Machpelah Cemetery

The first time that the name " Lexington " occurs in the early court records of Lillard county is under date of August 6, 1822. The record says: " It is ordered that David Ward, Absalom Coleman, Robert W. Rankin, and Joseph. Hobson, or any three of them, being first sworn, be appointed to view the nearest and best route for a road to run from Lexington by way of the upper ford of the Big Sniabar to Stokely's Ferry, on -the Missouri river." Then again, August 19th, it is ordered that John Nelson, Markham Fristoe, Ira Bidwell and Jacob Catron, shall lay out a road from Lexington to intersect the road leading from the salt works to Jack's Ferry. This ferry had been established by Wm. Jack, in 1819, its landing place being a little below the mouth of Graham's Branch, or near the foot of Commerce street, which was graded down the bluff and well paved, as the grand thoroughfare from the city on the bluff down to her steamboat landing. But from the very spot where Jack's Ferry, and afterward steamboats used to land, it is now, 18S1, a half mile or more over solid land to the water's edge in the Missouri river; and the Lexington and Kansas City Railroad (narrow gauge), runs here for half a mile over ground where the river used to flow from ten to twenty-five feet deep.

Passage source: History of Lafayette County, Mo. , Carefully Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources, Including a History of Its Townships, Cities, Towns, and Villages, Together with a Condensed History of Missouri; the Constitution of the United States, and State of Missouri; a Military Record of Volunteers in Either Army of the Great Civil War .., published 1881.

Tne first plat in the book of town plats of the county is that of Lexington - the original village, or old town, which was about a mile and a half from the river at Jack's ferry. (The Missouri Pacific railroad depot is now, 1881, in Old Lexington. The following certificate accompanies the plat: State of Missouri,

Passage source: History of Lafayette County, Mo. , Carefully Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources, Including a History of Its Townships, Cities, Towns, and Villages, Together with a Condensed History of Missouri; the Constitution of the United States, and State of Missouri; a Military Record of Volunteers in Either Army of the Great Civil War .., published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Lexington Township - 37,082 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.