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BEN
HOLLADAY
Business leaders Benjamin Holladay and Theodore Warner
developed a profitable market trade with the Mormons.
Driven into the confines of Utah's salt lands, the
Mormons were in great need of supplies. Holladay and
Warner seized this opportunity and Weston became the
first center for the Salt Lake Trade Express, and the
Overland Stage Line. Holladay became know as "America's
Stagecoach King" and the father of modern transportation.
He also built the International Hotel, which later
became the site of the Weston Baptist Church and now
houses the Weston Historical Museum. In 1856 Ben and
his brother, David, founded the Holladay Distillery
on the outskirts of Weston. They built above a limestone
spring and used grain grown on area farms to make mash
from which they distilled whiskey. Now known as McCormick
Distillery, the property remained in the Holladay family
until 1894. |
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BUFFALO
BILL CODY
William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who later became the
most famous rider for the Pony Express, vacationed
in Weston with his Uncle Elijah Cody, whose house is
located at the corner of Main and Short, and is marked
with a historical plaque. His Uncle Elijah had a successful
business at the corner of Main and Market. When his
father Isaac moved his family from Iowa to the Weston
area he stayed with his uncle. Isaac was an abolitionist
and after expressing his views he was stabbed on Main
Street by a member of the Border Ruffians. If you check
a few tombstones in Laurel Hill Cemetery on Welt Street,
you will find members of the Cody family buried there. |
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DANIEL
BOONE
While Daniel Boone never lived in Weston, his descendants were resident
and active in the community. His grandson Theodore Warner was a close companion
and a partner in many business operations in and near Weston with Benjamin
Holladay. Russella Warner Price, wife of Colonel James A. Price, a direct
descendent of Daniel Boone became the owners of a three-story home at Spring
Street in the 1860's. Russella's mother was Minerva Boone Warner; their
grandfather was Jesse Boone, Daniel Boone's son. Four generations of family
descendants lived here, 125 years, until 1987 when Miss Forestyne Price
Loyles, the great, great, great, great granddaughter of Daniel Boone, left
the family home. |
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MARY
OWENS VINEYARD
In 1836 Abraham Lincoln arduously courted Mary Owens. Known as "Lincoln's
other Mary," this fastidious little lady did not like the uncouth way of
the future President of the United States. She also displayed an independent
nature and refused his marriage proposal. Her family came west from Kentucky
and settled in Platte County. Her future husband, Jesse Owens, along with
two brothers came to Platte County soon after the Purchase. Two of them
married Owens sisters. Jesse Vineyard and Mary Owens had two sons and a
daughter. After Jesse Vineyards was killed in the Civil War, Mary continued
to live in Weston on Walnut Street until her death in 1877. Her daughter,
who inherited three letters written by Lincoln to her mother, said that
her mother never considered it much of an honor to have been courted by
the future President. Asked later in life if she regretted turning down
Lincoln's proposal and not being First Lady she replied that she thought
good manners superceded wealth, power and influence. Mary Owens Vineyards
is buried in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery just north of Weston on P Highway.
For another perspective of this story go
online and type in Mary Owens. There was
a fascinating story written in the KC Star
at the time of the dedication of a new headstone
donated by the Robert Bloch family of Kansas City.
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