Seligman is a city in Sugar Creek Township, Barry County, Missouri, United States.

Rainfall west of the railroad flows into the Grand Lake o' the Cherokees by way of Big Sugar Creek and Cowskin River.

[6] The region also hosts Karst topography, characterized by high limestone content and the formation of sinkholes and caves.

[9] Seligman originally developed from a small trading post that built up around or near the homestead of Andrew, George, John, Joshua and Jacob Roller from Scott County, Virginia, some of the first permanent European settlers to arrive in the area in the 1830s.

This road originally was a trace cut by hundreds of Cherokee in 1838 as they wound their way across Missouri to Tahlequah, Oklahoma as part of the federal government's Indian Removal Act of 1830 or "Trail of Tears", which passed about five miles west of the Roller homestead.

[16] Some bushwhackers were supported by the Union Army and encouraged to commit acts of terror and sabotage to undermine morale.

In 1866, Christian E. Fawver and his family came to the area from Illinois in a covered wagon and reopened Victory Mills, a gristmill on the upper arm of Big Sugar Creek north of town, and converted it to steam power.

[17] Before the mill opened, locals had to haul their grain to the site of the nearest railroad in Pierce City, Missouri —- a two-day trip.

[20] A deep well was dug in the center of Main Street to supply the town's needs, which was named the "Exhaustable Fountain" [sic], but because of the growing population, this well later went dry.

[21] Commerce increased, and in 1880 a dray service began operation in town, hauling and delivering freight by wagon with up to three teams of horses or mules.

The company also gave 80 acres (32 ha) of land for the purpose of building a town, and also designed its streets, complete with names.

[24] In choosing the name Seligman, the residents recognized that the arrival of the railroad had been a great boon to the small settlement.

[26] Arriving trains soon brought a greater number and variety of visitors, traders and salesmen, and one of the first hotels, the Inmon House, was opened in 1881.

[27] By this time, the town had also grown to include a number of general merchandise stores, as well as a store for agricultural implements, a druggist, two hotels, a meat market, a livery stable, a granary, a lumber yard, a billiard hall, a barber shop, a blacksmith, a photographer, a physician, the Cross & Diver of Eureka Stage Line, and seven saloons.

In that year a town newspaper was established, the Seligman Sunbeam,[28] whose motto was "The Union, The Constitution, and The Enforcement of The Law".

It poised Seligman toward greater growth and development, though the fare was $1.85 for eighteen miles —- a steep price at the time.

As many as six passenger trains passed through Seligman every day, and two of the hotels operating at the time, the Gladden and the Linden, had difficulty serving the large numbers of people who stopped to stay in town.

Many of the travelers were salesmen, or "drummers" who would arrive with large trunks full of sample shoes, hardware, hats or costume jewelry and rent a buggy or dray wagon at the livery stable to transport their goods to outlying towns not connected to the railroad.

[31] Eventually six hotels opened in town at one point, which employed many local young people, especially women for cleaning, washing, filling water pitchers in each room, and cooking for boarders.

[27] By this time, local industries included poultry farming as well as timbering and milling for production of railroad ties and whiskey kegs.

[32] A series of major fires had a disastrous impact on Seligman,[29] beginning on January 22, 1883, when a fire broke out at the Exchange Hotel which destroyed it completely along with a large part of the town; W. J. Piper's Witchita [sic] House Hotel, four saloons, a grocery, a meat market, a barber shop, a general store, the Seligman Hotel, a drug store, a bakery, a hardware and a shoe store, as well as the office of the Seligman Sunbeam went up in flames.

This was made particularly difficult by the economic pressures of the Great Depression and the steady decline of passenger rail service through the area after World War II, which inevitably led to a contraction in the population of the town.

More recently, Seligman has continued civic development by establishing a community center, playground, public library, and the James L. Bottorff Memorial Museum, constructed as part of the Duane Corn Municipal Complex.

[46] Around 1904, prohibitionist and reformer Carrie Nation visited Seligman on a tour, staying at the Linden Hotel.

"[46] In 1921, noted outlaw Henry Starr came into Seligman, took rooms at the Gladden Hotel, and charmed the proprietor into endorsing a check for $100.

The next day, Starr entered the Seligman Bank and approached the teller with the check, which was immediately declined.