Fremont is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

in western

Carter County, Missouri Carter County is a county in the Ozarks of Missouri. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,202. The largest city and county seat is Van Buren. The county was officially organized on March 10, 1859, and is named after Zimri A. Carter, a ...

, United States. It is located on U.S. Route 60, approximately west of

Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...

in Pike Creek Valley. The community was founded ''circa'' 1887. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 43.

Demographics

History

Founding

The site of the town of Fremont was originally patented by Julius N. Russell. The claim was filed at

Jackson, Missouri Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, United States. It is a principal city of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson, MO- IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of Jackson was 15,481 at the 2020 census ...

, on January 1, 1859. Like most communities that came to be in Carter County, Fremont's origins can be tied to the activity of the

Missouri Lumber and Mining Company The Missouri Lumber and Mining Company (MLM) was a large timber corporation with headquarters and primary operations in southeast Missouri. The company was formed by Pennsylvania lumbermen who were eager to exploit the untapped timber resourc ...

. In 1887 they granted the Current River branch of the

Frisco Railroad Frisco may refer to: Places in the United States *Frisco, Alabama, an unincorporated community *San Francisco, California, as a nickname *Frisco, Colorado, a home rule municipality **Frisco Historic Park – see Frisco Schoolhouse * Frisco, Idaho ...

a right-of-way across their land in Carter County. By July 3, 1888, the tracks were laid and the first train ran through the new town. The plat for the town was submitted to the county on July 10, 1888.West Carter Carter Genealogical Society, "History & Families of Carter County Missouri", p. 13Dr. Gene Oakley, "A History of Carter County, Sesquicentennial Edition", pp. 56-57

Name

The new town, which was laid out on land the railroad had acquired as part of its right-of-way through Carter County, was originally to be called "McDonald", after the chief engineer who had laid out the site of the town for the railroad. But the postal service rejected this name because it was too similar to McDowell, Missouri. While trying to decide on a new name for the town, J. L. Greene suggested that it be called "Peggy" in honor of Peggy Snider, the wife of Dr. James Snider, one of the early pioneers of the region. This name was submitted to the postal service and accepted, and for many years Peggy was the name of the town. In 1907 the name of the town was changed again, this time to Fremont, in honor of

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

(1813 - 1890), who was a famous explorer and soldier. Even after the name was changed to Fremont the town continued to be listed as Peggy on some maps for a number of years afterward, the 1911 Rand McNally & Co Atlas being one example.

Industry

About the only remnants of the towns industry are the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

embankments.

Ties TIES may refer to: * TIES, Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science * TIES, The Interactive Encyclopedia System * TIES, Time Independent Escape Sequence * Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science * The International Ecotourism Society The Inter ...

and other uses of

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

fuelled the town through the turn of the 20th century. In 1917 an iron smelter was built along Pike Creek about north of town, and the community of

Midco Midco (known as Midcontinent Communications until 2016) is a regional cable provider, providing a triple play service of Cable television, Internet and telephone service for both North Dakota and South Dakota, along with much of Minnesota, and s ...

was created. After the need for iron diminished, the community dissolved, leaving only the smelter's

smokestack A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

and the Midco Cemetery on the hill east of the site as a reminder of the town's existence.Fremont, Missouri, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, U.S. Geological Survey, 1997

School

The school and approximately one-third of the town were devastated by a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

in the spring of 1957. The old two-story brick school was in the direct path of the tornado and was completely destroyed. Fortunately, summer vacation had begun two days before. The storm hit just as students would have been dismissed for the day. The old school was not repaired, and what remained was torn down. A new elementary school was built on the same site, including a gymnasium. Work was completed in the summer of 1959, and was open for the school year of 1959-60. The school was incorporated with Van Buren but kept its own mascot, the Fremont Indians. It was later used as a middle school for grades 6-8. During the late 1980s, the cost of transportation forced the school district to close the school.

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Carter County, Missouri Unincorporated communities in Missouri