A Warm Glow from Christmas Past

By Diane Euston

  It’s the season that seems to encourage us all to change up the charm of our homes both inside and out. We put our regular decorations aside and spruce up our homes with holiday cheer – expressing our spirit in wreaths, garlands and twinkling holiday lights.

  Occasionally, it’s good for the soul to set some time aside to see something new, and less than an hour drive from Kansas City is a quaint town dating back to 1837 that embraces the holiday season and all its splendor. Historic homes, one-of-a-kind merchants, a brewery, pub, distillery, churches and museums decorated for the season are a perfect way to welcome in this beautiful time of year.

  Weston, Mo. knows how to celebrate the holidays. The town is packed full of residents who know how to host some pretty wonderful events, and for 44 years, the Historic Weston Candlelight Holiday Homes Tour gives visitors a rare opportunity to step inside homes with some pretty amazing history. On Saturday, Dec. 6 from noon to 6pm and Sunday, Dec. 7 from noon to 5 pm, you, too, can up your holiday ante by attending this must-see event.

A Brief History of Weston

  After the Platte Purchase in 1836, the counties of Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway and Atchison were formed a year later and open for legal settlement.

  Just to the west of this purchase across the Missouri River was Fort Leavenworth. Laid out in 1827 by Col. Henry Leavenworth, it is today the second oldest active military post west of our nation’s capitol.

  Like so much of Missouri’s early history, some of the details of Weston’s founding are a bit dicey. One story indicates that Joseph 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. 

  Just one year after its founding, half of the interests of the town were sold to 21-year-old Bela M. Hughes. Within short order, the new owner 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.

  By 1840, the town began to attract steamboats on the Missouri River, and Weston grew to be the second largest port on the Missouri River behind St. Louis. By 1850, the population reached 5,000. 

  The border troubles ignited as pro-slavery residents living in Weston and throughout the western counties of Missouri rallied for the expansion of slavery into Kansas. 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 originally bypassed the town and chose St. Joseph as a hub, the town’s population drastically declined.

  Ironically, what hurt the town and its residents back then is what benefits us now. Because brick buildings in their downtown weren’t demolished to make way for a modern city and original homesteads were maintained instead of subdividing land for profit, so much of the town’s character and history remains.  

 Many people who live in Weston today were drawn to the town because of its charm. The Candlelight Homes Tour remains a town favorite to host, and visitors this year will be treated to a theme of “feathering our nests.” 

  Owners of historic homes in Weston get asked all the time what it takes to remodel an historic home. This Candlelight Homes Tour on December 6 and December 7 includes five homes that will give visitors a chance to step back in time and enjoy all Weston has to offer during the holidays, and the list of homes gives us a chance to look a little deeper at the stories intertwined with a few of these locations.

718 Spring Street- The Price Loyles Home

  The stories surrounding this Federal Style home built in 1857 read like a history book full of recognizable names. This house on Spring Street was purchased in 1864 by Theodore F. Warner (1818-1891), a very successful Weston businessman, for the use of his sister, Russella Warner Price (b. 1834), and her husband, Col. James Price (b. 1829).

  Russella was born at Independence, Mo., to parents Wynkoop Warner (1799-1836) and Minerva Boone (1799-1850). HER MOTHER Minerva was the granddaughter of Daniel Boone and older sister to Albert Gallatin Boone, once-owner of current-day Kelly’s Westport Inn.

  Russella relocated to Weston, Mo. with her mother shortly after her father’s death, setting up a home with her older brother, Theodore. She lived with them until meeting another successful businessman, Dr. James A. Price.

  Price was born in 1829 in Bedford, Va., the son of Nathaniel H. Price (1790-1866) and Nancy Lee (1793-1843), a cousin to future Confederate general Robert E. Lee. When still a young boy, the family relocated near Lexington, Mo. where his father became a judge and successful farmer.

  Southerners through-and-through, Nathaniel Price was a slaveholder, enslaving 18 men, women and children in 1840. 

  James was sent to school in Pleasant Hill, Mo. when gold fever out in California caught him. He was one of the earliest to travel out west with high hopes of hitting it big. It wasn’t as profitable as he hoped, and after a year, he returned east and trained as a dental surgeon.

  In 1851, he married Russella Warner, known for her “warm heart and buoyant spirit” and opened his dental practice a year later.  Due to their close proximity to Indian Territory and Fort Leavenworth, Dr. Price is credited as being the first man to practice dentistry in Kansas. He would often travel over the river to work on patients at the fort.

  But the promise of the west continued to weigh on Dr. Price, so around 1853, he packed up his wife and moved back to California for a few years. There, their first child, a son named Nathaniel, was born in 1854. 

  For whatever the reason, the couple with their young son in tow opted to return to Weston where he continued a dental practice on Main Street and expanded their family. 

