Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Hume, MO

Hume is a city in southwest Bates County, Missouri, lying on Missouri Route A about 1.5 miles east of the Kansas state line.

The Hume area was emptied during the Civil War under General Order No. 11 and took many years to recover; Leroy Taylor finally platted the town in 1880 under the name Howard.

Because the Post Office feared confusion with Howard Mills, Missouri, the town had to change its name — tradition holds that 'Hume' came from a whiskey bottle that fell off a train, though Taylor's original plat already had a Hume Street drawn on it.

Hume was incorporated in 1881.

Coal made Hume boom: the Hume Sinclair Coal Company and other mines pushed the population to nearly 2,000 at the height of production in the 1930s through 1950s, but the mines closed in the 1950s and most people left.

Hume was once known as the 'White City on the Border' after local journalist Lewis Moore campaigned to have the town's fences painted white.

The Hume Stock Show, first held in 1905, evolved into the Hume Fair, which the town still celebrates today.

Local tradition credits Hume's many catalpa trees to a nurseryman who was ordered to plant them as punishment for public intoxication.

Hume counted 336 residents in 122 households at the 2010 census, and 283 residents at the 2020 census.

Hume has its own preschool, elementary school, and high school, whose teams compete as the Hornets in red and white.