Below is a diagram I drew duplicating the entire original plat, including the statement on the original plat, which describes the legal details involved in the creation and recording of the plat. A more readable copy is provided following the diagram.
Thus at that point in time the location at the intersection of Sections 29, 21, 28 and 29 had the official name of ARBYRD. It may have previously been locally called BYRDS.
Plat BK.1 Pg. 35
State of Missouri }
Cape Girardeau County} We A. R. Byrd and Sallie H. Byrd of Cape Girardeau County Missouri owners of the realty upon which the Town of Arbyrd in Dunklin County Missouri, is situated to wit: SE part of Sec 20. SW part of Sec 21. NW part of Sec 28 and NE part of Sec 29. T17 R8 declare the above the above to be a true Plat of said Town, and do hereby forever, dedicate to public use the streets and alleys therein represented.
Witness Our hands and seal this June 8, 1897
A. R. Byrd {Seal}
Sallie H. Byrd {Seal}
State of Missouri }
County of Cape Girardeau} On this 28th day of June 1897, before me personally appeared A. R. Byrd and Sallie H. Byrd his wife, to me known to be the persons described in and who executed the forgoing instrument, and acknowledged that they executed the same as their free act and deed.
In Testimony Thereof, I have herewith set my official seal at my office in said County the day and year first above written.
My Term of office as Notary Public will expire September 18, 1899
Jefferson W. Limbaugh
Notary Public
Filed for Record June 29 1897 at 10-27 AM
J. B. Blakesmore
Clerk & Recorder
On this diagram I have tried to place the path of the railroad after it was finally completed, as well to show the later to be built Highway 25, which curved just to the south of the Byrds Store. That highway had reached Bucoda from the east, at Crossroads/Europa. Also pointed out are some buildings, namely the location of the Bucoda Store and warehouse, the house where W.G. Fritz, Jr. lived, and the house where W.G. Fritz, Sr. lived. Pay attention to the fact that the latter house is very close to the point where the depot was situated in the original plat. The east-west portion of Highway 25 was directly in front of our house. Please note the location of the Booker house, which was across the highway from the Fritz, Sr, house and slightly east. Now read on to see the house W.G. Fritz, Sr. (including me) lived in part time and full time.
Why focus on this house. Well, as a child living there, I played on a mounded area which ran north/south the entire depth of our yard. It is easily deduced that when the railroad was first being built, that this building likely served as a place where railroad workers stayed for some portions of the rail laying. Why do I suggest this? Well, the house has a very large second floor consisting of two rooms. I do recall that there was a place in the wall where a stove pipe could be attached to the chimney. That chimney did in fact connect to the stove in the living room and served as our only heat source, except for a stove in the kitchen. The living room was wide. It was almost the width of the front porch and led directly to a similar width dining room. On the west (left) side of the house was a large bedroom at the front, used in my family by the 4 children. There was a regular bed and over/under twin sized bed. There was a closet under the stairway. This bed room opened into the living room. Then more to the rear was the slightly narrow kitchen and a stairway leading to the second floor. On the east side (right), was a front bed room, used in my family by the parents. This bed room opened into the living room and also connected to the very large bath room (at least 13x13) at the right rear. A screened in back porch was about 1/2 the width of the house. It was not centered as was the front porch. There was an old fashioned hand pump on the porch just outside the kitchen.
Now that I have tried to convince you that the original railroad followed the path in the Plat, I will suggest that as a practical matter, a train reaching Byrds would need to turn around to return to Senath. I suggest that a wye feature was built as the railroad was soon continued to be built as it went towards the south border of Dunklin County as it would eventually reach Leachville, Arkansas. I'll let you research what a WYE is.
In this picture of a section of a 1901 Dunklin County Plat map, which show the ownership of property, roads and places, I have over drawn a few of the roads which are major. I also mark the locations of where the schools were (over time). Small black dots represent the locations of houses. Of particular note, you can see the village of Byrds and associated with Byrds is the name Bucoda. Bucoda is the name of the railroad station. As can be observed the railroad runs straight through Byrds on it's way south to Arbyrd,
This wider view shows that the north-south railroad crosses a west-east railroad at a point with the name ARBYRD present. The west-east railroad comes from Paragould, Arkansas, passes through Cardwell, MO, then through Hollywood, MO, then through Hornersville, MO and it eventually gets to Blytheville, AR. The north-south railroad comes from Kennett, MO, then through Senath, MO, then through Byrds, MO, then Paulding, MO and to the State Line. Farther along, it gets to Leachville, AR.
At this point the story about how Arbyrd village became Byrds village and why the Arbyrd ended up at the place where the two railroads crossed. Plus how the name Bucoda came to be located in Byrds and ultimately became the name for the village of Byrds.
The Several Names Associated with Bucoda or How the village of Bucoda got its name.
Mr. Thomas Jefferson Sheppard, a Postmaster at Byrds/Bucoda and a Mr. A. R. Ponder can be thanked for clearing up the naming of Bucoda. The following article was sent to me by Ronnie Booker, grandson of Mr. Sheppard. Ronnie found it among his parents’ keepsakes.
The following is a transcription of an undated, newspaper article, which directly answers the question of how the name Bucoda came to the Byrds, Missouri community. It was first the name of the railroad station. The newspaper’s name is unknown.
