Lee's Summit is a city in Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri, United States. It is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area and is a suburb of Kansas City, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population was 101,108, making Lee's Summit the sixth most populous city in both Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is part of the Wooded Osage Plains region, characterized by rolling topography.

In 1865, the town was incorporated as Strother, remaining so until it was renamed Lee’s Summit three years later. Lee's Summit began as an agricultural community and persisted as such until the mid-twentieth century. Upon the conclusion of World War II, with new highway infrastructure and an increased desire for single family housing, the city began to rapidly suburbanize and grow in population, transitioning into a commuter suburb of Kansas City. The city's period of population and territorial growth lasted through the remainder of the twentieth century.

The Lee's Summit public school district has consistently ranked among the city’s top employers, alongside federal government offices, healthcare facilities, and retail centers. Most residents, however, commute to other cities for work, often other nearby suburbs. The city retains its historic downtown and train station, while now also encompassing suburban developments, several human-made lake reservoirs, and numerous parks. The city's relatively large size and location near major highways have made it a principal suburb of the Kansas City metropolitan area.

History

Early history

The region encompassing present-day Lee’s Summit has been inhabited by humans for at least 10,000 years.Schwenk, p. 2. Archaeological evidence suggests continuous human occupation within the present-day boundaries of Lee’s Summit dating back roughly 9,000 years. For example, archaeologists have discovered stone arrowheads characteristic of the Dalton tradition in Lee's Summit, indicating that humans occupied the area at least 9,000 years ago.Schmits et al., p. 225. At another site in the city, arrowheads and ceramics characteristic of the Kansas City Hopewell culture were discovered, indicating that humans had temporary campsites in the area roughly 2,000 years ago.Schmits et al., p. 14. Stone tools and organic remains suggest that temporary campsites in what is now Lee's Summit were used to hunt for deer, bison, and other small mammals, roughly 700 years ago.Schmits et al., p. 244.

At the time of first contact between indigenous Missourians and Europeans in the 1670s, present-day Lee’s Summit fell within the northwestern portion of the territory occupied by the Little Osage people. Other nearby groups included the Missourias to the north and the Kanzas to the west.Olson, pp. 86-87.Schmits et al., p. 16. The area was likely used as hunting grounds by the Osage.Schwenk, pp. 2-3.Wood, p. 17.

In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the Mississippi River basin for France as the territory of Louisiana, which included present-day Lee's Summit.Olson, pp. 89-90.Wood, p. 8. In 1762, France secretly ceded the territory to Spain by the Treaty of Fontainebleau.

19th century In 1803, the United States acquired the territory that includes the area of present-day Lee's Summit through France in the Louisiana Purchase.Olson, pp. 110, 134.

The Osage, weakened by encroaching indigenous groups and American settlers from the east, and under pressure from the United States, ceded the last of their territory in Missouri by treaty in 1825. This included present-day Lee's Summit.Olson, p. 183.Wood, pp. 17-18.

In 1827, when commissioners were deciding where to establish the seat of Jackson County, they described southern Jackson County as "useless" prairie.Shortridge, p. 11. At that time, southern Jackson County, including present-day Lee’s Summit, was the rural counterpart to the increasingly urban north county. Beginning in the 1830s, Americans from eastern slave states came to settle what is now Lee's Summit, attracted by "its rolling prairie, fertile soil, numerous streams, and stands of timber."Schwenk, p. 8. In 1844, William Bullitt Howard, the eventual founder of Lee's Summit, arrived from Kentucky with his family and slaves. Pleasant John Graves Lea, the eventual namesake of the city, was a resident of the area according to the 1850 census. By 1853, settlers had purchased all of the land that now constitutes Lee's Summit from the federal government. In 1860, Prairie Township was incorporated in Jackson County, and the community which would later become Lee's Summit was the largest in the new township.The History of Jackson County, pp. 130, 342.

Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, thereby starting the Missouri-Kansas Border War. Many of the residents of Prairie Township held pro-slavery attitudes, and some even fought in pro-slavery bands of guerrillas. The Little Blue River valley was an important place of refuge for these guerrilla forces. Howard, the eventual founder of Lee's Summit, was arrested by a Union officer and then spent one month in jail in 1859. In July 1862, Irvin Walley, a captain in the Union army, shot and killed Henry Washington Younger, an early settler of Lee's Summit.The History of Jackson County, p. 342. Less than two months later, anti-slavery guerrillas from Kansas killed Dr. Lea in his home. After these men's deaths, their sons joined up with William Quantrill's pro-Confederate gang and participated in the Lawrence Massacre. Most notable among them was Cole Younger, a life-long resident of Lee's Summit and outlaw who would become "Jesse James's right hand."McCullough, p. 24. In response to the Lawrence Massacre, Union General Thomas Ewing, Jr. issued General Order No. 11 in 1863, forcing all residents outside Union-occupied towns in Jackson County to prove allegiance to the Union within fifteen days or else evacuate. This led to the desertion of present-day Lee’s Summit, as many residents fled back to their homes in the east. Union troops then burned and razed many of the abandoned farms.Schwenk, p. 10.

