Lewis and Clark reported that the area was beautiful with fertile soil and a diverse landscape full of plant and animal life. Their glowing reports of the area prompted fur-trading companies to send traders and trappers. After the Platte Purchase of 1836, 2 million acres were opened for settlement by pioneers. The call went out... "Land in Northwest Missouri, access to river traffic, fertile soil and beautiful landscape." In 1837 Joseph Moore, a discharged Dragoon soldier from Fort Leavenworth, ferried across the Mighty Missouri and took up claim, building a cabin on land that became the city of Weston. It was rumored Moore traded a barrel of whiskey to a trapper named McPherson for the parcel of land. Unable to successfully carry out his plan for the town, Moore sold a half interest of his claim to Bela Hughes, a young lawyer from Kentucky. Hughes used his influence to attract the most promising settlers, including a significant number of German and French decent, who came by wagons and steamboats from Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia. Word of Weston's success spread quickly. From all directions came doctors, lawyers, and zealous land speculators. A prominent German influence turned the downtown area into a profitable retail outlet supplying the surrounding countryside. During the early days at Fort Leavenworth, the United States government relied on Weston to accommodate the needs of the Fort. Officers, enlisted men, and their families also ferried across the river for their personal trading and entertainment. The Southern hemp and tobacco growers poured into the newly acquired land to farm the fertile soil. Many were wealthy slave holding families, others poor farmers seeking a better life in a new territory. Hemp, the main cash crop, was very difficult work, profitable only with slave labor; so by 1875 hemp was no longer produced in Platte County. Though not as important as hemp in the early days, through the years tobacco has become a very important cash crop for Weston and Platte County. The annual tobacco yield in Platte County prior to 1861 was 25 million pounds and Weston developed the only tobacco market west of the Mississippi until 2001. It's annual auction from November to January brought in millions of dollars. Today about 2.8 million pounds of tobacco is grown annually in Platte County, however it is now contracted to tobacco companies, or shipped to markets in the South. When you visit Weston in the fall, you still see the familiar large tobacco barns amidst the leafy fields. The farthest "West Town" in the United States, Weston's heyday was between its founding in 1837 and 1860. A bustling town for people heading west, it was the last place wagon trains could stock up before they crossed the Missouri River and entered wilderness. The steamboats unloaded supplies for Fort Leavenworth and supplies for Westward travelers, and then loaded back up with Weston products of tobacco, hemp ropes, hides, and later lumber, whiskey, and fruit as they headed home. Today family traditions left behind by Weston's early pioneers have remained a common thread among the residents of this romantic hamlet in Northwest Missouri. New houses are being built and old ones lovingly restored. The downtown and uptown business areas are thriving. The town and region look forward to sustained, orderly growth that makes it possible to retain the feel of a small town. Photographs Courtesy of Weston Historical Museum.
Excerpts from the book Memories of Weston, Volume
11, available at the Weston Historical Museum. |
The land upon which Weston was established
was part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Members
of the Lewis & Clark expedition, called The Corp
of Discovery, visited the Weston Area as they explored
the Louisiana Territory in 1804. A marker located at
the end of Main Street, near the Weston Depot, commemorates
their campsite. The Depot, built in 1922, is now home
to Weston City Hall and is located in what was once
the Missouri River channel.
He surveyed the town to divide into lots, providing
quitclaim deeds to be held until the plat filing. The
town was built in the valley created by hills on the
bluffs of the Missouri River and as the first city
founded in the six county Platte Purchase area, became
know as "Queen of the Platte."
A chain of destructive events would bring change
and devastation to the Weston area. The Missouri Compromise
of 1820 made Missouri a slave state and led to years
of strife between the abolitionists from Kansas just
across the river and the Weston planters, who came
from the South. By the 1850's the slavery issue had
brought increased tension and unrest to the Missouri-Kansas
border and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in
1854 sparked even further unrest between the residents.
It actually served to repeal the Missouri comprise
of 1820. Demonstration and conflict on the streets
of Weston were frequent.
But Weston persevered and some say Weston is
better off. Certainly continued growth would have doomed
its collection of antebellum and Victorian buildings.
In the late 1950's, an appreciation of the rich heritage
of Weston surfaced. The Weston Historical Museum was
founded in 1960 and many of the more than 100 antebellum
homes began to be restored to their original condition.
In 1972, given Weston's history as a significant mid-nineteenth
century Missouri River port community, along with the
preservation of a substantial portion of its early
residences and commercial structures, 22 blocks within
the city, with more than100 buildings qualifying, it
was designated as an historic district on the National
Register of Historic Places. In 1982 the Weston Development
Company, a non-for-profit association, was formed to
spearhead the redevelopment of the downtown business
district.