Historical 3R,evieT*r

The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI

The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of this State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R.S. of Mo., 1959, Chapter 183.

OFFICERS 1968-71 T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield, President L. E. MEADOR, Springfield, First Vice President LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia, Second Vice President RUSSELL V. DYE, Liberty, Third Vice President JACK STAPLETON, SR., Stanberry, Fourth Vice President JOHN A. WINKLER, Hannibal, Fifth Vice President REV. JOHN F. BANNON, S.J., St. Louis, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer

TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society E. L. DALE, Carthage LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville

Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1969

GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis RONALD L. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe L. E. MEADOR, Springfield JACK STAPLETON, SR., Stanberry JOSEPH H. MOORE, Charleston HENRY C. THOMPSON, Bonne Terre W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence ROBERT M. WHITE, Mexico

Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1970

WILLIAM AULL, III, Lexington GEORGE FULLER GREEN, Kansas City WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton GEORGE H. SCRUTON, Sedalia ELMER ELLIS, Columbia JAMES TODD, Moberly ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis T. BALLARD WAITERS, Marshfield

Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1971

LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia R. I. COLBORN, Paris ROBERT A. BOWLING, Montgomery City RICHARD B. FOWLER, Kansas City FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon VICTOR A. GIERKE, Louisiana HENRY A. BUNDSCHU, Independence ROBERT NAGEL JONES, St. Louis

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-nine Trustees, the President and the Secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and President of the Univer­ sity of Missouri constitute the Executive Committee. FINANCE COMMITTEE Four members of the Executive Committee appointed by the President, who by virtue of his office constitutes the fifth member, compose the Finance Committee.

ELMER ELLIS, Columbia, Chairman WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City T. BALLARD WAITERS, Marshfield CONTENTS

SPREAD OF SETTLEMENT IN HOWARD COUNTY, MISSOURI, 1810-1859.

By Walter A. Schroeder 1

JOHN HENTON CARTER, ALIAS "COMMODORE ROLLINGPIN." By John T. Flanagan.38

THE 1918 KANSAS CITY INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC By C. Kevin McShane 55

BERNARR MACFADDEN. By William H. Taft 71

VIEWS FROM THE PAST: MISSOURI MILLS 90

HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

News in Brief 93

Local Historical Societies 95

Honors and Tributes 106

Gifts 108

Missouri History in Newspapers 113

Missouri History in Magazines 118

Erratum 120

In Memoriam 121

BOOK REVIEWS 122

BOOK NOTES 128

RAILWAYS ON CITY STREETS 133

EMILY NEWELL BLAIR Inside Back Cover

THE COVER: Thomas Hart Benton, Missouri's most famous contemporary artist, painted this original watercolor for an edition of Mark Twain's, Life on the Mississippi. This watercolor and other works by Benton, used to illustrate Twain's Mississippi River classics, are now on display in the Society's Art Gallery. MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW

Published Quarterly by

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI

RICHARD S. BROWNLEE EDITOR

DOROTHY CALDWELL ASSOCIATE EDITOR

JAMES W. GOODRICH ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW is owned by the State Historical Society of Missouri and is published quarterly at 201 South Eighth Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Send communi­ cations, business and editorial correspondence and change of address to The State Historical Society of Missouri, corner of Hitt and Lowry Streets, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Second class postage is paid at Columbia, Missouri. The REVIEW is sent free to all members of The State Historical VOLUME LXIII Society of Missouri. Membership dues in the Society are $2.00 a year or $40 for an individual life membership. The Society assumes NUMBER 1 no responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. OCTOBER 1968 >J#%

mm

Stevens, Centennial Hist, of Mo., I Pioneer Life in Missouri, 1820

Spread of Settlement in Howard County, Missouri 1810-1859

BY WALTER A. SCHROEDER*

"The Boonslick country for many years, in the early settlement of Missouri, was the point of attraction for emigrants; and it was deemed headquarters, to which the traveler, with an indefinite

* Walter A. Schroeder is an instructor in the Department of Geography, University of Missouri, Columbia. He received his B.A. in geography from the University in 1956, and his M.A., in the same field from the University of Chi­ cago in 1958. He will receive his Ph.D. degree in geography from the University of Chicago in March, 1969. EDITOR'S NOTE.—The figures, i.e. maps, graph and tables, referred to by the author appear, consecutively numbered, at the end of the article. 2 Missouri Historical Review idea of a new home, repaired. Here it was customary to halt, and look about for a location."1 Alphonso Wetmore's statement, pub­ lished in 1837, describes a region which had been rapidly settled in the two decades following the end of the War of 1812. It was the first major region of settlement up the Missouri River from St. Charles. Early immigrants were attracted to the Boonslick by the well- respected Boone family name attached to it.2 In the early years of the nineteenth century Daniel Boone's sons had opened a trail to this region well in advance of the agricultural frontier, and the sons had early utilized the salt-producing qualities of one of the coun­ try's saline springs.3 The reputation of a name, however, could not by itself have sustained such heavy immigration. Once settled on the land, the immigrants did find its loess soils to be as productive as reputed, even under the poor management practices that must have prevailed during the initial years of settlement. The Boonslick is the first extensive deep loess region upstream from St. Charles, and this fact may have been largely responsible for the settlement frontier jumping from St. Charles to the Boonslick with only iso­ lated settlements in the intervening one hundred miles along the Missouri River. Much of the Boonslick country is gently rolling, neither too precipitous to discourage agriculture nor too flat to be judged ill- drained and fever-ridden. In some places where slopes are steep they are mantled with loess so deep that annual erosion of large amounts of soil still left a mineral-rich loess for reasonably good crops of corn. The Boonslick was forested. In fact, it was the farthest west extension along the Missouri River of the continuous forest en­ vironment of the humid American East from which settlers were coming. (See Figure 1.) Farther upstream, past Glasgow, prairie grasses began to cover the upland spurs along the river and grow

i Alphonso Wetmore, Gazetteer of the State of Missouri (St. Louis, 1837) , 78. 2 For the attraction of the Boone family name to immigrants see David D. March, The History of Missouri (New York, 1967) , I, 313-318. The salt spring called Boon's Lick is apparently in the NW 14 of Section 6, T 49 N, R 17 W, although salt seeps occur for some distance along the valley of Salt Creek. Part of this area is now a state park. The "Boonslick" is a regional name of varying geographical limits. An early definition is given in the Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, August 27, 1819, as both sides of the Missouri River from the mouth of the Osage River to the western Indian boundary. 3 Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, August 27, 1819. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 3 even in much of the wet bottomland. The prairie represented a major visual environmental change for settlers pushing westward and an environment into which they were hesitant to enter. Despite the excellent loess soils and gentle slopes which continue upvalley on both sides of the Missouri River to Kansas City and beyond, it was only in the Boonslick where these deep and productive soils were extensively combined with the familiar forest environment. The attraction of the Boonslick, therefore, sprang from several factors: the fame of the Boone family name, local salt, excellent loess soil, much gently sloping land, abundant forests with but few, narrow prairie openings, and, of course, the necessary accessibility of the Missouri River. Each immigrant family moving into the Boonslick to make a new home was forced, in the words of Wetmore, "to look about for a location," a definite parcel of land on which to build his house, graze his stock, and plant his crops. Each newcomer had his own values and desires concerning the land he wanted to purchase. He brought with him his particular skills and financial resources when moving into the Boonslick, and he may have had some relatives or friends already there near whom he would wish to purchase his land. Each land patentee could have told his own story. Today, however, one can look back in retrospect a century or more ago and begin to discern some of the more common factors which entered the decisions made when choosing land in the Boonslick. In what geographical sequence was land chosen for settlement? Was this geographical spread of settlement rational? That is, was the newcomer able to decide what was the best land to buy? To answer these questions information was gathered for Howard County,4 which has always been regarded the core of the region, regardless of where the Boonslick boundaries may be drawn. The first lands claimed from the public domain should have been the most desirable lands under the value system of the time. It follows that the last lands claimed should have been the least desirable. Figures 1-4 show patterns of distribution of the major elements of the physical environment which varied throughout this county and which might have been a factor in determining the desirability of land for purchase. These maps, when compared visually with the maps showing the geographic and chronologic

4 The expression "Howard County" in this paper is always used to refer to the present area of Howard County. The county was reduced to its present limits in 1820. 4 Missouri Historical Review spread of settlement in Howard County, sequent Figures 5-10, pro­ vide information on those characteristics of the land most desired by the settlers. The date when every parcel of land was entered (patented) or otherwise disposed of from the public domain of Howard County was obtained from the United States Government Patent Claims Rook for Howard County, kept in the court house at Fayette, Missouri.5 From 1818 to 1859 there were 2,872 separate patents of land made in the county, not including land reserved for other purposes nor land claimed by New Madrid certificate holders. While land was being claimed in Howard County over a con­ tinuous span of forty-one years, there were changes being made in the methods by which settlers acquired land as well as signif­ icant changes in the national economic situation. Such factors, be­ yond the control of Howard Countians, nevertheless affected the rate at which settlers came into the county, the degree to which land speculation was engaged in, and the marketability of the prod­ ucts of the young frontier county. The chronicle of changing poli­ cies of the United States Land Office and changing national eco­ nomic situations must be included in an analysis of the spread of settlement in Howard County.

The Physical Environment of Howard County Virtually all of Howard County was wooded at the beginning of the nineteenth century. (See Figure 1.) There were only two small "wet prairies" in the Missouri bottomland and two patches of upland prairie near present-day Roanoke.6 All these natural prairie openings were so small that they had little influence on settlement. Within the present county limits, therefore, there ap­ pears to have been no contrasting prairie and forest environments to confront the settler. The nature and density of the forests varied. A reconstruction of the vegetation of neighboring Boone County at the time of the

5 The author is grateful to Mr. Bruce G. Karolle of Agana, Guam, and Mr. Gary A. Studt of Potsdam, New York, for their help in gathering this in­ formation. 6 Wetmore, Gazetteer of Missouri, 80. Evidently the two patches of upland prairie described by Wetmore are the same as the irregularly shaped patch of prairie shown on Figure 1 which is based on the field notes of the land survey of 1815-1816. Wetmore's two wet prairies are not mentioned in the field survey notes. The survey does, however, identify several worked corn fields in Cooper's Bottom. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 5 public land survey7 suggests that the largest timber and most densely wooded sections were in bottomlands and in creek valleys, as well as on the gentler slopes leading down to them. On the fringes of the prairies, on the steepest slopes, and in saline areas the woods thinned and may have become "barrens" or brush.8 Still, there is no doubt that sufficient timber for building and domestic purposes was within reach of any pioneer on any parcel of land in the county. In the wet Missouri bottomlands also grew rushes (Equisetum hyemale) which furnished feed for the frontiersman's stock during winter. John Bradbury, during his journey up the Missouri in 1809, specifically notes that the settlements along the river were made where there was a growth of rushes.9 For this reason alone, the very first settlements of Howard County had to be kept accessible to the Missouri bottomlands until stores of winter feed were other­ wise available. There is a marked difference in the soils of the county. In places the original soils, especially those derived from early glacial till, are badly leached and infertile. Along the Missouri River bluffs, however, thick deposits of loess mantle the surface. This presented the settler with a friable, rich loam which he recognized immedi­ ately as a desirable and productive soil. Loess soils are still highly prized in the county because of their lasting fertility and because they can be cultivated on steep slopes.10 Figure 2 divides the county into three generalized soil regions. The "better upland soils" are those identified as "dark-colored upland soils" in the soil survey of Howard County of 1961.n The "poorer upland soils" are the "light-colored upland soils" of the same survey. Bottom­ land soils are undifferentiated alluvial materials of both creeks and the Missouri River, generally friable and fertile, where not water­ logged. These Missouri bottomlands, despite their productivity, long

7 Dillon Lee Howell, "Distribution and Composition of Primeval Forests in Three Missouri Counties" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Missouri, 1955). 8 Boon's Lick Sketches, May 28, 1928, 1. 9 John Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of America in the Years 1809, 1810, 1811; . . . (London, 1819) , 42. Reprinted in Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Cleveland, 1904) as Volume 5 entitled Brad­ bury's Travels in the Interior of America 1809-1811. 10 Carl O. Sauer, The Geography of the Ozark Highland of Missouri, Geo­ graphic Society of Chicago, Bulletin 7 (1920), 40, 110, 118. 11 C. L. Scrivner, Soils of Howard County, University of Missouri Agricul­ tural Experiment Station Bulletin 749 (April, 1961) . 6 Missouri Historical Review had a reputation for being malarial.12 Most of the undrained de­ pressions lay at the base of the bluffs, as is suggested by the abrupt, right angle turns of the streams entering the bottomlands. There is much evidence that these wet lands with reputations for fevers would have been avoided, if possible.13 Where they were cultivated, the farmers often built their houses "on the eminences, rather than below on the bank of the river, where the air is said to be less salubrious."14 The alluvial soils of the smaller streams and creeks commonly were not so malarial, or at least they were not considered to be, and often they were preferred locations. The map does not show the large number of small creek valleys fingering into the hilly parts of the country. To the pioneers of the 1820s these creek valleys were large enough for the small corn patches which satisfied their domestic needs.15 All the county is hilly, save the Missouri bottomlands. Figure 3 divides the county into three general regions: steeply sloping land, moderately and gently sloping land, and bottomlands of the Mis­ souri and smaller streams. In certain bluff regions, as around Glas­ gow, the hillsides are steeper and the ridgetops narrower due to the very thick accumulations of loess on the ridgetops. Steep slopes occur in a great band from the Boonesborough district northeast­ ward into the headwaters of the Bonne Femme and Moniteau creeks in the northeastern corner of the county. Steep slopes also prevail in the bluff region west of Rocheport. Elsewhere slopes are more gentle. The hills north of New Franklin and along the lower courses of the Bonne Femme and Moniteau creeks—a large triangular area with New Franklin, Fay­ ette, and Rocheport near the apexes—are noticeably more moderate. Gentler slopes also occur locally along Richland Creek and generally in the northwestern parts of the county, especially around Arm­ strong and Roanoke, where the uplands tend to become distinctly smooth. A pioneer farmer could clear and plow moderately steep slopes, particularly those with loess, as long as they were not gullied so that horses and plows could not negotiate the gullies. Creek bot­ toms and bench lands with gentler slopes were much preferred,

i2Sauer, Geography of Ozark Highland, 113-114. is Ibid., 114, nn. 14 Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in the Interior of North America (London, 1843) , reprinted in Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Cleveland, 1904), XXII, 240. isSauer, Geography of Ozark Highland, 113. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 7 though, by both the hunter-frontiersman and the pioneer farmer. A site near the base of a slope would have a better supply of drink­ ing water as well. In the early nineteenth century all sections of the county had adequate surface water or springs.16 Thorough dissection of the land by numerous ravines and creeks causes the water table to be intercepted on practically every quarter section of land, so that water could be obtained at shallow depths. Moreover, an imperme­ able clayey subsoil creates perched water tables on many slopes.17 This means that a seep zone occurs regularly in many parts of the county. Early settlers easily dug shallow wells, lined with rock or local brick, into this seep zone for a small, but adequate water supply.18 Water, however, is not potable in all sections of the county. Some of the underground water is excessively saline and sulphuric, and, where such water completely replaces fresher water, it delayed agricultural settlement. The regular occurrence of saline water around Boonesborough was most likely a factor in the late estab­ lishment of farms in this district. Elsewhere, as at the Buffalo Lick near Fayette, where saline water is at the surface but fresh water also obtainable, settlement was not delayed. The county history enumerates twelve salt springs or licks (or "mineral springs") in the county, which are mapped on Figure 4,19 but salt springs were certainly more ubiquitous than this map suggests. Many of the smallest springs and hillside seeps have been obliterated over the years by trampling of stock, plowing, and tiling. Increased runoff after rains has reduced the infiltration of water into the soil so that the smallest springs and seeps have lost their water source and have dried up. It was these small springs, however, which provided in large part for the initial widespread settlement of the county, when every farmstead needed a source of potable water at not great depth. Deeper wells and dug cisterns have now become commonplace in the county, so that the loss of spring and seep water is hardly noticed at all.

16 Wetmore, Gazetteer of Missouri, 79. 17 Scrivner, Soils of Howard County. 18 Information from C. L. Scrivner. Many of these seep zones today are tiled and drained under better farm land management. In places the water of these seeps is contaminated from agricultural fertilizers. 19 History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri (St. Louis, 1883), 323- 326. The Howard County part of this book is exactly the same, including pagina­ tion, as the Howard County part of History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri (St. Louis, 1883). Missouri Historical Review

Initial Settlement 1810-1818 When the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase lands, the General Land Office, charged with the administration of the public domain, was given the task of recognizing existing land claims in the new territory. As a rule, if old French or Spanish claims could be substantiated, they were acknowledged by the United States. Along the Mississippi River this was a major problem confronting the Land Office, but few, if any, pre-American land grants were located in the Boonslick. That salt springs and fertile lands had attracted Spanish and French colonials into the Boons­ lick is certain,20 but the county history mentions only two pre-American settlers in Howard County,21 whose claims to land apparently were disposed of in such a manner so to pose no questions with pre-American land titles. Members of the Boone family were working the salt springs bearing the family name by 1806.22 Within the next few years other settlers came, and apparently the first permanent group was Colonel Benjamin Cooper's party which settled in 1810 in the adjacent bottomland since called Cooper's Bottoms.23 These settlers had, of course, no legal rights to the land, since they had not purchased or claimed the land in any way except by "squatting" on the site. In fact, the land was still Indian land at the time.24 When war broke out in 1812 increased trouble with the Indians forced the 500-600 persons25 then within the Boonslick to group themselves in forts which they built themselves.26 Some of these "forts" were nothing more than groupings of cabins with a "court" to the interior where some protection for stock at night could be

20 Boon's Lick Country, guide for William Clark Society, Second Annual Field Trip, June 15-16, 1940, 5. 21 History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 90, 113, 151. 22 ibid., 117. 23 Ibid., 94, 150. They had attempted to settle in the Boonslick in 1808 but were asked by Governor Meriwether Lewis to move back downstream to a more defensible location. See C. R. Barns, ed., The Commonwealth of Missouri (St. Louis, 1877), 192-193. 24 For the "propensity of American frontiersmen to settle wherever they pleased on the public domain and then dare authorities to oust them" see March, History of Missouri, I, 253. Also see Payson J. Treat, The National Land System, 1785-1820 (New York, 1910), 381-390, on the question of squatters and the issue of preemption. For Indian title to this region during its earliest settle­ ment see John L. Thomas, "Some Historic Lines in Missouri," Part 1, MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, III (April, 1909) , 213-214. 25 History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 99. 26 Ibid., 95-99. Also see description and location of the forts in Louis Houck, History of Missouri (Chicago, 1908) , III, 137-138. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 9 provided. Cleared fields lay between the grouped cabins and the woods. Figure 5 locates the five named forts of Howard County during this "Indian War."27 These five forts can be taken as the location of virtually all the settlers at the time, then concentrated in Cooper's Bottom. Forts Cooper, Kincaid, and Hempstead were more important than the other two; that is, they contained larger numbers of settlers. All the forts were close to the river and all certainly were in communication with each other and with a few other fort-settlements along the river. By necessity, then, as long as trouble with the Indians contin­ ued, settlement was geographically restricted to the environs of these fort-settlements. They provided the first local services for the settlers—looms and mills.28 When hostilities ceased and the Indians ceded their lands and moved farther west, the settlers be­ gan to disperse and the forts, the first nuclei of settlement, grad­ ually lost their central place function and disappeared. None of these forts became a townsite. Settlement 1818-1819 The population of the settled Boonslick had passed a thousand by the war's end.29 Distance to the seats of government down the Missouri River was so great that the territorial government, realiz­ ing the potential development of the Boonslick, organized Howard County in 1816,30 embracing much more territory than at present. Franklin, the river landing in Cooper's Bottom and quite centrally located among the various Boonslick settlements, became the county seat. Organizing a county with local law enforcement and admin­ istration was a powerful stimulus to further immigration. Settlers had recourse to officials and to the law just a day's ride away, at most, instead of boating the long and dangerous river to St. Louis. In 1816 more than one hundred families came. By 1818 the population was 9,000,31 and by 1820 the four-year-old county's pop­ ulation was already 12,000.32 The price of American farm produce had become highly inflated during the recent war, which was really an adjunct to the Napoleonic wars in Europe. As long as American

