Almost all of the early structures around the square were of frame construction and on the west side of the square was a dilapidated group of buildings called "DOG ROW". These buildings included at least 3 saloons. This area was considered to be one of much debauchery and vulgarity. Fisticuffs were common and no respectable woman would walk along this side of the square for fear of insults or of being accosted. Usually on Saturday nights, townspeople were astounded if less that six fights broke out along dog row. Dog row earned its name as a result of canine fights which were encouraged by the patrons of dog row for betting purposes. This area was known to be visited by the likes of Wild Bill Hickock.

During the Spring of 1878, a fire of unknown origin started in one of the buildings of dog row and quickly engulfed the entire area. A strong breeze prevented it from being controlled and the entire section of dog row was destroyed, much to the satisfaction of many citizens in Marshall.

The original court house was built in Marshall in 1841 for a cost of $5000. During the Civil War, the court house was used by the federal troops as a barracks and sleeping quarters for their men. The county officers had their offices in the upper portion of the building but all records had been moved to Lexington for safe keeping. No county office was occupying the building at the time. The lower rooms were littered with hay and straw which was used by Federal soldiers for bedding. One of the Confederate soldiers that had taken over Marshall took some hay, ignited it and threw it inside the court house. The fire quickly spread and the court house was consumed.

A second court house was built in 1865 for a cost of $40,000. After many years of use this building deteriorated to the point it was no longer usable and was burned in 1881.

The current court house was built in 1882 for a cost of $51,762. A collection of $75 was made from the citizens of the town, and a clock was installed.

In 1901 a disastrous drought hit Marshall as well as the rest of Missouri. During this year a disastrous fire struck the New York Store on the Southeast corner of the square and burned down the entire block of adjoining buildings. Questions were raised after the fire about inadequate water pressure provided by the local private water company, The Marshall Water Works Company. The City refused to pay their water bill from the fire and eventually bought out the water company. This led to the development of the Marshall Municipal Utilities.

Very little information is available on education in Marshall from 1839 to 1900 due to the fire that destroyed the court house in 1864 and a fire that destroyed the High School in 1921

A fire of undetermined origins was discovered in a video rental store on the north side of the Marshall square at approximately 11:30 pm. On arrival of fire fighters (at that time our response to all fires was 1 engine with 3 personnel), heavy fire was found in the rear of the store and was spreading to the second floor of the building. Through the efforts of our personnel and our mutual aid departments, the fire was contained to one building in the block. Though 2 businesses were lost the rest of the block housing a bank and at least 7 businesses were saved.

At 12:15 p.m. on March 16, 1992 our Department was called to the Wilson Foods - United Refrigeration complex for a fire. This is a pork slaughtering/processing plant adjoining a large frozen foods storage facility.

On arrival, a large fire was in progress which later was determined to be caused by a worker using a torch to remove equipment. This fire had started at least 20 minutes before the Fire Department was called. Quickly realizing that our troops could not handle this fire, Chief John Rieves immediately called for mutual aid and later the state wide mutual aid system was activated. Over the next 10 days over 400 personnel representing 43 different Departments were used at this scene.

Numerous agencies responded to provide support services during this catastrophe, including the American Red Cross, US Air Force and concerned citizens. It is estimated that over 200 people were involved in support services alone.

This fire destroyed and area 600 feet X 300 feet of the United Refrigeration complex. Damages were estimated at 100 million dollars. By far the largest fire Marshall has ever seen.

At approximately 2:20 p.m. , our Department responded to a fire in the freezer area of Conagra Frozen Foods, a manufacturer of various brands of frozen foods including Banquet, Healthy Choice, Chun-King and others.

The fire had been given quite a head start on us while contractors and plant employee's tried to extinguish the fire.  The fire was determined to have started in the blast freezer area where outside contractors were using a torch to remove bolts from the doors of the blast cells.  Sparks from this operation reached combustible materials and quickly spread to the rack storage of products.

With the assistance of mutual aid companies from Arrow Rock, Carrollton, Malta Bend, Pettis County, Sedalia, Slater and Sweet Springs, this fire was under control in about 4 hours.  We had crews on scene for two more days taking care of hot spots as workers removed the products from the freezer area.

Damages were estimated at 17 Million Dollars.