City of Versailles | History | Versailles, Missouri

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!