Villages of Crawford County, Missouri - WILSON'S MILL--WESCO

    Wilson's Mill was established by a pioneer family of that name 
before the building of the St. Louis, Salem and Little Rock Railroad in 1873
through the vicinity.
    One of the early industries of the vicinity was a brick kiln.  
In time a blacksmith shop was opened and two large stores were built 
and each did a thriving business for many years.  
The largest store was owned and operated by several different persons,
among whom were Walter Asher and J. G. Harris.  In recent years this 
big store was closed and the remaining stock of goods and the post 
office moved to another location.  The last postmaster and merchant in the
store was Warren Perkins.  Shortly after the transition Mr. Perkins passed 
away, and Mrs. Fern Housewright Perkins was appointed postmistress, the posi-
tion she still holds.
    In the boom days after the railroad came two hotels were built, 
and one of them was operated until about 1925 by Mrs. Vaughan.
    The railroad was built to Wilson Mills about 1873 but the post office 
had already been established and named Boaz.  This name was unpopular and 
confusing because another post office in Missouri already bore that name.
 A discussion arose about a new name to replace Boaz.
    The Western Electric Company was just beginning to bring in the neighborhood 
a new and very welcome telephone system.  Someone suggested a union of the two 
words Western and Company and by abbreviation it came to be Wesco.

    Wesco, with a new name, prospered for a few years.  Shipping the farm 
products from the fertile Meramec Valley and railroad ties and mining props 
from the wooded hills became the source of income for many people in the area.  
In spite of being somewhat isolated from the main artery of travel the
citizens have succeeded in maintaining the post office till the present time.

    The only known early postmaster was John Lawrence who was in charge in 1888.  
He probably was the first, or nearly the first one.  The oldest known church in 
the community was the Methodist Episcopal Church established in 1888.  
The church and the school in later years fell prey to the changing times
and both have been relegated to the fate of many others in like circumstances.

    Much of the past of Wilson's Mill, Boaz, or Wesco, is buried on the hill 
where marble and granite blocks reveal its only known history.  The old mill is 
gone, but the mill stream still flows over the century old dam and has gone 
unceasingly down the valley to the Meramec.

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