Early Settlers

Early Settlers. . , The initial settlers in the Joplin region were primarily farmers and trappers due to the plentiful resources the land offered. Abundant wildlife furnished a dependable food supply and from the heavily timbered hillsides, building material for shelter and fuel was readily available. The fertile river valleys offered excellent cropland and the prairie grasslands furnished superb pasture land for livestock. In the beginning, early settlers and Native Americans uncovered, near the earth's surface, fragments of lead ore , the future source of wealth. These pieces of lead were melted into shot by the early settlers. During this time, it was unknown that much deeper into the earth lay a treasure trove of two vital minerals , lead and zinc. , During the 1840s, the first non-Natives to settle in Jasper and Newton Counties found deposits of galena, the most common mineral form of lead, on land taken from the Osage people. In some cases, the new white settlers simply identified the shallow Native American mines while others found new discoveries. During this time, they developed small, slightly profitable mines using primitive smelters that soon attracted the attention of several hundred experienced lead miners. By the mid-1850s these miners rushed to this isolated region on the border of Indian and Kansas Territories., By 1860, they were producing one-fourth of all the lead used in the United States. However, compared to the miraculous possibilities of the gold rush, which by 1860 drew 100,000 miners to the West with hopes of sudden riches, the mining of lead required a more patient miner, receiving a far lesser financial reward. The comparison of the two mining cultures was quite stark. While gold sold for $20 per ounce in the 1850s, 1,000 pounds of lead sold at $16. In order to make money from mining galena, the miners in southwestern Missouri needed to extract the ore by the ton. During this early era of mining with limited machines and explosives, the determined lead miner required immense physical effort as well as a substantial investment of time and forbearance. , In 1848, commercial mining occurred in western Jasper County. William Tingle became the first settler-farmer to engage in mining. One year later, David Campbell, a skilled miner from eastern Missouri, met with John C. Cox. He assessed that Cox's property contained favorable evidence of ore as well. Following Campbell's disclosure, Cox discovered some lead near Joplin Creek and constructed a primitive furnace and smelted the mineral into refined lead. Additional ore discoveries were found around Tingle and Cox's properties. , In 1839, Methodist minister Harris G. Joplin arrived in Jasper County to spread the gospel. Joplin had previously lived in Greene County, Missouri. He constructed a cabin on 80 acres he leased from John C. Cox. Joplin used his home as the first Methodist church, conducting services on Sundays. By 1845, he returned to Greene County. Reverend Joplin died two years later. Unfortunately, he never knew that a future mining community in Jasper County would bear his last name of Joplin.