Grain Valley, Missouri: A Story:                       

Let's take a brief look back to the days when this area was part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.  Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to study the land that the United States had bought.  Fort Point, later becoming Fort Osage, was established at this time for the purpose of trading with Native Americans and settlers in the area.

The Osage Indian tribe was located in this area and their presence created an environment for trade, to which many Americans flocked.  An abundance of animals for trapping and their valued furs caused Fort Osage to thrive.  The settlements of Stony Point and Pink Hill were near this lively trading and trapping activity.

These two communities were forerunners of Grain Valley.  Settlers came into this area from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  We know more about the community of Pink Hill than we do about Stony Point but both communities had a post office (of sorts) and received their mail by horseback once a week.  Pink Hill picked up their mail at Sibley Landing and Stony Point received their mail from Independence.  Pink Hill was platted out into 40 lots with a Main Street, Locust Street, and two alleys.  he town of Pink Hill was named by one of the early residents who said "the land is covered with pink roses and pink verbenas, it should be called Pink Hill".  This community was established in 1854.  The date is not available for the establishment of Stony Point but is thought to be 1839.

Both communities thrived producing nearly all the products they needed for a full life.  But the peaceful communities changed in 1860 when the War Between the States began.  Missouri's Legislature voted to stay with the Union and that brought hardship and sorrow to those families whose loyalties lay with the South.  Guerilla warfare was common both with the Northern and Southern sympathizers.  The "Sni Raiders" from the Pink Hill community discouraged Union troops in that area and the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by the Quantrill guerilla gang when 150 men and boys were killed brought on harsh measures for eastern Jackson County.  Gen. Thomas Ewing, a Union officer, issued the Order Number 11 after the Kansas raid which stated that all residents in Jackson County not within the radius of six miles from a Union Army installation must leave the county in two weeks.  In the confusion that followed, many were killed including civilians and children. Total war had been declared on the State of Missouri in an effort to quell the guerilla uprising.  Within 15 days nearly every inhabitant had gone, and for a few years little happened in the area.

When the settlers started returning after the war, they found little left.  Pink Hill and Stony Point residents slowly started to rebuild.  A church was built at Pink Hill and dedicated in 1871 and still stands there today although it is no longer used as a church.  Stony Point erected a new church called the Pleasant Valley Church.

The Chicago and Alton Railroad had surveyed for tracks in Sni Township in the 1850's but after the war they decided to connect Blue Springs to Oak Grove and run the tracks in a straight line between the towns bypassing Pink Hill completely.  J.H. Cannon built a general merchandising store halfway between the two towns on the railroad.  Settlers started coming from Pink Hill and Stony Point to rebuild and the town of Grain Valley resulted.

The town of Grain Valley was officially formed September 5th, 1878 and was named for the abundance of grain in the area and the geography of the land.

By 1881 many businesses moved in, including grocery stores, a shoe repair shop, plus doctors and ministers.

The Christian Church was build in 1883, the Baptist Church and Methodist Church in 1889. The sanctuary of the United Methodist Church, 512 Capelle, is the original structure built in 1889 and the original furnishings came from the proceeds of the sale of the Pleasant Valley church at Stony Point.

The Bank of Grain Valley was founded in 1905 with J.H. Webb as the president and W.A. Cannon as vice-president.  The other bank in Grain Valley was the Sni-A-Bar Banking Company established in 1914.

Pink Hill and Stony Point both had small one-room schools for their children.  Children in the rural areas went to schools that were close enough to their homes that they could walk or ride horseback.  Some of those schools are remembered by the roads on which they are located.  Stony Point School Road, Murphy School Road, Oak Hill School Road, and Jim Owen School Road.  Until the early 1950's these schools taught the rural students up to the eighth grade, then they would come into Grain Valley first to a one-year high school, later a two-year school, and finally a four-year school.  The children of Grain Valley went to elementary and high school in the same building.   The first school was completed in 1899 and was replaced by a brick building in 1908.  That building burned down in November 1925.  The school was rebuilt in 1926 and housed all the elementary and high school students until 1954 when a one story brick building on Main Street was built.   At that time Grain Valley School District was reorganized into the Reorganized District 5 and all six rural schools were closed and those students were transported to Grain Valley.

Grain Valley remained a small farming community for many years.  The Second World War sent many people out to work in Lake City and Kansas City.  New highways and better all around transportation gave residents choices of working outside of Grain Valley.  Around 1975 J.R. Stewart built a housing development, Valley Heights, in the Cannon addition of Grain Valley.  A year later another 200 homes were built in the Golfview Development.  In 1977, Sterling National Realty came into Grain Valley building and redeveloping homes and businesses.  At that time the population of Grain Valley was around 780 people.  Sni-A-Bar Farms was sold to Steve Gildehaus and other developers in 1988 and that area was annexed into Grain Valley.

The story of Grain Valley would not be complete without the mention of Sni-A-Bar Farm. Sni-A-Bar farm was purchased by William Rockhill Nelson, owner and publisher of the Kansas City Star in 1913.  It was founded with the purpose of furnishing the farmers with information by demonstration of better methods of cattle raising.  Mr. Nelson died in 1915 and left Sni-A-Bar Farm in a trust for 30 years with his daughter, Mrs. Laura Nelson Kirkwood and the University of Missouri as trustees.

Mr. Nelson went directly to the Kansas City stockyards and picked out cows that had been consigned to slaughter.  He brought them back to the farm and kept them in the same conditions as an ordinary farmer would and bred them to purebred Shorthorn bulls brought in from Scotland.  The farm also raised corn for silage and alfalfa for hay.  The rest of the acreage was blue grass except for the space used for buildings.

Later sheep from Scotland were brought to the farm and grazed on Monkey Mountain.

The farm from 1915 to 1945 was one of the most visited farms in the country.  Students, teachers, as well as cattle raisers from all over the globe came to the demonstrations each October.

James Napier, from Scotland, was hired by Nelson as the head herdsman to oversee the show cattle.  In 1927 James Napier became manager of the farm.  His son, Charlie Napier became the chief show herdsman from 1934 to 1942.  He also was the farm manager acting for his father during a time when his father went to Scotland to buy cattle.  Charlie Napier lived in this area all his life and passed away October 1997.

When the farm sold in November 1945, bids came from J.C. Penny, Nellie Donnelly Reed, and actor Fred McMurray.  The farm sold to Ralph L. Smith for $387,000 -- $110 per acre. The cattle, sold separately, brought in a higher dollar amount than the farm.

In 1947, Smith sold the farm to Ray Batmann, who paid two times the price Smith paid for it.

The glory days of Sni-A-Bar Farm were over, as its condition deteriorated under Batmann's administration.  Finally, he began selling pieces of the farm.

Grain Valley was incorporated in 1945 as a fourth class city.  The 1990 census listed the population of Grain Valley as 1905; as of the first quarter of 1998 Grain Valley's population is estimated at 5000, one of the fastest growing communities in Missouri.

This report was compiled by Dorthy Greene, January 1998 from the following articles: History of Stony Point, Erma Bumgardner (Doty) 1934, and City Was Formed From Small Towns, Joshua R. Fisher, The Blue Springs Examiner, August 14th, 1996. Special thanks to Paul Morgenroth, President of the Grain Valley Historical Society, for his help with this article.