The Head of the North Prong

Headwaters

Source · about 9 miles south of Raymondville · North Prong mile 17.0 · Plate A14

The North Prong begins on the high, gentle ground of the plateau, where the heads of the Jacks Fork reach toward the main divide1 of the Missouri Ozarks (Chapter 2). The nearest town is Raymondville, a village in Jackson Township named by Joseph W. Brackett for his old home in Raymond, Maine; its post office dates from the 1870s2. No named spring is recorded at the head of the prong.

Harmon Branch

Branch · right bank · about North Prong mile 14.8

Within its first two and a quarter miles the prong takes in two branches of about the same size at nearly the same place: Harmon Branch from the west, draining a little over a square mile, and a branch with no recorded name from the northeast that drains slightly more1. The Harmons were among the early settlers along the upper prong. John Harmon became postmaster of the Jack’s Fork office in 1869 and George E. Harmon in 18902, and George E. Harmon was appointed at Grogan in 19003 (see Route 137 below). No record ties the branch to any one of them. The name appears twice on the prong, here near its head and again at Harmon Hollow, eight and a half miles down.

Peabody Branch

Branch · right bank · about North Prong mile 14.0

Peabody Branch comes in from the southwest. It runs about a mile and three-quarters and drains about a square mile and a half1. A little above its mouth a smaller branch with no recorded name enters from the northeast. Aaron T. Peabody was appointed postmaster at Grogan in 19002, the same year as George E. Harmon, and the two branches at the head of the prong carry their surnames, though no record connects either branch to either man.