Concordia Missouri Marker

Text

Starting in 1847, a stagecoach passed through Freedom Township twice a week as it traveled between Sedalia and Lexington. In 1851, a relay station was built along this road 3 miles east of St. Paul's church known as Cook's Store. When a Post Office was established in the store the same year, the "German settlement" of Freedom Township became known officially as "Cook's Store Post Office" as that is how it appeared to the Post Master General's office in Washington D. C.

The tragic events of the Civil War have had a lasting effect on the United States as a whole. The region known simply as the "German settlement" of Freedom Township in Lafayette County Missouri was no exception. By the time the war came it an end in 1865, 33 men of the community had been killed -most in cold blood- within miles of their homes.

Such was the situation when Rev. Franz Biltz took over the role of Postmaster in 1865. Biltz the Post Master General to move the Post Office nearer the other stores and businesses of the German settlement and to change the name from Cook's Store Post Office. On May 17, 1865, his petition was granted. Biltz named the town Concordia in the hope of concord between North and South.