Exeter, MO

Exeter is a city in Barry County about four and a half miles west of Cassville, at a high point in the southwest Missouri Ozarks. Its plat was recorded in October 1880, and the town took its name from Exeter in Devon, England. The Frisco Railroad made Exeter a stop for tourists heading toward Mineral Springs, giving the town a role beyond its small street grid. The surrounding roads run through rolling farm country, but the old rail line is the detail that makes Exeter's history snap into focus.

The Cassville and Exeter Railway was dedicated on July 4, 1896, linking Cassville to the Frisco line at Exeter over a route only 4.8 miles long. Cassville had no railroad of its own, so the short line carried passengers and freight between the county seat and Exeter until the connection was abandoned in 1956. The Barry County Museum's Exeter history also recalls the town's bid to become the county seat and the hotels, mill, newspaper, and stores that grew around the rail stop. Exeter still reads like a place whose history arrived on steel rails.