What could a replica of "The Clermont" have to do with the naming of the city of Fulton?

The connection isn't quite as watery as one might think. Robert Fulton invented the first successful steamboat and designed "The Clermont" in 1807.

"He built the boat first. He built it about 130 feet long and only about 11 feet wide. It was too narrow and wasn't safe. He took it in and rebuilt it. He made it about 18 feet wide and about 160 feet long," model ship designer Larry Languell said.

Languell built a replica of the Clermont for his neighbors.

"It's for Callaway County, though," Languell said. "That's what I built it for."

The city of Fulton wasn't always known as Fulton. In the early 1800s, it was actually called Volney after a Frenchman.

"He was a French author and philosopher, but he also did not have a religious belief like most people at that time," museum director Barb Huddleston said.

Robert Dunlap, a prominent local citizen, was upset his town would be named after a godless person.

"He campaigned to the neighbors saying, 'We just can't name our county seat after Volney,'" Huddleston said.

Dunlap went to the county court justices and pleaded his case.

"'Give our county seat a name that stands for patriotism to America and loyalty to God. It seems to me the American who built the first successful steamboat, Robert Fulton, certainly deserves the honor. I would call our town Fulton,'" Huddleston said quoting Dunlap.

All of this happened before the town was incorporated as a city, which didn't happen until March 1859.

"The town was changed to the name Fulton in August of 1825 before the lots were even sold," Huddleston said.

But, for about a decade, residents referred to their home as something else.

"They called the town 'Bob Fulton' for a while, not necessarily for Robert Fulton, but for Bob Dunlap," Huddleston said.

But, it was Robert Fulton that inspired the naming of a Callaway County town.

"He was a sign of progress. He did a lot to create industry along the river," Huddleston said.

So, more than 200 years later, Robert Fulton inspired a Tebbetts man to recreate history.

"The little people are just little cowboys and Indians and firemen," Languell said.

"I would cut off of them what I didn't want, heat them with a little torch. I hand-painted them."

It was a labor of love.

"Oh, this one here took about 4.5-5 months once I got the boat built and the case," Languell said.

One Languell did for his love of the past.

"Sometimes you hate to give something like that up, but I'd do anything. I like the historical society," he said.

Huddleston asked Languell to build the model of "The Clermont" for Fulton's 150th birthday, which the city celebrated in March 2009.