Hartville is located at the intersection of State Highways 5 & 38 in the Ozark Mountain Region.  Within an hour's drive of Springfield, MO and 90 minutes away from two large recreational lake areas, it is a small town with great country living.  Population: 537 friendly folks

    In addition to its downtown business district, Hartville boasts of its
R-12 School District; a Health Clinic; Wright County Health Department; a Care Center for the elderly and disabled, providing convalescent care and therapy services for the community; access to emergency care through Wri-Tex Enhanced 911 System; Meals on Wheels; home health care; hospice; Gasconade Neighbors Housing, Inc. which provides housing for the elderly and disabled; and the Older Adult Transportation Service (OATS).

Hartville Spring about 1900

    The spring remained very important to the town for over 100 hundred years.  At first it furnished cool and refreshing water for many of the townspeople and their animals.  As the settlement grew, a springhouse was added and nearby residents used it to keep milk, cream and butter cool.  Later the water was piped to a cheese plant below the spring and in dry years, hundreds of barrels were hauled daily by drought-stricken residents of the area.  With modern day pollution, the water is no longer safe to drink.
    How Hartville got its name has been subject to conjecture.  Some say that it was named after a man named Hart who donated the site.  However, there is no documentation to prove anyone with the surname Hart was in the county prior to the federal census of 1860. Indeed, abstracts for most of the city lots go back to Ratliff Boone Palmer who donated the spring to the town.
    The second theory is that it was named after Hartsville, Tennessee which was a town that a large number of settlers came through on their way here.  Indeed, many of the old maps show this to be Hartsville, Missouri.