Otto Duenweg and his father, Louis, of Terre Haute, Indiana, had been interested in the mining district since 1894. Their first investments in Missouri were made by Louis Duenweg, in Aurora. In that same year both Louis and Otto were associated in the opening of The Silver Dick mine in Center Valley, north of Webb City. A year later, in 1895, a new camp southeast of Webb City, where G. P. Ashcraft and J. Allen Hardy had been opening up some great lead diggings, attracted the attention of the Indiana capitalists. The Duenwegs purchased some of the largest of the newly discovered mines. The mining camp became known from that time on as "Duenweg", in honor of the men who had undertaken the development of this new territory.
Otto Duenweg was only 25 years old when the town was given his last name. He died just 13 years later, August 14, 1908, in Manitou Springs, Colorado, after undergoing emergency surgery. Mr. Duenweg was on a vacation trip with a group of friends from Webb City, when he was stricken with an illness.
