Weston Missouri - The Town That Refused to Die

Weston, Missouri

The town continued to grow as area businesses actively traded with Fort Leavenworth and the area Indians. Large warehouses were established along Market Street, close to the wharf, to serve the burgeoning river trade.

In 1844, the Holy Trinity church was built, sitting high upon a hill on Cherry Street. The Presbyterian Church, also built in the 1840’s, would ring its bell to alert dockworkers that a steamboat was coming. The Presbyterian Church is now the Christian Assembly church and sits at the corner of Washington and Thomas. Both historical churches are still active today.

Weston, Missouri, 1865

Weston, 1865, courtesy State Historical Site of Missouri

With the coming affluence, early settlers began to build stately columned Federal Style two-story houses like those they had left in the South. The town residents also built several commercial buildings that exhibited the influence of the French traders who had arrived from New Orleans and Canada, as well as a German influence from those emigrants who arrived in the area.

In 1846 the St. George Hotel (now the Hotel Weston) was built, one of the three in Weston during its heyday, but the only historic hotel remaining today. In the 1800’s the hotel catered to the workingman, providing 47 rooms on the top two floors. On the first floor was a saloon, sample rooms where traveling salesmen could exhibit their wares, a tobacco shop, a restaurant and two retail spaces.

Trinity Church in Weston, Missouri

Trinity Church Today, January, 2004,

Kathy Weiser

Between the years of 1946 and 1948, Ben Holladay furnished supplies to General Stephen Kearny's Army during the Mexican War. Continuing to expand his empire, Holladay moved to California in 1852.

By the early 1850’s, Weston’s population had grown to 5,000 becoming the second largest port in Missouri, behind St. Louis only. At this time, as many as 300 steamboats would be seen docking in Weston from April through November unloading supplies for Fort Leavenworth and shipment West on the Oregon Trail. On their return trip, the steamboats would be loaded with tobacco, hemp, lumber, animal hides and fruit.

St George Hotel in Weston, Missouri

St. George Hotel courtesy Weston, Missouri website

Missouri Steamboat

Missouri steamboat courtesy Library of Congress

Buffalo Bill Cody resided for a time in Weston. After Cody's father, Isaac, was attacked and stabbed while giving an antislavery speech in Kansas, Bill came to live with his uncle, Elijah Cody, in his home at 600 Main Street.

But, in 1855, the first in a chain of disasters would start the spin of decline for which Weston would never recover. The first was a major fire in the downtown district of the city where most of the businesses were destroyed. However, Weston persevered and rebuilt its business district. Most of the buildings today were built between 1855 and 1860.

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Great American Bars and Saloons

Great American Bars and Saloons by Kathy Weiser By Kathy Weiser

Owner/Editor of Legends of America

Kathy Weiser's first venture into the publishing world takes you into the many watering holes of America's past, particularly the numerous saloons that sprouted up during our nation's Wild West days. This great photographic review displays hundreds of vintage photographs from California to Arizona, the mining camps of Colorado, all the way to New York and its turbulent days of Prohibition.

Hardcover, 2006, 224 Pages. Signed by the author!!

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