Tree Walk Sesquicentennial - Washington, MO - Community Commemoration on Waymarking.com

County of walk: Franklin County
Location of walk: Grand Ave. & S. Lakeshore Dr., Lion Lake, Washington

Text on Marker:

Named after George Washington after it came under American control, [1804] the town was first settled during the rule of the Spanish Empire. It was originally called St. John Meyer's Settlement and was the site of the Spanish log fort, San Juan del Misuri (1796–1803).

"Some of the earliest settlers in the Washington area were literally followers of Daniel Boone, who blazed a trail from the hills of Kentucky to the wilderness of east-central Missouri.

"A natural river landing, at what was to become the Washington site, made this an ideal place to begin a settlement. In the first three decades of the 19th century, the small community grew upon the gently sloping hillside on the south bank of the Missouri River.

"William G. Owens and his wife Lucinda came from Kentucky and settled in the area in 1818. They eventully purchased several hundred acres, 50 acres of which would become known as "downtown" Washington. William Owens began selling town lots in 1832, however in 1834, he was murdered, and legal entanglements in his estate blocked the new town's establishment. His widow Lucinda, would eventually receive clear title to the town's core. May 29, 1839, she filed a plat at the county courthouse thus establishing the city of Washington.

"The German populace for which Washington is known began with the arrival of twelve Catholic families in the fall of 1833. This group and other later German immigrants were sometimes called "followers of Gottfried Duden," who for two years lived at nearby Dutow and wrote glowing reviews of the area for readers in his homeland. The lush, green, rolling hills and the river valley reminded Duden of the area in Germany from which he came." ~ Washington Historical Society

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