Winigan is an unincorporated community in southeastern

Sullivan County, Missouri Sullivan County is a county located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,999. Its county seat is Milan. The county was organized February 14, 1845, and named for Major General Joh ...

, United States. It is located on

Missouri Route 129 Route 129 is a highway in northern and central Missouri. Its northern terminus is at the Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River ...

, approximately southeast of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. The Sullivan-

Linn Linn may refer to: People * Linn (surname) * Linn (given name) * Carl Linnaeus, abbreviated as Linn. * Linn da Quebrada, stage name of Brazilian singer, actress, screenwriter and television personality Lina Pereira dos Santos (born 1990) Place ...

county line is one-half mile south of the community.

History

The land upon which Winigan sits was obtained from the U.S. government in February 1857 by Noah Harl and exchanged hands five times before coming into the possession of James M. Thrasher. The town of Winigan was laid out in early February 1880, encompassing an area of six blocks on land belonging to Thrasher. A post office had been established in 1874 with Van Klelsie as the first postmaster. According to local folklore, the town was named in honor of a Mr. Winnegan, an early settler to southern Sullivan County who was killed by a panther in the 1840s. The first store was opened in 1878 and by 1888 Winigan had a population of 25 families. It was then, and remained for many years, dependent on supplying the needs of farms located in southeastern Sullivan County. At one time there were two dry goods stores, two blacksmith shops, a drug store and a combination steam

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

. A large turkey farm and hatchery was owned and run by the Borron family near Winigan in the mid and late 1900s. For many years Winigan had one of the longest running community street fairs in north Missouri. It was held on the first weekend in August for over six decades. The highlight was the Winnigan Centennial in 1973, which drew a crowd of over 5,000. The Winigan Strawberry Festival is held each June and the Winigan 4-H Fair has been held each year since 1938. Winigan has twice been the scene of a bank robbery. The first happened on December 19, 1945, as three armed men stole more than $6,000 at gunpoint from the Citizen's Bank of Winigan. Town merchant Ivan Cable helped foil the robbery by letting the air out of one of the getaway vehicle's tires; the robbers fled on foot but were later apprehended. Two were arrested, while the third killed himself by gunshot. The second robbery took place on July 2, 2009, as two men held up the Winigan branch of the Bank of Brookfield-Purdin, escaping with an undisclosed amount of cash. The pair were later caught and tried for a series of similar bank thefts.

Demographics

Notable people

Bud Houser Lemuel Clarence "Bud" Houser (September 25, 1901 – October 1, 1994) was an American field athlete. He won Olympic gold medals in the discus throw in 1924 and 1928 and in the shot put in 1924. Biography Houser was born in Winigan, Missouri, b ...

, winner of three Olympic gold medals.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Sullivan County, Missouri Unincorporated communities in Missouri Census-designated places in Missouri Census-designated places in Sullivan County, Missouri