Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the
Missouri River
The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...
and, as the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Pettis County,
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 ...
, United States,
it is the principal city of the Sedalia
Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the
2020 census, the city had a total population of 21,725. Sedalia is also the location of the
Missouri State Fair and the
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the ...
International Ragtime Festival.
U.S. Routes 50 and
65 intersect in the city.
History
Indigenous peoples
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
lived along the Missouri River and its tributaries for thousands of years before European contact.
Historians
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
believe the entire area around Sedalia was long occupied by the
Osage (among historical
American Indian tribes). When the land was first settled by European Americans, bands of
Shawnee
The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language.
Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...
, who had migrated from east of the Mississippi River, lived in the vicinity of Sedalia.
Until the city was incorporated in 1860 as Sedalia, it had existed only "on paper" from November 30, 1857, to October 16, 1860. According to local lore, the town council changed the name from Sedville to Sedalia in part because "towns that end in -ville don't amount to anything." (Lawrence Ditton Sr.). Here is another account:
The area that became the European-American city of Sedalia was founded by General
George Rappeen Smith
George may refer to:
Names
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
People
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE
* George, stage name of Gior ...
(1804–1879), who also founded nearby
Smithton, Missouri
Smithton is a city in Pettis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 570 at the 2010 census.
History
Smithton was platted in 1859. It was named for Gen. George R. Smith, a railroad promoter, or for General Thomas A. Smith.
Geogr ...
. He filed plans for the official record on November 30, 1857, and gave the area the name Sedville. The original plat included the land from today's
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad o ...
south to Third Street.
The version jointly filed by General Smith and
David W. Bouldin on October 16, 1860, displayed the city extending from Clay Street to the north and to Smith Street (today's Third Street) in the south, and from Missouri Street in the west to Washington Street in the east; and, although Smith and Bouldin predicted that the city would grow to the north, it grew in a southern direction.
Railhead
Following a victory for those proposing the "ridge route" for the railway over those advocating the "river route", the railway reached Sedalia in January 1861. Sedalia's early prosperity was directly related to the railroad industry. Many jobs were associated with men maintaining tracks and operating large and varied machine shops run by both the
Missouri Pacific
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...
and the
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad lines. The Missouri-Kansas & Texas Railroad was widely known as the "KATY", from its "K-T" stock exchange code.
Sedalia was an important