  About the year after they moved into this beautiful Federal Style home, they welcomed a daughter they called Mollie (b. 1857). Two more daughters, Minnie (b. 1860) and Nannie (b. 1862) joined the family while the nation was knee-deep in the Civil War.

  It wouldn’t be long before Dr. Price made the decision to join the cause.

Civil War Service Leads to Civic Duty

  Like so many men of his age, James A. Price, about 32 years old at the time, opted to join the 18th Missouri Infantry and fight for the Union. At the time, his own father still held eight enslaved people as his property. In addition, his own wife’s relation to Gen. Robert E. Lee certainly made his decision to fight for the Union even more surprising.

  Regardless, Price was a staunch Republican and fully supported the emancipation of the enslaved. He joined the 18th Missouri Infantry in 1862 and was promoted from captain to major after the Battle of Shiloh “in which he was seriously injured.” He continued his brave service while commanding his regiment at the second Battle of Corinth.

  He resigned from service and returned home to his family until the ongoing fighting with bushwhackers drew him back into the war. Because it was very difficult to raise a Union company in Missouri at the time (due to two competing governments- one provisional Union government and one secessional government led by rebels), Price looked west to Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

  In October 1863 just weeks before the infamous Lawrence Massacre, Dr. Price addressed a large group of people in Leavenworth, passionately speaking about the Republican cause and need for upholding the Union. The Leavenworth Times reported, “The sight was a rare one, and as pleasant as strange – to hear Missourians make radical Union speeches on Kansas soil.”

  In February 1864, Dr. Price traded his dental practice once more for organized military service; he joined the 16th Kansas Cavalry. Standing six feet tall with fair skin and kind, grey eyes, Price was quickly made colonel and was the recruiting commissioner for the regiment. He successfully raised a company that withstood Confederate Gen. Sterling Price at the Battle of Westport.

  The couple welcomed a son named Benjamin at the close of the war, and Col. Price returned to his dental practice and his home on Spring Street. 

  But politics and stumping continued to draw the colonel to other careers. In 1871, he was elected mayor of Weston, and by 1874, the St. Joseph Gazette happily reported that the town was recovering nicely after the railroads derailed much of the river traffic that once supported Weston. “The city government, under the mayorship of Colonel James A. Price, is running smoothly,” they stated.

  Tragedy struck the family when Russella Warner Price suddenly passed away inside their home in 1875. “She was a lady of most excellent social qualities and domestic virtues,” the St. Joseph Gazette reported. “She loved all created nature and never tired or thought of self, when ministering to the wants and pleasures of others.” She was just 41 years old.

  While working as postmaster of Weston and continuing his dental practice, Col. Price married Mattie Gibson in 1880. She was just 18 years old and younger than all but one of his children! By 1895, Col. Price and his young wife had settled in Savannah, Mo. and his daughter, Mrs. Mollie Guthrie, moved into the house on Spring Street with her daughter and brother.

  After his second wife died in 1910, Col. Price moved back to Weston and into that home on Spring Street where he passed away at the age of 86 in 1916. 

Ensuring 718 Spring Street Still Stood

  The home stayed safely in the hands of four generations of descendants until James and Russella Price’s great-granddaughter, Forestyne Loyles (1907-1991) passed away. Forestyne was a constant on those early Weston Candlelight Homes Tours, opening her family homestead to the public so they could see the house and the generations of treasures left to her.

  It was her hope that the home would become a museum, but it wasn’t to be so. After her death, the artifacts eventually found a home at the Historic Boone Home and Heritage Center in Defiance, Mo., which is owned and operated by Lindenwood University. 

  The house fell in disrepair even after the Department of Natural Resources owned it, and in 2005, the Price Loyles home was sold to Terry and Mary Beth McKinzie who carefully brought the home back to life. They are proud to open their doors to visitors so they can stroll through a home packed full of layers of history, carefully decorated for the holiday season.

A Victorian Showpiece at 936 Spring Street

  It’s hard to miss this massive 10-room home with a large wrap-around porch and round glass three story turret when on a trip to Weston. It’s one of the most recognizable and interesting structures in the town.

  Finished in September 1911, the home was built for town druggist Frank Hillix and his beloved wife, Lyda.

  Frank Hillix was born in 1865 in Missouri, the son of William W. Hillix and Ellen Whittington who were married in St. Joseph, Mo. in 1856. By 1880, the family was farming near Weston, Mo. Frank trained as a druggist and opened his store, aptly called the Frank Hillix Drug Store at 510 Main Street, at the end of the last century.

  He later turned the operation over to his only son, Frank Leon Hillix (1897-1958) who ran it for decades after his death.