27 Since the Missouri River shifts its channel, its location on maps of vari­ ous dates must change. Often, however, it is impossible to determine the exact location of the channel for specific years. On the maps included here the loca­ tion of the river's edge is dated. 28 History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 98-99. 29 Sauer, Geography of Ozark Highland, 110. SO History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 108. 31 Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, April 1, 1820. 32 Ibid. 10 Missouri Historical Review grains brought high prices in Europe, settlers moved westward from the Appalachians and eagerly planted new land, always search­ ing for the best soils with the highest yields.33 It was a short-lived period of speculation and rapid expansion of the frontier, experi­ enced as far west as the Boonslick of Missouri. Much land in How­ ard County was probably settled with the idea of getting handsome profits from the contemporary high prices for farm products. Land speculation during this time was aided by a credit system of purchasing land. Under this system a person obtaining, for ex­ ample, a half section of land (320 acres) would need to pay, on the day of sale, the fees for the land survey and the application and only one-twentieth the price, or thirty-two dollars. Four-twentieths of the price was due within forty days, but the next quarter was not due until two years from the sale date.34 Also of importance to the spread of settlement in Howard County was the establishment in 1818 of a land office at Franklin which was already well on its way to become "the most important and flourishing town in the State west of St. Louis."35 Its opening was delayed for several months, and when it finally opened on the second Monday in February, 1819, it did so amid great confusion.36 Before land could go on sale, many involved questions needed to be resolved. First, there were, of course, hundreds of squatter families, in­ cluding the initial settlers of Cooper's party, already occupying land productively and wishing to register their claims immediately. It had become the practice of the General Land Office to grant pre­ emption rights to such settlers, and this practice was confirmed by an Act of Congress in 1814 for the Territory of Missouri.37 In 1818, however, the Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to a request from the Land Commissioner, wrote that when the act was passed in 1814, Howard County was still Indian territory not under the civil government of the Territory, and preemption rights in Howard County were apparently not to be allowed.38 This decision aroused

33 March, History of Missouri, I, 248. 34 Treat, National Land System, 102-104. 35 Barns, Commonwealth of Missouri, 192. 36 March, History of Missouri, I, 244-247. 37 "An Act for the final adjustment of Land Titles in the State of Louisiana and territory of Missouri, April 12, 1814," Clarence Edwin Carter, ed., Terri­ torial Papers of the United States (Washington, 1951) . 38 "William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, to Josiah Meigs, Com­ missioner of the General Land Office, November 27, 1818, Territorial Papers, XV, 463-464. r Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 11 so much feeling in the county that a strongly worded memorial was sent to Congress by the Territorial Assembly on behalf of the af­ fected settlers.39 In March, 1819, shortly after the delayed opening of the Franklin land office, Congress passed an act confirming the right of preemption by the Act of April 12, 1814, to the settlers of Howard County who had been on the land on April 12, 1817.40 Secondly, there were the famous New Madrid claims to large parts of the best land of the county—claims which were to become a never-ending source of trouble for the land register and Howard County officials. Supposedly, all these claims, some of which were made before the land office opened, had to be disposed of one way or another before the land in general could go on sale. The New Madrid land claims merit special attention, since they were very common in Howard County.41 Earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 had devastated the old settlements of New Madrid and Little Prairie along the Mississippi River in southeast Missouri. To com­ pensate the residents for the ruin of their lands and property Con­ gress passed a Relief Act in 181542 which, in general, permitted the residents to take out land free from the surveyed public domain elsewhere upon presentation of a certificate issued them for their ruined lands. The Relief Act failed in its objective to aid the New Madrid residents by providing them land elsewhere from the public domain; out of 516 certificates issued only twenty were ultimately located by the original claimants or sufferers. Most certificates (385) were held by speculators who resided in St. Louis, one of whom

39 "Memorial to Congress by the Territorial Assembly, January 22, 1819," Territorial Papers, XV, 503-506. 40 "An Act explanatory of the act, entitled 'An Act for the final adjustment of Land Titles in the State of Louisiana and Territory of Missouri,' March 3, 1819, "Annals of Congress, 15th Congress, 2nd Session (1819), II, 2527-2528. This act is also printed in full in the Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, April 30, 1819. 41 There has been no definitive study of the New Madrid claims. Many his­ tories mention them and comment on them, some repeating the often prejudicial arguments of the middle nineteenth century when some New Madrid claims were still in court. Gloria Saalberg has prepared a preliminary paper based on original records, "The New Madrid Land Claims in Howard County, Missouri," Missouri Mineral Industry News, VII (May, 1967), 67-79. A more complete manuscript is in the Department of Geography of the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, wherein she includes an enumeration of 114 New Madrid claims in Howard County, names of the claimants, locations of all claims, and the final disposal of all claims, whether recognized as valid, illegal, no record, or overlapping. Also see Treat, National Land System, 303-307, and Floyd C. Shoe­ maker, Missouri and Missourians (Chicago, 1943), I, 202-204. 42 "An Act for the relief of the inhabitants of the late county of New Mad­ rid, in the Missouri Territory who suffered by earthquake," Annals of Congress, 13th Congress, 3rd Session (1814-1815), 1154, 1918-1919. Also see American State Papers, Public Lands (Washington, D.C., 1834), IV, 500-610. 12 Missouri Historical Review had forty, another thirty-three, and a third twenty-six.43 Obviously more than one certificate was issued in some instances to cover the same parcel of ruined land. Sometimes multiple certificates got into circulation because officials misconstrued the poorly worded law. Regardless of who held certificates or the means by which the holders obtained them, it was only natural that many certificates would be used to take out the most valuable public domain. Land values in the Boonslick were greater than in any other part of the state at that time, so that nearly one-fourth (121) of all New Mad­ rid claims were made in Howard County.44 Land was selling for more at the Franklin office (average of four dollars an acre) than at the St. Louis office (average of $2.84 an acre).45 As a re­ sult of the preference for the Boonslick, especially Howard County, over sixty-six square miles (42,360 acres) of New Madrid claims were made in Howard County. (See Figures 6 and 11.) This is approximately three times as much land as had been otherwise patented in Howard County by the beginning of the calendar year 1820.46 All these claims to land—by squatters, New Madrid certificate holders and speculators—some of which were made before the land survey was completed in 1816, had to be adjusted to the section lines of the new land survey, or, in the case of some New Madrid claims which did not conform to the survey but were nevertheless allowed, had to be carefully surveyed in the field before any sale could be made of contiguous lands. (See the irregular lines of some of the New Madrid claims in Figure 6.) These tasks busied the

43 Gloria Saalberg, manuscript dated January, 1966, in the Department of Geography, University of Missouri, Columbia. Also see Walter B. Stevens, Missouri, The Center State 1821-1915 (Chicago-St. Louis, 1915) , II, 549. 44 Gloria Saalberg, "New Madrid Land Claims," 77. One enterprising fellow tried to secure the Hot Springs of Arkansas with his New Madrid certificate, but this was disallowed because Hot Springs was not part of the surveyed public domain. "Goah Watson's Memoirs," State Historical Society of Missouri, Colum­ bia, Missouri. 45 March, History of Missouri, I, 247. Houck gives $5 an acre for average price of land at Franklin land office, 1818-1819. Houck, History of Missouri, III, 184. 46 Not all land claims in Howard County based on New Madrid certificates were made when the Franklin land office opened in 1819. Many New Madrid certificates, some judged fraudulent by courts, were still in circulation after 1820 and land was still being entered on their existence. Six acts of Congress were required to settle questions which arose from the original act. See Saalberg, "New Madrid Land Claims," 72. The last New Madrid land title was quieted in 1866. Parenthetically, the extended legal difficulties over land titles in Howard County were instrumental in developing a sizable group of lawyers in the county who were to become very influential in the affairs of state government. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 13 surveyors when they could have been surveying more of the public domain to be put on sale. Some of the land claims conflicted in areal extent. For instance, New Madrid certificate holders, unsure where their lands were when they "acquired" them, found squatter-settlers already on them, growing crops, who desired themselves to file legal claim to the land they had been productively occupying. New Madrid claims even overlapped each other. If this confusion over land was not enough, a confusion which was being added to month by month as new settlers came in and occupied land to which they were unable to acquire legal title until the land office opened or until titles to the land could be settled in courts, it was aggravated by the appointment of an in­ experienced land register and his son to the Franklin office. The two were considered profiteers, with some justification, by the county residents, and their unpopularity affected the functions of the land office and incidentally resulted in the probable murder of the son.47 The Franklin land office finally opened the land auc­ tion in February, 1819. Figure 6 shows the distribution of land which was patented from the date of the opening of the Franklin land office to the end of that calendar year 1819. Most of the land patented consisted of the tremendous backlog of existing claims at the time land went on sale. It is impossible to determine which of the land parcels sold in 1819 were sold to immigrants arriving during 1819 and which of them had been occupied for some time. The map also includes all New Madrid claims, regardless of the date they were made or finally confirmed by the courts. The Franklin land office took in a half million dollars in the twelve months from October 1, 1818, to September 30, 1819.48

47 Described in March, History of Missouri, I, 244-247. See "Petition of the Inhabitants of Howard Land District, September 14, 1819," Territorial Papers, XV, 556-561, wherein 320 male inhabitants of the Land District complained about Charles Carroll, Land Register. 48 Jonas Viles, "Old Franklin: A Frontier Town of the Twenties," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, IX (March, 1923) , 276. The date the Frank­ lin land office "opened" is usually given as 1818. However, the "Proclamation of Land Sale in Howard County. November 13, 1818," Territorial Papers, XV, 459, clearly states that the delayed opening would be the second Monday in Febru­ ary, 1819. If this is the case, how are the two 1818 land entry dates in the United States Government Patent Claims Book for Howard County (and used in this study) to be explained? Could they have been entered elsewhere before the Franklin office opened? Could they be errors of the register's pen? Or could they be the two pre-American land grants which had to be disposed of before the public domain in general could be placed on sale? 14 Missouri Historical Review

These first lands to be patented are in three general regions. First, virtually the entire Cooper's Bottom and parts of the adjacent rolling uplands and creek bottoms were entered. These alluvial lands were first occupied by Colonel Cooper's party and represent the oldest tract of land to be continuously occupied in the county. These lands were close to, even adjoined, the vital river link with markets downriver. Above all, it was land centering on Franklin, the westernmost commercial town in Missouri.49 A second well-settled district extended in a wide band from Rocheport on the Missouri River northwest to Fayette. Fayette had not yet been founded, but the gentler slopes and superior soils of this district were already recognized and under cultivation. (See Figures 2 and 3.) Franklin and Rocheport, the shipping points, were only eight or ten miles away, certainly accessible now that Indian danger was over. A third district lay in the northwest portion of the county, where Glasgow was later to be located. Here loess soils are ex­ ceptionally deep and fertile, even though slopes are frequently steep. Creek valleys open up to the Missouri River where its sharp bend impinging against the Howard County bluffs provided deep water and an excellent landing. A shipping point for this rich agri­ cultural district was established as early as 1817 at (Old) Chariton, now abandoned, about two miles north of Glasgow, and later at several other sites along the river.50 Elsewhere in the county iso­ lated farmsteads had been established here and there in narrow creek valleys. Comparison of these three general districts of land settlement by 1820 with the slope and soils maps shows a high degree of cor­ relation between settled areas by 1820 and the better soils, whether they are steeply, moderately, or gently sloping. Conspicuously ab­ sent from occupation on the 1818-1819 map are (1) the Boones- borough district with its poor soils, steep slopes, and saline waters, even though it lies very close to the Missouri River and includes the Boone salt lick itself—this district was still described in 1823 as a "remote corner of the county," as though few people lived there or even passed through,51 (2) the poorer soils and steeper slopes in the northeast quarter of the county, most distant from the

49 For an excellent description of Franklin, see Viles, "Old Franklin," as well as the numerous issues of the Missouri Intelligencer published at Franklin from 1819 to 1826, when it was moved to Fayette. 50 History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 205. 51 Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, January 7, 1823. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 15

Missouri River, and (3) the rough bluff land west of Rocheport in the southeast part of the county. Settlement 1820-1829 It was during the decade 1820-1829 that the greatest rush to the Boonslick took place. Speaking of the Missouri River counties between the Boonslick and St. Louis, Carl O. Sauer says that in­ crease of population during this decade was delayed because of the great attraction of the Boonslick.52 Not all the people moving into the Boonslick intended to settle there. Some used its bustling commercial center, Franklin, as a reconnoitering and outfitting place before pressing farther westward along the river or moving into counties just being organized away from the river. The land office at Franklin remained, though, a center to which new settlers had to repair to take out title to their lands not only for Howard County but for a vast area of western and northern Missouri.53 Franklin and Howard County prospered greatly from the fron­ tier activity during this decade. The Santa Fe trail opened in 1822; silver and goods brought back from Mexican territory and the busi­ ness of outfitting parties leaving for Santa Fe provided a burst of activity at Franklin. Silver, especially, was welcome at a time when specie was very scarce on the frontier; Missouri had no bank at the time. Furthermore, land office cash receipts into the tens of thou­ sands of dollars had to be taken to Council Bluffs for army pay or back to St. Louis and points east. The Santa Fe trade was extremely decisive in the rapid economic growth of the Boonslick and in bringing to it men of wealth and position.54 The first steamboat docked at Franklin in May, 1819.55 Even if regular packet service to St. Louis was not established until 1829,56 Howard Countians were still able to sell in the markets of St. Louis, New Orleans, and Louisville. Tobacco and hemp, as well as some grain, went downriver. Tobacco was particularly well suited to the deep loess and alluvial soils, and, with cheap labor from a growing slave population, it became a most important cash commodity. It also had the effect of so intensifying land use and cropping systems

52 Sauer, Geography of Ozark Highland, 112. 53 Franklin was the only land office in the Missouri Valley west of St. Louis until one was established at Lexington in 1823. The Franklin office was moved to Fayette, July 5, 1832, and finally to Boonville, May 18, 1857. See Shoemaker, Missouri and Missourians, I, 208. 54 viles "Old Franklin," 276-278. 55 History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 121. 56 Viles, "Old Franklin," 275. 16 Missouri Historical Review that some formerly fertile lands are badly eroded today. Hemp was used for cotton baling down the Mississippi, so that this part of the economy of Howard County was definitely tied to the American South.57 These tobacco and hemp exports, with the Santa Fe com­ merce, enriched the county residents and, among other things, rep­ resented the beginning of surplus capital accumulation from which more land could be bought or money lent to new immigrants to purchase land. The terms of purchasing government land had changed in 1820. Before, land sold for a minimum of two dollars per acre in 160- acre parcels (usually) and could be paid for with only $80 down as one of four installments over four years.58 As long as prices for farm products remained high, there was no difficulty for the settlers in meeting their payments. However, the European depression fol­ lowing the Napoleonic wars finally reached the United States and prices fell so low by 1820 that installment payments could not be met and a depression in land values occurred. A series of relief acts from 1820 to 1832 were enacted to allow settlers to retain the lands they had patented on the credit system.59 To what extent these general economic conditions over the United States prevailed in Howard County is not certain. From issues of the Missouri Intel­ ligencer it would appear that the Boonslick was less affected, at least in land sales, than many districts on the American frontier. The effect on land sales most likely was to reduce somewhat the amount of land speculation. In 1820 a new land law replaced the credit system with a cash system. Land was offered in 80-acre tracts (one-eighth sections) for a minimum of $1.25 per acre cash, or one hundred dollars cash for an 80-acre tract.60 Evidently the change in method of buying government land did not hurt sales in Howard County, for more land was sold in the half decade immediately following the change than at any other time. When Missouri obtained statehood in 1821 the federal govern-

57 st. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 2, 1899. Toward the end of the 1820s opposition to slavery on economic grounds was growing in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina where declining profits from tobacco culture were posing problems to slaveholders. At the same general time slavery was declining in parts of Kentucky. In both cases there was a movement of slaveholders, slaves, and their tobacco culture into Missouri, especially into the Boonslick. 58 Benjamin H. Hibbard, A History of the Public Land Policies (^Sew York, 1924), 101. 59 Ibid., 92-99. GO ibid., 101. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 17 ment permitted the state government to reserve certain tracts of saline land from public sale, because it was thought a possible monopoly of salt production could occur.61 Within Howard County three salt springs, each with six sections of land, were reserved from public sale by the state government. These were the Buffalo Lick just southeast of present Fayette, Salt Pond in east-central Howard County, and Moniteau Lick, south from Salt Pond.62 In all, a total of 12,400 acres of land were taken from possible sale. (See Figure 7 for the location of these saline lands.) The six sec­ tions of land around each salt lick were not compact nor contiguous tracts of land since some land in the vicinity had already passed from the public domain by preemption and New Madrid claims, and its ownership had to be respected. The saline land reserves were largely failures. Salt was not so valuable a commodity, in price, as was anticipated, and fears for a monopoly of its production were never realized. In fact, the state found few entrepreneurs willing to lease the saline lands to make salt. Salt brought upriver, even from as far as the Kanawha River of western Virginia, was cheap enough so that most of the salt springs hardly operated at all.63 These reserved lands seemed to be treated by local residents as lands to be used by anyone. As early as 1820 the land register at Franklin complained that many people would work the unleased salt springs for their own salt supply and cut adjacent public timber for fuel.64 "Each summer families from miles around would journey to the springs to make their annual supply of salt."65 It is noteworthy that Boone's salt lick, the original salt-produc­ ing spring in the county, was still not patented land at the time of statehood and was never reserved from sale as part of the saline lands. All the reserved saline lands were finally put up for sale in 1831, after nearly a decade of public agitation for their sale to private owners.66

61 Laws of a Public and General Nature, of the District of Louisiana, of the Territory of Louisiana, of the Territory of Missouri, and of the State of Mis­ souri up to the Year 1824 (Jefferson City, 1842), I, 691-692. Also see March, History of Missouri, I, 252. 62 Laws up to 1824, I, 904-906. 63 Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, July 9, 1819. 64 "Charles Carroll to Josiah Meigs, February 24, 1820," Territorial Papers, XV, 592. 65 Kansas City Journal-Post, June 19, 1938. QG Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, August 27, 1831. The Patent Claims Book for Howard County does not record the sale either by date or by purchaser, of these saline lands. 18 Missouri Historical Review

Missouri acquired title to school lands when admitted as a state, following the precedent established with states created from the Northwest Territory. Section 16 of each township was reserved from sale and to be used for the support of educational systems.67 In most townships section 16 was not yet claimed and could be so reserved from sale. In those townships close to the Missouri River some land in this section was already occupied. In R 17 W, T 49 N there was an irregularly shaped New Madrid claim; in R 16 W, T 49 N there was a quarter section reserved as saline land; else­ where, there were lands already claimed by regular purchase from the public domain. Apparently these preemptive uses of Sec­ tion 16's were respected, since Figure 6, on which the school lands are plotted, clearly shows that parcels of land other than Section 16 were reserved for school purposes. The Act of 1819 specifically permitted settlers prior to the land survey to preempt land elsewhere if their land happened to be in a Section 16.68 However, this act was passed after the land survey and after the first land auction, so that evidently the land register permitted some settlers to preempt land in Section 16 before he was informed of the new act. In 1831 the Missouri General Assem­ bly permitted the sale of school lands.69 The great increase of population in Howard County during this decade caused settlement to become continuous over much of the county. By the end of the decade most farm properties adjoined other farm properties, so that most settlers had next-door neigh­ bors.70 By this characteristic Howard County was no longer on the settlement frontier. The county was no longer focussed solely on the Missouri River, but it had become, by the end of the decade, organized around its interior county seat. A dramatic event seemed to symbolize the general spread of settlement from the bottomlands into the county interior. Franklin, with 1500-1700 people, was destroyed by Missouri River high waters

67 Hibbard, History of Public Land Policies, 311-313. 68 "An Act explanatory of the act, entitled 'An Act for the final adjustment of Land Titles in the State of Louisiana and Territory of Missouri,' March 3, 1819," Annals of Congress, 15th Congress, 2nd Session (1819), II, 2527-2528. This act was also printed in full in the Franklin Missouri Intelligencer, April 30, 1819. 69 March, History of Missouri, I, 722. The Patent Claims Book for Howard County does not record the sale, either by date or by purchaser, of these school lands. 70 How much of this land was bought for speculation and not actually dwelled upon by the owner is unknown. Most land in speculation in Howard County probably passed into private, productive ownership within a couple of years at most. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 19 in 1826 and floods in 1828 and 1829.71 What remained of its com­ mercial function was shifted across the river to Boonville on higher ground or to New Franklin, a town laid out in 1828 on low bluffs just to the north of the old site of Franklin. County seat functions had already been removed to the new town of Fayette in 1823,72 in response to the increase of settlement and a more general dis­ tribution of people throughout the county.73 The map for this decade, Figure 7, when compared to the map for soils, Figure 2, shows that all the better soils of the county had been put into private ownership. The pattern represents, as one would expect, a filling in of the enclosed voids of the previous map (Figure 6) and an extension outward from the three districts of settlement previously established. Land not yet patented by the close of 1829 lay chiefly in the Boonesborough district and along the ridge of rough land running northeastward from Boonesborough and also in the rough lands of the northeast part of the county. Eleven years after the first sale of land in the county, seventy per cent of the land had already been disposed of in some way. Settlement 1830-1839 Howard County, in general, experienced a slowing down in the rate of land patenting during the decade of the 1830s. The best land occupied, immigrants to the Boonslick were turning increas­ ingly to equally good soil regions in counties away from the Missouri River or farther upstream toward Kansas City. Of Howard County, Wetmore, in 1837, wrote, "This county is populous; and all the public land that is desirable in it is taken up and appropriated to farming, in all the variety of agricultural branches to which the soil is adapted."74 Land taken out during this decade was probably largely done by (1) landowners wanting to increase the size of their original land patents, (2) sons and daughters of original settlers who desired to stay close to home rather than emigrate to another country for bet­ ter land, and (3) speculators who continued to function in the most prosperous county in central Missouri. In any case, the bulk

