Embracing the holiday spirit at the Weston Candlelight Homes Tour

By Diane Euston

Traditions – they are the heart and soul of the holidays. Past the perfectly trimmed tree and the chaos of untangling the holiday lights lies the heart and soul of the holiday season.

Prepping for the season comes in all shapes and sizes. For some, it could be dialing up the holiday music the day after Halloween while others tend to embrace the chaos by shopping days before the deadline of Christmas Eve– when shops shutter their doors and Amazon packages aren’t available for overnight shipping despite Prime membership status.

For me, one of the ways I’ve launched into full-blown holiday mode is by going to the Weston Candlelight Homes Tour for the past several years. The charm of this little town a quick 45-minute drive north is everything I need to catapult right into the holiday season. The town, a nostalgic nest egg full of preserved antebellum homes, unique, locally-owned shops, and restaurants with delicious libations from local beer to handcrafted cocktails (the Royal Deluxe at the St. George Hotel is a personal favorite!) is just what I need to slow down and enjoy the sights and sounds of the holidays.

For 43 years running, the Candlelight Homes Tour on December 7 and 8 offers people an opportunity to tour various homes in Weston while the town, decked out in all its Christmas cheer, welcomes thousands of visitors. Carolers casually wander the streets as people pose with Father Christmas for photos, and local merchants stock their shelves with unique holiday gifts.

Each year, the Candlelight Homes Tour takes on a new theme. Last year, it was holiday movies, and this year, the theme is gingerbread. The lineup of seven homes this year is sure to not disappoint.

Weston’s History

Some of the details of Weston’s founding are preserved in oral histories passed down through generations. One story indicates that Joseph (Joel) Moore, an army dragoon stationed at Fort Leavenworth, bought the future site of Weston from an Indian trader for a barrel of whiskey in 1837. With little knowledge of town platting, Moore allegedly enlisted the help of fellow dragoon Thomas Weston – thus the birth of the town’s name “Weston.”

Other stories state that the name derives from the fact that Weston was the furthest “West-Town” in the United States until Texas was admitted as a state in 1845.

Weston’s founder, Joseph Moore was said to build a log cabin, lay out some streets and sell some lots. Early local histories indicate that Moore wasn’t business savvy. A year after Weston was founded,, half of the interests of the town were sold to 21-year-old Bela M. Hughes and he began selling lots with reasonable terms. Settlers such as Ben Holladay (founder of what is now known as McCormick Distillery and later the founder of the Overland Stage Route to California) moved to the area. Holladay (1819-1887) was the town’s first postmaster.

Due to its location, by 1840, the town began to attract steamboats from the Upper Missouri River. With the river traffic, Weston grew to be the second largest port on the Missouri River behind St. Louis, and by 1850, the population reached 5,000.

Border troubles between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers living in the area ignited fierce fighting between competing ideals. Towns such as Weston suffered on the eve of the Civil War, and a major fire destroyed many of the buildings downtown in 1865. When the railroad chose St. Joseph as a hub in lieu of Weston, the town’s population declined.

Despite the decline in population, so much of the town’s character remains as a gentle reminder of simpler times, and the residents today host various events in order to encourage tourism and share Weston’s colorful history with us all. The Candlelight Homes Tour remains a town favorite. Three of these properties stand out due to their unique attachments
to some of the area’s most interesting settlers.

Hidden Behind the Walls at 1121 Spring Street

Sometimes historic homes can be deceiving; they don’t necessarily show their age from the street. This could certainly be said of the home at 1121 Spring St.

This one and half story home is one of the oldest structures surviving on what was once Weston’s elite neighborhood coined “Spring Street Hill.” Built in about 1846 and originally deeded to James Moore, an alleged relative of the town’s founder, the original structure was a two-room log cabin crafted from hand-hewn logs set in native limestone.

In 1893, 25-year-old Weston native George Brill Weigman (1868-1938) purchased the home for his bride, Susie Robbins. The son of German immigrants, George was taught the painting business from his father. George was good with his hands, so he used his talents to convert the old 1840s log cabin structure into an eight-room “saltbox” style home.

The older portion of the home is divided into four rooms and “maintains the early elements of pioneer craftsmanship.” It still boasts original elements such as native walnut doors, original flooring, hand-blown glass windows and a large fireplace.

Generations of the Weigman family continued to live inside this historic home for over 100 years, and the current owner hopes to continue to make improvements to it. The home had six rooms with a wine cellar and smokehouse on the property made of handmade bricks. Unfortunately, the smokehouse is gone now, but the area where the wine cellar is has been repurposed as a utility room.

The front room of the old home was used as a “music room” by generations of the Weigman family, and the current owner hopes to recreate this on Spring Street soon again.

A Murder Mystery at 512 Summer Street

Now the home of the Weston Steamboat Inn, 512 Summer St. is the perfect example of how one piece of land can hold layers of history.

The original owner, George W. Belt (1825-1911), lost his parents at a young age while living in Kentucky. At just 14 years-old, George moved to Weston, Mo. to live with his older brother, Dr. Alfred Belt. When Dr. Belt decided to take off for Oregon Territory, George stayed behind.

When he was just 15 years old, George worked at Owens & Aull’s Weston store that focused on trade with Native Americans. When he was just 19, he went into the general merchandising business for himself.

The Federalist-style brick home on Summer Street became Belt’s home in about 1842. The house originally had three rooms downstairs with a side hall that ran from front to back.

Upstairs, the home featured a long hall with two bedrooms. There were three fireplaces downstairs and two upstairs.

Over the years, he continued in various businesses, including the proprietor of the International Hotel that once stood at the current site of Weston’s museum. At the time, it was “one of the best furnished and kept hotels in the west.” Unfortunately, the hotel burned down in 1858 – the same year that George was “reluctantly elected” mayor of the town. He was also a freemason, elected the Grand Commander for the whole state.

