Editing Peculiar, Missouri (section)

==History==
Early settlers of the town came to Western Missouri by riverboat from [[Illinois]], [[Iowa]], [[Michigan]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Ohio]]. Peculiar also had families coming from [[Tennessee]], [[Kentucky]], and [[Virginia]].<ref name="cityofpeculiar.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofpeculiar.com|title=City of Peculiar, Missouri - Official Website}}</ref> On July 29, 1868, the county surveyor, Robert Cass, [[platted]] Peculiar and was filed as "The Town of Peculiar".<ref name="cityofpeculiar.com"/>

There are at least two versions of the story on how Peculiar received its name. The first involves the community's first postmaster, Edgar Thomson. His first choice for a town name, "Excelsior," was 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 [[United States Postmaster General|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'." Thomson submitted the name "Peculiar" and the name was approved. The [[post office]] was established on June 22, 1868.<ref>'Indecision leads to Peculiar', by Stan Durnin, ''Linn's Stamp News'', n.d.</ref>

In an alternate version, according to Missouri folklorist Margot Ford McMillen, early settlers were searching for a location to farm. As they cleared a small rise and looked below, one remarked ''"Well that's peculiar! It's the very place I saw in a vision back in Connecticut."'' The land was purchased and eventually a village sprang up on it, which was named "Peculiar".<ref>{{cite book|last=McMillen|first=Margot Ford|title=''Paris, Tightwad and Peculiar: Missouri Place Names''|year=1994|publisher=University of Missouri Press|page=6|location=Columbia, Missouri|isbn=0-8262-0972-6}}</ref>

Peculiar [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]] as a village in the 1890s and became a fourth class city of the state of Missouri in 1953.<ref name="cityofpeculiar.com"/>

The city celebrated its [[centenary]] in July 1968. The celebrations continued for nine days and included an antique show and sale, a [[Lions Club International|Lions Club]] championship [[rodeo]], and an open class Western horse show.<ref>Centennial booklet, 1968</ref>