Pleasant Hill, Missouri

Pleasant Hill, Missouri is a city of 8,777 people (2020 census) in Cass and Jackson counties on the southeast edge of the Kansas City metro.¹ Platted in 1844 by William Wright as the “Original Town of Pleasant Hill,” it was forced empty under Order No. 11 in 1863, then shifted about a mile southwest to the Pacific Railroad railhead after the war — today’s downtown, with the ridge site remembered as Old Town.¹

Overview

Counties	Cass and Jackson, Missouri
Population (2020)	8,7771
Platted	1844 (William Wright)1
Name	“pleasant situation on an elevated prairie”1
Civil War	Divided community; Order No. 11 removal 18631
Rail move	1865 — new center at Pacific Railroad / Big Creek1
NRHP	Pleasant Hill Downtown Historic District (listed 1994)1
Federal weather	Hosts National Weather Service Kansas City/Pleasant Hill (serves dozens of MO/KS counties)1
Trail	Western terminus of Rock Island Trail State Park (former Pacific/Rock Island line; connects toward Katy Trail)1

History

Stage stop on the ridge

William Wright platted the original town in 1844 with Methodist circuit rider William Ferrell operating a mercantile; Wright also ran a three-story tavern marked by a high beacon for the Lexington–Fort Scott stage route.¹ The site sat on a ridge near the present Pleasant Hill Cemetery.¹

Civil War and Order No. 11

In the 1860s the town was bitterly split between Union and Confederate sympathies and suffered bushwhacking; secondary local history notes Christian and Presbyterian churches on High Street and the burning of the Presbyterian church.¹ Under General Order No. 11 (1863), residents of the surrounding counties — including Pleasant Hill — were forced to leave.¹

Rail-era downtown

After residents returned, the commercial center moved about one mile southwest in 1865 to the Pacific Railroad railhead beside Big Creek; the ridge site remains inside city limits as Old Town.¹ The downtown historic district was listed on the National Register in 1994.¹ In 2016 the former Pacific / Rock Island corridor became the western end of the Rock Island Trail State Park, linking into the wider Missouri rails-to-trails network.¹

Sources

See also

• order-no-11
• raymore-mo
• lees-summit
• Wiki

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Pleasant Hill, Missouri.” — asserts: Cass + Jackson counties; 2020 pop. 8,777; platted 1844 by William Wright; name origin; stage/tavern; Civil War division and church burn; Order No. 11 1863; 1865 move to Pacific Railroad / Big Creek; Old Town; Downtown Historic District NRHP 1994; Historical Society Museum; NWS Pleasant Hill office; Rock Island Trail 2016; coordinates ~38.80583°N 94.26528°W. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