Originally a milling settlement known as Wyaconda, LaGrange was settled by John S. Marlow in 1828 and incorporated as a city in Marion County in 1832. A popular steamboat landing until after the Civil War, it became a hub of commerce because of its location on the river between St. Louis and St. Paul. In 1853, the Missouri State Legislature granted the city its state charter in Lewis County at the same time as St. Louis, Kansas City, and St. Joseph. With the founding of LaGrange College in 1858, the city became not only a commercial center but also a religious and educational one for northeast Missouri. Although affected by great changes to Missouri after the Civil War, LaGrange continued to thrive on the Mississippi, with two railroads through town by 1872. After plans for a large metal-rolling plant failed, its largest industry became the Gardner-Governor plant, later Gardner-Denver, and abundant shells in the Mississippi supported a button industry that included three factories by 1900. In the following decades, its varied commerce and mineral well helped make LaGrange a summer resort. Though the 1928 relocation of LaGrange College to Hannibal was a disappointment, the community remained important in shipping because of state-owned gravel pits. By 1969, LaGrange had endured change, and even a tragic barge accident on the Mississippi that killed five did not diminish river use in the city. Over the next three decades, its commercial character changed completely as some businesses closed, decaying buildings, including the old college buildings, were removed, and new houses and businesses were built. The city's distinctive wine glass-shaped water tower, the only one of its kind in Missouri, was built. In 1995, the Gardner-Denver plant changed hands and closed a few years later, while the Mark Twain Casino was built at the south end of town in a steamboat form that continued LaGrange's river traditions.