The home on Summer Street that George W. Belt built was originally a two-room cottage with a stone foundation, native black walnut beams and imported pine woodwork. He sold the home in 1882.

In 1889, the house was sold to Julius Rumpel (1862-1936), a son of German immigrants who operated a saloon in town. He was well-connected and respected in Weston, serving as a member of the Young Men’s Social Club before marrying Addie Hinkley in 1890.

Although Julius didn’t have children with his wife, Addie, he certainly kept busy with various technological advances. In 1898, he invented an “automatic alarm cell” for jails that would give notice in a jail’s office “of the attempt of any prisoner to escape.”

This invention would become a bit ironic less than a decade later.

In 1901, Julius put in the very first telephone exchange in Weston that had 60 subscribers. Operators, known as Rumpel’s “Hello Girls” ran the local lines of communication.

Unfortunately for Julius Rumpel, his own lines of communication were a bit flawed and led to the death of his good friend.

Dr. William Joseph Simpson (b. 1854), was a well-respected doctor in Weston. In addition to being one of Julius’ good friends, he was also the Rumpel family’s doctor. A devoted husband and father of three girls, Dr. Simpson practiced medicine in Buchanan and Platte Counties.

At about 9:30 in the evening of June 3, 1904, Dr. Simpson entered Julius’ saloon and ordered a beer. Nothing seemed out of sorts, but when he closed his tab and left the bar, Julius followed his old friend. Julius watched undetected on the street as Dr. Simpson entered Julius’ home at 514 Summer St. where his wife, Addie was.

Minutes later, Dr. Simpson emerged from the home. With no warning, Julius approached Dr. Simpson on the front stairs and shot him. The Atchison Daily Globe reported, “The ball entered the back of the head, and, going clear through the brain, came out at the top of the skull.”

Dr. Simpson died instantly. Julius Rumpel walked casually back to his saloon where he calmly told his patrons what happened. He was arrested.

At the coroner’s inquest, Mrs. Addie Rumpel testified that Dr. Simpson knocked at her door, and “when she admitted him, he made an improper proposal, which she rejected indignantly.”

A three-day trial months later acquitted Julius of any wrongdoing, because the jury believed the testimony of Addie Rumpel. But the story didn’t end there.

In November 1905, Addie Rumpel abruptly left her husband and her home on Summer Street. She filed for divorce and moved in with family in St. Joseph, Mo.

The divorce hearing featured about 100 witnesses and a slew of hungry reporters. She wished for a legal divorce from Julius due to the murder of Dr. Simpson. The St. Joseph Gazette reported, “Mrs. Rumpel’s plea will be that a confession was wrung from her by her husband’s attorneys in order to save him from conviction of murder.”

She was granted a divorce and alimony, but Julius’ reputation was far from damaged. He remarried a few years later and had a son. In 1908, Julius and B.J. Bless built the first tobacco warehouse in Weston. The Kansas City Journal reported in 1922, “The opening of this warehouse put the tobacco industry of Platte County on an impetus that has not yet stopped.”

The home where this murder occurred has been beautifully repurposed into a bed and breakfast, but questions of Julius’ guilt and motive still fester in Weston. Local lore states that while on his deathbed, Julius Rumpel asked, “Was I wrong?”

An 1840s Upstairs Apartment at 523 Main Street

Known today as the How Building in downtown Weston, this circa-1848 two-story brick structure has loads of history. Before the current building was constructed and the town of Weston was founded, the location was the site of an Indian trading post.

Like so many original town buildings, this place was built to be a business on the main level with a living quarters for the merchant’s family above it. At the Candlelight Homes Tour, you can see the upstairs apartment that was the home of Weston merchants since the late 1840s.

The first owner of this historic building was Casper Beechler (1822-1869). Born in Germany, Casper was taught the boot and shoemaking business by his father, Joseph, who came to Weston, Mo. with his family. Through the 1850s, Casper ran a boot and shoe store from this location, and when a fire devastated downtown Weston in 1853, this building and the two next to it were the few survivors.

In 1862, Casper sold this building to a local butcher, and by 1875, German-born Balthazar (Balthus) How (1821-1900) purchased the building at auction and took it back to its original roots. He, too, was a boot and shoe maker. When Balthus How passed away, the building passed to his oldest son, John. Three years later in 1903, Bathus’ younger son, George A. How (1851-1918) purchased the building and carried on the family business.

Known as the How Boot and Shoe Store, the business was taken over by George’s son, Roscoe. The business serviced all the footwear needs of Weston residents for four generations and is one of the oldest buildings on Main Street that still survives.

Crafted with handmade brick with a metal standing seam roof, the How Building is now the home of the Makery Market, a DIY craft studio and flower shop. During the Homes Tour, visitors can take a look at the upstairs apartment that served as the home of generations of early merchants of Weston.

Weston’s Holiday Cheer

The Homes Tour takes place Saturday, Dec. 7 from noon to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 8 from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $25 by visiting westonmo.com. A shuttle service in between the seven homes is available. This year, a remodeled mid-century modern home featured in a Kansas City magazine and a Sears kit home are also part of the tour.

For several years, my “Kansas City: 2 States, 1 Story” history podcast partner and 96.5 The Fan’s morning show host, Bob Fescoe, have made a point to make it to the Candlelight Homes Tour with his wife, Jen, and my mom, Helen. It’s a tradition- one of those things where we step away from our busy lives so we can walk the streets of Weston, taking in the sights, sounds and historic beauty of the town.

Even the biggest Grinch can’t help but walk away with a heart and a smile.