| Notes |
- Bessie graduated from Normal Teachers College in Union, MO in 1902. She was a school teacher in a small country school in Gray Summit, MO until she moved to Fort Worth, TX. Her husband, David Franklin, had been one of her students several years before.
Place name: https://shsmo.org/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_franklin.html
Gray Summit
Description:
A small village and station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, in the south central part of Boles Township. It has been the site of a post office for nearly 120 years without interruption of service, but during that time has been listed under four different names. The earliest name was Point Labaddie (or Labadie), established June 19, 1824, with Henry Groff as its first postmaster. It was named for its location on a high point and its nearness to Labaddie Creek (q.v.). Possibly it was named directly for Sylvestre Labaddie, Jr., who once owned all the land in this part of the county, and who died in 1849 (not, as stated by Eaton and Kiel, for Sylvestre Labaddie, Sr., who died in 1794). On January 23, 1838, the name was changed to Port William, for William T. North, its first postmaster. Mr. North (1808-1865), a native of Charlotte, County, Virginia, came to Franklin County in 1832. Port William was one mile west of the present Gray Summit, across from the present Shaw's Garden. On September 24, 1858, a new town was platted, the land being given by E.P. Gray and others. The name of the post office was changed on January 25, 1859 to Gray's Summit. The new name was chosen in honor of Daniel Gray, who settled here and began to keep a hotel in 1845; the term "summit" was added because this is the highest place on the Missouri Pacific Railroad between St. Louis and Jefferson City. James M. Ming was the first postmaster of Gray's Summit. Finally in 1892, the name was shortened to Gray Summit, under the postmastership of Henry F. Rees. The Missouri Pacific Railroad, however, has persistently retained the earlier form with the possessive. Gray's Summit was the site of Camp Franklin (q.v.) during the Civil War. One authority (McClure, p. 20) refers to the place as Gray's Gap, and says that it was so called in the St. Louis Daily MISSOURI DEMOCRAT of February 12, 1855. This was probably used tentatively before the name Gray's Summit was settled upon. (Postal Guide; Davis & Durrie, 365; COUNTY ATLAS 1878, 13- 14; HIST. FRANKLIN, 338; Eaton; Kiel's BIOG. DIR., 202, 208-9; McClure, 6, 19, 20; PLAT BK. A, 12; Miss Johnson: J.W. Reynolds; Charles Becker; S.F. North; Miss Martha May Wood)
Source:
Harrison, Eugenia L. "Place Names Of Four River Counties In Eastern Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1943. [1]
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1877 - 1966 (88 years)
