Villages of Crawford County, Missouri - PATSY -- CHERRY VALLEY

The post office called Patsy had its beginning with the development of the
iron mine at the Cherry Valley Iron Bank.

This mining operation began about 1880.

History of Jefferson, Franklin [Good-speed, 18881 states "This is well
illustrated at the Cherry Valley bank, which is reached by the Cherry
Valley Railroad, about six miles long, branching off from the St. Louis,
Salem & Little Rock Railroad at Midland. It is owned and worked by the
Meramec Iron Mining Company, the chief stockholders in which are J. W.
Lewis & sons, and the Dunns, of Illinois. The superintendent at the bank is
E. T. Herndon, and about seventy-five men are employed. He owns about 1,000
acres around the bank, which, as a kind of mineral wonder, ranks with Iron
Mountain and Pilot Knob. Mining commenced about eight years ago [i. e.
1880] ...
When work was first begun there was a low hill where the big hole is now. A
shaft eighty feet deep was first sunk, and iron ore was found all the way
down. A space of four acres in extent was then uncovered to the depth of
three or four feet, and ore was found everywhere within these limits. There
were large lumps of blue ore being so large that it was necessary to reduce
the fragments by blasting before they could be handled. The red ore is
shoveled into cars like dirt. The ore is in steady demand and is shipped to
the Midland Furnace, in Crawford County, to Sligo, in Dent County, and to
other furnaces, and the supply is inexhaustible."

Patsy as the post office serving Cherry Valley was first located on the
Cherry Valley Railroad at the site where Highway 8 crosses the old railroad
bed. The rails were removed several years ago.

The only one known to have been postmaster was Taylor Edwards. He was
postmaster when the office was moved about a mile southeast nearerthe mines
in 1904. Around this area about twenty houses were built and residents
called it Stringtown.

After 1900 the smeltering business in this part of the country was on the
decline but the mines at Cherry Valley were still in operation, employing
about twenty-five men. These men were cutting and shipping to Sligo about
30,000 cords of wood
per year which were used in the seventy-two kilns at that place. In 1904 a
telephone line was built between Sligo and Patsy, and the county newspaper,
the Crawford Mirror, in 1905 reported that the Cherry Valley industry was
the "busiest place in the county."

Cherry Valley was named by Thomas Jamison, an early settler, because in the
valley at the site was a large cluster of wild cherry trees. The manager of
the Cherry Valley Iron Works at the time of greatest production was Patrick
Whalen. When a post office was established the patrons of the office called
it "Patsy" which was a nickname for Patrick Whalen. The name was officially
recognized by the postal department.

About half the distance between the site of the first post office building
and the mines the Cherry Valley Railroad constructed a switching spur which
was used in shipping ties and cordwood. This spur was called Elayer, named
from William Elayer, an employee on the SalemBranch,. In recent years a
little store building was moved from Dry Creek where it had formerly been
used as a store and relocated at the site near the Elayer yards. It is now
called Elayer, or White's Store. Another small mercantile establishment
located on the present highway a short distance west of the site of the old
Patsy post office. It is owned by Clark Blunt.

The Cherry Valley School, rebuilt about 1933, is near the iron ore banks
and is now used as a residence.

------
CRAWFORD COUNTY AND CUBA MISSOURI
James Ira Breuer, 1972 p. 78-80

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