Lee’s Summit Fence Company with Fence Direct

A suburb of the Kansas City metropolitan region, Lee’s Summit is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It crosses both Cass and Jackson counties, mostly. With 101,108 inhabitants as of the 2020 census, it was the sixth-largest city in both Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area.

William B. Howard established the “Town of Strother” in October 1865, not to be mistaken with a town of the same name in Monroe County. He gave it the name Maria D. Strother in honor of his wife, who is the daughter of William D. Strother, a former resident of Bardstown, Kentucky. Howard immigrated to Jackson County from Kentucky in 1842, wed Maria in 1844, and by 1850, he and Maria acquired a homestead and 833 acres (3.37 km2) north of town. Near the start of the Civil War, in October 1862, Howard was detained for being a Confederate. After being released on bail, he returned with his family to Kentucky for the length of the conflict. He returned when the war was over and, realizing that the Missouri Pacific Railroad was exploring a line nearby, platted the town of Strother on 70 acres (280,000 m2) in the fall of 1865.

The town’s name was altered to “Town of Lee’s Summit” in November 1868, probably in recognition of early pioneer Dr. Pleasant John Graves Lea, who had relocated to Jackson County from Bradley County, Tennessee, in 1849. The adjacent Big Cedar post office was served by Lea, according to the 1855 United States Official Postal Guide. In August 1862, Kansas Jayhawkers (also known as Redlegs) killed Dr. Lea.

Both the locals and the railroad wanted to name the town after Dr. Lea when the surveyors for the Missouri Pacific Railroad passed through. He owned a farm on the highest point, close to the lines, and his murder took place not far from where the proposed depot will be located. In order to emphasize the location’s highest height on the Missouri Pacific Railroad between St. Louis and Kansas City, they picked the name “Lea’s Summit,” with the “summit” part. But the name “Lees Summit” was misspelled on a boxcar that was being used as a station and donated by the Missouri Pacific, then on a sign near the tracks, and lastly in the printed timetable for the railroad (using two “e’s,” “Lee” instead of “Lea,” and missing off the apostrophe). According to legend, Lee’s Summit was originally spelled incorrectly on the side of the Missouri Pacific depot and has stayed so ever since.