George Henry Walser LTC

Founder of the Town of Liberal, MO (1880), Civil War officer, published author/poet, lawyer, philanthropist. After the Civil War, he went to Barton County, where he was quickly recognized as one of the best lawyers in southwest Missouri. He was elected prosecuting attorney there, and became a member of the 25th assembly. He purchased 2,000 acres of land outside of Lamar, MO, and as an openly admitted atheist, funded and founded the Town of Liberal; a town created as a home for infidels, a place that once advertised itself as a town without a 'church, saloon, God or hell'. Beginning in 1880, hundreds of people moved there, but, by 1910, when he died, the experiment in creating a town for non-believers had failed. Today, Liberal has seven churches, a tavern on its outskirts, and history unlike any other town in America.