PARKVILLE A post town of Platte county, Pettis township, situated on the Missouri, near the mouth of Platte river, 15 miles from Platte City, the county seat, 471 miles by river from St. Louis, and 297 from Jefferson City. The town was first settled by Mr. Geo. S. Park. There is now in course of construction, and will be soon completed, a railroad, running from Parkville to the Grand river. A weekly paper is published here by F. M. McDonald, called the Parkville Courier, and issued on Thursdays. It contains one common and one select school, one Masonic lodge, viz. Compass Lodge, No. 120, the Union Lodge, No. 67, I. O. O. F., Parkville Encampment, No. 22. There are three churches, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist. The business of the town consists of three architects, three attorneys, two blacksmiths, two boot and shoe makers, one brick maker, three cabinet makers, six carpenters, three wagon makers, one clothier, one commission merchant, one cooper, one dentist, one distiller, two druggists, one dry goods dealer, one express agent, two flooring mills, one grocer, six general stores, one gunsmith, one harness maker, one leather dealer, two hotels, one jewelry store, one livery stable, one lumber yard, three physicians, one steam saw mill, two stove and tin ware dealers, two surveyors and one tailor. The chief products are corn, wheat, oats, potatoes and hemp; timber, oak, walnut, hickory and ash. Improved land may be bought for $25 per acre, and unimproved for $15. Population 1,000. (Missouri State Gazetteer..., 1860)