71 Viles, "Old Franklin," 282. 72 History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 178. 73 The exact location of Fayette apparently was determined by finding the geographical center of the county, identified in the Franklin Missouri Intelli­ gencer, March 4, 1823, as the NE 14 of Section 10, R 16 W, T 50 N, where Morrison Observatory is presently located. 74 Wetmore, Gazetteer of Missouri, 78. 20 Missouri Historical Review of the land entered during this decade was land in the poor soil regions, but adjacent to the better soil regions. (See Figure 8 for land entries 1830-39.) The average size of land parcel patented was constantly de­ creasing. It had been nearly 120 acres in the early 1820s, but had dropped to 50-60 acres by the middle and late 1830s. (See Figures 8 and 11.) This means that the most popular size land entry in the 1820s was for 80 acres, while the most popular size land entry in the 1830s was for 40 acres. In 1832, the minimum size parcel that could be purchased had been reduced, universally, by the Land Office to 40 acres.75 The reduction in parcel size permitted the patentee to be more discriminating in his choice of land; he could buy more specifically that land which he desired and leave in pub­ lic domain adjacent 40-acre lots which he could not so easily put to productive use. The 1830s in Howard County may be characterized as the be­ ginning of the commercial organization of the country into local trading centers. All places which were to become market towns of consequence, except Armstrong and Boonesborough, were estab­ lished or were expanding commercially during this decade. Fayette was becoming the leading town in the Boonslick and one of the most important towns in outstate Missouri. Glasgow and Roche­ port,76 the latter adjacent to Howard County, were now functioning as major river towns of the day. Roanoke, on the only prairie up­ land in the county, was laid out in 1834. Stores, mills, and taverns were located along roads. The fever for plank roads, railroads, and general internal county improvement, as read from the issues of the newspapers of the time, was rising as efforts to organize the county commercially continued. By the end of the decade only the least desirable lands for agriculture were still public domain. Once again, they were con­ centrated in the southeast rough land around Boonesborough (the town still not yet founded), in the rocky hills of the northeast, and scattered along the drainage divide which connects these two ends of the county. Settlement 1840-1849 In the 1840s land entries almost came to a standstill. In 1842,

75 Hibbard, History of Public Land Policies, 75; Franklin Missouri Intelli­ gencer, April 21, 1832. 76 Alan H. Johnson, "Rocheport, Missouri: A Study in Historical Economic Geography" (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Missouri, 1962) . Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 21 for example, only one 40-acre parcel was patented, even though 27,480 acres of salable public domain remained. Clearly these re­ maining acres were unattractive for purchase. There was, of course, an abundance of excellent land elsewhere in the state, and the set­ tlement frontier had long passed Howard County. The federal government maintained its minimum price of $1.25 per acre for a 40-acre minimum parcel of land. That is, a purchaser had to pay a minimum of fifty dollars cash for 40 acres. Consider­ ing the type of agriculture in Howard County in the 1840s and the existence of land worth several times that minimum price elsewhere, there is sufficient reason why there were so few takers for these remaining tracts of the public domain. It is likely that potential buyers were awaiting a price reduction which they thought was imminent, but which did not come until 1854. Figure 9, for the decade 1840-1849, shows how little land was taken out during these ten years.

Settlement 1850-1859 It was in the interest of the Howard County government and to most county governments in Missouri to get all the remaining public land, whatever its value, sold and on the tax rolls. In 1854, after many years of struggle in Congress during which the issue had become part of the North-South struggle in the United States, the Graduation Act was passed.77 This act reduced the minimum price of land, according to the length of time it had been up for sale, to an absolute minimum price of 12/2 cents per acre, if the land had been up for sale for thirty or more years. Howard County land had been on the market since 1819, so all remaining salable public domain in the county could be bought for the absolute min­ imum price. Forty-acre tracts could be bought for as little as five dollars cash. The new law, then, reduced the cost of the refuse land to a figure more in line with its contemporary market value. The effect was the sale of virtually all the remaining public domain in Howard County within two years after the bill passed. In 1859 the last 40- acre tract was patented in Howard County.78 With its purchase was completed the 41-year history of land sales in the county. Figure 10 shows the land patented during the decade 1850-

77 Hibbard, History of Public Land Policies, 299-303. 78 The NW 14 of the SW 14 of Section 29, T 52 N, R 14 W. 22 Missouri Historical Review

1859. This was the least desirable land in the county, in terms of the economy and value system of that time.

Comparison with Sale of Public Land Throughout the United States The rate at which land was patented in Howard County dif­ fered in some respects from the rate at which land was patented throughout the United States as a whole. (See Figure 12.) For the most part, the difference arises from the particular period of Amer­ ican history during which the settlement frontier passed through the Boonslick. The post-Napoleonic depression of prices for farm products affected United States land sales greatly in the early 1820s.79 How­ ever, no prolonged drop in sales occurred in Howard County. Evi­ dently the desire for land there was so great, at that particular time, 1819-1825, that persons with money, including speculators, were willing to invest in Howard County land, despite an eco­ nomic depression back east. One may only wonder what the rate of land patenting in Howard County would have been had there been a period of general prosperity throughout the nation. Nationwide, land sales started an upswing in 1829, boomed in a frenzy of land speculation and prosperity in 1835-1836, then de­ clined dramatically with the economic crash of 1837. This pattern is reflected in Howard County sales, although on a smaller scale since less good land remained to be patented. The year 1836 marked a peak in Howard County land sales as well as in the nation. From 1840 to 1853 there were continuous land policy argu­ ments in Congress. The Preemption Act of 1841 had little direct effect on land sales, since it was preceded by several partial pre­ emption acts and since it merely formalized universally a practice long in operation; land office agents were considerate to those who occupied land and improved it before it actually went on sale and gave them preference at the auction. The drop in land sales in Howard County during this time was due not so much to any national economic situation or land office policy as it was to the increasingly smaller amounts of good land remaining to be patented.

79 This drop in land sales from the previous decade should not be inter­ preted as a result of the change in 1820 from a credit to a cash system. See Hib­ bard, History of Public Land Policies, 101. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 23

The Graduation Act greatly accelerated sales nationally, par­ ticularly since its passage had been predicted for several years and much land had not been purchased in anticipation of the expected drastic reduction in price for the land. All salable public domain in Howard County was patented before free land was made avail­ able to the public by the Homestead Act of 1862.

Conclusions

Howard County, core of the Boonslick, so attractive to settlers after the War of 1812, presented to immigrants a choice of land with varying physical characteristics. The choices, taken as a whole, were rational. The settlers were most discriminating as to soil qual­ ity, as the sequence of land entries for the county clearly shows. There were certain persistent nuclei throughout the period of the spread of settlement. The initial nucleus, begun in Cooper's Bottom in 1812, concentrated around (Old) Franklin, later New Franklin. Another nucleus was developing by 1818 in the loess hills in the northwest corner of the county, using originally the (Old) Chariton landing on the Missouri, finally Glasgow after 1836. A third nucleus, established before 1820, centered in the rich soil district south and southeast of Fayette, which became dominant in the county by the latter 1820s. Settlement from Coop­ er's Bottom, Fayette, and Rocheport was coalescing in the 1820s to form a compact, roughly triangular-shaped region of adjoining farmsteads in the largest district of good soils and gentle slopes in the county. During the 1840s and 1850s the roughest, poorest soil districts around Boonesborough and in the northeast were finally occupied, but not until the price of the land was reduced to a figure more in agreement with its market value. Throughout the period of spread of settlement the number of people per square mile of claimed land remained surprisingly con­ stant. (See Figure 13.) In 1830, there were about thirty-eight people per square mile of land claimed; in 1840, thirty-five; in 1850, thirty- six; and in 1860, when the entire county was occupied, thirty-eight. After allowing for a reasonable number of people in the towns, this means that there must have been an average of eight persons on 160-acre parcels of land or, more likely, somewhat fewer persons on farmsteads of smaller acreage. The constancy of the population density statistic suggests that as land was occupied, regardless of its physical characteristics, it continued to be occupied by about 24 Missouri Historical Review the same number of people per square mile.80 Poor lands may have supported almost as many people as the best lands. Howard County reached its greatest rural population in the 1880 census, when approximately 13,000 persons lived outside built- up areas and virtually all depended on agriculture for an income. Since then, rural population has declined so that in 1960 fewer than 6,500 persons lived outside built-up areas, and many of these were not engaged in agriculture and more were in agriculture only on a part-time basis. There has been, consequently, a major movement away from rural locations and from agriculture. However, little land in the county has been returned to public ownership.81 So-called "abandoned" land is still in private owner­ ship and usually productive in some way, but unoccupied by the owners or tenants. Precise information is lacking, but it seems that the worst soils and steepest slopes have been the most thoroughly depopulated. The better soils and gentler slopes of the New Frank- lin-Fayette-Rocheport triangle have experienced less loss of popu­ lation, as have the excellent loess soils of the northwest parts of the county. In other words, the geographical pattern of land "de-settle­ ment" in Howard County since 1880 has been the exact reversal of the geographical pattern of land settlement during the period 1810- 1859.

80 This statement would need to be modified slightly by the presence of a growing slave population in the better soil districts at the same time the worst lands were being occupied. 81 One tract of land, 274 acres, which has reverted to public ownership is northeast of Fayette where the Hungry Mother Wildlife Area has been estab­ lished by the Missouri Conservation Commission. Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 25

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Figure 1 26 Missouri Historical Review

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Figure 2 Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 27

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Figure 8 Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 33

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Figure 10 Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 35

LAND PATENTED IN HOWARD COUNTY, MISSOURI*

Total Area Total Number Average Size Patented in of Parcels of Patented Year Acres of Land Parcel in Acres 1818 240 2 120.0 1819 14,840 126 117.8 1820 4,520 32 141.3 1821 24,040 204 117.8 1822 7,680 62 123.9 1823 19,600 201 97.5 1824 11,200 111 100.9 1825 12,800 121 105.8 1826 8,000 93 86.0 1827 24,640 248 99.4 1828 7,840 92 85.2 1829 6,320 74 85.4 1830 4,400 50 88.0 1831 7,440 80 93.0 1832 2,680 42 63.8 1833 2,800 52 53.9 1834 2,480 46 53.9 1835 6,120 122 50.2 1836 13,200 249 53.0 1837 6,080 110 55.3 1838 3,320 65 51.1 1839 6,600 115 57.4 1840 1,920 35 54.9 1841 1,640 28 58.6 1842 40 1 40.0 1843 160 3 53.3 1844 1,560 32 48.7 1845 760 16 47.5 1846 520 8 65.0 1847 280 7 40.0 1848 960 22 43.6 1849 560 10 56.0 1850 680 14 48.6 1851 3,160 61 51.8 1852 1,960 45 43.6 1853 1,400 31 45.2 1854 6,360 119 53.4 1855 7,720 115 67.2 1856 880 18 48.9 1857 480 9 53.3 1858 0 0 1859 40 1 40.0 Total 227,920 2,872 79.4 New Madrid claims 42,360 School lands 8,160 Saline lands 12,400 Information lacking 2,080 Total 292,920

*Data from U. S. Government Patent Claims Book for Howard County in the Howard County Court House, Fayette, Missouri.

Figure 11 36 Missouri Historical Review

Figure 12 Settlement in Howard County, Missouri, 1810-1859 37

SUMMARY OF LAND CLAIMS IN HOWARD COUNTY, MISSOURI

1818-191 1820-29 1830-39 1840-49 1850-59 1

Land claimed 80,080 126,640 55,120 8,500 22,680 in acres

Per cent of 27.3% 43.1% 18.9% 2.8% 7.9% total land surface of Howard County claimed during period

Cumulative per 27.3% 70.4% 89.3% 92.1% 100.0% cent of total land surface of Howard County claimed

County popu­ 13,4263 10,854 13,108 13,969 15,946 lation at end of period2

Population per — 37.8 35.1 36.1 37.7 square mile of land claimed at end of period

1 In this column are included all New Madrid claims (42,360 acres), all school lands (8,160 acres), all saline lands (12,400 acres), and 2,080 acres for which in­ formation was lacking. 2 Population from the U. S. Census for census year at end of period; for ex­ ample, the 1820 census for column one, the 1830 census for column two, etc. 3 Includes some people living on land not within present limits of Howard County.

Figure 13 John Henton Carter, alias "COMMODORE ROLLINGPIN"

BY JOHN T. FLANAGAN*

To river men and to citizens of St. Louis around the end of the last century, the name of Commodore Rollingpin was once extreme­ ly familiar. For the commodore not only knew steamboats and steamboatmen but his acquaintanceship among journalists, travel­ lers, and men about town was a wide one. Not that he had ever been a pilot himself. Tradition has it that he worked as a pastry cook or galley supervisor on steamboats plying between St. Louis and New Orleans and that his practise was to supply passengers with such rich and tempting food on the first day of the voyage that they became sick and ate little thereafter. The occupation of cook, of course, explains his pseudonym. Later the commodore established himself in St. Louis and became a prolific writer of prose and verse. For many years he issued an illustrated almanac, a compilation of astronomical calculations, river lore, miscellaneous historical bits,

* John T. Flanagan, a previous contributor to the REVIEW, is a professor of English at the University of Illinois, having received his Ph.D. from the Uni­ versity of Minnesota in 1935. A former Fulbright lecturer, he is the author of numerous articles and books on the literature, culture and folklore of the Middle West. 38 John Henton Carter, "Commodore Rollingpin" 39 and his own sketches of people and events. He conducted a river news column for the St. Louis Times which was avidly read. He was a popular humorous lecturer who, in the tradition of Mark Twain and Eugene Field, read from his own work. He published several collections of verse, both in western dialect and in conven­ tional form, the best known of which was undoubtedly Duck Creek Rallads, 1894. He was also the author of several collections of sketches, such as The Log of Commodore Rollingpin, 1874, and of two novels of Mississippi River Valley life, Thomas Rutherton, 1890, and Mississippi Argonauts, 1903. When Mark Twain published his Life on the Mississippi in 1883 he cited Commodore Rollingpins Almanac in chapter sixteen as an authority for statistics about river mileages and famous steam­ boat races. But curiously enough he did not give the commodore's true name. The commodore is not cited in the Dictionary of Ameri­ can Riography, and it is unlikely that future biographical diction­ aries will make room for him unless their coverage is extraordinarily wide. But Rollingpin should not be completely forgotten. John Henton Carter, the Commodore Rollingpin of St. Louis and the Mississippi River, was born in Marietta, Ohio, May 2, 1832, to parents of English nativity. He was brought up in Marietta, re­ ceived a desultory education, and from 1846 to 1870 worked in various capacities on steamboats. On several occasions his employ­ ment took him to New Orleans and it is even possible that he was involved in William Walker's filibustering expedition to Nicaragua in 1855. In 1861 Carter married Harriet C. Nixon, and he and his family lived in various Ohio River towns during the Civil War period, notably Columbus, Kentucky, and Cairo, Illinois. In 1870 he moved to St. Louis and served for a number of years as the river edi­ tor of the St. Louis Times. His wide acquaintance with such news­ papermen of the period as Eugene Field, Antoine Rivet, Walter B. Stevens, and William A. Kelsoe is confirmed by a kind of reminiscent evaluation of the best known St. Louis editors and reporters which appeared as part of the program for the Veiled Prophet's Ball of 1893.1

i Obituaries of Carter appeared in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 3, 1910; the St. Louis Republic, March 3, 1910; the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 2, 1910. Oddly enough the last obituary reported Carter's death as taking place in Columbus, Ohio. The most reliable account of Carter's life appears in Wil­ liam Coyle, ed., Ohio Authors and Their Books (Cleveland and New York, 1962) , 102. 40 Missouri Historical Review

Carter's almanac, which first appeared in 1872, had a wide currency. According to Alexander De Menil, whose statements about Carter are at least half correct, he issued this almanac for a quarter of a century while at the same time he continued his news­ paper chores and tried his hand at dialect stories of the Mississippi Valley. De Menil claimed that the commodore's books were ad­ dressed to the uncritical class and that he had a reputation for oddity. "He [Carter] was eccentric as to his clothes; at times ap­ pearing on the streets in the garb of an elegant gentleman, and at other times looking like a tramp."2 W. A. Kelsoe confirmed Car­ ter's flamboyance but also asserted that he was widely known and "the friend of everybody."3 In 1887 Carter went to New York City to work for Joseph Pulitzer's World, which the St. Louis newspaperman had purchased four years earlier, and he remained there for several years as a columnist. After his return to St. Louis, Carter became a free lance writer, publishing a number of books of verse and prose and serving also as the publisher of the official program for the Veiled Prophet's Ball. Carter suffered a stroke about 1905 and left St. Louis to live with his daughter's family in Marietta. He died at the home of Mrs. Frederick J. Cutter on March 2, 1910 (De Menil erroneously gave the death date as 1882), and was buried in the Oak Grove cemetery of that city. He was survived by three children, a grand­ son, and two sisters.4 Carter's books, though once published in both St. Louis and New York in substantial editions, have become rather hard to find and only the best regional libraries of the Middle West have fairly complete collections of them. The almanacs, cheaply printed and designed to be discarded whenever their calendrical time and as­ tronomical calculations became obsolete, are even more obscure. But they were at one time entertaining reading and they certainly provided useful media for the publication of Carter's own verse and prose, much of which reappeared later in book form. Commodore Rollingpin s Illustrated Humorous Almanac, 1878, published by the

2 Alexander De Menil, The Literature of the Louisiana Territory (St. Louis, 1904), 326. 3 W. A. Kelsoe, St. Louis Reference Record (St. Louis, n.d.) , 25. Kelsoe makes a number of references to Carter (see pp. 13, 27, 36, 39, 41, 177, 179, 314) but they appeared repetitious and add little of substance to the account. His book probably appeared in 1925. 4 Obituary in Marietta Times, March 2, 1910. Cf. Alexander De Menil, "A Century of Missouri Literature," MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, XV (October, 1920), 101. Commodore Rollingpin's Illustrated Almanac, 1879 42 Missouri Historical Review

Times Printing House of St. Louis and including 112 pages, will serve as a useful example. It naturally presented weather predictions for the calendar year of 1879. Illustrations were provided by E. Jump and the work was dedicated to the "boss real estate dealer" of Missouri, Marcus A. Wolff. Advertisements swelled the bulk of the issue and cited the value of patent medicines, sewing machines, insurance firms, hotels, steel companies, boiler manufacturers, and the Jaccard Jew­ elry Store of St. Louis. There were many notices of steamship lines and packet companies as well as of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas rail­ road. The literary content of the almanac was quite diversified. The commodore included miscellaneous proverbs and bon mots. Axioms were printed in one column: "We always grumble at others when we are dissatisfied with ourselves," and "Men who are always in a hurry generally run away from more than they overtake." Carter's own poetry appeared, for example, "Hiram Brown," a study of a Civil War general who became a pauper later; and "The Wabash Ranger," a genre sketch later collected in Duck Creek Rallads. Carter also contributed prose sketches: "Rusticating in New Orleans," a sketch of a penniless cabin boy in the Crescent City; "The Old Settler—a Christmas Story," rather obviously didactic; and "The Three Graduates," a hortatory tale about youths who aspire to fame and fortune but do poorly while one without educa­ tion succeeds by dint of persistence and self-denial. A somewhat tart discussion of the tribulations of housekeeping in the city item­ ized the nuisance callers or visitors in a household from five o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon: milkman, paper boy, salesmen, collectors, domestics in search of employment, and clergymen making parochial visits. This material revealed some sharpness of observation and the salient details that a trained reporter would record, but the effect is frequently spoiled by senti­ mentality and obsessive moralizing. In attacking the old-fashioned evils of sloth, slovenliness, poverty, addiction to drink, the commo­ dore was more conventional than original.

The almanac was also a medium for self-promotion. Commodore Rollingpin's lecture on the nineteenth century was advertised as available to any audience which might request it. His own books were occasionally cited and sometimes the books themselves con­ tained allusions to the almanac. Thus the first advertisement in Afloat and Ashore, 1874, refers to Commodore Rollingpin's Almanac John Henton Carter, "Commodore Rollingpin9 43 for 1875 with "over one hundred pages of original humorous read­ ing, by the famous DUCK CREEK NAVIGATOR."

