Safe is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in southeastern
Maries County, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
. The community is located on
Missouri Route H
A supplemental route is a state secondary road in the U.S. state of Missouri, designated with letters. Supplemental routes were various roads within the state which the Missouri Department of Transportation was given in 1952 to maintain in addit ...
on a hill just west of and above the
Bourbeuse River. The community is approximately six miles north-northeast of
St. James.
History
A post office called Safe was established in 1886, and remained in operation until 1958. According to one tradition, the community was named for the generosity of the proprietor of a local
gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...
who allowed safekeeping of customer's grain. Another tradition maintains the name is an acronym of the surnames of four first settlers, namely Shinkle, Aufderheide, Fann, and Essman.
References
Unincorporated communities in Maries County, Missouri
Unincorporated communities in Missouri
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