Incorporation

Upon the end of the American Civil War in 1865, William Bullitt Howard returned to his home in Jackson County. He reached a deal with the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company to plat a town of along the path of the tracks south of Kansas City and on the way to St. Louis. Lots in the center of the town would be reserved for a train depot. The town was founded as “Strother” in October 1865, named after the family name of Howard’s wife.Schwenk, p. 11.The History of Jackson County, p. 952.

In 1868, the town was officially renamed "Lee's Summit." A flier from 1865 refers to the town as "Strother, formerly known as Lee's Summit," indicating that the town was colloquially known as Lee's Summit prior to its founding by Howard. It is very likely that Lee's Summit was named in honor of Pleasant John Graves Lea, who was killed nearby in 1862. Workers for the Missouri Pacific Railroad may have painted "Lees Summit" on the side of a boxcar to serve as a temporary depot in the city.Schwenk, pp. 11-12.

The spelling “Lee” instead of "Lea" is assumed to be an error, while “Summit” refers to the city’s location at the highest point along the railroad between Kansas City and St. Louis. In 1969, Howard’s grandson disputed this account, claiming the town was named for Confederate General Robert E. Lee and that the story about Dr. Lea was a cover. Local historians, however, have dismissed this claim.In 1877, Lee's Summit was incorporated as a fourth-class city and by then was the "commercial center for the surrounding agricultural community."Schwenk, pp. 14-15. The primary occupation in Lee's Summit was farming—particularly hogs, corn, and fruit orchards.Schwenk, pp. 19, 22. In 1885, a fire destroyed much of downtown Lee's Summit.

20th century to 21st century In the early 20th century, Lee's Summit persisted as a small, rural agricultural community. The city's population growth was stunted by its proximity to Kansas City and Independence. Still, the city boundaries were expanded in 1905, and some residential development occurred in the 1900s and 1910s. Property development slowed and then ceased in Lee's Summit during the 1920s and through the Great Depression and World War II.Schwenk, pp. 16-17, 31-32.

In 1912, lumber baron and Kansas City civic leader Robert A. Long began building his 1,780 acre (7.2 km2) estate, Longview Farm, much of which lay in southwestern Lee's Summit. It took eighteen months to complete with the work of over two thousand laborers. At the time of building, it was considered the largest construction project in the country. At the time of completion, the farm employed over two hundred people who lived on the property. Long's daughter, Loula Long Combs, made a lifelong career of raising champion show horses on the farm. In 2004, part of the farm was developed into the New Longview neighborhood.Shortridge, p. 196.

In March 1922, at the Veterans Memorial Hall in downtown Lee's Summit (now the Third Street Social restaurant), Harry S. Truman announced he was running for election as County Court judge of the eastern district of Jackson County—the first political candidacy of his career. Years later, in 1956, Truman said of his first political speech that it "was a flop for me." "I was more scared then than I was at any time later, even when I was on the front in the first world war in France.”McCullough, pp. 153-154. During the primary campaign, Truman briefly pursued Ku Klux Klan membership, believing it would help him secure more votes, in part because of prominent cross burnings in Lee's Summit.McCullough, pp. 156-157. Two years later, during his reelection campaign, he faced public opposition from Jackson County treasurer and Lee's Summit mayor, Todd George, who may have been affiliated with the Klan. Truman claimed that the Klan threatened to kill him, and in response he disrupted a Klan rally in Lee's Summit, shaming the roughly one thousand attendees for their anti-Catholic and antisemitic views.McCullough, p. 162. In 1928, Truman, as the presiding judge of the County Court, undertook the construction of many roads connecting Lee's Summit to the rest of the metro area, as well as a hospital just outside the city (later named Truman Medical Center-East, now University Health Lakewood Medical Center).McCullough, pp. 167-168

At the end of World War II in 1945, there was enormous demand for single-family housing across the United States. This demand, combined with the recently built roads, Federal Housing Administration policy, and the G.I. Bill, spurred the rapid suburbanization of Lee's Summit. Developers began building entire neighborhoods in the city but were interrupted from 1950 to 1953 by the Korean War. After the war, however, the number of people living in and around Lee's Summit grew significantly. According to the 1950 census, about 2,500 people lived in Lee's Summit; by 1960, the population had grown to over 8,000. This population growth resulted from white Kansas City residents relocating to the suburbs and from large annexations by the city. By the late 1950s, Lee's Summit was no longer an agricultural community, but instead a commuter suburb—nearly sixty percent of residents worked outside the city, and farming had all but disappeared.Schwenk, pp. 40-46.