Historic Downtown Liberty, Missouri

This is an excerpt taken from the http://historicdowntownliberty.org website. Very interesting photos on this site too.



Liberty Township was first settled by Robert Gilmore, his sons James Gilmore and Samuel Gilmore, Richard Hill, and Elijah Smith in 1820. Other settlers arrived in 1821. In the early summer of 1822 John Owens and Charles McGee donated 50 acres of land and the Liberty municipal township was laid out and made the county seat. Owens had a tavern, or "house of entertainment" on what is now the northwest corner of Water and Mill streets. The Owens house was used to hold the first courts and "for other public purposes."


The first sale of lots was held on July 4th, 1822 and all those fronting the square were sold on that day. Up to 1826 there were approximately a dozen houses in Liberty and all but one were log cabins. Early hotels or taverns were established by Leonard Searcy (1826), Laban Garrett (1827) and John Chauncy (1832). Probably the first store in Liberty was established by William L. Smith, the county clerk, who brought a few goods from Bluffton in 1822 and sold them from his home.


Liberty was first incorporated as a town on May 4, 1829 and included 160 acres of land. The public square in Liberty had two houses on the south side, one on the west, two on the north and two or three on the east. There was one tavern on the square that belonged to Leonard Searcy. There was no church in town.


In December 1846, an article in the Tribune described Liberty as follows: "If there is a healthy spot in Missouri, it is in Liberty. It is finely watered, society is good, and in point of morals it is the equal to any other place, and rapidly improving in that respect. There is stone enough in the streets to pave the whole town. We have a "Union" Sunday-school numbering 80 scholars, and quite a respectable library attached to it."


The Legislature re-incorporated the City of Liberty on March 28, 1861 describing its site as "all that district of country contained within one mile square, of which the court house in Clay county is the center..." The city is still governed under this charter and certain amendments.