Since the recent discussion on this page about the word “Cricker” in Kirkville, the following information might be of interest. The land known as Pickler Park which consisted of about 25 acres, at the intersection of Osteopathy & Missouri Streets, was originally acquired from the government by William Parcels in 1850 when Kirksville was new. He was a businessman & political figure who had a mansion just north of where HyVee now stands, and whose estate was used to store equipment for the Union troops & home a makeshift hospital during the Battle of Kirksville. There were 3 more owners of the Pickler Park land after Mr. Parcels, before it was sold on August 31, 1871 to Abraham Slingerland, a wealthy Kirksville lawyer, judge, Circuit Clerk, abstract business owner, & Union Civil War Captain. He had married Nannie Lipscomb, 15 years his junior, daughter of Col. Henry Lipscomb, another Civil War officer, lawyer, and judge from Palmyra, Mo. No doubt with his wife in mind, he drew up & even published his plans to build a large home at the top of this hilly section of land, & to develop it into a park-like estate with roads & trees, & a lovely stream of water running through the center. This was completed some time after 1876. Sadly, however, both Abraham’s 26-year-old wife Nannie & infant daughter Ethel died in the fall of 1878. Abraham sold his estate and moved away. The new owner was Charles Bounds a Kirksville livery stable owner who then sold it to Samuel M. Pickler (1846-1929), Kirksville mayor, State legislator, owner of Pickler’s Famous mercantile, owner/editor of the Kirksville Journal newspaper, & instructor at the Normal School (Pickler Library named for him). The Slingerland mansion remained on the property until at least 1888 when it is recorded that some older Kirksville residents remembered it there, but later it burned. In 1899, Mr. Pickler sold the land to the City of Kirksville for $1500 for a park bearing his name. The city was only able to pay $300 & the Picklers held a lien for $1200 to be paid in 12 years with the stipulation it be a public park no less than 50 yrs. However, 6 years later, the City deeded the land back to the Picklers as it could not afford to maintain it. The land was described on the abstract as “wild and rough” due to the rocks and hills. As a park, it was described as a good place to hike. One section was called Rocky Ford and another Pansy Hill as it was covered in pansies. Due to the terrain, it was not considered good for selling as lots for building homes. It was at that time that supposedly the Pickler family, in a charity effort, decided to allow the land to be given to people in the community who could not afford to buy land. It became a kind of “stake your claim and build you own house” type of development. However, they did not anticipate what actually happened. It became filled with the poor who could not afford to build substantial houses, but makeshift dwellings of anything they could find such as the “bottle house,” cardboard, discarded lumber, etc., many with dirt floors. Unfortunately, it became what many called the “slums” of Kirksville, which lasted at least into the 1950s. Due to the lack of proper sewage disposal, human waste was drained into Capt. Slingerland’s once decorative creek or “crick.” Thus, sadly, people who lived in this location became known as “crickers” or the extended version of the term. Now, it seems Kirksville can never rid itself of this derogatory term.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:39:00 +0000
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