o'fallon chamber - Chamber Organizer

HISTORY OF O’FALLON
1798 - Jacob Zumwalt and his family arrive
in O’Fallon from Kentucky.
1817 - Nathan and Rebekah Heald
purchase the Zumwalt property.
1824 - Colonel James Audrain, owner of Bull’s
Hell Mill near Dames Park, is elected to
the Missouri Legislature.
1856 - Nicholas Krekel, later considered
O’Fallon’s founder, purchases
property to build a home.
1858 - The fi rst train passes through O’Fallon
on the new railroad line.
1859 - A slave, “McIntosh by name,” opens
the fi rst blacksmith shop on Main Street
near Church Street.
1860 - Darius Heald is arrested as a
Confederate sympathizer by Union
Guards.
1869 - Both Assumption Parish and the
O’Fallon public school system were
organized.
1873 - The Sisters of the Most Precious Blood
arrive in O’Fallon. The convent would
become the Motherhouse for the order.
1878 - Woodlawn Seminary, located
across from the en-trance to Ft.
Zumwalt Park, opens to provide a
classical education for young ladies.
1884 - Darius Heald builds “Stony Point,” a
two-story brick home next to the old
Zumwalt homestead fort in which he
lived all his life.
1897 - Westhoff Grain and Mercantile
incorporates. The store is now McGurk’s
Public Inn on Main Street.
1900 - The Jacoby-Currier Telephone service
begins operation. People could place
calls from Fred Jacoby’s drugstore.
1903 - The Bank of O’Fallon is incorporated
and opens at the rear of Goldkamp’s
Meat Market on Main Street.
1903 - Rural free delivery of mail begins in
O’Fallon.
1904 - October 11 is “O’Fallon Day” at the
World’s Fair.
1906 - The O’Fallon Volunteer Fire Department
is organized.
1913 - Westhoff Light and Power Company
provides the fi rst electric lights with a
9-horsepower generator.
1915 - A deadly cyclone sweeps through the
area, nearly destroying Darius Heald’s
home, Stony Point and Woodlawn
Seminary.
1938 - The O’Fallon Civic Club was formed to
promote community ideas and activities.
1939 - With just $50 in the city’s fund, Mayor
Paul A Westhoff votes to build new
waterworks and sanitary sewer system.
1956 - O’Fallon (population 1,327) celebrates
its 100th anniversary with a three-day
gala that raises money to build Civic
Hall and a fi re station
1959 - City mail delivery service begins.
1959 - O’Fallon Police Department is
organized with one patrol car and one
paid police offi ce.
1964 - The O’Fallon Library opened in an old
storefront on Main Street.
1970 - O’Fallon’s population is 7,018.
1976 - O’Fallon Historical Society marks the
Nation’s bicentennial by moving and
restoring an 1860s log cabin to Civic
Park to serve as its museum.
1978 - The state of Missouri sells Fort Zumwalt
Park to the City of O’Fallon for $1.00.
1980 - O’Fallon’s population is 8,677.
1990 - O’Fallon’s population is18,698.
1997 - O’Fallon purchases several buildings
from the Sisters of the Most Precious
Blood to convert into municipal
buildings.
1999 - T.R. Hughes Ballpark grand opening
features Cardinal baseball greats,
including shortstop Ozzie Smith.
2001 - Stony Point, the home of Darius Heald,
is restored to its original grandeur.
2003 - O’Fallon’s population reaches an
astonishing 65,834.
2006 - O’Fallon celebrates its Sesquicentennial
with a year-long schedule of events
that includes a history tour weekend, a
dinner theatre production, and the
publication of “O’Fallon: A Good Place
to Live.”
2011- O’Fallon’s borders have expanded to
about 30 square miles and the
population is nearly 80,000.
O’Fallon Chamber of Commerce 5