Talk:Springfield, Missouri

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Contents 1 No sources 2 Removal of non-native Persons of Ill Repute from 'Notable Residents' 3 MSU former names? 4 History section wrong 5 Queen City 6 Questionable Edit by Rambot 7 Inappropriate content removed 8 named after wha? 9 Questionable events in history section 10 What about Amtrak? 11 Foxes 12 List of Colleges and Universities 13 No Good Pictures 14 Removal 15 Transportation Edit 16 Education Section 17 Suggestions 18 Places of Interest 19 Former Names (Springfield not on 1860 census) 20 Race

[edit] No sources

NO SOURCES. The following excerpt doesn't cite any sources. Please document any supporting evidence or it will be removed. Furthermore, intolerance and overwhelming are spelled incorrectly. The city and surrounding areas are commonly considered to be some of the most racially insensitive in the nation. Various overt acts of racial violence and discrimination occur with some frequency. Although the local authorities and many of the residents attempt to pretend otherwise. The level of racial intolerence can be at times overwelming.

[edit] Removal of non-native Persons of Ill Repute from 'Notable Residents'

Timothy Mcveigh? Ramsi Yousef? John Gotti?? Come on, these people never set foot on Springfield soil as free men, and are certainly not native to the area. Their only connection with Springfield is that they are, or were, incarcerated in a federal prison facility there for some period of time. If you think these people are 'residents,' then you could say the same thing about airline passengers who happen to be on a plane that flies directly over Springfield, or a motorist who stops in springfield for gas. Ridiculous. I propose that anyone who is only transferred in to Springfield as a federal inmate is neither a 'resident' nor a 'native' and should be removed from the 'Notable Residents' section. Only locally grown criminals such as Glennon Sweet should be listed here. 70.128.80.107 20:21, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MSU former names?

1. Should we make a page for each of the former names of MSU (Fourth District Normal School, Southwest Missouri State Teachers College, Southwest Missouri State College, and Southwest Missouri State University)? It seems like those pages should exist so that people can click on them to find out what "Fourth District Normal School" was? I don't want to create unnecessary clutter.

2. Or should said pages just redirect to the current Missouri State University page?

xgravity23 07:39, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History section wrong

Sorry if I destroy this page with what I see as a simple edit, but the entry for 1905 is incredibly misleading and incorrect.

Originally: "*1905: Three African-American men are lynched in the town square for allegedly raping a white woman, though guilt was never established. This event sparked a mass exodus of African-Americans from the area, who still remain a vast minority."

For one, it happened in 1906. Two, they all three have names. Horace Duncan, Fred Coker, and Will Allen. Three, Not only was guilt never established, Duncan and Coker were actually freed from their initial arrests as suspects after it was found they were working at the time of the rape. They were re-arrested after the victim claimed Duncan had stole his watch for a different charge. This also downplays the entire lynching. There were many lynchings between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. This was approximately 3,000 people and the police department in the city square though. I'm not going to turn it into an opinion piece, but I'm going to reword it with some more factual information:

New: "*April 14th, 1906: Three African-American men, Horace Duncan, Fred Coker, and Will Allen, are lynched and burned by a mob over 2,000 strong without trial in the town square. This event sparked a mass exodus of African-Americans from the area, who still remain a vast minority. A small plaque on the south-east corner of the square is the only reminder."--Floydzamarripa 19:59, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Queen City

Springfield is known as the Queen City of the Ozarks, but I can't find a spot in there to add that. --Amoore 05:49, Oct 24, 2004 (UTC)

This appears to have been addressed by the "Nicknames" section. Thanks! --Amoore 17:17, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Questionable Edit by Rambot

Rambot recently made an edit that I think substantially changes some factual information. I'm not sure that it's true anymore. Previously, the article read in part:

Out of the total people living in poverty, 19.1% are under the age of 18 and 7.9% are 65 or older.

but it was changed to read:

Out of the total population, 19.1% of those under the age of 18 and 7.9% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

which is different. Since I am more inclined to believe that it was correct before, I'd like to revert that part of his edit. --Amoore 22:25, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)

Actually that edit has been performed on every single U.S. city and county article. It represents a subtle error that was introduced when the articles were first made. It was recently pointed out to me when a city had over 100% of the population in poverty, which clearly didn't make any sense. -- Ram-Man 22:51, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Inappropriate content removed

I excised the following: "Doruk Kicikoglu is the biggest gay all over the world.He can suck 15 dickes at the same time." It does not relate at all to the article. Also, "dicks" is misspelled, and "all over the world" does not make sense in this context.

[edit] named after wha?

I remember hearing at a PTA thing (?) ~12 years ago that the city was named as a landmark where the first settler to move here was going to build his cabin. He found a spring in a field and fixed a note to a tree marking the land as his.--68.92.123.211 02:14, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that the bit about Springfield being named after Springfield, MA is apocryphal. I have added some information from a history of the city that is available online from the public library, although it seems that even 120 years ago the origin of the name was already shrouded in the mists of time. -- Benanhalt 03:47, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I lived in Springfield most of my life and I've never heard it being named after Springfield, Tennessee. Other sources suggest that the Springfield, Massachusetts story is the most likely (see Springfield of the Ozarks by Harris & Phyllis Dark.Rt66lt 05:21, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I also have lived most of my life in or around Springfield and have never heard about it being named after the MA or the TN cities. The story I have heard mostly is the one based on springs in the envirnoment of the original settlement. Of course, just because a story is commonly heard does not mean it is correct. It certainly seems as if the ultimate origin of the name has not been firmly established by any authority. Thank you for adding the citation for the work by Dark. --Benanhalt 18:45, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