The official program for the Veiled Prophet's Ball served the usual utilitarian purpose but was more ambitious than most such brochures. Begun in 1878 and continued annually, these programs gradually grew more bulky and inclusive. Rollingpin's Annual of the Fall Festivities, published in St. Louis in October, 1893, is an ex­ cellent example. The twenty-four page (unpaginated) program had a color photograph of the ball on the cover, included a number of pictures of the leading young businessmen of St. Louis, presented views of some of the chief business streets, and published a sub­ stantial amount of advertising. The third page gave a detailed description of the twenty-two floats in the procession, beginning with an ambulatory Chinese pagoda on which sat the Veiled Prophet himself with the Lord of Misrule immediately behind on a float representing a Gothic church, while the end of the parade included floats dedicated to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pictures of each of the floats were printed on a supplement to the program. Commodore Rollingpin's personal contributions to the program had little to do with the civic festival. He wrote a tongue-in-cheek exhortation called "Some Advice to Young Men" in which he re­ marked that although every ambitious lad had his eye on the presi­ dency, he should not be discouraged if some son of toil now hoeing potatoes on a rented farm should slip into the White House ahead of him; an amusing sketch of city life called "A Tonsorial Experi­ ence" concerning a barber who retells a Biblical episode; and two pages of capsule portraits of rural moralizing phrased in a kind of Pike County dialect. There are twenty-four of these sketches with captions which suggest an older form of editorial wit. A vignette of two sportsmen in a field reads, "In wagin' the battle of life we dun't alius hit jes whut we shoot at, but we claim the game brought down all the same." A picture of a seedy westerner staring at a land crab carries this comment: "I object ter the way the crab travils, though I dun't feel espesherly called on ter turn him around." A drawing of a team striving to extricate a covered wagon from a mud hole has this caption: "Go ahead 'pears ter be natur's giniral order. I hev alius noticed that a mired team'U pull through a place it couldn't back out of." It is obvious that the reputation of Josh John Henton Carter, alias "Commodore Rollingpin"

Billings or Ed Howe was still green in the 1890s; wit without dialect to color it was often surprisingly ineffective.5 Carter also included in the program a verse salutation to the Prophet of the season, three stanzas which suggest that Commodore Rollingpin was not always a master of vers de societe: Hail and farewell is all that we may say, While gazing on thy peerless Majesty, So brief thy stay among us, yet we would Not have thee tarry longer if we could. Our prosy city, given o'er to trade, Where fortunes in a day are lost and made, Is not the place for one to tarry long, Reared in a land of poesy and song. But ere you seek again in aerial car, Your ideal realm, where all perfections are,

5 For a copy of the Veiled Prophet's program as well as for other essential material about John Henton Carter, I am indebted to Franklin J. Meine of Chi­ cago, long an authority on the lore of the Mississippi River. John Henton Carter, "Commodore Rollingpin" 45

Tell us, oh, noble Prophet, one and all, Do your subjects warble 'After the Ball'? Nevertheless, Carter had begun to write verse early in his career as a journalist and free lance correspondent, using it as filler material and later collecting it in various volumes. One of his earliest works, The Log of Commodore Rollingpin: His Adventures Afloat and Ashore, 1874, contained twenty-one poems and a short burlesque play in verse.6 These poems illustrate his dual literary styles. Like Robert Burns or James Whitcomb Riley, he was at home in dialect, the dialect in this case of the river or the backwoods, involving elisions, mispronunciations, literal comparisons, and rural idioms or words. Familiar words are given illiterate pronunciations: "kem" for "came," "ter" for "to," "fer" for "for," "arly" for "early," "immijiately" for "immediately," "prar" for "prayer," and "seed" for "saw." The contemporary passion for eye-humor, as practised by Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby, produced "wuz" and "ov" and "biz" (business). Rustic idioms like "in cahoots," "plum out," "them ere critters," "knock the socks off," and "spilin for a fight," no longer as familiar as they were a half century ago, are common. But colloquial phrases which remain in circulation also appear: "six bits," "rip-snorting," "flashed in the pan," "we're all strapped," and "greenbacks." Carter, however, could also write more literary English, free of dialect and slang and even on occasion pretentious. He seemed to prefer "proboscis" to "nose," possibly because it had three syllables rather than one, and he tried hard to work words like "promiscuous­ ly" and "remonstrance" and "stimulation" into his lines. If the poems which are written in conventional style seem to lack color and even humor, they are at least rhythmically smooth. Carter could use couplets, ballad meter, six or eight line stanzas, and quatrains with anapestic tetrameters with equal facility. Indeed his very fluency sometimes seemed a detriment since he rhymed easily and banally and if his lines had no acoustic impairment they often had no distinction either. Nevertheless, some of his verse narratives seem as competently done as the Pike County Rallads of

6 Many of Carter's books were published in St. Louis, apparently by firms in which Commodore Rollingpin himself had an interest (Carter & Brothers, Rollingpin Publishing Company) . But The Log of Commodore Rollingpin: His Adventures Afloat and Ashore was published by G. W. Charleton & Company, New York, 1874, and was dedicated to John A. Scudder of Missouri. Part I en­ titled "Miscellaneous" includes twenty-eight prose pieces and Part II twenty-one "Mississippi Ballads." 46 Missouri Historical Review

Rollingpin's Illus. Almanac, 1878 Jim Kane and His Mule Skin

John Hay, although "Jim Bludso, of the Prairie Relle" appealed to many anthologists of American regional poetry who had never heard of Commodore Rollingpin. Among Carter's subjects were unreconstructed Confederates, steamboat roustabouts, river gamblers, rural legislators, a mule-car conductor in St. Louis named Peter Jones, and a colored flunky band. Usually his poems about such worthies described the char­ acters, gave their life in capsule form, and depicted their sudden and often unmerited ends. "I Fit with Grant" describes an old soldier who watched General Grant in his post-war celebrity and laments being unrecognized; the trouble was that he had been a private in General Lee's army. "Zeke Slabsides" portrays the river- boat dishwasher who gets the best of a tin-horn sport named Tim Juggles who graduated too quickly from the role of deckhand to that of gambler. "The Unreconstructed" tells of Sandy Hawkins, who would not admit the end of the Civil War and hates all the damned Yankees. But Sandy quickly discovers that the carpetbagger on whom he centers his hostility is more than a match for him, and the end of the narrative reminds one of the climax of Mark Twain's first published tale, "The Dandy Frightening the Squatter." "Jim Kane" reports the altercation between a roustabout and a mule, a Missouri quadruped which seemed a domestic critter, Of the common country litter- Big-headed, shaggy, cockle-burr'd and mean.7

7 Carter, Log of Commodore Rollingpin, 187. John Henton Carter, "Commodore Rollingpin" 47

But if Jim Kane cannot get the mule on board the steamboat by pulling and shoving, he can at least take the mule's skin along and he proceeds to do just this, leaving the animal stiff and naked on shore. Duck Creek Rallads, 1894, is the chief collection of Commo­ dore Rollingpin's poetry. Here are collected such previously pub­ lished poems as "The Sad Fate of Peter Jones," about the boy "fresh from the verdant fields of Posey County" who becomes a mule-car conductor, and "The Wabash Ranger." "What Broke Up the Church at Sorby" is a dialect poem about a Baptist total immer­ sion ceremony in a country creek which disintegrates when the persons about to be baptized venture innocently into a hornet's nest. The resulting confusion suggests George W. Harris's sketch about Sicily Burns's wedding. Two poets in the volume tell of Negroes who suddenly try to capitalize on their new freedom (for example, "The Member from Cohoes" and "Civil Rights in Shreveport"), and another dialect sketch recounts the story of an old settler who rescued a woman following the sinking of the steamboat Wash­ ington and with her began a new life. Later collections of Carter's poems add little to his reputation. Log Cabin Poems, 1897, includes the monologue of an old farmer, "John Fulkerson," and a sentimental account of the visit of a retired farm couple to the scenes of their youth, "The Old Farm." "The Church at Sorby," with a shortened title, also reappears. Included in the volume are sonnets addressed to such veteran newspapermen as Bill Nye and Eugene Field, as well as a tribute to the doughty editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Joseph B. McCullagh. Out Here in OX Missoury, 1900, contains similar tributes to James Whitcomb Riley and Rudyard Kipling but most of its thirty poems are sentimental and nostalgic. Carter writes reminiscently about the olden times, country dances, husking bees, spelling matches, the neighborliness and the leisure, which he laments have vanished. His poem "Song of the Steamboat" contrasts a steamboat with a locomotive to the detriment of the former. But one couplet is almost prophetic. He has the locomotive say, Man uses me as he once used you— But my mission done, I'll vanish too.8 A final collection, Poems of Love and Friendship, 1904, includes various poems dedicated to girls (Clara, Kathleen, Tillie) and re-

>John H. Carter, Out Here in OV Missoury (St. Louis, 1900), 14. 48 Missouri Historical Review

prints several dialect poems celebrating times past, notably "The Old Farm." Carter's prose fiction shows the same mixture of dialect and conventional literary English. He records the speech of back coun­ try Negroes, of farmers and river men, and at the same time he attempts to use the language of plantation owners and of the gentry. All his longer fiction reflects his own experiences as a resident of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, with occasional revealing glances of life in Louisville, St. Louis, and New Orleans. Carter's fiction is never far from the river although he does not invest his narratives with the amplitude of details familiar to the readers of Mark Twain. In 1890 Carter published Thomas Rutherton, the typical success story of an orphaned lad, the son of a pioneer doctor, who finds success and happiness in New Orleans. The book begins in Oldtown, never clearly localized but apparently on the Ohio River, in the 1850s. Tom Rutherton, after limited schooling, joins the crew of a river broadhorn, a boat some ninety feet long and eighteen feet wide, an oblong box with a cabin and a fireplace, equipped with a steering oar but utilizing the river current for its chief motive power. The boat takes off during a flood and moves rapidly down the valley, tieing up along the shore at night and traveling only in the daylight hours. Various incidents are described during the voy­ age, shooting water fowl, hunting alligators and deer at night by torchlight, passing the notorious hideout for river buccaneers (pos­ sibly Cave-in-Rock). But while the broadhorn descends the river during a heavy fog it crashes into a half-submerged derelict and is wrecked; the crew is fortunately rescued and Tom is taken to the Crescent City (obviously New Orleans). Here Tom suffers a severe attack of typhoid fever but recovers, has difficulty in finding employment and for a time lives a precarious life, but is finally befriended by a journalist employed by a local magazine. Tom rises in journalism, learns typesetting as well as reporting, and begins to succumb to cacoethes scribendi when the Civil War breaks out and terminates his job. He manages to make his way back up the river to Oldtown where an old sweetheart is patiently waiting and after their marriage he finds a career as a newspaperman in New York City. In many ways the story is autobiographical. Carter too knew small Ohio River towns, journeyed to New Orleans and may have fallen ill there, sampled journalism in various places, and resided for a time in Gotham. The novel is told in the first person by Tom John Henton Carter, "Commodore Rollingpin" 49

Rutherton. Characterization is sketchy but there is a certain au­ thority in the river scenes, the steamboat lore, the kaleidoscopic background, and even the vignettes of New Orleans during plague times. The romantic ending reflects the genteel tradition which dom­ inated much of American fiction at the time of the book's publica­ tion. The Man at the Wheel, published in 1898, repeats some of the episodes in Thomas Rutherton but curiously enough gives them more salience. This is hardly a novel but rather a series of mono­ logues in which the pilot of a river steamboat, as garrulous and reminiscent as Mark Twain himself, tells stories to the visitors in the pilot house when his attention is not demanded by his occupa­ tion. There are twenty-five of these sketches, uneven in length and quality, and all reveal an intimate knowledge of the river. The sub­ jects show great diversity. The pilot tells of the explosion of the steamboat Rlue Goose, of a Cincinnati flood, of the death of a gambler, of a mulatto barber and gambler who is murdered, of a captain who strikes a hard bargain with his crew, of a hard-boiled mate who refuses to allow his boat to be passed even if the exigen­ cies of the race virtually assured catastrophe, and of a shrewd skipper who gets a revival meeting to assemble at one end of a

This steamboat sketch appeared in Carter's, The Man at the Wheel. 50 Missouri Historical Review grounded steamboat so that the combined weight of the worshippers eventually lifted the vessel out of the sand. Not all the monologues are strictly narrative. In one disquisi­ tion the man at the wheel lectures his audience on how to handle a broadhorn in the current. Another sketch is an imaginary dialogue between a steamboat and a wharf boat (the once admired J. M. White). There are character sketches too: the high spirited and ambitious deckhand Jim Wright, the river captain Shum Parisot who encountered a bear, and the used-up man Jerry Walsh, who consulted a St. Louis doctor for repairs and demanded a wig, a glass eye, new teeth, three toes, a wooden leg, and various assorted bones and ribs. The fire hunt episode which Carter introduced into Thomas Rutherton is here expanded, and the description of passing a river cave in which pirates once lurked is dramatized by intro­ ducing a man named Archie Frame who outwitted the desperadoes and saved the unsuspecting immigrants. An especially effective epi­ sode entitled "Had A Christian Mother" describes a passenger dressed in demure black with all the appearance of a clergyman who deprecates gambling and lurid behavior but gradually permits himself to be inveigled into a faro game. He immediately becomes a big winner and at a suitable time when the steamboat is tied up at a wharf he leads his confederates ashore; after his departure he is identified by one of the crew, previously too terrified to give the alarm, as the notorious John A. Murrell.9 The volume also contains one sketch dealing with Mark Twain, which presents the famous writer as an indifferent pilot who allegedly got lost in a chute during a steamboat race and ended up going the wrong direction on White River. According to the man at the wheel, when Twain finally got his boat, the Rlue Rird, to New Orleans he relinquished piloting forever.10 In some ways The Man at the Wheel is Carter's most interest­ ing book. The frame technique, permitting the narrator to venture freely into description, exposition, and characterization, provides a pleasant variety and also enables him to use several kinds of speech; thus dialect and colloquial language are introduced whenever they seem appropriate. Jerry Walsh, the used-up man, talks in backwoods idiom whereas the lecture on how to maneuver a broadhorn is col­ loquial without becoming dialectical. The pilots, mates, gamblers, stevedores, passengers of these tales are real, although seldom fully

9 John H. Carter, The Man at the Wheel (St. Louis, 1898), 79-83. io Ibid., 11-15. People playing cards was the frontispiece of The Impression Club. depicted, and the setting is authentic in a way that only a narrator who had experienced such scenes could make it. The Man at the Wheel does not, of course, have the color and richness of Life on the Mississippi, but some of the episodes are not unworthy of Twain. Carter chose to depict Missouri rural life in Ozark Post Office, 1898, a novel localized in a southwestern Missouri village at the beginning of the Civil War and presenting a community with strong Confederate sympathies. After some half-hearted skirmishing be­ tween irregulars on both sides, the village is controlled by an ex- Boston lawyer Major Chadwick, who unsuccessfully courts a widow. The real romantic strand concerns Alice Gregg, daughter of a hand­ some York State lawyer who is killed in partisan fray; Alice turns out eventually to be an heiress and weds happily. The plot action of the novel is vague, however, and there is much inflated talk of love, duty, and romance. Carter's ear for language comes out in his employment of Negro dialect and in his recognition of the fact that certain modern colloquialisms are in reality Elizabethan in origin. In 1899 Carter published The Impression Club, a novel set in St. Louis and full of local color. The action takes place on such thoroughfares as Grand, Lindell, and Laclede avenues, the Southern Hotel is alluded to, some of the characters live in Westminster Place and Vandeventer Place, and Forest Park is often the scene for fash- 52 Missouri Historical Review

ionable drives. The novel gets its title from a loosely organized group of wealthy people who wish to form an organization to dis­ cuss moral, literary, and intellectual topics. Meeting periodically at the homes of the individual members, the club discusses the role of women, temperance, current American literature, and the function of the United States in world affairs. Members include ministers, attorneys, businessmen, dilettante artists, philanthropists, and lead­ ers of feminine society. The level of discussion is not impressively high and gossip usually replaces analysis. Moreover, the characters are seldom more than names, often satirized by their sobriquets (Fluffer, Gusher, Winesap, Hardpan, Skippy, and Dr. Quince, the pastor of the Church of the Rock of Ages who auctions off pews to the highest bidder). Carter was less at home here than on the river and his description of Walter Fluffer ("He was what is termed by a certain 'swell set,' a 'blooded dresser.'") suggests an essentially satirical purpose rather than a genuine effort to present a social scene. In 1903 Carter returned to the Mississippi Valley for a subject and published Mississippi Argonauts, a novel which repeats the basic story of Thomas Rutherton and utilizes the same setting al­ though details are more exact and the characters are substantially different. The tale begins in Kentucky and introduces two scions of planter families, Bruce Ewing and Charles Faulkner. Discussing their future, Bruce decides to enter business, Charles opts for travel and adventure. His uncle Captain Delaney gives Charles a position on the steamboat Relle Creole and the voyage to New Orleans takes up the first part of the book. En route, various pilots tell stories about river life (we again are given the tale of John A. Murrell disguised in clerical garb) and describe both the New Madrid earthquake and various steamboat explosions and sinkings. At New Orleans Charles's wanderings permit the novelist to de­ scribe Bourbon Street, the mint, the Ursuline convent, Congo Square, and Lake Pontchartrain. The wharves are lined with steam­ boats: the /. M. White, the Sultana, the Duke of Orleans. The twelfth chapter is an exceptionally vivid description of the departure upstream of several of these boats, the Negroes singing a farewell to the Crescent City, the stacks belching out clouds of black smoke. In New Orleans itself a yellow fever epidemic, to which Charles falls a temporary victim, is well depicted. Eventually Charles es­ tablishes himself as a capable pilot and as a man of substance; when his uncle decides to give up the river Charles assumes ownership John Henton Carter, "Commodore Rollingpin" 53

of the steamboat. The novel suffers from a double focus, since many chapters are given over to Captain Delaney's courting of a New Orleans lady, and it is only later that Charles resumes the role of hero and returns to Kentucky to marry his childhood sweetheart. But the interpolated Delaney chapters permit Carter to describe a Mississippi plantation run by an enlightened overseer as well as efforts to improve the status of Negro field hands by improved housing and chances for education. The two romances in the plot are stereotypes, but the background of river life is again accurate. The fictional tradition to which Carter succumbed can well be illustrated by two bits of dialogue from Mississippi Argonauts. When Captain Delaney meets the woman he wishes to marry after a long separation, she cries out impulsively, "Oh! Mr. Delaney, I'm so glad to see you." And Delaney replies with all the austerity of a river pilot conscious of his elevated occupation, "I am sure that I fully share with you, Blanche, the pleasure of this occasion."11 In contrast there is the speech of the old plantation slave, Uncle Ephraim, who is an authority on certain aspects of rural life and holds forth on the habits of alligators. De all-gator's mainstay am flies, an' he spen mos' ob his time cultivatin' dem. He lay by de 'our wif hiz mouf open jes too 'tice 'em, an' w'en it gits full ob 'em, yo' heah sumfin drap, an' den he 'low'd dat times iz putty good wif him. An' I reck'n, Mistis Blanche, dat he doan, like de human, t'ank de Lo'd fo' his bount'ful prov'dence. He jes t'ank de flies coz dey's so foolish.12 A versatile and prolific writer, Carter belonged to the local color school who wrote with humor and sentimentality about the various interior regions of the United States when national diversity was being recognized by writers of fiction and verse. Lacking the genius of a Mark Twain and being unable to invent a Huck Finn or a Colonel Sellers, he yet had some of Twain's experiences and employed some of the same material. He belongs to that minor group of poets and storytellers including Eugene Field, James Whit- comb Riley, Bill Nye, Artemus Ward, and John Phoenix who re­ flected a transitional period in American culture but never reached greatness. Commodore Rollingpin, the great navigator of Duck

11 John H. Carter, Mississippi Argonauts, A Tale of the South (New York, 1903), 94. 12 Ibid., 217. 54 Missouri Historical Review

Creek, has only a limited claim to fame. Perhaps the terminal lines of his poem, "An Idyl of Duck Creek," will serve as his epitaph: My story's brief, but then I've no more room, The rest I'll leave the reader to presume.13

13 Carter, The Log of Commodore Rollingpin, 241.

With Jingling Bells They Crossed the Plains St. Joseph Morning Herald, March 17, 1865. Probably the largest train ever sent across the plains from this point went through this city yesterday. It consisted of eighteen splendid four and six mule teams, in perfect rig, drawing heavy loads of merchandise in large and service­ able wagons. The leading team—six fat and sleek mules—were decorated with bells, beneath which they stepped as proudly as though conscious of the honor conferred on them. This was by far the most complete overland outfit we have yet seen. The train cost sixty-three thousand dollars. . . .

