Elizabethtown

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     Thomas Day was the first settler on Deer Creek arriving in 1855. Joseph Price, originally from North Carolina, came from Illinois in 1858. These two men were prominent ranchers in the area. Day and Price were the first proprietors of Elizabethtown. Mrs. Elizabeth Cook played a predominate role in town as it was named after her.

     In 1858 the town was chartered and in 1859 it was surveyed, and Joseph Price, Thomas Day and James A. Dorsey started a town company. They laid out Elizabethtown on Section 15, Township 23, and Range 19 on the east side of Deer Creek. It was laid out on land owned by J.B. Rhodes and F.H. Rhodes.

     W. Stubblefield and Company opened a store. The post office was established April 15, 1859, and the postmaster was G.M. Sands. Later Mrs. Elizabeth Cook became the postmistress. The post office operated from April 1859 to 1884. The legislature vacated the town in 1899. The hope for the small towns depended on the railroad and when the railroad passed the town five miles to the north Elizabethtown dwindled and finally died.

     Ozark #1 Cemetery south and east of Colony is locally known as the Liztown Cemetery and is in the area where Elizabethtown was located. The cemetery was partially bulldozed in by a farmer until stopped and only a few of the gravestones survived and are now standing. Many of the stones were broken or destroyed and could not be repaired. Probably there are several individuals buried there who will never be known. The old schoolhouse possibly used into the early 1930’s has also disappeared.