[Side A]
Pleasant Hill dates back to Missouri's early pioneer days. As early as 1823, there was a trading post located two miles east of the present town that was operated by a French Canadian by the name of Blois.
In 1828, David Creek settled on land in this part of Missouri that had been ceded by treaty to the U.S. Government by the Assuage Indians three years earlier.
William Wright and his wife, Melinda, came to this part of western Missouri from Kentucky in 1836 and established a mercantile business with Methodist circuit rider William Ferrell.
W.W. Wright platted the first addition to be recorded as the "Original Town of Pleasant Hill" on October 8, 1844, on the ridge near what is now the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
Pleasant Hill was an overnight stop for the stagecoach routes between Fort Scott, Kansas and Lexington, Missouri. A 3-story brick tavern erected by the Wrights in 1846 was a popular haven for travelers and is said to have had a "beacon" on top of a 12-foot pole that welcomed weary travelers to town.
The town of Pleasant Hill was chartered in 1855 and Dr. Logan McReynolds was its first mayor.
Bitter fighting between southern guerrillas and federal troops during the Civil War led to [O]rder No. 11 which required people living in Cass County and three other counties on the Missouir-Kansas border to vacate their homes unless they could prove their loyalty to the [U]nion.
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[Side B]
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The Christian Church built in 1848 was used to house federal soldiers during the Civil War and was later burned by "Bushw[h]ackers." The Presbyterian congregation was divided by the Civil War and two churches were built side-by-side on High Street.
Southern Colonel Hiram Bledsoe commanded "Bledsoe's Battery" at Civil War battles in Missouri, Tennessee and Georgia. After the war, he served on the Cass County Court and Missouri Senate. He was buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery after his death in 1899.
Work on the Pacific Railroad was finally completed all the way across Missouri in 1865 and the railroad brought new prosperity to Pleasant Hill. Although land between the hills was low and swampy, First Street was laid out parallel to the tracks and the business district moved from "Old Town" to what is now downtown Pleasant Hill.
The Kellogg greenhouses were built in 1880 and for many years were considered the largest west of the Mississippi. During its heyday in the early 1900s, Colonial Poultry shipped millions of laying chickens to locations all over the world.
Lemuel Green and his two sons, Ralph and Lawrence installed a 500 kilowatt electric generator in Pleasant Hill in 1917 and founded what would become Missouri Public Service Company.
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