Kirksville

Kirksville, a city and the county-seat of Adair county, Missouri, U.S.A., about 129 m. N. by W. of Jefferson City. Pop. (1900), 5966, including 112 foreign-born and 291 negroes; (1910), 6347. It is served by the Wabash and the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City railways. It lies on a rolling prairie at an elevation of 975 ft. above the sea. It is the seat of the First District Missouri State Normal School (1870); of the American School of Osteopathy (opened 1892); and of the related A. T. Still Infirmary (incorporated 1895), named in honour of its founder, Andrew Taylor Still (b. 1820), the originator of osteopathic treatment, who settled here in 1875. In 1908 the School of Osteopathy had 18 instructors and 398 students. Grain and fruit are grown in large quantities, and much coal is mined in the vicinity of Kirksville. Its manufactures are shoes, bricks, lumber, ice, agricultural implements, wagons and handles. Kirksville was laid out in 1842, and was named in honour of Jesse Kirk. It was incorporated as a town in 1857 and chartered as a city of the third class in 1892. In April 1899 a cyclone caused serious damage to the city.