From Millville and Snow Hill to the railroad town that became Foristell, our community’s story stretches back more than 170 years.
If you’ve lived around Foristell for any length of time, you probably know the water tower, the railroad tracks and the steady stream of traffic along Interstate 70.
But have you ever wondered why it’s called Foristell?
The answer takes us back to a time before I-70, before Highway 40 and even before the community itself was known as Foristell.
It begins with a small Missouri settlement called Millville.
Before There Was a Town
People were traveling through this part of Missouri long before streets were laid out or railroad tracks crossed the countryside.
Local historical research traces one early route through the area to the Whosau Trace, an early east-west trail associated with portions of what would eventually become the local road network.
By the 1830s, settlers were establishing farms throughout the area. Local history identifies William and Nancy Lockett among those arriving from Virginia in 1835, followed by Joel Davis in 1836 and other families.
Community institutions followed.
Hickory Grove Christian Church was organized in 1847, and in 1849 Frederick Blattner established a trading post on his farm and later added a mill for grinding corn.
The pieces of a community were beginning to come together.
But one development would change everything.
Millville Meets the Railroad
On May 16, 1856, the settlement that would eventually become Foristell was formally platted as Millville.
That same period brought the railroad through town.
For a small agricultural community in nineteenth-century Missouri, a railroad connection was transformative. It connected local farmers and merchants to larger markets and brought travelers, commerce and opportunity directly through the settlement.
Transportation would become a recurring theme in Foristell’s history.
It still is today.
Millville or Snow Hill?
Here’s where the story gets a little more interesting.
Although the town was known as Millville, its first post office carried another name.
In 1858, a post office called Snow Hill was established just south of town, with J.P. Simpson serving as its first postmaster.
For years, the area essentially had two names:
Millville was the town.
Snow Hill was the post office.
Neither would ultimately survive.
So Where Did “Foristell” Come From?
The name comes from Pierre Foristell, a prominent local landowner and farmer who became a respected member of the community.
During the mid-1870s, Millville and its postal identity transitioned to the name Foristell in his honor.
Interestingly, historical sources don’t agree perfectly on the exact year. Some place the change in 1875, while postal and other historical records point to 1876 or 1877.
What we do know is that by the late 1870s, the name that remains with us today had taken hold:
Foristell.
A Railroad Town Comes to Life
The community continued to grow around the railroad.
Dr. C. W. Pringle began practicing locally in the 1870s and would serve area residents for decades.
Henry W. Williams opened a drug store in 1879 and the Commercial Hotel in 1881. The hotel became known among travelers along the railroad.
Other businesses followed or flourished, including mills, merchants, blacksmith and wagon operations, a tobacco factory and eventually the Foristell Bank.
Foristell wasn’t simply a collection of farms anymore.
It had become a small railroad town.
The Road Changes Again
Eventually, the automobile began doing to America what the railroad had done generations earlier.
Transportation changed again — and Foristell changed with it.
The National Old Trails Road came through the region. Missouri Highway 2 followed. Then came U.S. Highway 40.
As railroad travel declined and highway traffic increased, Foristell found itself in a familiar position:
right along the route.
Local history preserves fascinating stories from this era, including Skyline, an early highway stop that served truckers and travelers.
According to historical information preserved by local historian Roger Cox, Skyline included a small service station, a bunkhouse with beds and showers for truck drivers, and a 24-hour restaurant operating from a metal Quonset hut.
Different transportation.
Same crossroads.
From Village to City
More than a century after Millville was first laid out, Foristell formally incorporated as a village around 1979–1980.
Voters later approved reorganization, and on January 1, 1989, Foristell entered a new chapter as a Fourth-Class City.
The little settlement that had grown alongside the railroad now had a formal municipal identity.
And Here We Are Again
Today, Interstate 70 carries thousands of vehicles past Foristell.
The region continues moving west.
New homes are being built. Businesses are looking at the area. Infrastructure is changing. Major improvements to I-70 and the interchange at Highways T and W are once again reshaping the landscape.
In some ways, that makes this moment remarkably familiar.
Foristell has spent much of its history at a crossroads.
Trails became roads.
Roads met rails.
Highways replaced many of the railroad’s travelers.
And Interstate 70 brought another generation of growth.
The way people move has changed dramatically since Millville appeared on a map in 1856.
But Foristell is still right where it has been for generations:
on the way to somewhere.
And now we’re watching the next chapter unfold.
Explore More of Foristell’s History
This is only part of the story.
We’ve created a new History of Foristell section on Explore Foristell with an illustrated timeline, additional stories about the people and places that shaped the community, and more of the history preserved through local research.
[EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF FORISTELL →]
And we’d like your help.
If you have old photographs of Foristell, newspaper clippings, advertisements from former businesses, maps, documents or family stories connected to the community, we’d love to hear from you.
[SHARE A PIECE OF FORISTELL HISTORY →]
Historical information for this story was compiled from materials published by the City of Foristell, including local historical research credited to Roger Cox, the City’s 2026 Comprehensive Plan Existing Conditions report, and historical sources referenced in those materials. Where historical sources differ on exact dates, Explore Foristell has noted that uncertainty.
Explore Foristell is an independently owned community publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Foristell.