Lexington Historical Museum

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The Lexington Historical Museum is a museum with a collection of historic items related to Lexington, Missouri. The Greek Revival building was constructed in 1846 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It is located in the Old Neighborhoods Historic District.DescriptionThe museum has been housed in the 1846 Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Lexington since its opening in 1976. The museum has a collection of early Lexington pictures. It also has on display an Overland Mail Company Bible as one of its many items related to the Pony Express mail service. It also contains historical memorabilia related to steamboats, coal mining, Osage Indians, and the Wentworth Military Academy.A sword that James A. Mulligan turned over in surrender, but later allowed to keep per orders of General Sterling Price, is on display. The historical records on the sword show it was stolen by a young boy shortly after Mulligan's surrender and hidden it in his father's farm near Lexington. It was returned to a lawyer around 1900. The lawyer returned it to the Mulligan family in 1912 to the widow of Colonial Mulligan. Her daughter returned it to the city of Lexington in 1917, where it stayed in a bank vault for 50 years. The family later donated the elaborately decorated sword to the Lexington Historical Museum in 1967. The sword was originally presented to Mulligan by the city of Chicago.