It Would Have Been Worth the Dollar Knox City Bee, May 5, 1904. A man over in Randolph County was tried recently for assault with intent to kill, and the prosecuting attorney brought into court as weapons a rail, an ax, a gun, a saw and a rifle. The defendant's counsel exhibited a scythe, a pitchfork, a pistol, a razor and a hoe. After deliberating two hours on the case the jury submitted a report which read as follows: "We, the jury, find that the fight took place and we, the jury, would have paid a dollar each to have seen it." V»->* .r^S**;''"*,v 77'* ** •

From a Drawing Entitled, "We've got that durned influenzy agin," by A. B. Frost, Published in the Kansas City Star, November 27, 1918

THE 1918 KANSAS CITY INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

BY KEVIN C. MC SHANE*

"I believe the epidemic had its start in Kansas City by girls kissing soldiers in the army schools and from the cantonments who had become carriers of the disease. They carried to their homes, kissed others and in their turn these others have aided in communi­ cating the disease. There is a great deal of kissing . . . and if a ban should be placed on it there would be less influenza."1 This state-

* C. Kevin McShane teaches American History at Center South Junior High School, Kansas City, Missouri, and is a candidate for the Master's degree in history at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. i Kansas City Times, October 18, 1918. St. Mary's Hospital at 2900 Main, the only hospital with 1918 medical records, refused permission to look into the personal records. All other Kansas City hospitals had disposed of their medical records of 1918 and 1919. 55 56 Missouri Historical Review

ment by Dr. A. J. Gannon, head of the contagious disease division, reflected his opinion of the origin of the influenza epidemic of 1918. First reports of the disease in Kansas City came from the army- sponsored Sweeney Motoring School for mechanics. Within 24 hours 170 cases developed, followed by 500 in the next 48 hours, and 800 in the next week. Soon 2,300 of the 3,000 students contracted the disease. Between September 29 and October 4, fifteen of the motor mechanics died. In an attempt to check the spread of influenza, Major F. H. McGregor, commandant of all the army mechanic schools, ordered a quarantine—a measure that proved to be the most successful in combatting the disease. Army officials described the quarantine as a "reverse quarantine" because it was designed to protect the army men from civilians instead of the opposite.2 Few pestilences have spread so quickly and left such a pattern of desperate attempts to thwart it. The dread "flu" of 1918 killed more than 500,000 Americans and 20,000,000 suffered a temporary attack. No effective cure for the viral influenza was developed dur­ ing the world-wide pandemic.8 New York City and other eastern ports received the initial impact that began in the battlefields in Europe. Medical research tried but failed to combat the influenza until 1931 when Dr. R. E. Shope, author of Swine Influenza, iso­ lated the virus. The speed and ferocity of the epidemic overwhelmed the au­ thorities in the early stage. Within a few days three girls who had visited the Motoring School began sneezing and coughing.4 Civilian officials, led by Dr. Gannon and Dr. E. H. Bullock, health director and head of the General Hospital, believed in a quarantine, but opposition to this health measure came from business and political interests.5 Although few people gave the cooperation that Dr. Gannon needed, no detail escaped him. His office made suggestions, offered advice and finally dictated many directives. Rules about public gatherings were published October 17, 1918, in the Kansas City Star: All theaters and motion picture shows, all schools and all churches must close. Public gatherings of twenty or more persons [interpreted by the health board to include

2 Kansas City Star, September 27, 1918; Kansas City Post, October 6, 1918. 3 Frank L. Horsfall and Igor Gamm, Viral and Rickettsial Infections of Man (Philadelphia, 1965), 717. 4 Kansas City Star, September 27, 1918. 5 Kansas City Times, October 18, 1918. The 1918 Kansas City Influenza Epidemic 57

shopping e«rly THENJQHCS STORK. (2 •t the request s City's Profit-Sharing Store. \ FU A FLAG DAILY. | K>ain. Twelfth and Walnut Sta. Triple Coupons Today While the Store Is Open

In compliance with the mayor's proclamation this store, in con­ junction with others, will- Open at 9 a. m. Close at 4 p. m. (Saturday Included) This advertisement appeared in the Kansas City Times, two days after Mayor CowgilPs October 17 directive.

dances, parties, weddings and funerals] are forbidden. Stores employing twenty-five or more persons may not open until 9 o'clock and must close at 4 o'clock. Crowding in any store is forbidden. Not more than twenty persons standing may be carried on street cars. Music and amuse­ ment in hotels, restaurants, and cabarets is forbidden.6 Any public gathering place either complied with these directives or Dr. Gannon's office placarded it with yellow signs marked "Unfit for human habitation."7 Health inspectors served notices on two principal offenders, restaurants and streetcars. Many cafes and restaurants served meat

6 Kansas City Star, October 17, 1918. Also under Section 729 of the Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City (1909), 738. "Whenever any residence, or portion of the city to the extent of one residence or one or more blocks or squares of ground shall in the opinion of the Health Commissioner, be infected with any malignant or infectious or contagious disease, he shall have the power, by and with the approval of the board to cause the said residence, block or blocks or squares of ground to be vacated by the residents or inhabitants thereof for the purpose of disinfecting or fumigating the same or if this not be deemed expedient or judicious by the Health Commissioner, he shall have the power and authority to close up the street." 7 Kansas City Journal, October 6, 1918. 58 Missouri Historical Review scraps in soup stock pots. These were used a second or third time when the customer did not eat the meat. Dr. Gannon denounced it as a "dangerous practice." The streetcar situation also bothered the health department. Inspectors insured the cleaning of street­ cars. By the second week of the epidemic it became necessary to fumigate thirty-two cars before they could return to duty.8 On October 8, Earnest B. Atchley, publicity man for the Kansas City Railways Company, said, "This company employs a force of 100 men, whose duty it is to clean, sweep and disinfect the cars every day, and since the influenza has come to Kansas City, the cars are cleaned, instead of every day, twice a day."9 On the same day in the Kansas City Times an article reported that conductors rejected inspectors from many streetcars and would not recognize the in­ spectors' authority. Mayor James Cowgill's proclamation on Octo­ ber 8, gave inspectors the necessary power to regulate the street­ cars according to Section 9, Article 14 of the City Charter which gave the hospital and health board "The power to take all steps necessary to avoid, suppress or mitigate such a disease."10 A majority of the upper house of the City Council agreed that all places of public gatherings be kept closed. But one alderman declared the resolution "Hun propaganda," intended to frighten Kansas Citians.11 Theater operators toiled under the first ban of eight days which began on October 7. When a second ban began on October 17, they became incensed. Mayor Cowgill and William P. Motley, president of the hospital and health board, listened to their complaints at a mass meeting, actually forbidden by law since 150 attended. Motley told the film distributors, operators and own­ ers that he had signed the ban because he felt that his office re­ quired it. He quickly added that theater owners had a legitimate complaint. Heated discussions followed this statement, with the result that motion picture men volunteered to check the public places allowed to stay open.12

8 Kansas City Star, October 7, 1918; Kansas City Times, October 9, 1918; Kansas City Journal, October 10, 1918. Streetcars brought complaints to the Health Department as early as 1915. Trash, banana peels, peanut hulls, and papers left on the seats and not removed caused the Health Department con­ cern in the Monthly Report of the Hospital and Health Board, III, Number 3. $ Kansas City Journal, October 8, 1918. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid., October 15, 1918. Mr. George Hook, a Kansas Citian, revealed the same sentiment in an interview on March 6, 1966. He felt the Huns used germ warfare against the United States to spread influenza. 12 Kansas City Times, October 18, 1918. James P. Cowgill

Shoemaker, Missouri and Missourians, V.

Signs of a rift between Motley and Dr. Gannon developed in early October when Motley, with the efforts of business interests behind him, urged a lifting of the first ban. After an analysis of the ten-day period showed that the highest death rate occurred on the exact day the ban was lifted, Motley claimed that he was not in­ formed of the number of cases in the city. He then staged open war­ fare against advisors of the health board and Dr. Gannon in par­ ticular. Motley and Cowgill were attacked for neglecting to do more constructive work. An editorial in the Kansas City lournal criticized, "Those selfish interests that have been besieging the municipal authorities in order that they may continue to make money, will now find that their selfishness will cost them far more dearly than if they had actively and willingly co-operated in pro­ tecting the public health."13

13 Kansas City Journal, October 18, 1918; Kansas City Times, October 18, 1918; Kansas City Star, November 8, 1918. During the epidemic doctors neglected to report pneumonia and influenza cases even though they violated Section 737 of the Revised Ordinances that required the "sex, age, and residence of the party" having pneumonia. In the Monthly Report of the Hospital and Health Board of January, 1912, physicians received a stiff warning from the Department of Health for failure to report pneumonia cases. 60 Missouri Historical Review

As Kansas City attempted to "shadow box" the disease, prof­ iteering appeared. One physician informed a girl she had influenza and he requested that an ambulance take her to a hospital. He collected nine dollars, a notable sum in 1918, and she went to a hospital where doctors diagnosed her to be suffering from "revelry" the night before.14 Druggists profiteered by exacting tribute for simple nose and throat washes. Dr. Gannon condemned their actions when he stated, "I could make a tub full of antiseptic wash for the price some druggists are charging for a few ounces of salty water."15 North-Mehornay Furniture Company advertised, "The best preven­ tive for Influenza is to keep your rooms warm and dry. Buy one of our excellent heaters and be safe and comfortable."16 Saloon owners joined in the profiteering by placing large signs behind the bars recommending the use of quinine and whiskey as a precautionary measure.17 Other business men disregarded the seriousness of the epidemic. Hotels neglected to report cases, feeling that their establishments might suffer.18 Many landlords failed to maintain a temperature of 70 degrees in their flats and rooming houses. One city alderman commented, "Hundreds of citizens have complained of lack of heat, and the hospital and health board had declared that the landlords are prolonging the epidemic of influenza and pneumonia by not furnishing enough heat."19 An inspector for the contagious disease division found one man with discontinued gas service who "prob­ ably lived through the night through the kindness of neighbors who heated bricks to keep the sick man warm."20 Debate over the ques­ tion, business first or health first, continued throughout the epi­ demic.

14 Kansas City Star, October 27, 1918. 15 Kansas City Journal, October 14, 1918. In the Kansas City Post, October 10, 1918, an article explained that a salt nose and throat spray manufactured for 25 cents a gallon sold for 75 and 85 cents an ounce. is Kansas City Star, October 27, 1918. 17 Kansas City Times, October 25, 1918. 18 Ibid., October 19, 1918. Sections 733 and 739 of the Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City forbade any "physician, hotel clerk, boarding house keeper or householder who shall secrete any smallpox patient or mislead the Health Commissioner so as to prevent the control of the same, any person who shall prescribe for or treat any case of scarlet fever, measles, typhoid fever, diptheria, smallpox or any disease of a pestilential or epidemic nature and shall not immediately on receiving knowledge that the person or persons afflicted with any of the said diseases, report the same to the Hospital and Health Board shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor." 19 Kansas City Journal, January 14, 1919. 20 Kansas City Times, October 26, 1918. The gas company continually re­ ceived criticism during the epidemic for stopping gas service to homes. The 1918 Kansas City Influenza Epidemic 61

Some landlords feared condemnation of their apartments and other buildings. Fire wardens examined and condemned 42 struc­ tures. One warden explained, "In the building at 1009 St. Louis Avenue we found tenants dumping slops and sewage out of the window into the alley. One of the women tenants told us that eight families lived in this building and there was no plumbing in the place."21 This spotlighted a major health problem in Kansas City. In 1912, 15,000 privies existed within the city. One housing report stated: "In the Penn Valley district, inhabited by working men and their families—substantial, everyday, you-and-I-kind of people- there are 1,179 dwellings. The toilet facilities are comprehended in

21 Kansas City Post, October 21, 1918. Fire officials condemned the build­ ings for violation of fire and health ordinances.

A Congested District of Kansas City Ann. Report, K. C. Board of Public Welfare 1909-1912 62 Missouri Historical Review the following: Modern, 200; dry sewer connected, 439; vaults, 530."22 McClure Flats, an area between 19th and 20th streets with Central Alley in the middle, also caused the health department con­ cern. Condemnation efforts met with resistence. It was reported in the Kansas City lournal: About two hundred persons, white, Mexican and colored live and die,—mostly die' doctors say . . . the place was raided by the health squad and twenty-three cases of in­ fluenza found. Garbage cans had been provided but the residents of McClure Flats do not believe in garbage cans. . . . Children played in the garbage in the rear of a flat where an influenza patient was dying. On this garbage pile was poured the slops from the sick room.23 On November 27, the health board pronounced McClure Flats unfit for habitation. Henry Benjamin, health board member, asked if the flats could not be cleaned up. Dr. Bullock answered this by saying, "The brick walls are crumbling, underneath the floors which are built directly upon the ground—there are no cellars—large num­ bers of rats have nests. As you know, rats are one of the greatest carriers of disease. A number of large holes in the floors of the rooms afford rodents entry into the living quarters of hundreds of per­ sons."24 Benjamin's question illustrated the apathy of the health board. Conditions such as these warranted more direct action. But poli­ tics interfered. An editorial declared, "Practically every member of the health and sanitary departments hold their jobs by the grace of the bosses, and the same is true of members of the police depart­ ment who are charged with enforcement of the multitude of health ordinances. . . . Sanitary and police officers long ago learned that it is of little avail to cite offenders into court or order them to clean up. In either instance there is a scurrying for, 'Tom', for 'Mike', or for 'Johnny' or some other ward boss with sufficient power to ward off punishment."25 Kansas City suffered from a fifty-fifty arrangement for jobs in

22 Report on Housing Conditions in Kansas City, Missouri (Board of Pub­ lic Welfare, June, 1912) , 18. 23 Kansas City Journal, October 21, 1918. 24 ibid., November 27, 1918. 25 Kansas City Times, October 24, 1918. Ann. Report, K. C. Board of Public Welfare the health department between Joe Shannon's "rabbits" and Tom Pendergast's "goats."26 Politics dominated the history of the General Hospital and the hospital and health board. In 1909 doctors faced charges of in­ human treatment for throwing pneumonia patients into tubs of ice water and making convalescent patients work on a patient's ulcer­ ated leg as a punishment, and patients were fighting in terror against having operations the doctors were trying to press upon them. Finally, an investigating committee for the city found the charges "purely a political move to embarrass the Democratic ad­ ministration."27 The same situation prevailed in 1918. Nothing missed Motley's surveillance. Early in October, Motley insisted that the city hospitals stop purchasing cauliflower and shelled pecans. He said, "These are war times. I want patients and employees to get plenty to eat but

26 William M. Reddig, Tom's Town (Philadelphia and New York, 1947) , 82-83. 27 Jackson County Medical Journal, XXVI (October 1, 1932) , 19. No health records other than county reports exists within this journal. 64 Missouri Historical Review we're not going to put out non-essentials."28 His attack upon petty problems never ceased while larger problems faced the health board. Dr. Gannon tried to ignore the political squabble. With the powers of a "health czar" he cajoled, threatened and harassed the citizenry. His efforts included fumigating schools, barber colleges and factories; ordering stores to provide disinfectant finger bowls for cashiers; complaining about undertakers who allowed inexperi­ enced employees who normally served as chauffeurs to practice on influenza victims; and, requesting insurance agents and house-to- house peddlers to stay away from quarantined homes. Health in­ spectors needed motor cars to help in the cleanliness campaign. Instead of the health board obtaining the use of the city's vehicles for the doctors and inspectors, the health department relied on the courtesy of the public welfare board who loaned the cars.29 The shortage of motor cars troubled the health department almost as much as the shortage of nurses and doctors. Many Kan­ sas City doctors and nurses had enlisted in the armed services. The demands of the war coupled with the influenza epidemic im­ peded nurses' training in all the hospitals. St. Joseph's Hospital, erected in 1917, had barely established any routines before the epidemic struck the city. "The new structure where every room had sunlight a part of the day . . . saw am­ bulances wheeled to the back doors day and night, chaplains and nuns were on constant vigil as time was so short for some of the victims that no hospital stay could help them and the same ambu­ lance delivered the silent ones elsewhere."30 One young nurse re­ called the treatment of "silent ones." She cleaned patients with bichloride baths to kill the germs before the undertakers arrived.31 Pitiful cases occurred as the invading influenza swept through the area. Inspectors discovered one woman who had been dead for twelve hours and had died without medical assistance. Two small children, hungry and grief-stricken, both too young to understand, had vainly tried to waken their mother.32 The hardships of a family in Kansas City, Kansas, were reported in the Kansas City

28 Kansas City Post, October 2, 1918. 29 ibid., October 9, 1918; Kansas City Star, October 9, 1918; Kansas City Post, October 19 & 26, 1918; Kansas City Journal, October 20, 1918. 30 Jackson County Medical Society Commemorative Issue, L (Tune 30, 1956) , 1560. 31 Mrs. Ester Dunn in a personal interview on March 3, 1966 with C. Kevin McShane. 32 Kansas City Journal, October 20, 1918, The 1918 Kansas City Influenza Epidemic 65

Kansan, on December 3, "Leo L. Jones of 837 Sandusky died at St. Margaret's hospital. The same day all three of the children and a brother of Mr. Jones who was visiting him from Memphis, Tenn. were taken to the hospital with the dread disease. This morning, one of the girls, Essie Thelma, aged 5, died. A little boy, Jenidous, is very low and at noon his recovery was said by hospital officials to be doubtful, although the best is hoped for."33 The populace was partially responsible for the spread of in­ fluenza. People ignored the signs of coughing or dizziness that preceded the illness. The suddenness of the disease surprised healthy young men in particular. One employee at the Armour Packing plant said, "I picked up one box off a truck and I thought some­ one had stabbed me in the back."34 As one reporter commented, "Men in prime physical condition and those of strongest physique have been the easiest victims while the more frail have almost in­ variably recovered."35 Influenza respected no class, no geographic area and no age group. Many victims relied on remedies. Whiskey and rock candy remained remedies for some, although many doubted their help. Skunk oil hung around the neck of Orville Dalton, a Kansas Citian. This, he thought, helped him to ward off the disease.36 One woman "with the fear of death and 'flu' in her heart, and with a trusting disposition had been taking the advice of her neighbors and eating a cake of yeast each day." It was re­ ported on December 5, 1918, "Now she is sick in bed with severe pains in her stomach. She is belching gas and is afraid she is bloat­ ing. Scoffing friends intimate that the yeast has begun to work and she is 'rising.' She fears that she will have to have an operation but continues to eat the yeast."37 Earnest Crain, a non-smoker, heeded the suggestion of a neigh­ bor and smoked cigarettes to stave off the disease.38

33 Kansas City Kansan, December 3, 1918. 34 Mr. William Taylor in a personal interview on March 13, 1966. 35 Kansas City Times, October 8, 1918. Mr. George Hook, a Kansas Citian, stationed at Camp Dodge, Iowa, substantiated this account in practically the same words. A. A. Hoehling in The Great Epidemic (Boston, 1961) , mentioned this same phenomenon on page 40. Unfortunately Hoehling's book sketched the influenza epidemic poorly. 36 Mr. James Silverman in a personal interview on March 3, 1966; Mr. Orville Dalton in a personal interview on March 6, 1966. 37 Kansas City Kansan, December 5, 1918. 38 Mrs. Edris Crain (daughter of Mr. Earnest Crain) in a personal interview on April 4, 1966. Mr. Crain, interested in athletics, never smoked until the epidemic. Dr. Gannon contradicted this remedy in the Kansas City Journal on October 20, 1918, when he stated that many deaths occurred among "inveterate inhalers of cigarette smoke." 66 Missouri Historical Review

Dr. Gannon offered one remedy by telling people they should eat onions and garlic. One woman sliced onions and put them on window sills, behind pictures and on the mantle of her home. A nurse in charge of the contagious disease ward at General Hospital said she had used soda through smallpox, fever and other epidemics and had never had an ill day.39 Eye, ear, nose and throat specialists proposed gauze masks to prevent influenza. So with "Ku Klux seriousness," Kansas Citians donned white masks. Barbers, hotel and restaurant waiters, factory employees, elevator operators, cashiers, bankers, streetcar conductors and conductorettes placed their confidence in masks, since "The wear­ ing of masks as a preventive against influenza is said to be the only truly trustworthy safeguard against contraction of the disease."40 However, wearing a mask provided a cover for certain activities, "Everybody should wear an influenza mask" said a soft-voiced gentleman to J. F. Elsworth, a grocer at 6427 East Thirteenth Street. "A freezing temperature also prevents influenza" the man declared, "and a grocery man should take all precautions against it. Try the ice box and see if it won't cure your cold." Mr. Elsworth did not take kindly to the suggestion but when a revolver was pro­ duced he did not hesitate. When he was released he found twenty- five dollars had been taken from the cash register.41 On November 11, 1918, a frightened populace emerged from a hermit-like existence. Nearly 100,000 Kansas Citians joined in the Armistice celebrations. As Mayor Cowgill said later, "Every man, woman, and child able to be out of bed was on the streets."42 On November 17, one report stated that influenza as an epidemic no longer existed in Kansas City as was evident from the sparse and sporadic cases reported.43 While optimism persisted, however, Kan­ sas Citians died. The health board became concerned over the second phase of the epidemic and sought a scapegoat. They dismissed Dr. Gannon in a secret meeting. Motley objected to the doctor "doing too many things on his own initiative."44 The volatile meeting rang with in­ sults. " 'You're a ' shouted W. P. Motley. 'No man can call

