Market Square

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Market Square has to say. Now, you want to talk about a place that earned its keep before the county ever spent a dime on it, pull up close to this fire. Back in 1898, eleven men, eleven, not ten, not twelve, but exactly eleven, decided they weren't going to wait around for public money to make something happen.

They donated this land to Johnson County. And they didn't donate it with a wink or a handshake. They put it in writing: this land, to the county, forever.

That word must've carried some weight, because here it still stands. Now these men didn't pull that tradition out of thin air. The square was already carrying a rhythm folks had been following since the 1890s; First Monday, they called it.

First Monday of the month, when people came together to trade. Cattle, produce, whatever you had and whatever you needed. And if you think the trading stopped at livestock and vegetables, well.

Gossip among Johnson countians has always been a commodity with a going rate, and apparently that market never closed either. Eleven men, a piece of land, and one word: forever. That's a pretty solid return on zero public dollars.

What the marker says

Established 1898 when 11 men, not waiting for an expenditure of public money, donated this land to the county "forever". Carries on tradition of "First Monday" (day used for trading in 1890s). Still used for trade of cattle, produce, and gossip among Johnson countians.