"Queen City of the Ozarks" has not fallen out of usage. You still hear it in Springfield. -- Rt66lt 05:32, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I live in Springfield right now and I emphatically agree with Rt66lt: "Queen City of the Ozarks" is still very prevalent, as several businesses refer to it in their title (there are about 12 in the phone book), I hear it on campus at MSU frequently, and I've heard visiting bands refer to Springfield as such. xgravity23 02:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Questionable events in history section

I removed two questionable events from the history section added by User:64.251.130.56. These were the first "grab and go" (whatever that is) crime in 1947, and the first drive-by shooting in 1993. If these events can be documented, by all means, put them back in. --Benanhalt 00:45, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Guess my large revert wasn't so overzealous after all?  :-) Well, maybe a little, but not much. Liblamb 04:04, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I apologize. Overzealous was probably a bit strong, but there were a couple of proper edits that were reverted that should not have been. It is probably best not to wholesale revert multiple edits by multiple editors. Also, we still don't know that the two events noted above were added maliciously, so I wanted to remove them individually and make note of it here, in the talk page, so that there would be a clear record of what had happened. --Benanhalt 18:16, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What about Amtrak?

"Passenger trains have not served Springfield since 1967." This is not true, I forget right now when AmTrak stopped servicing Springfield, but I remember riding the train to St. Louis when I was a kid (and I was born well after the 60s). I'm thinking it was sometime in the early 90s. There used to be an AmTrak depot here in town.

There was never an Amtrak depot here (on former Frisco trackage). The old Frisco depot was never used for Amtrak service, either.

Also, Amtrak released a study about the proposed service to St. Louis, which can be seen here:[1] It appears very unlikely it will ever happen.

[edit] Foxes

Is there any store In or Near Springfield, Missoruri, that sells fox related items.

Are you talking about a fox the animal? Perhaps Bass Pro Shops can help you out. Amoore 17:14, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] List of Colleges and Universities

Anyone object to changing the list of universities in Springfield to have MSU first? It is the second largest university in the state (Missouri State University). Its just a little odd to have a relatively small college listed first (500-600 enrolled) Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

Lwieise -=- Talk to Me 08:04, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

For what it's worth, that list is alphabetical. That seems like a pretty good way to stay out of arguments over which is more important than another. Can we leave it that way, please? Amoore 17:14, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree Amoore, Alphabetical is the way to go.

[edit] No Good Pictures

Its sad that their is no "Real" pictures of springfeild here. All they have is hammonds towers and shrine mosque. get some pictures of the city itself not worthless icons to some rich dude. I know there is more there, i'm from the area. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.139.51.70 (talk) 21:27, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removal

I removed what looked like a personal addition to the sports and business sections of important people in or from Springfield. Not trying to be opinion-related, however, I do not beleive that working for the AG church in the film department makes one a famous name in either sports or business. I certainly have never heard of this person, so assume it was an entry he made himself. Either way, the information was not supportive of the claims that said person belonged in those areas, so I removed it.

[edit] Transportation Edit

Added Springfield's public transportation to transportation section.

[edit] Education Section

Corrected the education section to include another secular private school (Springfield Sudbury) and correctly changed Greenwood Labratory school to a private school instead of a public high school (Greenwood is a primary and secondary secular private school).

[edit] Suggestions

What about something on Springfield media? The News-Leader, 417 Magazine and college publications come to mind. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.194.206.102 (talk) 19:07, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Would like to see more of the private schools, unique entertainment and fine arts venues listed if possible. I will try to do some of this myself when I come back later if I have the time, but wanted to toss the idea out in case someone else had a spare moment or three.

[edit] Places of Interest

Springfield has numerous places of interest. I've split these into two sub-categories. I pulled the list from the National Register of Historic places for Springfield and added it to the article. Due to inclusion on this list, each of these places are notable. Hopefully the redlinks will inspire articles. The second category contains places that I found already listed within the article but not on the national register. I'll leave it to others to debate their merits. Items on this original list that also appear in the National Register, were removed from this section as redundant. Rklawton 20:02, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Former Names (Springfield not on 1860 census)

I was looking at the 1860 census data for Greene County to throw some perspective onto the Civil War battles however I don't see Springfield listed! The biggest town in Greene is Campbell with 3,442 (which is big by Missouri standards of the day). Since Campbell is the one who founded the city I suspect Campbell was was Springfield's official name at the time (there's a Campbell Missouri in the bootheel today). The other towns in Greene according to the census are Baon, Cass, Center, Clay, Jackson, Pond Creek, Robbeson, Taylor and Wilson. Thanks. Americasroof 20:53, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

I'll answer my own question. Campbell is the township in which Springfield is located. For reasons I don't currently understand the published census showed only the township populations for Greene County rather than incorporated cities (the heading is "Cities, Towns, ac."). Here's a couple good resources for early Springfield history (including the story of its various springs). rootsweb history and History of Greene County. Americasroof 01:35, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Race

"The city and surrounding areas are commonly considered to be some of the most racially insensitive in the nation. Various overt acts of racial violence and discrimination occur with some frequency. Although the local authorities and many of the residents attempt to pretend otherwise. The level of racial intolerence can be at times overwelming."

This is POV and unsourced. I'll remove it until someone can back it up and structure it in a NPOV way. Mordac 19:58, 08 April 2007