Town: Putnam County
Location of Ghost Town: MO-E, 7 miles N. of US 136
Life of Ghost Town: 1844 to 1876 (approx.)
Some history of St. John:
St. John obtained its name in the following manner: The commissioner selected to locate the county seat of Dodge County located the same on St. John's day, and the chairman of the commissioners, being a Morgan Mason, suggested that the town site and county seat be named St. John, and the suggestion was adopted.
St. John is located on Sections 7 and 8, Township 66, Range
20. The survey is described as commencing from a lost stone
thirteen inches long, nine inches wide and eight inches thick,
placed at a point six limks north of the center of the northeast
quarter of Section 7 ; the southwest corner of Block 3 bears north
16^° east, 67 links; the southeast corner of Block 4 bears north
48° west, 95 links; the northeast corner of Block 7 bears south
68° west, 76 links, and the northwest corner of Block 8 bears
south 44° east, 32 links. There were forty-seven blocks in the
plat, thirty -five of which were 264 links from north to south, and
260 links from east to west. The area of the town plat was
54.3717 acres. The streets running north and south were Ballatrix, Athens, State, Main and Sullivan ; and those east and west
were Putnam, Floral, Kremlin and Union. Main Street bears 9°
30' from the true meridian, and the east and west streets cross
Main Street at right angles. The proprietors of the town plat
were Thomas Caul, Giles Hodges and Daniel Torrey. The original survey was made June 6, 1857, and the plat was filed for
record that day, and recorded August 3, 1863.
The first settler on what is now the town plat of St. John was
Jesse Fowler, who came there in 1844, and built a one-story
house of hewed logs 16x18 feet in size. About the same time
John Woolrey settled on what is now known as "Scotch Hill,"
southwest of Mr. Fowler, about a mile, and built a house or
cabin, 14x16 feet, of round logs. Mr. Woolrey had a wife and
family of at least six children. Large families were then the
fashion.
A few years afterward, in about 1847, Abner Nanny
came in from Kentucky and occupied the place where Mr. Woolrey had lived, he having moved away. John 0. Bone came in, about 1846, and lived in the house built, as above narrated, by Jesse Fowler, Mr. Fowler having moved a short time previous to Oregon. Mr. Bone lived there until 1850, when Thomas Caul came from Princeton, Mercer Co., Mo. Mr. Caul lived in the house, as it was first erected by Jesse Fowler, until 1851, when he built a frame addition thereto, 18x20 feet in size, the first frame structure of any kind erected in St. John. Giles Hodge came here from Ohio in 1851, and built a round-log house on what is now called the Torrey place. Daniel Torrey, who now lives in Nebraska, came here in 1854, and occupied the house built by
Giles Hodge.
The first entirely frame building erected in St.
John was by Thomas Caul for a store. It stood on Main Street
and on Block 33. This was in 1854, «and was the first store
building in the town, Mr. Caul keeping store therein from 1854
to 1863. The first blacksmith in the town was John H. Morgan,
who established himself there in his trade in 1854, putting up a
log blacksmith shop and a log house on the corner of Main and
Kremlin Streets. Mr. Morgan is still carrying on blacksmithing
in St. John. John Frank, from Illinois, opened a shoe shop in
1854, near Mr. Morgan's shop.
In the same year also came Joseph Hardy, the first carpenter in the town, who located south of Sullivan Street. E. George came to St. John in 1854, and erected a store building, the store in which was conducted under the firm name of Fortney & George. The first school in the place was taught by James B. Harper in 1855-56 in a log building erected the previous summer for the purpose by Thomas Caul.
It was about twenty feet square, and was heated by means of a
box stove, the pipe from which extended into a flue built for the purpose, somewhat in the modem style, the stove taking in ordinary three-foot wood. This school-house was used also for church
services until the present frame church building was erected in
1876-77, and by all denominations.
D. W. Pollock commenced keeping store in St. John in 1865, almost immediately after returning from the war, in the small log building now used by him as a warehouse, and which stands just east of his frame store building on the corner of Main and Athens Streets, which was erected in 1866. The blacksmith shop of Henry Ellis, across
Athens Street from Mr. Pollock's store, was built in 1882.
The school-house on Block 10 was erected about 1872. It is a frame
building, 24x36 feet in size. The first hotel in St. John was kept
by Thomas Caul, who commenced in 1850, and who has been
keeping hotel ever since. The Daniels Hoase was kept by William Daniels from 1856 to about 1876. At the present time the
population of St. John consists of seventeen families, or an aggregate of about 110 persons.
St. John Lodge, No. 459, I. O. O. F., was chartered May 21,
1885. The charter members were: L. W. Carlton, H. H. Barhart,
J. G. Thornburg, W. T. Green, W. J. Applegate, J. H. Morgan,
L. C. Corporon and E. Knight. The first officers were L. W.
Carlton, N. G.; J. H. Morgan, V. G.; L. C. Corporon, Sec.; B.
Knight, Treas. The present officers are J. Burchett, N. G.;
J. H. Ellis, V. G.; L. L. Gray, Sec, and B. J. Putnam, Treas.
The lodge now has nineteen members, and meets every Saturday
night in a hall which they rent, and is in good condition both
socially and financially.
The Fourth of July, 1876, was celebrated at St. John in an appropriate manner. The morning was anything but promising, but by 11:30 a large number of people had collected in front of D. W. Pollock's store, when the celebration commenced with balloon ascensions, three balloons making successful ascents. A procession was then formed, and marched to the grounds, headed by a band of music. "America" was sung by the St. John Glee Club, the Declaration of Independence was read by F. K. Buck, and the oration was delivered
by J. F. Frankey, who spoke aboat one hour and a half, and an
adjournment was had for dinner. After dinner the comic song,
"Go away, old man," was finely rendered by the Glee Club,
after which the Hon. James B. Harper made a speech, in which
he gave an account of how Dodge County dodged out of existence, and prevented St. John from becoming a county seat. A thunder shower then came up, and compelled a cessation of the celebration, which was attended by about 2,000 people. D. W. Pollock and Drs. Stanton and Elliott were the main movers in originating and carrying through this celebration.
Here are a couple of other site with some small details:
St. John Dodge County