  After quite a successful career as a druggist, he wanted a home to match this prominence within the Weston community. Frank purchased a lovely lot on Spring Street and threw a whopping $6500 for the construction of a new home. The Atchison Daily Globe reported in June 1911, “The house is Colonial in style and will be modern in every respect. Mr. Hillix will have a bath room both upstairs and downstairs in his new home.”

  Unfortunately, Frank died in Kansas City in 1919, and the house was quickly purchased by a couple with a deep history engrained in the area.

Family Ownership of the Spring Street Home

  A longstanding successful tobacco farmer named Robert E. Lee Murphy and his wife, Susan set their sights on the stunning 10-room home and opted to buy it.

  Robert E. Lee Murphy, known simply as Lee, was born in 1863 in nearby Buchanan County to parents Milton Murphy (1814-1889) and Louisa Christopher (1824-1871). 

  Lee’s parents certainly weren’t shy about their Southern loyalties. They named several of their boys after political figures – some controversial. Names included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Sterling Price, and, of course, Robert E. Lee. 

  A slaveholder prior and during the Civil War, Lee’s father “suffered large losses” in property and in his personal life. One son was killed while fighting for the Confederacy.

  Lee Murphy met and married 24-year-old Susan Clauser in 1889 in Buchanan County, Mo. and started a family after moving to Platte County. They had four sons and four daughters while Lee ran a successful farm. At one time he owned over 1,000 acres of land. 

  Tobacco was one of his prominent crops, and Lee was also a noted horse breeder. His farm was surrounded by fruit trees, and it was said even after the automobile became the common form of transportation, Lee Murphy “maintained a horse and buggy.”

  The couple opted to move to town, purchasing the stunning home on Spring Street from Frank Hillix’s widow, Lyda. 

  Susan Murphy passed away in 1946, and her husband, Lee, followed in 1959. The family held onto the beautiful home, and in 1999, great-great granddaughter Mary Jo Heidrick left her graphic design job in Oregon to return to  the family home.

  After renovations of the property, Mary Jo opened the home as a successful bed and breakfast called Murphy House in 2004. Unfortunately, Mary Jo passed away last year and the bed and breakfast is temporarily closed.

  Despite this, the family wishes to carry on the legacy of this special home and is opening it up to visitors for the Candlelight Homes Tour. 

Other Features of the Tour

  Two additional homes will be open to visitors this year. At 517 Walnut, a circa-1860 cottage (originally dog-trot style with a center hall running from the front door to the back) was remodeled at the turn of the last century. Known as “Josepha’s House,” this bungalow was the home to a Polish immigrant who suffered the cruelty of a German concentration camp in World War II.

  Josepha was sponsored by the Bless family of Weston, and she found her new home here where she worked as a nanny to the family. Her son, Robert joined her, and they spent the rest of their lives in this peaceful little four-room home where she was known for her large vegetable garden. 

  The current owner, an antiques dealer, has incorporated part of items owned by Josepha. Old glass bottles and brick and stone from the original foundation discovered during a remodel are showcased in the landscaping.

  A craftsman-style home built in 1932 at 1116 Washington known as the Farnan House is another must-see. At over 3,700 square feet, this home built by owners of a lumberyard features arched entries, wood built-ins, a large front porch and grand bannisters reminiscent of days long since past.

  There are also unique locations to see on the tour. The Coal House Lodge, a converted coal elevator, is now the home of a bed and breakfast. Prior to 1881 when a flood relocated the Missouri River a mile away, having a coal house near the riverfront to service steamboats was essential.

  This unique location along with a chapel called the Covered Bridge made from recycled barn lumber and the Salvage Yard, a business dedicated to reselling windows, doors, light fixtures and more from Weston’s earlier homes will be open to tour and shop.

  If hipper nostalgia is more your game, no worries – the Jones & Nichols Oil service station will be open. Built in 1948 and remodeled in 2018, this old filling station will take you back to a time when sock hop was all the rage.

  Weston, as it certainly is shown in this year’s tour, has so many layers of history that are harder to see in Kansas City. There is something for everyone to enjoy, including unique shops decked out for the holidays where one-of-a-kind gifts are readily available. 

  Slow down. It’s that time of the year where we have to remind one another that we need to take in the sights and sounds of the season. As always, I will be strolling from house-to-house, listening to the carolers, stopping to shop for loved ones and sipping a cocktail on Main Street in Weston.

  It’s the perfect opportunity to remind me to slow down and take in all of the history that a place like Weston has to offer. It fills my holiday cup when energy levels slowly decline due to the busyness of the season.

  Weston oozes history, nostalgia and of days of the past, and the Candlelight Homes Tour is a seamless transition into the holiday season. 

  To purchase tickets for $25, go to https://www.westonmo.com/2025-candlelight-homes-tour. A shuttle is available between homes to make travel convenient for young and old alike.