County of sigh: Montgomery County
Location of sign: MO-19 (Hudson St.) & Harness Drive, S. city limits, Montgomery City
Pagoda style presentation of a large sign, shaped almost like a bunch of grapes dangling from a vine, with city seal highlighted on the bottom. This all rises out of a brick foundation created to double as a flower bed, which is kept in seasonal flowers all spring and summer long.
Text on sign:
WELCOME TO
MONTGOMERY CITY
EST. 1859
The insignia looks like a fountain with water splashing in a breaking wave pattern. I cannot find any text explaining what - or why - it is
"Montgomery City, situated in a beautiful prairie on the St. L. K. C. & N. R. R., eighty-two miles from St. Louis, is the largest town in the county. The first house erected in this locality was built in 1851, by James M. Robinson. This house stands about one hundred and seventy-five yards south-west from the present site of the college building, and is inhabited by a colored family.
"The house in which O. H. Winegar now lives was next erected in the winter and spring of 1853, by T. C. McClearey. The other settlements here then, were principally confined to the belts of timber bordering the prairies.
"In 1856, before the depot was located, Stone and Hibbert put up a mill here. At first the engine was stationed without any covering, until lumber could be sawed to make a shed for it. The next improvement was a house erected in 1856, by Grooms and Snethen. The house is still standing, and is now used by O. H. Brooks as a stable. Benj. P. Curd owned the land on which the original part of the city stands, and by him was laid off in 1857.
"The first store was opened in the spring or summer of 1857, by Thomas Stevens, and the second soon after, by John and Daniel Bryan. John S. Rowe built the first hotel, which was afterwards kept by Horace Brown. It was burnt soon after the beginning of the war. Notwithstanding the stagnating effects of the civil war, and the depression in business since, Montgomery City has continued to improve rapidly, and has become the center of a very wide and extensive trade.
"The college building is the largest school building in the county, and is now under management of Professors Graves and Cunningham.
"The town contains about one thousand two hundred and fifty inhabitants, four large dry goods establishments, one clothing store, one merchant tailor, two drug stores, two grocery stores, two tin and hardware stores, two bakeries and restaurants, five mantua maker and millinery establishments, one large cheese factory, four hotels and several boarding-houses, three extensive wagon and carriage factories, three boot and shoe factories, two watch and jewelry stores, one gun shop, one saddle and harness shop, two lumber yards, two furniture stores, five churches, one tobacco and cigar factory, two meat markets, two barber shops, two livery and feed stables, two printing offices, one photograph gallery, one large public hall, and one Mason hall."
[Parts of Sections 29, 30, 31 and 31, Township 49 North, Range 5 West]" ~ MOGenWeb