Since Before the Railroad Left
Jamesport is a town of about five hundred people in eastern Daviess County, Missouri, and it is home to the largest Amish settlement in the state — the largest Old Order Amish settlement west of the Mississippi River.
The first settler to buy government land here was Jesse Harris, in 1830. The log cabin he built for his family in 1836 still stands, in the Jamesport City Park. His neighbors were the Sauk and Fox. The town was laid out on prairie between the East and West Grand Rivers, in country dotted with hardwoods a hundred feet tall.
The Amish settlement was founded in 1953 and now runs to eight church districts, with seven Amish schools and a Mennonite school in the area. What grew up alongside it is a town of makers: furniture built by hand, quilts stitched over a winter, bread and pies out of the oven that morning, harness and running gear for people who still need them.
The Jamesport Community Association is a non-profit made up of business owners and community members working to advance Jamesport. We put on the annual festivals, we keep the A.V. Spillman Event Center running, and we raise the money for the Fourth of July fireworks.
For more than twenty-five years the association also ran the Amish Country Quilt Show and Auction — close to two hundred hand-made quilts on the floor of the Spillman Center every October. It's no longer held, but the reason behind it hasn't changed: our craft shows promote the history of the Amish people and bring income to families across this area.
Jamesport was voted the number one day trip and the number one antiquing destination in northwest Missouri by Rural Missouri Magazine in 2008. We're still here, and we'd like you to come see us.