City of Versailles | History | Versailles, Missouri

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History

City of Versailles.org

HISTORY OF VERSAILLES

Versailles has grown in the past years since 1835. From a small village with muddy streets and a few
homes to a city with paved streets, a business district, as well as residential area.

Commissioner Street Thruston selected the site for Versailles in Section 6, Township 42, Range 17 in
Morgan county in 1835. Wyan and Galbraith donated 36 square blocks of land, each 170 feet square and
plotted the town. At this time, Daniel Dunklin was governor of Missouri and Andrew Jackson was president
of the United States.

Morgan County was organized by act of the legislature in 1833. The first county seat, called Millville, was
located six miles southeast of present Versailles I the area of Camp Gravois Y.M.C.A. Camp. In 1836, the
seat of government was moved to new Versailles and the courthouse was a log building at the northeast
corner of the square. The seat of Morgan County was located there for about eight years.

When first established, Versailles had only two streets, Monroe and Fisher, running north and south, and
ten street running east and west. The town was named after Versailles, France, probably by some
descendants of the French.

The highest point in the town was selected to be the site of the public square. In 1840, the population of
Versailles was 70 and there were 25 buildings. This was about the time that Dr. J.B. Thruston, ancestor of
Dr. Jack Gunn, came here and began the practice of medicine. He was joined in 1848 by Dr. McCelland.

Hugh Galbraith erected the first business building in Versailles, which was a small brick structure one block
north of the square on North Monroe Street.

In 1836, William Hicks opened a three-room tavern, or inn, and livery stable at the southwest corner of the
square on South Monroe Street. This also was a stagecoach stop for the Jefferson City to Springfield line.
Among the earlier builders were Zebulon Moore and Joseph Steele, as were Daniel Williams and Lindley,
who had a blacksmith shop: Joh T. Harmon operated a boarding house: T&P Miller had a general store and
Milton O’Brian, a carpentry shop. All the buildings were located around the public square. Lumber for the
frame buildings was bought from Josiah Walton’s Lumber Jill at Millville.

L.E. Williamson owned a sawmill on Gravois Creek south of Versailles, where lumber was sawed for building
in Williamson’s Addition to the city of Versailles. The Williamson’s lived in a large house at the east end of
Williamson Street.

James Livingsgton, Hugh Miller, Major W.W. Cook and W.P. Tooley opened businesses here in about
1840. Cook and Tooley brought merchandise for their stores by ox cart from Fayette.

In 1844 William Kidwell, Sr., established the Kidwell undertaking and furniture business on the North
Monroe Street. Members of the Kidwell family made coffins to order and furniture from walnut lumber from
the Walton mills. The business passed later to David Kidwell and, at his death, William F Kidwell became
the owner. After a few years, he dropped the furniture business and devoted his time to the funeral
business. He was the first licensed embalmer in Versailles, although for several years families refused to
allow their deceased to be embalmed.

In 1844, also, a modest brick courthouse was constructed in the center of the square with William Burch
and Co. Young of Jefferson City as builders. Bricks were used in the structure were molded and baked in
kilns in a small brick yard in the east part of town where the first water tower now stands. The brick yard
was owned by Mitch Duff. Clay was ground in a horsedrawn grinder and molded by hand, three bricks to a
mold. In the early days, clay was very close to the surface of the ground in Versailles.

The first courthouse was a two-story building surrounded by a corral fen e with hitching posts placed at
convenient intervals. It soon became evident that the number of rooms in the courthouse could not
adequately serve the couth officers. Two or three small cabins were built on the south and west grounds to
supplement the offices.

In 1846, a stagecoach line passed through Versailles from Jefferson City to Springfield by way of Cole
camp and Warsaw. The coaches, drawn by four to eight horses, made daily stops on Versailles.

The only traveler’s accommodations was “Grandma Long’s Inn” that stood on the west side of the square.

In 1853, the woman who operated the inn leased it to a family of strangers who came here from Patrick
County, Va. Samuel and Elizabeth Martin, who arrived here with four children and two of his brothers,
bought the inn, after a year, for $300 and moved it to the tract of land one block north of the square on
North Monroe Street. After 23 years, the Martin’s constructed a two-story frame hotel on the spot in 1877.

Business was so good at the Martin Hotel that in 1884 Samuel Martin added a two-story brick hotel on the
south, which was one of the best buildings in Versailles.

Although the guest rooms had no running water, were heated by wood-burning stoves and lighted by
kerosene lamps, the Martin Hotel was considered on of the finest in the state.

The two-story City Hotel, located on the south side of the square, was constructed in the late 1800’s.

Plank sidewalks connected the business places in Versailles for many years. In 1891, the town had gas
lights, furnished by the Chicago Globe, Light and Heat Company.

With a population of over 2500, Versailles is the center for thousands of residents and visitors. The
government offices are located in the courthouse that is in the National Register of Historic Place. Today,
the City of Versailles serves as the gateway to the Lake of the Ozarks area as a unique place where the
Prairies Meet the Hills!

History