north of Sedalia. He became a prominent businessman of the area. Using the technology he had acquired from his family, he built a hemp press and cordage mill for the manufacture of rope which was vital in the baling of cotton, river barge traffic and in farming and freighting. He also built a spinning and weaving mill, a hotel and tavern and a commissary store. Oswald also helped organize the first public school in Pettis County.
Sarah died in April l850 leaving Oswald to manage the eight children, several of them still young, in addition to his business enterprises. After a few years Oswald began searching for a wife to help raise his small children and run the hotel. At this time he may have remembered Margaret Marshall who was then thirty seven years old. It is unclear whether Margaret had migrated to Missouri where elements of the Marshall family had founded the city of Marshall, or whether Oswald returned to Clark County, Kentucky and accompanied Margaret to Missouri. Records show that Oswald and Margaret were married in Johnson County, the county just west of Pettis County, in April of 1856. Three children were born to Oswald and Margaret: Almeda Jane, Florence Augusta and James Oswald.
When the civil war began one of the first major battles was fought at Cross Timbers southwest of Springfield, and a subsequent lesser battle was fought up the Missouri River at Lexington. At Lexington the confederate forces won the battle under the command of General Sterling Price, but in spite of their victory the confederate forces withdrew to southwestern Missouri correctly assessing the fact that in northern Missouri pro-union sentiment prevailed. Pettis County was never fully controlled by either side. Bushwhackers and roving Guerrilla bands organized by General Price to harass union areas soon fell to indiscriminate killing and plundering. Pettis County like many other counties organized Home Guard units to protect lives and property of citizens regardless of their sympathies in the war. Oswald was Captain of the Home Guard charged with protecting the Georgetown area. Several instances of violence occurred in or around Georgetown where rebel bands were hunting supposedly pro-union men. The war provided a plausible excuse for what amounted to outright murder and robbery. Oswald apparently favored the union cause even though he own numerous slaves. This must have been the case since otherwise Oswald's appointment as captain would never have been sanctioned by the Union commander of the area, and many years later Margaret received a widow's pension for Oswald's military service.
By 1856 the Missouri Pacific railroad had been completed to Jefferson City. Oswald knew that the rail line was vital to the future of Georgetown, so he organized a campaign to raise funds to bring the railroad through Georgetown. He contributed heavily himself, and one of his older children recorded that he witnessed Oswald counting out five thousand dollars in gold coin to a Mr. Fullerton of the railroad to sweeten the case for Georgetown. However, General George Smith who owned much property around Sedalia, outbid Oswald and Sedalia got the railroad instead. Soon afterward Fullerton was killed in the war, and Oswald and his Georgetown supporters lost their money. By 1864 Sedalia had