Program of the Day
GOV. HENRY S. CAULFIELD
BISHOP THOMAS F. LILLIS
CAPT. TAYLOR BRANSON
U. S. Marine Band Leader
MAJ. T. J. STRICKLER
Wentworth Gymnasium
Wentworth Alumni Stadium
Wentworth Illuminated Stadium
Wentworth Gymnasium
Goose Pond
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The Story of Lexington
Lexington One Hundred
Ten Years
Lexington has seen the west grow from trackless prairies with only a few trading Posts to a prosperous region of fertile farms and busy cities; has seen the covered wagon and pony express give way to the railroad, automobile, and aeroplane; has watched Missouri go through the adventurous days of pioneers and Indians, through those troublous times of the Civil War, through the throes of reconstruction, and through the crises of the Spanish American and World Wars. And Lexington has participated largely in the events of each historic period.
Now, after a hundred and ten years, Lexington pauses to look back over a career that for adventure, romance, and history can hardly be equaled by any city of the state. And Lexington is celebrating, not as a town whose work is over, whose life lies in the past, but as a vigorous center of a prosperous region, which looks with confidence and hope to the future. In this spirit of youthfulness and progress, based on a century of solid growth, proud of the past, but eager for the years to come, the city stops to mark a glorious anniversary.
The First Settler
In 1815, Gilead Rupe, the first white settler in
The County Seat
The first county seat of Lafayette County - or rather Lillard County as it was called until 1825, when the legislature bestowed the new name in honor of General Lafayette who visited St. Louis - was at Mt. Vernon, then a small village near the mouth of Tabo Creek, some eight miles east of Lexington. Here the first court was held in 1821, with Judge David Todd (who fought in the was of 1812 under William Henry Harrison) on the bench, and Hamilton R. Gamble as Circuit Attorney, In February, 1823, the people voted to move the county seat to Lexington, which had apparently been a considerable settlement for a number of years, being occupied by hardy pioneers from Kentucky, who had come down the Ohio and ascended the Missouri, and who gave the name “Lexington” to their first settlement in memory of their old Kentucky home.
Jacks' Ferry
This settlement was near the site of the well-known ferry across the Missouri River, operated by William Jacks. The name “Jacks' Ferry” appears in the earliest court records of 1821 as a well established location, and the ferry had doubtless been in operation for a number of years. It was a rope and windlass contrivance, being operated by hand when the river was low, but using horse power in high water.
The Original Town
The river then flowed at the foot of the bluff where the Missouri Pacific Railroad now runs, and Jacks' Ferry landed about where the pumping station of the Lexington Water Company is located. The few houses that constituted the original Lexington were back on the bluffs about a mile and a half from the ferry landing, in what is now called “Old Town”; however, a road was laid out from the settlement to the landing following the course over the present waterworks road, a continuation of Broadway.
The
An active commerce with the
southwest had been growing during the early yeas of
Two
River Transportation
The first steamboat to attempt
the
Education
In 1838, George and William Houx
hewed cottonwood logs on an island in the river, floated them down to
In 1847, the same year in which
the present Court House was completed, the cornerstone as laid at Lexington for
a Masonic College - the first institution of its kind in the world - whose
removal from Palmyra to Lexington had been authorized by the Missouri Grand
Lodge of Masons. The school was dedicated and formally opened in 1848, entering
upon an interesting career of usefulness that lasted until just before the war.
It attracted a great many students of note, among whom were Gen. John S.
Marmaduke, governor of
During the war, the college building and grounds were occupied alternately by Federal and Confederate troops, and they served as Federal headquarters during the Battle of Lexington, for the forces under Col. James A. Mulligan, who surrendered to Gen. Sterling Price after a three day siege, September 18, 19, 20, 1861, and who was killed in action at Winchester, Virginia, July 25, 1864.
A short distance from the college
building stood the
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The Court Houses
When the county seat was moved to Lexington in 1823, there was no county building prepared, and court was held in a private house - the old Buck home - which formerly stood near the corner of 24th and South streets. This condition prevailed until 1825, when a new Court House, erected on the square now used as a ball park, between 23rd and 24th streets, was completed and occupied. This building was poorly constructed however, and in a few years it was condemned and abandoned. In 1835, a new three story brick Court House was completed and used for twelve years. In 1847, the present Court House, a two-story brick structure of handsome colonial design, with tall clock tower and massive stone columns was built and has been occupied continuously for eighty-three years. It stands today, in excellent condition, in daily use, and serving, by the simple dignity of its architecture and the romance of its many years of history to link the past with the present.
These three county buildings have been the scenes of many hard – fought legal battles. Judge David Todd who received his commission from Alexander McNair, Missouri’s first governor; Hamilton R. Gamble, later judge of the Supreme Court and governor of the state; Judge John F. Ryland, afterward a member of the Supreme Court; Alexander W. Doniphan of Mexican War fame; Eldridge Burden, first mayor of Lexington, probate judge for twelve years and member of the state legislature for eight years; Thomas T. Crittenden, nephew of John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and later Governor of Missouri; William Warner at one time prosecuting attorney of Lafayette County and afterward United States Senator from Missouri; these distinguished men, and many others aided in the administration of justice in the early years of Lexington’s history.
On Wednesday, September 28, 1927,
a committee consisting of Mrs. John Trigg Moss of St. Louis, Chairman of the
National Old Trails Committee of the D. A. R., Mrs. William Livingston of
Clinton, Vice-Chairman, Mrs. B. L. Hart of Kansas City, Missouri State Regent of
the D. A. R. , B. L. Thompson of Herrington, Kansas, Vice-President of the
National Old Trails Road Association, Frank A. Davis of Rosedale, Kansas,
Secretary, Judge Robert Barr of Independence, Misorui and B. M. Little of
Lexington, viewed sites at Independence and Lexington and after discussion and
vote, Lexington was chosen to have the perpetual care of Missouri’s monument to
the Pioneer Mother. The monument stands at the head of
Churches
The people of
The Little Sni-a-bar Baptist
Church, which was organized in 1825 about three miles southwest of Lexington,
moved to town in 1838, changing its name to the First Baptist Church of
Lexington. A congregation of Disciples organized themselves into the Lexington
Christian Church in 1836. The following year, the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, was formed. In 1839, the Presbyterian congregation was established in