MENDON

A short history of Mendon

Mendon was laid out a mile and a quarter from its current location in 1871 by Christopher Shupe. Shupe named it for his previous home place, Mendon, Illinois, which incorporated in 1867 and was named for Mendon, Massachusetts, incorporated precisely two centuries earlier, in 1667.

The Missouri area had been known as "Salt Creek", and businesses were in operation several years prior to the town plat actually being filed. Among the earliest was a general store built around 1865 by Mr. Bostich and Mr. Eastman. A Methodist church was erected in 1866. A sawmill was located five miles east of the town.

In 1867, Jeremiah Andrews Felt, of Quincy, in Adams County, Illinois, not far from Mendon Township, sent his twin sons, William Winsor Felt and Winslow Leach Felt, aged 22, with their 16-year-old brother George Washington Felt, to establish farms on 80 acres to the northwest of where the original Mendon would be laid out four years later in 1871. The Felt twins later acquired 320 acres from the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, and were named as "farmers and stock-raisers being among the first settlers of the area." Their brother George went to Iowa. Then, Winslow Leach, his wife Annetta Brown, and son Arthur Stanley all died. After their deaths, Charles Davis Felt (1858-1949), the youngest of the Felt brothers, arrived by 1880 to take over the farm.

A few years later, the Chicago, Santa Fe and California Railway, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, projected that their rail line would pass by the village, but over a mile away. Citizens were faced with a monumental choice: to remain or move closer to the railroad. On January 13, 1888, the Mendon Land & Trust purchased land from the Felt brothers and a new Mendon was created at the current site; the former location was mostly abandoned. The Felts donated a parcel upon which the high school was built for the blossoming community.

"The new town was laid out consisting of 20 square blocks. The town sits parallel to the railroad tracks and thus isn't square north and south. Businesses started to move from Old Mendon and the town began to prosper. In 1890, the Articles of Corporation were filed and accepted by the County Court. Mendon Cemetery is still where it was in 1860, a part of Old Mendon. The post office began operation in 1872 and continued today."

Sebastian Joseph bought Lot No. 16 in Block 3 for $145.00 on the following conditions: "That intoxicating liquors shall never be bargained, sold, bartered, traded or otherwise disposed of as a beverage in any place of public resort in or on said premises." If these conditions should be violated, the property would revert back to the Land Company. Frank Newcomer and a Mr. Holworthy put up the first buildings. Newcomer started a lumber yard and hardware store. Later Eli Ward started an implement business, and businesses from "Old Mendon" began to move to the new town.

The year following the city's move, in 1889, Emil Loew, a harness maker from Tramelan, Switzerland, and his wife, German-British Mary Groetecke, arrived in Mendon from Brookfield to set up a shop and home. Their daughter Bernah married Chester Arthur Felt, son of Charles Davis Felt and Lydia McCarl, in 1909, both resided in Mendon until their deaths. Their sons were Arthur Emil Felt and Charles Woodrow Felt.

"The town site originally belonged to William and Charles Felt...Later Eli Ward embarked in the implement business, and the business interests of Old Mendon began to move to the new town…. It had a church, public school, a bank, two hotels, a newspaper, The Citizen, and about twenty other businesses, both large and small, including shops and stores. Population 1899: 350."

A newspaper, the Mendon Citizen, was first published in 1886. By 1899, the community contained over 20 stores, a school, a bank, and two hotels.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Mendon, Missouri, revision 1377752202 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.