Gads Hill is an unincorporated community in northwestern Wayne County, Missouri, United States. It is located on Missouri Route 49, approximately midway between Des Arc and Piedmont. Named after the country home of Charles Dickens,[2] it was established in 1872 by George W. Creath.[3] The town's name was changed to Zeitonia in 1887, but reverted to Gads Hill in 1906.
The town was a train station on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway line and was the location of the Gads Hill Train Robbery, the first train robbery in Missouri, which took place on January 31, 1874.[4] At 3:00 in the afternoon, the James-Younger gang boarded the train and proceeded to rob the passengers. While the exact amount was never certain, newspapers at the time estimated between $2,000 and $22,000 was stolen.[5]
References
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Gads Hill, Missouri
- ^ "Wayne County Place Names, 1928–1945". The State Historical Society of Missouri. Archived from the original on June 24, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
- ^ The State Historical Society of Missouri, David W. (January 1919). "How Missouri Streams, Counties and Towns Were Named". Missouri Historical Review (Vol. 13, No. 2). Eaton.
- ^ Conard, Howard L. (1901). Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Vol. 2. St. Louis: Southern History Company. p. 544.
- ^ Beights, Ronald H. (June 2005). "Jesse James and the Gads Hill Train Holdup". Wild West Magazine. TheHistoryNet.com. Archived from the original on 2006-03-17. Retrieved 2006-03-27.
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