39 Kansas City Times, October 18, 1918; Mrs. Ester Dunn in a personal in­ terview on March 3, 1966; Kansas City Times, October 19, 1918. 40 Kansas City Star, October 21, 1918. ^Ibid., October 27, 1918. 42 Kansas City Journal, November 12, 1918; Kansas City Post, December 9, 1918; Jackson County Medical Journal, XXVI (October 1, 1932) , 22. 43 Kansas City Post, November 17, 1918. 44 Kansas City Star, November 27, 1918. Stevens, Centennial Hist, of Mo., IV Dr. Eugene H. Bullock me a and get away with it,' answered Dr. Gannon. 'Give me that badge, you're fired.' 'I'll keep my badge you can't fire me,' came the reply."45 Henry Benjamin, health board member, resigned from the health board after Dr. Gannon's dismissal. Dr. Bullock resigned his job as superintendant of the General Hospital but decided to re­ main as health director. Miss Geraldine Borland, superintendant of nurses at General Hospital resigned in late January. Her resigna­ tion, never explained in the newspapers, remained a mystery. An editorial explained the resignations of Gannon, Bullock and Benja­ min in this manner:

45 Kansas City Journal, November 28, 1918. 68 Missouri Historical Review

The unfortunate feature of bossism in the conduct of municipal affairs is that it invariably leads to driving out the good men rather than the political henchmen who are often the victims of factional wrangles. Personal wrangles between the president and almost anybody who differs with him have characterized the situation, even during the epidemic which has cost so many lives in the community.46 Regardless of the political difficulties, influenza cases multi­ plied. With Dr. Gannon dismissed, Dr. Bullock tried to carry on a campaign against the pestilence. Finally, Dr. Bullock, a flu victim himself, admitted the futility of resistance. He summoned help from the United States Public Health Service in a telegram in which he said, "Assistance is needed at once from your department to help control influenza epidemic in Kansas City, Mo. May we hope for your immediate help?"47 Two United States Public Health officers arrived. These men enacted no special legislation. Rather, the tornado-like pattern of the disease continued and the epidemic touched down in areas west of Kansas City. In contrast, St. Louis exerted every effort to stop the epidemic. St. Louis enforced a harsh quarantine that aroused the business population. Health Commissioner Charles Starkloff of St. Louis met with Mayor Henry W7. Kiel; Dr. B. C. Wilkes; Assistant Health Commissioner Henry Jordan; Dr. James Woodrugg of the Health Department; Dr. A. S. Barnes of the Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Canby Robinson, dean of the Washington University Medical School; Dr. Ellsworth Smith, president of the St. Louis Medical Society; Major L. C. H. Bahrenberg, Missouri representative of the United States Public Service; and, John Schmoll, director of public welfare, to discuss the epidemic. The business interests asked the obvious question, "But why should St. Louis be made the example of a nation?" Dr. Starkloff retorted, "Because St. Louis has to date

46 Ibid., December 3, 1918 Sc January 28, 1919. 4 7 Kansas City Post, December 5, 1918. Dr. Bullock gave a daily recorr d of the influenza in the telegram: November 23, 58 cases, 6 deaths November 24, 46 cases, 3 deaths November 25, 157 cases, 7 deaths November 26, 204 cases, 14 deaths November 27, 318 cases, 7 deaths November 28, 170 cases, 8 deaths November 29, 414 cases, 12 deaths November 30, 345 cases, 6 deaths December 1, 185 cases, 12 deaths December 2, 401 cases, 16 deaths December 3, 397 cases, 20 deaths December 4, 343 cases, 16 deaths The 1918 Kansas City Influenza Epidemic 69

Kansas City Times, Oct. 19, 1918. "Life's Darkest Moment" 70 Missouri Historical Review

the best influenza record of the nation and we mean to keep it the best."48 This city, larger than Kansas City, fought the epidemic without political involvement. Instead of a spirit of cooperation in Kansas City, apathy greeted the health department's efforts to correct unsanitary conditions. The new year, 1919, saw the end of the epidemic. Kansas City emerged with an alarming death rate. The 1918 death rate from all forms of influenza and pneumonia soared to 718.1 per 100,000 population as compared to a death rate of 205.0 in 1917 and 301.1 in 1919. Dur­ ing the last four months of 1918, 1,865 Kansas Citians died from in­ fluenza and pneumonia.49 Kansas City's high death rate was caused by the refusal of merchants, restaurants owners and motion picture operators to com­ ply with orders, by the use of home remedies, and finally and fatally, by the political feud between Motley and Dr. Gannon. Dr. Gannon refused to accept the political situation and apathy. He at­ tempted to assert the power of a medical dictator, necessary in an epidemic. But hampered by the fifty-fifty political arrangement and the feud with Motley he was unsuccessful as Kansas Citians toler­ ated the worst epidemic in the history of the city.

48 ££. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 9, 1918. 49 United States Mortality Statistics 1920 (Washington, 1922), 30.

Youthful Observations St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 20, 1966, by Allan Hale. In the 11 years he has been a school teacher, Harold W. Dunn has, as a good teacher should, made a point of listening carefully to the confidences children volunteer while he is on playground duty at recess. Some of them are startling enough to be noted in Mr. Dunn's collection of juvenalia, which now contains such items as "Velocity is how fast cars are going when they can no longer be measured in miles per hour. . . ." "The Grand Canyon is so large it is just to look at, not to understand." Or, about Death Valley, "The Weather there is so hot that most of its inhabitants have to live elsewhere." A few observations, he says, are gathered from essays—such as this: "Our vacationing would not have been possible if it had not been for geography. From now on I will put both gladness and wonder in my same thought about geography." . . . Nobody is going to quarrel with the assertion of a youngster that "The difference between lakes and rivers is that rivers are always in a hurry to get some place." Bernarr Macfadden

BY WILLIAM H. TAFT*

Bernard Adolphus McFadden, born in Mill Spring, Wayne County, Missouri, on August 16, 1868, rose from a humble two- room farmhouse to a position of wealth, becoming one of the nation's leading publishers.1 He became better known to millions as a physical culturist. To some he was an eccentric, to others a genius born ahead of his time. Missourians who remember Bernarr Macfadden, as he later redesigned his name,2 frequently fail to associate him with his na-

* A former contributor to the REVIEW, William H. Taft is a professor of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received an A.B. degree from Westminster College; a B.J. and a M.A. degree from the University of Missouri; and a Ph.D. from Western Reserve University. i Census Report, 1870, for Mill Spring made on June 9, 1870, lists William R. McFadden, farmer, 37; Mary, his wife, 24; Adolphus, son, age 1; Mary, daugh­ ter, one month. 2 Henry F. Pringle, Big Frogs (New York, 1958) ; Mary Macfadden and Emile Gauvreau, Dumbbells and Carrot Strips (New York, 1953) . Mrs. Macfadden relates how her husband thought "Bernard" was weak, commonplace; "Bernarr," with the emphasis on "narr," was different. "McFadden," too, had a mediocre ring. "Mac" was symbolic of the Mack truck, one of the most powerful vehicles of its day. The Missouri McFaddens resented the change. 71 72 Missouri Historical Review

tive state. However, it was in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois that Macfadden developed his early interest in physical culture and had his first exposure to printer's ink.3 There are no historical markers to indicate Macfadden's home, although there is a moun­ tain peak in California named for him.4 Before his death in 1955 at the age of 87, Macfadden directed a publishing concern valued at $30,000,000 and became the patri­ arch of physical culture. He founded True Story in 1919 and many similar confession-type magazines. For a decade he owned Liberty magazine, 1931-1941, and for eight years, 1914-1932, he printed the New York Graphic. In addition, he wrote and published dozens of books and other publications that sold into the millions of copies. He established the Macfadden Foundation in 1931 with $5,000,000 which today operates two military academies in the South.5 How­ ever, before his death he lost control of his firm, suffered through four unsuccessful marriages, and was forced to flee from the police who were after him to pay back alimony payments.6 Frequently in his later life when he was the subject of many magazine and newspaper articles, as well as several books, Mac­ fadden loved to recall his start in the Ozarks as a puny, sickly, half-

3 F. R. Blackburn, of the Kansas State Historical Society, reports several copies of the McCune Brick in the society's collection in Topeka. The first, dated April 10, 1886, is Vol. I, No. 26, with E. F. Medearis as editor. Medearis also had an advertisement as a dentist. Later he was listed as the publisher, but by October 9, 1886, his name disappeared from the masthead. 4 "Immortalizing Macfadden," American Medical Association Journal, XCV (August 9, 1930) , 430. The article tells of the event, printing a picture of the peak with this caption: "Bernarr Macfadden, the New York confessional magazine publisher and physical culture enthusiast, will be honored by some Superior Californians when the central peak of Castle Crags at Castella, a few miles south of Dunsmuir, Siskiyou County, in northern California, will be named Macfadden Peak. The dedication will be sponsored by the Redding Chamber of Commerce about August 16th. A special Southern Pacific train will bring 200 New Yorkers, including the bushy-haired publisher." The AM A article sar­ castically suggested that "Lookout Mountain at Chattanooga might readily be called 'Mount Cardui.' " 5 New York Times, September 25, 1931. The charitable corporation was "for the perpetuation of physical culture and health building." Five years later, on May 16, 1936, the Times reported that Mary Macfadden had lost her $2,500,000 breach of contract suit against Macfadden. She alleged that in 1914 the two had agreed to share in the promotion of health projects and in the financial rewards. 6 Fulton Oursler, "The Most Unforgettable Character I've Met," Reader's Digest, LIX (July, 1951), 78-82. Bernarr Macfadden 73 starved lad.7 His father, William McFadden, and an uncle, Penn McFadden, were among the early settlers in an area in Southeast Missouri, which they called Greenwood Valley "because it was timbered solely with stately virgin pine trees that they promptly cut and burned to make a training arena for the race horses they bred and trained and sold to owners as far away as New Orleans."8 The McFaddens came to Missouri from Virginia via Kentucky and spent much of their spare time in nearby Mill Spring which was "a rather typical western saloon-gambling-boardinghouse center along the State Military Roard that skirted the homesteaded land of the McFaddens."9 Bernarr's father loved to race horses and to drink, so much so that he eventually drank himself to death.10 The boy never saw his father again after his parents separated following the birth of their second daughter Alma in 1873. Mary was born in 1870. The two sisters were raised by relatives. Mary moved to Kansas and later married a Kansas City banker, Roland R. Conklin. They moved to New York where her husband was associated with many financial projects. Alma, adopted by a Doniphan couple, married Thomas W. Mabrey. The Mabrey family figured prominently in the State's early political history. Thomas, a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, began his political career as a page in the state capital and was elected presiding officer of the House when he was thirty, one of the youngest men to hold this position.11 His wife, however, did not have much faith in the future of politics and prevailed upon her husband to get a position in St. Louis in

7 H. L. Mencken, "An American Idealist," The American Mercury, XX. In 1929 three biographies appeared, all written at Macfadden's instructions. They included Fulton Oursler, The True Story of Bernarr Macfadden; Grace Perkins Oursler, Chats With the Macfadden Family; and Clement Wood, Bernarr Mac­ fadden: A Study in Success. All were printed by Lewis Copeland Co., New York. Mencken referred to these books as "brochures" in his review of them in The American Mercury, May, 1950, 124-125. Mencken writes, "He appears as a hero without a wart, spiritual or temporal, sworn only to save us all from the Medical Trust and make us strong enough to lift a piano with our bare hands, with maybe a couple of gals and a bartender sitting on top of it." 8 Doniphan Prospect-News, October 20, 1955. This article was written by Ethel Johnston Chilton, a cousin of Macfadden's on her mother's side of the family. 9 Ibid. 10 Alva Johnston, "The Great Macfadden," Saturday Evening Post, CCXIII (June 21, 1914), 10. 11 From an unidentified article in possession of Mrs. Harry Donovan, a niece of Macfadden who lives in Kirkwood, Mo. The newspaper clipping gives the details of Mrs. Mabrey's death and tells of her husband's three terms in the House. Bernarr Macfadden was in Europe at the time and could not attend the funeral. 74 Missouri Historical Review

Birthplace of Bernarr Macfadden the Collector of Customs' office. Unfortunately, she died shortly after moving there in 1902 when only twenty-nine.12 After Mrs. McFadden divorced her husband the family stayed briefly with her parents, who were unable to provide much as­ sistance. Soon Mrs. McFadden and the boy moved to Chicago to live with relatives who operated a hotel there. Not yet ten years old, Bernarr lived through a tragic interlude in Illinois. Menial chores in the hotel required the lad to clean spittoons and perform other equally repulsive tasks. His formal schooling was on such an irregular basis that one could honestly say he was a self-educated man. While the family was in Chicago "lung fever" claimed the life of Mrs. McFadden in 1879. At the time, the boy overheard some relatives say, "That brat o' hers is got it too."13 For two years Macfadden remained at this hotel. Later he told his biographers that he had become a "weakly" lad, with a

12 Ibid. Mrs. Donovan notes that Thomas Mabrey's father, Pinkney, helped to write the first Missouri Constitution. 13 Wood, A Study in Success, 35. Rernarr Macfadden 75 continual hacking cough that kept him in a rundown condition. No wonder an early death was predicted for him.14 Eventually sent to live with a farmer, Robert Hunter, near Chicago, Macfadden regained some of his health through regular outdoor work. From cleaning hotel rooms, Macfadden turned to chopping wood, feeding and tending stock. Soon he changed from a weakling to a brawny man. In a dispute over who would pay for a seventy-five-cent boot repair bill, Macfadden left the farm, going to St. Louis where relatives lived.15 This period on the farm was not a total waste of Macfadden's time. Years later he recalled some frightening experiences with chewing tobacco and drinking applejack. After secretly trying these possessions of his employer, Macfadden became so ill that he vowed never again to touch alcohol or tobacco; the vow was never broken. During this two-year stint on the farm Macfadden de­ veloped a critical view of the established religions of his day. Forced to attend church weekly, he could never see what was being accomplished by the minister if Macfadden's slave-driving master was an example of the Christian spirit. Macfadden later established his own religion which he termed Cosmotarian Science, based largely on physical culture concepts.16 In St. Louis Bernarr held many odd jobs. His health deterio­ rated whenever he had an indoor job, such as a clerk or bookkeeper. When he tried patent medicines he failed to gain relief for his run­ down condition. From these experiences Macfadden developed a strong hatred toward medicine and began a running feud with the American Medical Association.17 In St. Louis Macfadden had his first contact with a gymnasium. One uncle refused to loan him the fifteen dollars for the initiation

14 Oursler, True Story of Macfadden, 44-45. 15 Wood, A Study of Success, 36-42. Macfadden spent most of his time in St. Louis living with his uncles, Harvey P. Miller and Crume Miller. 16 "Macfadden's New Heaven," Newsweek, XXV (June 4, 1945), 93. Macfad­ den spoke before 2,200 persons in Carnegie Hall on "The Joyous Life—How to Live It." He told the crowd that "Cosmotarianism serves up 'religion through happiness' on a whole-grain thesis. The cardinal tenet is that if man cherishes his God-given body, the Kingdom of Heaven will automatically follow." In addition, he conducted a Cosmotarian Science Institute and provided correspond­ ence courses that incorporated his books, including Fasting, Eating for Powerful Health, Woman's Sex Life, and Man's Sex Life. The advanced course used his eight-volume encyclopedia. 17 The American Medical Association has an extensive file of correspondence concerning Macfadden in its Chicago headquarters. In his later years Macfadden challenged the AMA to a debate on their cures for cancer and other major ill­ nesses. fee, so Macfadden settled for a pair of second­ hand dumbbells for fifty cents. Thus a career that eventually carried him to many parts of the world was founded on a few pennies. These dumbells revolutionized Macfad­ den's life. Monotonous, tiresome office chores were relieved by dumbbell drills, long hikes, and other exercise. Spending a quarter more, Macfadden acquired a larger set of dumbbells. In addition, he borrowed a ten-pound bar of lead from a printer and carried this with him on his long hikes, a trick his grandmother failed to comprehend. She may have been the first person to consider Macfadden an eccentric on physical cul­ ture.18 Ridicule, however, never hindered Macfadden in any of his projects. Some fifty years later he told Newsweek "Christ was cru­ cified for His teachings. Socrates was condemned to death for the same reason, Lincoln was vilified. Not that I should be classed with any of these renowned characters."19 Macfadden's first visit to the Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey Circus turned his attention temporarily to the tight rope, horizontal and parallel bars, and the trapeze rings. He performed well on all of this equipment except the trapeze rings. Neither could he conquer the treacherous high-wheeled bicycles of his day. A half century later he recalled that he "made a sudden turn and took a header on the wet pavement" while performing before a number of young girls who were eyeing him.20 Macfadden was listed in the St. Louis city directory as a clerk in 1883-85.21 The next year he was not listed. During the latter

18 Physical Culture, LXIX (April, 1933). In the March, 1933, issue Macfad- den started a series on "Celebrating Fifty Years of Physical Culture." In these articles he recalled many of the incidents he had told his biographers four years earlier. 19 "Macfadden: 'A Lowly Crusader' Re­ views His Life," Neivsweek, VI (December 14, 1935) , 36-37. At the time Macfadden was con­ sidering the Presidency on the Republican ticket. As the nation's second largest maga­ zine publisher, he was using Liberty to pro­ mote his political views. 20 Physical Culture, LXIX (May, 1933). Macfadden said he felt too much tension in his attempts to ride the bicycles. When he revisited the gymnasium in the early 1930s he saw nothing but gloom in the old build­ ing. 21 Gould's St. Louis Directory, published by the Gould Directory Co., St. Louis, was used for the years indicated. part of 1885 and most of 1886 apparently he was in Kansas. Still in his teens, Macfadden went there to work briefly with a cousin, E. F. Me­ dearis, a dentist in McCune.22 He assisted his relative by holding down the patients during the "painless dentistry" treatments. This indoor work did not appeal to the lad who once again turned to farm chores. Paid less than the older farm­ hands, Macfadden felt he was discriminated against because of his age and quit. He went about Kansas as a hobo and a day laborer. However, he kept up with his dumbbell drills and other exercises, even while riding freight cars. Fellow hoboes often objected to his voice, which he tried to enrich while singing and working with the dumbbells.23 Although Macfadden found farm life helpful for his physical needs, he frowned on the typical farm diet with its excessive con­ sumption of white bread, fried cornmeal mush, and other such foods. Later, Macfadden wrote numerous articles in his magazines advocating more revolutionary diets. Kansas provided Macfadden with his initial exposure to print­ er's ink. His dentist-cousin for a brief time published the McCune Rrick, a paper "intended to hurl advice at the community."24 The project was a failure, and Macfadden was again on the open trail. After a brief but dismal experience working in a Missouri coal mine, Macfadden reached St. Louis again. Efforts to obtain a type­ setting job were fruitless, which was probably just as well since in­ door drudgery tended to break him physically, as he later con­ fessed to one of his biographers.25 Seeking an outdoor job, Macfadden found one as a drayman for a merchandise firm. On farms he had worked with horses and long admired their physical strength. Seeking to make more money, he turned to other jobs and was a clerk, a bill collector, and a bookkeeper before he went into partnership with another young

22 Robert Lewis Taylor, "Profile," New Yorker, XXVI (October 21, 1950), 40. Taylor reports that Macfadden was very efficient as an aide to the dentist, "though not especially popular with the clients." In his off hours Macfadden rented a stable and opened a boxing school in McCune. Unfortunately, it at­ tracted more loafers than paying clients. 23 Ibid. Taylor reports in his three-part series on Macfadden that the physi­ cal culturist "had confused recollections of this period, as well he might. He rarely held any job more than a month." 24 Macfadden and Gauvreau, Dumbbells and Carrot Strips, 51. 25 Wood, A Study in Success, 54-55. 78 Missouri Historical Review

man, Hilary Updike, in a lace curtain cleaning firm. This, too, failed to arouse his interest.26 After acquiring his partner's share, he soon sold out completely. Macfadden next publicly announced that he was a "Kinisthera- pist," a teacher of higher physical culture. This new title, self-ac­ quired as were many others in his lifetime, was interpreted by Mac­ fadden to mean a "healer of disease, by use of movements."27 His slogan became "Weakness is a crime; don't be a criminal." The slogan was to be his war cry throughout his flamboyant career as well as the slogan for his first magazine, Physical Culture, which was started in New York in 1899.28 Wrestling became a major facet in his career. It brought him the public recognition which he needed to promote his physical cul-

