Adam Legler, Swiss Immigrant
--from a brochure made by the Lenexa Historical Society for the Legler Barn Museum
Adam Legler, his wife, Elizabeth, and their five year-old daughter Margaret, came to America from Switzerland in 1845. They journeyed by boat from their home in Glaurus, Switzerland, with two of Adam's brothers and over 100 other immigrants, arriving in New Orleans.
The Legler family traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. From here Adam's two brothers went on to New Glaurus, Wisconsin and with friends, introduced the first Swiss cheese in America.
Adam and his family settled for a while in the St. Louis, Missouri area on a farm in the community of Beaufort in Franklin County, just 50 mils southwest of St. Louis. While in Missouri, six more children were born to Adam and Elizabeth; Fred, Henry, David I, Louisa, Nimrod, and David II.
Adam received his naturalization papers in 1852 and in the early 1860's he and his family boarded a Missouri River packet boat which took them to the Westport Landing. Adam walked to Johnson County and purchased land, which would soon after become part of Lenexa and eventually become the four corners of 95th and Quivira Road (prime commercial real estate today!) He purchased the land, which was directly adjacent to the Santa Fe Trail, from the Shawnee Indians and Harmann Wolfkuhl, an early developer in the Lenexa area.
The last of the Legler farmland was sold off in the 1950's by Ralph Walters, a great-grandson of Adam Legler.
