Looking Back: Transportation 125 years ago

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society

Continuing from last week, this week’s article will highlight another segment of the story of transportation in Grain Valley. R. D. Mize Road was built from Independence to the Lafayette line, east of Oak Grove in 1900-01. 
 
Robert. D. Mize was born in 1864 during the Civil War in Liberty, Missouri. His parents took refuge there from war hostilities in Jackson County. He was the son of a wealthy Blue Mills pioneer family. His father, Roderick D. Mize, owned and operated the Little Blue Ferry, one of the finest boats on the Missouri River that ran from the Blue Mills landing to St. Louis and back.
 
His father also owned a general store and several large river front warehouses at Blue Mills Landing, that were all burned during the war by Federal troops. As a young man, Robert owned both a pharmacy and a hardware store in Independence before becoming judge of Eastern Jackson County, a position held years later by Harry S Truman.
 
Parts of the road name for the younger Mize were known as Blue Springs Road but often referred to as the “rock road,” because it was one of the first routes to the county seat that wasn’t a dirt road.  It was also one of the first roads in Eastern Jackson County that was easily traveled by automobile.
 
According to a “History of Grain Valley,” written by Frank Sebolt in 1936, Grain Valley was incorporated (1884)  shortly after its founding in September, 1878. However, a few years later things changed and I quote: “Sometime later the incorporation papers were revoked. The town was disincorporated (today we would say unincorporated) so that the R. D. Mize Rock Road could be put through Grain Valley at state expense.  If the town had been incorporated the state would not have furnished expenses for the road. The road was built in 1900-1901. August 31, 1903 the town was reincorporated . . .”
 
 The old rock road made a sharp right at Buckner Road (later Buckner Tarsney) went straight south through the “disincorporated” Grain Valley and continued south about a mile before making a sharp left turn and continuing to Oak Grove and the county line. During the early years the R. D. Mize Rock Road was truly just that. Rocks. Over the years, the rocks were oiled and eventually paved during the Pendergast years.
 
Today, R. D. Mize continues to zig, zag and curve its way through Eastern Jackson County, although at some points  along the way it has lost its’ name.
 
Just as the train helped to “create” Grain Valley, ours is the only town in which R. D. Mize Road ran right through the middle.  When built, it was nearly a mile north of downtown Blue Springs and nearly a half-mile south of downtown Oak Grove.
 
In the next few weeks you will read about other transportation events that contributed to the unique history of Grain Valley.

Photo credit: Grain Valley Historical Society
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