 Centerville was composed of what is now the southeastern portion of the town.In 1867, John Lawrence began laying out plans for another small settlement around the newly established Kansas City and Cameron Railroad subsidiary of the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad which was to build the Hannibal Bridge establishing Kansas City, Missouri as the dominant city in the region.The president of the railroad was Charles E. Kearney (although there is speculation that it was named after Kearney, Nebraska).