History

Marteny Skidmore was born May 25, 1825 in Randolph County, Virginia. He was the son of Thomas Skidmore Jr and Mary Kettle. At the age of 15, he began freighting on the Ohio River. Later he farmed near Cincinnati. In 1848 he married Mary Jane Jessup who died ten years later leaving three small sons. In 1852, with a partner, he led a train of traders to Santa Fe making a new trail part of the way. He returned to Ohio by ship from San Francisco around South America to New York. In 1858 he married Rebecca Ann Adams, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Lippincott Adams.

He come to Missouri in 1864, purchasing land along the Nodaway River. He returned to Ohio and the next year he moved here with his family. When the Burlington Railroad Company was planning the Nodaway Valley Branch, Mr. Skidmore donated the right of way across his land. He platted the town himself and held a sale of lots July 29, 1880.

At the age of 66, in 1891, he died following an emergency operation in St. Joseph, MO. Mrs. Skidmore died in 1922. Of his nine children, four died in childhood and three in early adulthood.

-Information from the Skidmore History Book Committee.