Lincoln Train Depot

The first shipment of apples shipped out on januray 22 1902

The railroad had an immediate impact on business. Farmers and nurserymen now had a local point from which to ship and no longer had to depend on fruit peddlers to drive wagons to nearby communities for door-to-door sales.

About the turn of the century, the Ozark and Cherokee Central (O&CC) branch of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway began its acquisition of rights of way across Washington County. The settlement called Lincoln was clustered north of present-day North Street. Paul Easby, an employee of or agent for the railroad company, bought twenty-two acres for a town site south of North Street from former slave Wesley J. Bean. The site fit neatly between North Street and the railroad track that paralleled it. The plat was filed in 1903 but modified in 1907. The city was incorporated in November 1907 with Jim Leach as its first mayor.