Stet, Missouri


Stet is an unincorporated community on the Ray/Carroll County line and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is located approximately fourteen miles northwest of Carrollton at the intersection of Missouri Supplemental Routes K and JJ.
A post office called Stet was established in 1890, and remained in operation until 1973. That same year, the rural route was consolidated with Norborne but the building stayed open as a contract office until 2011. The origin of the name "Stet" is obscure. The meaning of Stet in Latin is "let it stand."
The community patrons took special pride in their school, which thrived for many years in a rural surrounding. In the early 20th century, several of the one-room schoolhouses in eastern Ray and western Carroll counties were consolidated into one larger school district, appropriately named Stet. The K-12 school of the cardinals opened in 1917 and just recently closed in 2012.
Stet was named by Ed Mansur, a Stet storekeeper, in the late 1800s. Once a thriving community that boasted of two general stores, a blacksmith shop and a variety of other businesses, today Stet still remains with a tire and welding shop, a telephone exchange building, a Pioneer Seed salesman, Norris Quarries, and a volunteer fire department which just recently added a kitchen addition to their current structure. Each summer, the fire team members hold an ice cream social at the station as a fundraiser event.
The area also has several churches of worship scattered throughout the countryside. They include: Bethany Church of the Brethren; New Hope United Methodist; Mt. Pleasant Baptist; and Union Baptist Church.