26 Ibid., 26. Apparently Macfadden forgot the name of his partner, since it is not mentioned in the "authorized" biographies. In Oursler, True Story of Macfadden, 71, there is a reference to "a certain young man" who had had some laundry experience and who induced Macfadden to join him. The firm was the St. Louis Lace Cleaning Co., 1916 Pine. Macfadden and Gauvreau, Dumbbells and Carrot Strips, 52, identifies him. 27 Oursler, True Story of Macfadden, 74, uses the correct spelling here. Wood, A Study in Success, 65, uses the "Kinisitherapist" form. Both writers were in error when they used Macfadden's later name; he had not changed from Bernard McFadden at this time. 28 Oursler, True Story of Macfadden, 74. See also the file of Physical Culture in the St. Louis Public Library. The slogan appeared frequently, both in this magazine and in other Macfadden publications and books. Rernarr Macfadden 79 ture studio, provided him with much needed cash and gave him a chance to experiment in a new area of physical exercise. Mac­ fadden began to write letters to publications proclaiming the assets of physical culture. When these letters were not printed he began to realize the seriousness of his neglected formal education. At­ tempting to fill this intellectual void, Macfadden traded his self- learned knowledge of human anatomy for an opportunity to attend classes in English, history, and other subjects at a military academy in nearby Bunker Hill, Illinois.29 Macfadden's romantic interests are first recorded during this year at Bunker Hill. On his nightly walks about the small com­ munity he was attracted to a charming young lady who frequently was on the veranda or in her front yard. His talks with her, how­ ever, were halted after the girl's father denied Macfadden's request to continue the visits. The Bunker Hill "professor" was looked upon as "quite uncouth and socially unacceptable."30 Macfadden was no more successful in his first public speech, which was delivered in Bunker Hill. Here he continued to experi­ ment with his various diets as he sought to overcome various ill­ nesses. One fast that dropped his weight twenty pounds left him so lifeless that he shouted "to the devil with dieting" and went out for a good, big meal.31 Drugless healing became a major plank in his program after he observed how animals refused food when they were ill. Throughout his life he urged persons to refrain from eat­ ing so much when they were ill. A fast was always the first step in his cures. The year in Bunker Hill provided Macfadden with a new ap­ proach to life. He developed sufficient self-confidence there to write his first novel, The Athlete's Conquest, some 80,000 words of autobiographical trivia that a publisher termed the "crudest piece of junk" he had ever read. It lacked a plot, yet it contained many lessons that later as the physical culturist king, Macfadden pub­ licized in millions of copies of his magazines and books.32

29 Ibid., 75-76. He closed his studio for a quick education, feeling this would help him get more of his articles on physical culture published. 30 Letter from Mrs. Frances S. Stadelman, Bunker Hill, 111., February 27, 1967. She wrote that her mother, Bertha Hayes, knew Macfadden quite well and "used to laugh about this in later years and said she should have been kinder to him." Bunker Hill Academy was founded in 1856; in 1883 the word "Military" was added to its title. 31 Wood, A Study in Success, 66. 32 Ibid., 72. Later, when the book was finally revised and published, Mac­ fadden gave his wife an autographed copy. The book was a crusade urging the abolishment of the corset. 80 Missouri Historical Review

Before embarking on another year of teaching, Macfadden re­ turned briefly to wrestling in St. Louis. In quick order he disposed of many "champions," a title loosely used by the sportsmen of the 1890s. Some of his matches were over before all the audience was seated. In the St. Louis directory of 1891 he is listed as a "Teacher of physical education and hygiene, and supervisor of physical edu­ cation in the public schools." The next year he was merely a "Teacher of physical culture and hygiene." Macfadden never con­ sidered a professional wrestling career; it was only a means to the end. During the 1892-93 school year, "Professor B. A. McFadden, the champion wrestler," became a widely known figure in central and western Missouri. He taught physical culture and coached teams at the newly established Marmaduke Military Academy in Sweet Springs. An old hotel and health resort was converted into the new academy after a group of St. Louis businessmen spent $150,000 to remodel the buildings. Their goal was to create a school that would

"Workouts in a 19th Century Gymnasium te'^?A Rernarr Macfadden 81

"unite careful scholastic training with physical vigor and healthy moral tone," an ideal that Macfadden followed in the Tennessee military academy he acquired in 1931.33 Macfadden continued to moonlight, promoting wrestling matches. In some of these sporting events, he also engaged in exhi­ bitions with other wrestlers. Macfadden frequently took his audience into his confidence to reveal to them all of the benefits to be derived from a strong physical culture program. In mid-1893, one of his matches attracted an audience that "rep­ resented nearly all classes of men. There were doctors and lawyers with shiny silk hats, merchants, clerks, mechanics, editors, and re­ porters with their pads ready and their pencils sharpened to a nicety." Macfadden's post-match address concerned "the beauties and benefits of physical culture."34 While coaching football, Macfadden took his Marmaduke team about the state, winning or tying all of their games. In Sportsman Park, where Macfadden had played on a number of the city's foot­ ball teams, his academy boys defeated a top St. Louis outfit.35 Later his team tied the University of Missouri B team, 6-6, in a game played in Columbia in pouring rain.36 Football remained one of his favorite sports, although he did not participate as a player after the early 1890s. Champion wrestlers were developed by Macfadden in his classes at the academy. One of his pupils, Eldred Harrison, was de­ scribed as being in "perfect form, compactly built and looking like a veritable young Hercules." He wrestled to a draw with the top wrestler at the University of Missouri in a "catch-as-catch-can" match.37 After the school year, Macfadden remained in the Sedalia area during the summer of 1893 to teach wrestling and boxing and to promote exhibitions. He conditioned himself in June for a "lively

33 "Missouriana," MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, XXXVII (October, 1942), 64-66. Macfadden bought Castle Heights Military Academy, Lebanon, Tenn. Since his death, his foundation has established the Sanford Naval Academy, Sanford, Fla. Both schools are doing well today. 34 Sedalia Bazoo, June 4, 1893. 35 Ibid., February 22, 1893; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 25, 1891, lists McFadden as a member of the Shamrocks team. The team placed second in the city competition. Although he was not listed among the All-Stars team members, Macfadden was selected in March to play a visiting Chicago team. Apparently these were "teams" that varied from week to week, depending on the men they could get to play. 36 Sedalia Bazoo, April 30, 1893. The entire Marmaduke faculty and student body caught a special train at Sedalia for this trip. 37 Columbia Missouri Statesman, May 4, 1893. 82 Missouri Historical Review time" with a Kansas wrestling champion. Local newspaper accounts noted that Macfadden "easily ran a mile in six minutes and would be in the very pink of condition."38 Later that summer he was in Chicago to attend the World's Fair. There he met Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., then beginning his career by exhibiting Sandow, publicized as the world's strongest man. Eventually Ziegfeld and Macfadden became close friends. At a later date his daughter Helen Macfadden was a specialty dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York. Also at the Fair Macfadden met Alexander Whitely, an inventor of an exerciser. Macfadden, fascinated by the arrangement of pulleys, ropes and springs, worked with Whitely and demonstrated the gadget until the Fair closed.39 For a brief time, Macfadden again lived in St. Louis. He saved fifty dollars from more wrestling matches and then headed east where a successful career began in two large furnished rooms, the new Macfadden physical culture studio. After his first European trip in 1898 he started the Physical Culture Magazine.*0 Other pub­ lications followed by the dozens. For example, the Library of Con­ gress in Washington, D. C, has more than sixty books and pam­ phlets listed by Macfadden. The London Library in England has more than sixty volumes, including Practical Rirth Control and Sex Predetermination. A check of his publications and advertisements enlarges this list to nearly one hundred and fifty publications, vary­ ing from brief guidebooks to the encyclopedias. A few were trans­ lated into other languages; his Miracle of Milk appeared in Spanish and Greek. Titles frequently were changed as new editions ap­ peared. Scattered copies may be located in old book stores today though many have been banned from the mail through efforts of the American Medical Association. Sixty years after his birth, Macfadden returned to visit his birthplace. He traveled in his private railroad car, accompanied by

38 Sedalia Bazoo, June 25, 1893. 39 Oursler, True Story of Macfadden, 87-88. Many biographers tell of his work with Whitely. In New York, during the slack season at his studio, Mac­ fadden sold the exerciser. Later he designed one of his own which he demon­ strated and sold in England. However, within a few years he abandoned all such gadgets and turned entirely to diets and physical exercise as the best means for one to maintain top physical condition. See, Oliver H. P. Garrett, "Another True Story," New Yorker, II (September 19, 1925) , 9-10, for an interesting account of his early days in that city. 40 The first issue is dated March, 1899. Macfadden started a similar publica­ tion during his tour of England in 1898, but considered this a promotional piece for his demonstrations. The American edition sold for a nickel a copv, or fifty cents a year. Rernarr Macfadden 83 his wife Mary and six children. The group had started from New York, stopped in Indianapolis, and from there had gone to Lebanon, Tennessee, where he visited the military academy he later pur­ chased. When the train reached Piedmont, Missouri, some 1,400 admirers crowded around this Missouri-born Horatio Alger as he talked to them, paid for their barbecue in the city park, and pro­ vided movies for the children. Cousin Jud McFadden took him on a tour about the old farm, which one report said he wanted to buy but declined to pay the price the owner demanded.41 En route home to New York, Macfadden stopped in St. Louis to address a group of businessmen, combining principles of business and physical cul­ ture in another of his exciting public talks. Too, he visited with some of his relatives there and took them out to dinner.42 Another stop was made in Macomb, Illinois, where Macfadden had spent two years bound out to a farmer. He wanted to show his children the place where he had experienced many of his physical culture revelations.43 In 1936, when he was nearing seventy, Macfadden called him­ self a "frisky colt" as he spoke before a Journalism Week audience at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia. A packed house listened to him talk for nearly an hour, as he "pointed out that many people do not realize the jeopardy that the press is always in and" with the need to "always be on our guard to defend our rights to print what we wish." He termed the National Recovery Act an attempt to license the newspapers and remarked, "We cannot maintain a free country unless our newspapers are allowed to say what they want to say." He recalled his earlier visit to the Mis­ souri campus, with his Marmaduke Military Academy football team.44 He further advised the students that "The highest of human achievements is to make your dreams come true. You can have what you want out of life." Fighting for freedom of the press was nothing new for Mac­ fadden. In 1905 he first encountered Anthony Comstock, who ob­ jected to the posters Macfadden used to advertise his annual physical culture exhibition in Madison Square Garden. These

41 Wood, A Study in Success, 191-192. See also Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic, October 15, 1955; Doniphan Prospect-News, October 20, 1955. 42 Interview with Mrs. Harry Donovan, Kirkwood, Mo., a niece of Macfad­ den's. She recalled that the money Macfadden spent for that dinner would have fed her family for several weeks. 43 Wood, A Study in Success, 194. 44 Columbia Missourian, May 4, 1936. 84 Missouri Historical Review

Macfadden's Physical Culture Hotel, Dansville, N. Y. showed previous winners, all dressed in the gymnasium costumes of that day. But this was too much for Comstock, who even ob­ jected to a picture of the Venus de Milo which Macfadden had in his office. This being the publisher's first encounter with the leader of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, he was let off with a warning.45 Two years later it was a different story when Physical Culture Magazine carried a story by John R. Coryell, better known later for his "Nick Carter" stories, titled "Wild Oats, or Growing to Manhood in Civilized (?) Society." Comstock convinced the postal authorities that this effort to discuss the facts of life was nothing but an indecent account designed to improve the sale of the maga­ zine. Fined $2,000, Macfadden was kept out of jail by President William H. Taft. Three decades later Macfadden received a full pardon, but he never recovered the fine.46 Coryell wrote many articles for Macfadden. In the magazine of June, 1900, an article titled "Nudity and Purity" called for more

45 Oursler, True Story of Macfadden, 178-180. 46 Pringle, Big Frogs, 126-127. Thirty years later Macfadden recalled the Comstock raid in an article in Physical Cuture, LXXI (March, 1934) , 71, de­ fining "Comstockery" as that which defiles or debases anything not otherwise evil through corrupting imagery. As a verb, "Comstock" meant to look upon as vile that which in itself is not evil. And as an adjective, "Comstockish" meant prudishness based upon a leud mental attitude. Rernarr Macfadden 85 naturalness for children and added; "Suggestion, mystery, secrecy, ignorance and improper food, combined with imperfect physical development, are responsible for impurity. Nudity and knowledge are the cure." The next month, Macfadden noted that some read­ ers objected to the article on nudity. "What would become of the art galleries, the works of famous sculptors, the ornaments that beautify our public buildings, if the minds of all men were so de­ praved?" he asked.47 A decade after his death, historians are still not sure of Mac­ fadden's role in our national history. He founded the first con­ fession magazine, True Story, which inaugurated a new approach in the magazine field. He waged a continual battle for more open- mindedness on the part of the public toward his views on physical culture, dieting, hiking, and the wearing of a minimum amount of clothing. As early as 1901 he called for a National Physical Develop­ ment Society. Before that, in the first edition of Physical Culture Magazine in 1899, he said his great purpose in life was to "preach the gospel of health, strength and the means of acquiring it." He called for moderate diets, maximum exercise, noting that "anyone who has to be alarm-clocked out of bed every morning isn't getting sleep."48 To Macfadden, disease was always the result of the body attempting to right a wrong, an effort to restore a normal, healthy condition. Exercising and dieting were important elements in his gospel of health; they helped to make a religion of his teachings, at least to Macfadden. Active in politics, Macfadden ran for several important offices, shifting from the Republican to the Democratic ticket as the situa­ tion dictated. Obviously, however, Independent would have been a more appropriate label for him. He entered the Florida senatorial primary in 1940 as a Republican and the governor's race there in 1948 as a Democrat. He had supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 but had turned against him in 1936 because of the President's failure to balance the budget and to end unemployment.49 A Mac­ fadden for President Club had been organized in Illinois in 1936 by a few of his employees and officials of paper making and print­ ing concerns. A former staff member, who prefers to remain anony­ mous, said Macfadden was waiting in a Cleveland hotel room in 1936 expecting to be nominated by the Republicans to head their

47 Physical Culture, III (June, 1900), 109; Ibid., Ill (July, 1900), 179. 48 ibid., I (March, 1899), 33. 49 Liberty, XVII (April 27, 1940) . 86 Missouri Historical Review ticket. No matter how much he tried, Macfadden was unsuccessful in his efforts to win a public office. During the last few years of his life he parachuted three times to publicize his birthdays and the great benefits he realized from his physical culture training. He supported the aviation industry during its pioneer era, sponsoring New York-Miami races and flying his own planes about the country. In 1931, at the age of 63, he made his first solo flight. It is difficult to ignore one of America's top publishers who could count among his friends such men as Henry Ford, Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Benito Mussolini, several presidents, congressmen, mayors, and others. At his peak, Macfadden was worth $30,000,000; at the time of his death he was living on a monthly annuity check of $2,000.50 Many individuals who were associated with him recall how they enjoyed the work on his magazines and newspapers. Ed Sullivan, who started his news­ paper career on Macfadden's New York Graphic, remembers him as a "doughty old gentleman."51 Macfadden admitted that some persons considered him a crank and a fanatic; in fact, some called him "nutty." This, however, did not distrurb him since he believed that "Every enthusiastic reformer has to suffer in a similar manner."52 Macfadden, a client of Edward L. Bernays, one of the nation's outstanding public relations pioneers, was considered by Bernays as a fascinating individual, although difficult to understand. He wrote, "I wish I could give you the key to this enigma."53 Money meant nothing to Macfadden. He loved to start new projects; when they were successful he lost interest in them. He loved to sing, although he never could carry a tune. "I Love Life," his favorite song, reflected his philosophy. He honestly believed he would live at least until he was 125. Once he wrote about another Missourian, Sam Clemens. Macfadden believed the novelist would have lived another twenty years had he exercised more and not spent so much time in bed. Clemens' practice of laughing a lot

50 Theodore Peterson, Magazines in the Twentieth Century (Urbana, 1964) , 255-259. 51 Letter from Ed Sullivan, June 13, 1967. 52 Physical Culture, LXIX (March, 1933) , 4. 53 Edward L. Bernays, to William H. Taft, January 12, 1967. See also Edward L. Bernays, Biography of an Idea (New York, 1965) . Bernarr Macfadden 87

Macfadden on a Barefoot Walk pleased Macfadden, for he maintained "such exercise kept a man going."54 Macfadden's four marriages were unsuccessful. His first, to Tillie Fontaine, apparently was annulled. No date is known for this wedding; Macfadden never mentioned it in his later writings. Former Macfadden associates in New York, who prefer not to be identified, believe Macfadden married Tillie in Brooklyn or New York at the time he was demonstrating some bicycling equipment

54 Interviewed in New York in December, 1966, and April, 1967, were former Macfadden associates Joe Wiegers, now director of the Macfadden Foundation, Meyer Dworkin, S. O. Shapiro, Henry Lieferant, Ed Zoty, and others. Mrs. Jonnie Lee Macfadden also was interviewed. 88 Missouri Historical Review and she was demonstrating cold cream. The marriage did not last long. In 1901 Macfadden wed Marguerite Kelly, a Canadian-born nurse, who joined him in writing articles for Physical Culture. She accompanied Macfadden on a trip to Missouri around 1902-03. Al­ though they shared a mutual interest in the outdoors and in writ­ ing for his magazine, they parted a few years later. His third marriage was to a physical culture beauty contest win­ ner in England, Mary Williamson. Mary Williamson Macfadden, in Dumbbells and Carrots, written in 1953 in collaboration with Emile Gauvreau, a former Macfadden editor, tells of the proposal she re­ ceived from the physical culturist after a two-month courtship. "He had tried marriage twice, both times disastrously," she writes, citing details of the romance that resulted in their wedding in England on March 5, 1913. This marriage lasted from 1913 to 1946, when it ended in divorce. In a letter to Time on May 23, 1955, she corrected the story about Macfadden's "third wife" putting him in jail. She said, "I am his third wife, and although he has done me out of a fortune, I am not guilty of such a method to get what I helped to make—so please correct this mistake." In 1948, when he was approaching his eightieth birthday, Mac­ fadden married Jonnie Lee, a 42-year-old grandmother. After six years Jonnie Lee obtained a legal separation from Macfadden in late 1954 and demanded $1,500 monthly alimony. To avoid court proceedings, he fled first to Canada, and then to Jersey City, feel­ ing he would be safe there from court actions. He was not. Ar­ rested in a Jersey City hotel, he told reporters that "New York courts refuse to believe that back taxes and alimony to two wives have depleted my finances. I must raise $10,000 in ten days or go to jail." He was behind $3,315 in alimony to his third wife at this time.55 He requested Jack Dempsey, a long-time friend, to help him. He commented, "This is my worst Christmas in 86 years." Macfad­ den spent several days in the Hudson County jail before his Founda­ tion could provide the bail money.56 It was Macfadden's last Christmas. The following April he was again jailed through the efforts of Jonnie Lee to collect money from him. Early in October he became ill with jaundice and his life-long practice of fasting failed to restore his health. He died in

55 ££. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 29, 1954. His only income was $2,000 monthly from an annuity. Macfadden said he had only $100 left after paying judgments and back taxes each month. 56 New York Times, December 25, 1954. Rernarr Macfadden 89 the Jersey City Medical Center on October 12, 1955. In his will, dated March 13, 1953, Macfadden made no provisions for Jonnie Lee, "for the reason that she has unjustifiably abandoned me and has left my home without my consent, and has failed and refused to return to me and my home." Even in death Macfadden was unusual. He was given the last rites of the Catholic Church in the hospital, although he was not a Catholic. A Presbyterian minister and a Jewish rabbi conducted the funeral, with members of Macfadden's Masonic order attending. The rabbi recalled Macfadden's life history, noting "how he fought against prudery and tight corsets," which sounded "sort of odd in that setting" to some of his relatives.57 Both Mary and Jonnie Lee, together with their children, attended the services. Mill Spring residents were saddened to hear the news of his death. Most of them had never met the former resident who had left the Ozarks in poverty and had risen to millionaire status.58 Some of his admirers think he is still around. Even today mail arrives in New York from various parts of the world addressed to "Bernarr Macfadden, New York." It is delivered to his foundation which has perpetuated his name. Since 1941 his publishing firm has been known as the Macfadden-Bartell Company, although there are no Macfaddens among its officials. Physical Culture has long since disappeared; True Story continues to attract more than two million readers monthly.

