Wittenberg

John William Summers and his family spent a little over ten years in Wittenberg, Missouri, where John was a Frisco telegrapher and a station agent. When the family moved there around 1920, the town had a population of only 270 people. But despite its meagre size, Wittenberg boasted a brewery, a furniture factory, a flour mill, two grocery stores, two hotels, and John Summer’s Frisco railroad station, the latter giving the village a reason for being.

Old Wittenberg (Warren Schmidt, Perry County Lutheran Historical Society).

A map of Wittenberg Mo in the 1920s has been handed down through the Summers family. It is likely that the map was drawn by one of John William’s children. Note the comment in the lower right "BRIDGE WHERE POSSE HID IN 1922 ..." This is the site where John F. "Quail Hunter" Kennedy was killed following his Frisco train robbery, but more on that in a future blog.

A black circle has been added to mark the location of the Frisco Depot

Today Wittenberg has a population less than ten. Some say it is only three. Wittenberg’s death was caused by periodic flooding, which increased when levees along the Mississippi were raised.

Standard Atlas of Perry County, Missouri, 1915, p. 40. The RR depot is circled.