On the courthouse lawn at the corner of Cedar and Main streets in downtown Buffalo is a monument marker placed by the State Historical Society of Missouri announcing the town's origins. The settlers of Buffalo and the surrounding areas formed their first government in the early 1840s. But the history of the area dates back to nearly a decade before, when the area's first settler made a carving resembling a buffalo skull --- hence the town's name. That carving has since faded away, but the monument downtown tells its story and significance.
Buffalo, with a population in 2011 of about 2,900, has long been the county seat of Dallas County in the southwestern part of the state. While relatively small, it has a history of being the county's original trading post. The Dallas County Historical Society notes a monument to those early days exists outside the current Chapman's Furniture at 101 E. Main St., representing the site of the first retail establishment in town.
As a result of the Missouri Compromise, the state entered the union in 1820 and allowed slavery. Dallas County, though, sided with the abolitionists in the Civil War. Its buildings and residents were the targets of many Confederate movements during the war, and the Methodist Church was burned during one incident in 1864. Church-goers eventually rebuilt and called it "Union House." The building was located close to the current site of the Buffalo United Methodist Church, and parishioners embrace the history with a small standalone marker on their property at Pine and Madison streets.
To the west of Buffalo, about 20 minutes away, is the small town of Bolivar in Polk County. A marble monument at Austin Street and Springfield Avenue tells the story of Edward H. Neuhart, a local man who in the first half of the 20th century served in various positions with the local government and was deacon at Mount Olive Baptist Church. The park where the monument stands is named for Neuhart, and another nearby plaque relates various facts about Polk County's beginnings.
