

The Stephenson Hotel dates from 1881 when it was the Luona Hotel. Around 1889 it became Linville Hotel and in 1952 it became the Stephenson’s Hotel. It was the bus stop Continental American Bus Lines


The Stephenson Hotel dates from 1881 when it was the Luona Hotel. Around 1889 it became Linville Hotel and in 1952 it became the Stephenson’s Hotel. It was the bus stop Continental American Bus Lines

The original on this advertisement is from the Maryville Daily Forum, May 1, 1956

Cattle herding is still going, although on a much smaller scale. This cartoon is based on how my mother and father met in the 1930s, while he was moving cattle in front of my mother’s house on the Maitland-Skidmore road. The Victorian house is 125+ years old, and the house and most of the outbuildings are still in use on the road. Here are posts folks made about their recent cattle-herding experiences.

David Rankin owned 24,000 acres in northwest Missouri around Tarkio, herded cattle from Biggsville, Illinois, 227 miles to downtown Chicago in 1847. Rankin and John Bilby were major rivals in the early 1900s, owning vast tracts in Missouri and across the United States

Here’s a 1911 article that mentions many of the one-room schools in Nodaway County. This is not comprehensive, but it is a good source for searches.

Robert Bohlken was chairman of the speech and theatre department at Northwest Missouri State University from 1970 to 2000 — a period when the historic 1910 theatre in the college’s administration building was destroyed in a dramatic fire in 1979. Today, the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1984.


When John Sliker Bilby moved to his 44 Ranch on the west side of the Nodaway River near Quitman in 1868, he and his sons would drive cattle 100 miles from the train station at Council Bluffs to his property. This was before trains served his area. He would expand his half section (320 acres) to 26,000 acres in Nodaway, Atchison, and Holt Counties and herd cattle throughout his empire. He would use his Missouri property as a jumping-off point for buying a reported 1,000,000 acres in 15 states and Mexico, and he initially managed it all out of Quitman before moving to his Oklahoma ranch in 1902.

Charles & George Bellows were brothers who operated the Parkdale Farm in the southwest corner of Maryville from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. Their farm was most famous for its shorthorn cattle. They are on the Nodaway Stairway of Stars.