Welcome To My Home Town

I came here to Wentzville in 2003 and in just days I fell in love with the town and its people. It has a long and rich history beginning in 1855. With a principal crop of tobacco from the 1820s to about 1880, here is where many of the large tobacco companies of our day began. Through the Civil War years, 1861-1865, the village was a stronghold of the Confederacy with training camps for soldiers who, after training, were sent to Arkansas, Mississippi, and other Southern states. In 1861, the Battle of Wentzville took place between Union troops from St. Louis, who arrived on a train. For several days, the Confederate villagers fired upon the train as it tried to move westward; when the fighting ceased there were 7 dead and some 30 wounded. The Wentzville Hotel was used as a makeshift hospital where soldiers from both sides were treated before leaving for St. Louis. The hotel was burned to the ground the night the train left, and it was never known whether it was torched by angry Confederates who resented treating Union soldiers or the Federals, who might have destroyed it to keep it from being used by the Confederates. The Hotel was rebuilt in 1867, in brick this time, 14 inches thick. After the war and the abolishing of slavery, tobacco factories closed down and other crops and livestock became king.

I hope that through this blog I can inspire people to take more interest in our community and help keep it a great place to live, play, and work. I will be talking about our history, our present (as our City government grows at a staggering rate), and hope for the future of a little tobacco town just wanting to get its crops to the big city.