Preface: Marsha Eaton, Curator for the Benton County Museum, is seeking histories of the smaller hamlets in Benton County, some of which are now ghost towns. She wants to collect all this data before its lost forever. Here is a story about one of those communities in the northwest part of the County. It was once a vibrant little village but today, all that remains is the church. If you have such stories about long ago communities please contact Marsha.
The coming of the Rock Island did more than enhance the towns along the route; it even created a few. One such village was Brandon, Mo. on the Rock Island Railroad, eight miles southeast of Windsor, on the north line of Benton County. When the tracks were laid through what would become Brandon enroute to Windsor in 1904, the land belonged to W.M. Millhiser. Millhiser surveyed and laid out blocks, lots streets and alleys, establishing the town of Brandon in April, 1906. The plat was filed and notarized on March the 20th, 1907.
The small prairie village on the Rock Island soon boasted a fine depot, general store and post office, all combined under one roof. In addition there was a blacksmith shop, a section house, five homes and the Posson School was approximately a mile southwest across the field. There were fenced pens for livestock. Those pens were Brandon’s claim to fame as reportedly more cattle were shipped from the Brandon Stockyards than any other stations between St. Louis and Kansas City. Hogs and grain, such as wheat or corn were also shipped. Goods for the Brandon Store arrived on the train. Mr. J.R. Ferguson served as a depot agent from 1910 to 1914 and reported the name of Brandon was confusing as the freight often wound up in Branson, Mo. and vice-versa.
A daughter of Sam Ferguson, Mrs. Justin Williams, whose husband served as postmaster, recalled that approximately fifty Greeks and Mexicans were laborers building that section of the railroad. She remembered they were housed in boxcars and a granary owned by Waldo Wheeler Sr. Mr. Wheeler had built the structure to hold his grain he was shipping by rail. Mr. and Mrs. Williams operated the general store from 1909 to 1921. The next owners were Arthur and Madge Posson. They operated the store until D.V. Ferguson took over in 1935. Postmasters over the years were Wade Dyer, Justin Williams, Arnett Burnett, Louis Wadleigh and Lloyd Phillips. The post office was closed December 6, 1930 with the mail going to Windsor.
The large amount of livestock and grain shipped from Brandon was proof this was prime farming country. Legend tells that Samuel Ferguson, a civil war veteran having served in Company B of the 91st Ohio, came to Missouri following his mustering out. The story goes that he drilled or bored into the land in various areas before he selected his farmland southwest of Brandon: it proving to be the most fertile he had found.
Mr. Ferguson was not only a prosperous farmer but a prominent politician. It is recorded in the June 1888 Republican County Convention that Sam Ferguson defeated Fred Kullman for Judge by a vote of twenty-five to fifteen. In the early 1900s he was serving as North Side Commissioner.
How long Mr. Ferguson held his position, I do not know but he, along with fellow courthouse officials was named in a lawsuit in March, 1903. The suit of damages was brought by W.L. Morgan, for unlawful dispossession and had been filed against T.C. Owen, D. Brunjes, W.S. Jackson, H.L. McDade, Lewis Thurston, A.P. Bristow, George Laird, Claus Borchers, R.M. Gentry, Peter Bockelman and Samuel Ferguson, all courthouse officials.
Daniel Vincent Ferguson, son of Samuel, bought the Brandon store in 1935 from Arthur Posson. The Fergusons lived in a house east of the store. Sam Ferguson, grandson of Daniel, recalled a cyclone hit the community in 1941 while he was visiting his grandparents. The wind was so fierce it sucked all the windows from the Ferguson house. Young Sam was about to be carried away when his grandfather fell on top of him, preventing his departure along with the windows. The fierce winds blew the bell tower off the Brandon Methodist Church and set the store anti-goggling off its foundation.
To Be Continued . . .
