In 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes and his friend General William Tecumseh Sherman stopped at the Junction Depot near Second and Nettleton Streets in Cameron while traveling east on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad from St. Joseph. According to the Cameron Observer newspaper on October 2, 1879, telegraph word said the President would leave St. Joseph at about 10:30 a.m., and although the train was not initially scheduled to stop at Cameron, prominent citizens prepared for the visit. After a three-hour wait, the presidential party arrived to booming cannon, band music, and cheers from hundreds of people assembled. Hayes, Mrs. Hayes, and Sherman appeared on the rear platform of their car, greeted the crowd with two minutes of handshaking and conversation, and then the train departed.