T. J. Sheppard, postmaster at Bucoda, has recently assembled some information on the origin of name "Bucoda," which, though it does not entirely agree, will serve to settle a long standing question among the people of that community.
Knowing that there was a Bucoda, Washington, Mr. Sheppard wrote the postmaster of that town, asking for information about the name, and its origin. That letter states that the Washington town was formerly called Seatco, an Indian word meaning "Whiteman's Hell," so called by the Indians because it was the seat of the old territorial penitentiary, which was a very cruel one. A coal mine was located there, and the owners of the mine wishing to market the coal under a new name took the first two letters of each of the three owners' names, and made the name Bucoda, the names of the three men being Buckley, Coulter and Davis. This according to the postmaster in Washington was in about 1890, when the Washington Legislature changed its name to Bucoda.
Using the information obtained in this letter, Mr. Sheppard wrote A. R. Ponder, who several years ago was superintendent of the St. Louis, Kennett and Southern Railroad, now a part of Frisco, asking Mr. Ponder for information about the naming of Bucoda, and the origin of the name.
Below we quote parts of Mr. Ponder's letter which puts forth how the name Bucoda was chosen:
"Will state that this station was originally called "Arbyrd." That was when the railroad terminated at that point. Then one or two years later, when the road was extending on south to Leachville, Mr. Byrd became interested in the town site where this line crosses the Paragould and Southeastern a few miles south of the original Arbyrd [Station] and it was decided to name the town at the junction of the railroads Arbyrd, which left Arbyrd [Station] without a name.
"At this point I was Superintendent of the St. Louis, Kennett and Southern, now a part of the Frisco System, and it was up to me to name the station. I had formerly lived in Washington State at Chehalis and in discussing this matter with Mr. Louis Houck, President of the road, he said, "Give it an Indian name." I thought of the names of the stations on the Northern Pacific and suggested Kalama. That name did not appeal to Mr. Houck and I then suggested Bucoda. He said that was a good short name and the station was named Bucoda.
"You are correct about there being a coal mine at Bucoda, but I somewhat doubt that this name was originally made by taking the first two letters of Messrs. Buckley, Coulter and Davis, as Bucoda is a common name in that territory, there being a large family by that name who are French and Indian. It is possible that the first Bucodas were Hudson Bay trappers, although I am not sure about this. Anyway, the name of Bucoda was suggested by me to Mr. Houck and approved by him on account it was a short convenient name, and we thought an Indian name.
"Yours very truly,
"A. R. Ponder"
It is important to keep in mind that when we speak of Byrds, we are in fact speaking about the same place where the Bucoda village would later be located by simply a name change.
When Mr. Byrd saw that the railroad would pass through Byrds, he and his wife proceeded to have the area surveyed and had a plat recorded in June of 1897. That plat was named Arbyrd and the railroad station was then called the Arbyrd Station. [See the plat previously shown.] However, Mr. Byrd soon sensed that a more important location was going to be where the Kennett railroad crosses with the Paragould railroad just south of Byrds, he suggested to Mr. Houck that the Arbyrd name be applied to that railroad crossing station. Thus the need to rename the Arbyrd Station at Byrds. As Mr. Ponder indicated, the name Bucoda was applied to the station at Byrds.
Clearly, the name BUCODA was introduced into the area prior to 1902. Most likely it was in 1897 or 1898. These are dates related to the time when the railroads at the new Arbyrd were built.
Then there was an Arbyrd Station at the future location of Arbyrd, Missouri (a new Plat for this Arbyrd was recorded in 1918) and a Bucoda Station at Byrds, Missouri.
But, I wish to briefly summarize:
- 1895 a community named Byrds had a Byrds Post Office
- 1897 a plat named ARBYRD was recorded by A.R. and Sallie Byrd, with the obvious intent to use the name Arbyrd at the location of Byrds, but it was not fully implemented. Mr. Byrd became interested in having the name of Arbyrd used a few miles south where the railroads crossed.
- 1897 a railroad was built from Kennett to Byrds and later it continued on towards Leachville, Arkansas that year or the next. The railroad station at Byrds was first named Arbyrd Station according to A. R. Ponder in the article. It likely was named that because the village was supposed to be named Arbyrd according to the plat of 1897 mentioned.
- Because the railroad at Byrds was now going to cross the railroad being built from Cardwell to Blythesville, it is believed that Mr. A. R. Byrd wished to have the station at the railroads crossing named Arbyrd. Thus, Mr. Houck and Mr. Ponder renamed the Arbyrd Station at Byrds, the Bucoda Station.
- Later, the community developing around the railroad crossing became to be known as Arbyrd.
- 1916 The Byrds Post office was renamed Bucoda Post Office.
I have access to several documents showing Byrds as a community name. Mainly on canceled checks by T. J. Sheppard in 1910. They may be illustrated in the Bucoda Store narrative and the J.H. O’Brien narrative.
The following check shows that T. J. Sheppard had a restaurant in 1910. He also was the Postmaster of the Byrds Post Office in the same building. Notice that the Paid stamp shows the bank to be the Citizens Bank in Senath.
The above check, front and back, is the first evidence for the presence of J. H. O'Brien was in the Byrds area. The check is made out to A. R. Byrd by Mr. Sheppard and Mr. OBrien endorsed it, thus indicating that Mr. O'Brien was likely the Manager of the Byrds Store.
