Founding year: the first Sarcoxie post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Sarcoxie’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sarcoxie is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Sarcoxie’s overall grade.
Missouri towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Missouri town has 2.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Sarcoxie’s 165 sits above most of its state (94% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 26 historic buildings outnumber those of 81% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Sarcoxie’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Sarcoxie was platted in the early 1830s, and it was originally called Centerville from its location upon Center Creek. In 1839, the settlement was renamed in honor of Sarcoxie, a chief of the Delaware Indians who had settled near a spring in the present town limits.
Sarcoxie was once the strawberry capital of the world and still is the peony capital of the world, and home to Gilbert H. Wild, one of America's largest growers of daylilies, irises, and peonies. Sarcoxie once had its own currency that had a picture of a strawberry on one side.
Passages that mention Sarcoxie, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Jasper county, Missouri1883 · page 661Read the page →
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nation, Rev. Natiian Buchanan. Tiie first lawyer was John R. Chenault, and then Bob Crawford. The first teacher was Samuel Teas, who taught the first school on Center Creek, three miles below Sarcoxie, and here was the first school-house. The first regular church edifice was erected in 1867, by the Cumberland Presbyterians, at Sarcoxie. The first post-office in this ■whole southwest was at Sarcoxie, in 1832-33. The first hotel was kept by a Mr. Hoi man, in Sarcoxie. The first store was kept by Abner Wilson, in 1833, and the second store was opened by Messrs. Massey & Tingle, the year
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A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people1912 · page 8Read the page →
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The first store was ikept by Dr. Abner Wilson and the first postoffice was opened at Sarcoxie in 1833. Mail was brought at long intervals from Little Pliny on the Gasconade, one hundred and fifty miles away. J It ia hard for us who are accustomed to ttie railroad, the electric cars and automobile to comprehend what a journey of one hundred and fifty miles across the country in those days meant. Then, with only a trail for a road, no bridges, and streams sometimes impassable Digitized by
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A history of Jasper County, Missouri, and its people1912 · page 316Read the page →
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The Sarcoxie Fair The old historic town of Sarcoxie forged to the front during the 'eighties, fully doubling its population and in a business way increasing in importance.
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The history of Jasper county, Missouri1883 · page 154Read the page →
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emigrant from Kentucky, who located at the spring, at the foot of the hill in Sarcoxie, about a stone's, throw southwest of the railroad depot at that place. Vivion is said to have been the first white man who settled permanent!}'in the region of country' west of the Turnback River in Lawrence country. He went to Texas about thirty years ago, and at a recent date was still living in that state. About the same time came John M. Fullerton, also from Kentucky, and settled near Sarcoxie where he died about the year 1850. These settlers were undisturbed for a year or two, but other pioneers
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
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Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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The Sarcoxie post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Sarcoxie rank for history?
Sarcoxie is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Sarcoxie?
One place: the Sarcoxie Public Square Historic District (listed 2014).
How old are the homes in Sarcoxie?
24% of Sarcoxie’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.2 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1966.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
