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This story is a condensed version from the Adair County Historical Society’s 2019 pamphlet, “Kirksville Tornado, 1899”, available at the Adair County Museum.
During the Battle of Kirksville on August 6, 1862, the Union Army captured several Confederate prisoners. These were interrogated by Union Colonel John McNeil or some of his men who learned that 17 of the 47 captives had been paroled. This meant they had previously served in the Confederate Army and had been taken prisoner a first time by Union forces. They were paroled if they would swear an oath not to take up arms against the United States again. Since they had violated this oath by again serving as a Confederate soldier, they could be executed by firing squad.
Shortly after John Luther Porter established Porter’s Corner on the west end of the north side of the Kirksville square, he had opportunity to create another “named corner” on the same block. It was about 1882 when the Union Hotel (also known as the Ivie Hotel) was destroyed by fire. This was the early hotel owned by the family of John L. Porter’s wife, Mary Elizabeth (Ivie) on the corner of Franklin and Harrison Streets.