Learn More About Civil Rights Law in Peculiar, Missouri

Peculiar is a city in Cass County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,604 at the 2000 census. The early settlers came to Western Missouri by riverboat, many were relocating for the second and third time. The settlers were coming from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Peculiar also had families from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. On July 29, 1868, Robert Cass, county surveyor, surveyed Peculiar into lots, blocks and streets; this certified plat was filed as "The Town of Peculiar". One tradition says Peculiar got its name by a spiritualists who declared it "peculiar" that he had seen the site in a vision. Peculiar received its name in 1868 when the first postmaster, Edgar Thomson, had his first choice, Excelsior, rejected because it already existed in Atchison County, Missouri. Several other choices were also rejected. The story goes that the annoyed Thomson wrote to the Postmaster General himself to complain saying, among other things, "We don't care what name you give us so long as it is sort of 'peculiar'," (with "peculiar" in quotation marks). Washington approved that name. The post office was established on June 22, 1868. In 1953 Peculiar was incorporated and became a first class city and political subdivision of the state of Missouri. The city was governed by a Mayor/Board of Aldermen form of government. A historical plaque in the town is noteworthy. It reads: "In 1861-1864 while bloody battles raged throughout the southern states nothing happened here. " The town motto is, appropriately enough, "Where the 'odds' are with you". In the 1960s Charlie Finley, the owner of the Kansas City Athletics, threatened to move his team to Peculiar and have them play in a cow pasture with temporary bleachers. The city celebrated its centenary in July 1968. The celebrations continued for nine days and included an antique show and sale, a Lions Club championship rodeo, and an open class Western horse show.