Lee's Summit: The Name Nobody Agrees On
Near Kansas City, Missouri
Lee's Summit, Missouri sits about twenty miles southeast of Kansas City along a ridge that early settlers called one of the highest points between the Missouri River and the Osage. The town was incorporated in eighteen sixty-five as Strother and took the name Lee's Summit in eighteen sixty-eight, but the origin of its name has been disputed for over a century. Some say it honors Dr.
Pleasant Lea, an early settler whose last name was misspelled in the post office application. Others claim it names Robert E. Lee, a theory local historians consider unlikely given the timing.
The railroad arrived in eighteen sixty-five, linking the summit town directly to Kansas City and driving its growth as a commuter suburb long before the term existed. Today Lee's Summit is one of the fastest-growing cities in Missouri, with a population just over one hundred thousand, though the ridge it was named for is now almost entirely covered in subdivisions.
