The 1920 street directory locates Nelson Road at 50th & Topping, east to city limits and beyond. The 1910 promotional post card pictures the Kelly Springfield road roller and half a dozen workmen during construction of the road. The buildings in the background are believed to be old Municipal Farm structures and the Tuberculosis Hospital. W. R. Nelson road (later called Sni-a-Bar Road) was the dream of Nelson, founder of The Star, of an east-west road across Jackson County, extending from the center of Kansas City, rather than by way of 15th Street or Independence Avenue. Nelson commissioned an engineer to find the shortest route with the best grades and fewest curves. He explored the route personally before giving his final approval. Because the road led directly to the 1,300 acres of farm property near Grain Valley owned by Nelson, it became a political football for Nelson's enemies and work was repeatedly delayed by unfriendly county courts. However, Nelson had provided in his will that the farm was to be used to demonstrate to farmers the benefit of improved cattle breeding and that after 30 years the proceeds from the sale of the farm would go to benefit the people of Kansas City. The road was dedicated at a picnic celebration on the blue grass lawn of Sni-a-Bar farm on Oct 4, 1924 - almost a decade after Nelson's death. Theodore Remley, ex-judge of the county court, spoke. He told of the history of the road and its transition from a rough oxen trail to a ribbon of concrete straight as an arrow across the county. Remley had been one of the county court judges who established the right-of-way for the road about 1913. Remley's speech continued: This new Sni-a-Bar road is the result of William Rockhill Nelson's dream, his visions in those days. It was from Mr. Nelson the people of Grain Valley received their courage to keep up their fight for the road. Mr. Nelson gave the right of way through his farms, and that gift was indeed considerable. But it must be remembered always that Mr. Nelson was the prophet back of all the projects for a road bisecting the county, east and west. Another thing in connection with this road which is now a link of the great cross-state highway, (the eastern terminus of the road became part of U.S. 40), remember Mr. Nelson's watchword: Build a road that goes some place. The old post card was issued by the Kelly Springfield Road Roller Company of Springfield, Ohio, and was mailed in 1910 to a road supervisor in Stockbridge, Mich. Kansas City Times, September 28, 1979.
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