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Who the first settlers of the Melvern area were is a matter of
dispute. Some say a Major E. C. Newton was the first, in 1868.
It seems more likely that Dr. J. W. Beck, Oscar Beck, and Jacob
Wilson were the first. Dr. Beck wrote:
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Myself, my brother, O. I. Beck, and my brother-in-law, Jacob
Wilson, came here in October 1868. We were the first
settlers-I don't mean by that we were among the first, but we
were the first white people within miles of what is now the
city of Melvern. We were about a mile east of town ... The
land was not opened for settlement then, and our only right
here was by sufferance on the part of the Indians. (Melvern
Record, April 10, 1884)
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The first mention of Melvern came in the Weekly Osage
Chronicle of May 14, 1870. (The name was misspelled.)
"Melvin is the name of a new town about to be laid out at the
mouth of Long Creek ... Success to the new town of Melvin."
Charles Cochran and S. B. Enderton were the two main
promoters of Melvern. Cochran named the town Melvern after
his ancestors' birthplace in Scotland, the Melvern (actually
Malvern) Hills. The name apparently has a Welsh origin,
maelfryn, meaning bare hill.
It seems that not all was well at first because in December of
1870 the Melvern Town Company was reorganized, with J.
Parker Ball as president. The Lyndon Signal (Dec. 15, 1870)
said that they were starting again "under new and more
favorable auspices than when first laid out."
This time things seemed to work out better. Growth was slow
but steady. L. F. Warner and Cochran opened the first store.
September of 1871 found Melvern described in this way
"contains about twenty houses and 100 people ... the place
contains a steam portable saw mill, 3 dry goods stores, 1
blacksmith shop, one drug store.... Town lots are sold at $15 to
those who will build on them." (Osage Chronicle, Sept. 21,
1871)
School was held in Oscar Beck's log house at first, but by 1872
had outgrown that, and a schoolhouse was built.
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Melvern, like Lyndon and Quenemo, was handicapped for many years
by lack of a railroad. It declined in the late 1870s. The railroad finally
came to Melvern in 1884, and things picked up. The Melvern Record,
on April 17, 1884, reprinted this description from another (unidentified)
paper.
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The writer spent a couple of hours in Melvern Sunday. He was
surprised at the progress that this town has made in the last nine
months. It has, in this short time, grown from a little, dull,
uninteresting, out-of-the-way country village to a live, wide-awake,
prosperous town... Many improvements are being pushed forward.
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On July 10, 1884, the newspaper printed a list of 26
buildings built in Melvern since January 1.
The population of the city was 491 in 1886, and neither
increased nor declined significantly after that.
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