History of Cleveland

Before 1890, the only settlement of any size, in Union Township was at West Union. The town was laid out in 1872 by A.C. Hoag. He came from Iowa in 1868. The first business house was erected in 1873. It was designed for a drug store and physician's office.

When the railroad was built through the township and missed the town of West Union, the town gradually began to decline. All the places of business disappeared and West Union was left with only a school , church and graveyard. The cemetery was established in the 1850s. Many early residents of Cleveland are buried there.

The history of Cleveland as a town began in 1890 with the time the railroad was surveyed. The track was laid where Cleveland is located in October 1890. The road then was called Kansas City, Nevada and Ft. Smith. Cleveland's location is due to the granting of the land for this railroad. In 1893, the name of the railroad was changed to Kansas City , Pittsburg and Gulf, and in the early 1900s the name was again changed to the Kansas City Southern.

At first, Cleveland was named Maxwell because Thomas Maxwell has sold the first land for the new town . Soon after a post office had been established it was learned from the US Post Office that there was an earlier Maxwell, Missouri so the present name was given to the town by Richard Gentry, who was general manager of the railroad. He chose the name in honor of Grover Cleveland, the president of the US.

A few years later more land for the town of Cleveland by A.A. Noyes and is recorded on abstracts as the Noyes Addition.

From the Cleveland Chronicle paper in 1899, the following description : "Cleveland is beautifully located on the K.C.P and G. Railroad and is about 28 miles south of Kansas City. It is in a rich farming community and has several stores, churches and schools. Cleveland is a new town , being about eight years old, and it has an excellent opening for a bank or dry goods store."

Most of the early residents were descendants of pioneers from the Southern States, particularly the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

On February 8, 1910, some men from Cleveland went before the County Court at Harrisonville to file a petition for the incorporation of the village of Cleveland. On March 11, 1910 the first board of trustees was appointed by the County Court for the town of Cleveland.

  Modified: 07/31/2006