57 Undated letter from Alma Talley, New York, to Mrs. Harry Donovan, Webster Groves, Mo., telling details of their uncle's funeral. 58 Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic, October 15, 1955.

He Was His Own Grandfather Cedar City Chronicle, January 4, 1900. A wedding occurred last week that has a history connected with it. Joseph T. Chambers and Amanda Wood were united in matrimony. Mr. Chamber's son married a widow with a lovable daughter whom his father married. Thus his father became his son-in-law and his step-daughter his mother, because she was his father's wife. Now, to make the story complete, the elder Mr. Chambers is the father of a boy born before this marriage ceremony took place. This boy was naturally a brother of Mr. Chambers, jr., and at the same time his grand­ child, for he was the son of Chambers' daughter. Chambers, jr.'s wife was his grandmother because she was his mother's mother and he was his wife's hus­ band and grandchild at the same time, and as the husband of a man's mother is his grandfather, Mr. Chambers became his own grandfather—Carthage Graphic. VIEWS FROM THE PAST MISSOURI MILES

Greer Mill, located on a spring 6 miles north of Alton, was built by Samuel W. Greer and G. W. Mainprize in 1899 at the site of an earlier mill. It is no longer in use.

Alley Spring Mill (1893), also known as Red Mill, is lo­ cated in a state park near Eminence and is still in opera­ tion.

Walker, Mo. Res. Comi Massie, Mo. Res. Comm.

Still in operation northeast of Gainesville in the Sycamore com­ munity, Aid-Hodgson Mill was erected by William Holeman in 1869, rebuilt by Alva Hodgson in 1884 and later acquired by Charles T. Aid. Constructed southwest of Ava in the 1840s by Joseph Lyon, Jackson Mill burned in the 1900s but was rebuilt. This rare overshot wheel added interest to the structure which no longer stands.

The stone portion of Burford- ville Mill, still standing near Jack­ son, was constructed shortly after 1800 by George Frederick Bol­ linger.

Perennial streams of Missouri provided a source of power for water mills where early settlers could grind corn into meal and make flour from wheat. Farmers could wait for their produce to be prepared, exchange it for meal or flour already ground, or leave a wagon load of grain and pick up the prepared products in a few days. Mills were familiar places where neighborhood men exchanged views on domestic, religious and political subjects.

Schlicht Mill, buill by Jefferson Strain in 1840 near Crocker, was purchased by John Schlicht in 1876. The mill closed in the 1930s but the building still stands.

- - rtw HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

Three Hannibal Couples Restore John J. Cruikshank Mansion

Mrs. Warren E. Hearnes, Missouri's mansion stands on three acres of first lady, delivered the main address ground above Bird Street. From the at the opening of restored Rockcliffe death of Mr. Cruikshank in 1925 until Mansion in Hannibal, June 14. Mrs. last October, the house was unoccu­ Hearnes, and Hannibal's "Tom and pied. Curiosity-seeking vandals had Becky," John Webdell and Mary Beth damaged the home. More than 85 of Orscheln, then cut the ribbon official­ the 125 Palladian-style windows were ly opening the house. Jack Martin, replaced during the restoration. The president of the Hannibal Chamber of three Hannibal couples spent several Commerce, commended the owners for months repairing the mansion. Orig­ their restoration work. They include inal floors, furniture, wallpaper, win­ Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Hartley, Mr. and dow fabrics, light fixtures and Mrs. Joseph Raible and Dr. and Mrs. imported marble fireplace facings en­ Merrill Roller. Built in 1898-1899 by hance the authenticity of the restora­ John J. Cruikshank, who made his tion. Built in a turn-of-the-century fortune in the lumber business, the classic-revival style, architects for the mansion were the St. Louis firm of Barnett, Haynes and Barnett, composed of George D. and Thomas P. Barnett. sons of George Ingham Barnett, and John Haynes. In 1911 George H. Barnett, son of George D. Barnett, re­ placed Thomas P. Barnett in the firm. The firm built the Visitation Convent in St. Louis, 1893, St. Louis Roman Catholic Cathedral, 1914, and the 1917 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Building.

92 Historical Notes and Comments 93

NEWS IN BRIEF

The St. Louis Gateway Arch was of­ entitled "Kansas City—Transportation ficially dedicated, May 25, in ceremo­ and Communication Yesterday, Today nies at Jefferson National Expansion and Tomorrow," dramatized more Memorial on the riverfront. Rain than a century of changes from the forced the removal of the event to the Pony Express and covered wagons to Visitor Center beneath the arch, where satellites and jet airliners. The Associ­ several hundred persons heard Vice ation hoped the exhibit would arouse President Hubert H. Humphrey deliv­ public support for the preservation of er the dedicatory address. St. Louis the Majors house and several acres Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes paid trib­ surrounding it. An article in the Kan­ ute to the St. Louisans whose de­ sas City Star, June 19, told some of the termination carried the arch memorial history connected with the house. to fruition. The memorial, commemo­ rating the city's role in the nation's The Cass County city of Peculiar course westward, is 630 feet high, the celebrated its 100th anniversary, July tallest of the nation's man-made mon­ 5-13. Highlights of the festivities in­ uments. Secretary of the Interior Stew­ cluded a parade, carnival, rodeo, band art L. Udall acted as master of cere­ concerts and street dancing. The Cass monies and introduced dignitaries. County Historical Society sponsored an After the ceremony, the Vice Presi­ antique show Friday through Sunday dent and others of the official party at the grade school gymnasium. The attended a luncheon at Bel Air East Society also erected a marker on June Motel honoring Morton D. May, chair­ 29 at the site of the first Peculiar post man of the Jefferson National Memo­ office. This marker was the first of a rial Association and of the Gateway series to designate historical sites in Arch Dedication Committee. the area. There are several stories about how Some 125 "soldiers" from a revived Peculiar received its name. One is that group of Civil War fighting units when the post office was established re-enacted the Civil War Battle of Bel­ in 1868, officials wrote to the federal mont, June 1 & 2. Locally the partici­ post office department and requested pants included Company K of the Mis­ the name "Excelsior." A reply stated souri Regiment Infantry and the 5th that the name had already been as­ Missouri Cavalry. A premium was signed. The city submitted three more placed on authenticity of dress, weap­ suggestions and instructed: "If these ons, battle re-enactment and conduct names have already been assigned, pick of the soldiers. The event was spon­ out a peculiar name." sored by Explorer Post 779 of Creve Coeur. The historic Civil War Battle of Westport was retraced, June 30, by ap­ The Russell-Majors-Waddell Nation­ proximately 200 persons under the al Historic Association, chartered earlier leadership of Dr. Howard N. Monnett. this year to preserve the antebel­ The assemblage started from the Kan­ lum Alexander Majors House in Kan­ sas City Museum and ended some sev­ sas City, sponsored a two-week exhibit en hours later at 120th Street and at Ward Parkway Shopping Center. State Line. Dr. Monnett, acting presi­ Beginning in mid-June, the exhibit, dent of Metropolitan Junior College, 94 Missouri Historical Review

Kansas City, is an authority on the and bugle corps, the U. S. Coast Guard Civil War and author of the book, color guard, the Fort Leonard Wood Action Before Westport. He pointed band, the Union Junior High School out numerous landmarks connected band and antique automobiles were with the famous battle. included in the two-mile-long parade. Lieutenant Governor Thomas Eagleton addressed the crowd after the parade. Turney, in east Clinton County, cel­ An ice cream social and old-fashioned ebrated its 100th anniversary, July 12- games were features of Sunday's pro­ 14. The town was laid out by James gram. S. Harris, a land commissioner for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, in January, 1868. Special events commem­ Paul Harvey, nationally known news orating the centennial included dis­ commentator, was the principal speak­ plays, contests, a horse show, musical er, August 2, at the opening event in entertainment, church services and a the three-day celebration of the Ver­ school reunion. A booklet, Turney, ona centennial. Also present were May­ Missouri, 1868-1968, was published for or Luigi Bretegani of Verona, Italy, the occasion. and Mayor James Robbins of Verona, Mississippi. A parade; "Oldtimers Din­ ner"; a talk by Harold Ensley, TV A three-day celebration at Union on sportscaster; music by the Forrest Wes­ July 26, 27 and 28, commemorated the son Band and the LeFevres Quartet, sesquicentennial of Franklin County, Atlanta, Georgia; and a square dance organized December 11, 1818. Festiv­ were other highlights of the celebra­ ities began with the crowning of a tion. Souvenir plates, mugs, cookbook centennial queen by Congressman Wil­ and a historic booklet were on sale. liam Hungate and entertainment by The plates and mugs picture the Red the Gaslight Square Review from St. Mill, built about 1837 or the log build­ Louis. A beard contest, an art show, a ing which served as the first Sunday fiddling contest, a parade and a street school in Southwest Missouri. Verona dance were Saturday events. More than was incorporated in 1868, although its 35 floats, the Spirit of St. Louis drum history dates from 1831.

Mistaken Identity Koshkonong Oregon County Times-Leader, January 18, 1939. In the recent high winds, says the Chicago Tribune, an elderly fat man whose toupee blew off, chased a Pekinese for two blocks before discovering his mistake.

The Thrilling Whistle of the Locomotive Ste. Genevieve Representative, March 21, 1867. Money expended in building a railroad is a profitable and enduring in­ vestment. The road once completed, it is there for all time, and is not liable to be abandoned after the manner of turnpikes and plank roads. The thrilling whistle of the locomotive—the jolly rattle of the cars upon their iron road-way—infuse spirit and enterprise among a people, give them to understand that they are somebody, that they live someplace, and that they can go somewhere—anywhere, if there are enough railroads. Historical Notes and Comments 95

LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

Organizing a Public Relations Program

A local historical society must have perhaps the most common and most good public relations. Whatever the convenient to use. The society will people of the area say about the group, want to contact all newspapers serving whether good or bad, establishes its the region from which its members reputation. The historical society are drawn. An officer and the public­ should be of major interest to the lo­ ity chairman should make an appoint­ cal community, but the public cannot ment to call on the editor of each support something it knows nothing paper personally. In the interview the about. In order for the society actively society representatives may discuss how to fulfill its goals as a historical insti­ news is to be reported, the deadline tution, an organized plan of public re­ date for the newspaper copy and pos­ lations is vital. sibilities for photograph use. To in­ It is the role of a well-organized sure the publication of the society's publicity committee to keep the society news releases, they must be at the before the public through the orderly newspaper office in advance of the release of news items to newspapers, deadline. If it is an important event radio, television and, if possible, the and a large write-up is expected, it is publication of a society bulletin. well to notify the editor in advance. News releases should include the Notices published before an event an­ name of the group, when the event oc­ nouncing important details are vital curred (Monday, October 16) , where to the success of the event. A complete (at the public high school in Spring- report of the proceedings after the oc­ dale) and what happened. The full currence is also important and should name of the speaker is important, be handed in for publication in the along with his title, if any, and his issue following the event. city and state address, if he is an out- Radio program managers allot to of-town guest. Also of interest is the their schedules a certain percentage of title or subject of the talk. Other public service time and they usually events may be listed in the order of welcome material from local groups their importance. when it is in the public interest. An­ These reports should be concise, nouncements of meetings or special scholarly, factual and correct. All im­ events may be broadcast before regu­ portant facts—names, initials, addresses lar programs; broadcasts may also be and dates—must be verified. The re­ in the form of a regular 5- or 15-min- port should be carefully typed or ute program once a week to discuss plainly handwritten in ink, double the society's news and plans or a dram­ spaced, and on one side of the paper atization of an event in local history only. Pictures add interest when it is to call attention to a special anniver­ possible to use them. It is helpful for sary or major project. A visit with the the reporter to include his name, ad­ broadcasting executive should enable dress, telephone number and the re­ the publicity chairman to know what lease date for the story. can be used and how it should be pre­ Every local historical society has pared. some source of news media in its com­ Television, like radio, will often be munity, but the local newspaper is able to make spot announcements, 96 Missouri Historical Review broadcast major news stories or pre­ Many of the promotional ideas al­ sent special live interviews in the pro­ ready mentioned can be applied to his­ motion of an outstanding coming toric sites, museums and other attrac­ event. A call on the station's news di­ tions sponsored by historical societies. rector will help the publicity chairman Such publicity may announce spring to learn the most suitable form of re­ openings and new hours of the mu­ porting for TV, and what pictures can seum. Other forms of advertisement be used. however, should be used to reach the traveling public who drive through Local societies should keep the state the area from other regions or states. and regional historical organizations informed of their activities by sending Road signs, designed in good taste to them reports or clippings of local and moderate in size, may be placed publicity. If a newspaper clipping is on all main highways leading to the mailed it should include the date site. Directional signs are invaluable at of issue and the name of the every confusing turn. newspaper. Reports sent to the State Small brochures may be printed for Historical Society of Missouri are mailing by the chamber of commerce edited and published in the "Local and for display in restaurants, motels, Historical Societies" section of the RE­ hotels, filling stations, gift shops and VIEW. This, of course, is no substitute other well-known tourist stops. Bro­ for local publicity. REVIEW notices give chures may also be given to tourists readers the opportunity to see what who visit the site. When taken home area historical groups are doing, and to show friends, they help promote the they offer exchange of ideas for other attraction. local societies. Because the REVIEW is a With a well-organized publicity pro­ quarterly publication its notices are gram to supplement interesting meet­ limited almost entirely to past events. ings, worthwhile projects and valuable Postal cards announcing a coming historic sites, the society should be event may be mailed to members and well on its way to greater public in­ other interested persons. Poster or es­ terest and support and a prominent say contests held in cooperation with place in community life. This, no the local school may create a large doubt, is a goal of each local historical amount of publicity. Posters, after society. they are judged, may be exhibited in Atchison County Historical Society local store windows, and winning es­ Some 50 persons attended the June says may be published in the newspa­ 16 meeting and summer picnic at Lin­ per. A coming event may be promoted den Church. Several descendants of by publishing a "test yourself" quiz early settlers were present at the meet­ or crossword puzzle in the local news­ ing and related history of the area. paper. Restoration work on the Rankin The historical society should always "Mule Barn," at Tarkio College Cam­ be willing to cooperate with other or­ pus has progressed rapidly. A new ganizations and businesses in the cele­ roof, new windows, rebuilt doors, three bration of a historic event or anniver­ stairways, water systems, air-condition­ sary. Societies often present historical ing and heating facilities have been in­ displays at county fairs and old set­ stalled. The top floor has been rebuilt tlers reunions. These call attention to and a series of drama and theatre pro­ the historical society and emphasize ductions have been presented there the that it is active and cooperative. past summer. Historical Notes and Comments 97

Athens Park Development rensburg, spoke on tracing family Association trees. A two-day event-filled celebration, The Society held a joint meeting, July 27-28, commemorated the historic June 9, at Linn Creek Schoolhouse, Civil War Battle of Athens, at the with its parent organization, the Linn park site, 15 miles north of Kahoka. Creek Alumni. James Evans, postmast­ Special events included a home talent er of Stoutland, addressed the group show, church services, beef barbecue on "The First Hundred Years of Stout- and a variety of musical entertainment. land." Mrs. Ida Simmons, Richland, The Reverend James Salvador, Bata- graduate of the earliest high school via, Iowa, spoke Sunday afternoon. The class, was present at the meeting, along Association this year burned the mort­ with Winston Esther, Decaturville, gage on the 230-acre tract of land. graduate of the last class. A temporary museum has been set Barry County Historical Society up in the Odd Fellows Hall in Linn Members and guests, at the July 11 Creek. Mrs. Nelle Moulder is the di­ meeting in the Monett City Park, rector, assisted by H. Dwight Weaver. viewed old photographs of historic Copies of the Scenic Guide Book, places in Barry County. It was an­ published by the Society, were avail­ nounced that two new showcases had able to the public early this spring at been purchased for the museum, lo­ 50 cents each. cated on the second floor of the county courthouse, Cassville. A picnic supper preceded the business meeting and program.

Boone County Historical Society The Society held its July 18 meet­ ing at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Turner in Columbia. Had- ley K. Irwin, administrative assistant of the Missouri State Park Board, Jef­ ferson City, discussed his experiences in an effort to locate and mark the graves of all deceased Missouri gov­ ernors. Refreshments were served on the patio of the Turner home.

Camden County Historical Society Mrs. Cattie Parrack and Mrs. Inez Elliott, both of Macks Creek, present­ Cape Girardeau County ed histories of three Baptist churches Historical Society in the county, at the April 11 meeting The Society has extended an invita­ in St. George Episcopal Church, Cam­ tion to tourists to visit their museum denton. Those churches featured were located in the Common Pleas Court­ Parrack Grove, Macks Creek and Prai­ house, Cape Girardeau, with entrance rie Hollow. to the rear on Lorimier Street. Visit­ At the May 9 meeting, Mrs. Robert ing hours are from 1:00-5:00 p.m. Sat­ Williams, a genealogist from the John­ urdays and Sundays. Hostesses are Mrs. son County Historical Society, War­ Naomi Lusher and Helen Mueller, re- 98 Missouri Historical Review

spectively. The museum has been vis­ Edward W. Smith, Emporia, Kansas, ited by tourists from every state of the member of the Civil War Round Ta­ Union and several foreign countries. ble of Kansas City, spoke on "Abe Lin­ Recent gifts have included an 80-year- coln of Illinois," at the June 12 din­ old fireman's hat, medals for bravery ner meeting. Mr. Smith is an authority during fires and a fluting iron, given on the private and public life of Lin­ by a member of the fire department coln. and his daughter. Clay County Museum Association The Society's annual bus tour was Carondelet Historical Society held May 25. Beginning at the Liberty Officers elected for the coming year Landing Shopping Center, Liberty, the were Helen Rieckus, president; Rich­ tour included a visit to the Agricul­ ard L. Federer, vice president; Louis tural Hall of Fame, Bonner Springs, Nicolay, secretary; Paul Rathgeber, as­ the Wyandotte County Historical Mu­ sistant secretary; and Virginia Rehme, seum, the Grinter House and Johnson treasurer. County Museum, all in Kansas. Members were invited, June 23, to a garden party and tour of the histor­ A program on "William Laidlaw: ic buildings and grounds at St. Jo­ Pioneer Furtrader and Clay County seph's Convent, 6400 Minnesota Ave­ Settler," was given by Commander and nue, St. Louis. Mrs. George William Laidlaw, of St. Louis, at the annual basket dinner, June 27, at Mt. Gilead Church, north Civil War Round Table of of Liberty. Kansas City At the May 28 meeting in Hotel A program on "Old Bottles and De­ Bellerive, Kansas City, Dr. Rodney C. canters" was given by Sanford Bray at Loehr, professor of History at the Uni­ the July 25 meeting at the Clay Coun­ versity of Minnesota, spoke on "Civil ty Museum, Liberty. The Carroll L. War Blitzkrieg: The Cavalry Opera­ Barrett Memorial Display Unit, pur­ tions of Wilson's Raid." This much chased with funds given in memory of neglected incident has often been over­ a former vice president, was unveiled shadowed by events of Lee's surrender at the meeting. and Lincoln's assassination, Dr. Loehr Dade County Historical Society emphasized that the raid was an au­ The annual Heritage Days celebra­ gury of wars to come. tion was conducted by the Society, June 27-29, as a benefit for the new Civil War Round Table of county park. Hulston Mill Historical the Ozarks Park was selected as the title for the A paper on "Russo-American Rela­ new park. The name was submitted by tions During the Civil War," was pre­ Mrs. King Murphy of Greenfield. Hul­ sented at the May 8 meeting in Ra- ston Mill and a caretaker's residence mada Inn, Springfield, by Dr. H. Ren were recently moved to the 50-acre Kent, assistant professor of History at fenced plot. Four log cabins and a fire­ Southwest Missouri State College, place will be moved there and restored Springfield. Dr. Kent spoke briefly on in the near future. the diplomatic relations between Rus­ sia and the United States during and Dallas County Historical Society shortly after the American Civil War Anna Stearns reviewed the book, A and included a critique on the visit Passion for Politics, by the late Louis of the Russian fleet in 1863. Brownlow, a native of Buffalo, at the Historical Notes and Comments 99

May 17 meeting in the Dallas County Salem Post, June 20 & 27 and the Sal- Courthouse, Buffalo. em News, June 17 & 24. Some 21 members and guests at­ Florissant Valley Historical Society tended the June 21 meeting at the A buffet dinner preceded the regu­ county courthouse, Buffalo. Officers lar July 18 meeting at Taille de Noy- elected for the coming year were Law­ er, Florissant. All bills for remodeling rence Holt, president; Grace Southard, the Society's museum were paid in full vice president; Ida Garner, secretary; and members witnessed the "burning and Herbert H. Scott, treasurer. They of the bills" ceremony. were installed at the July 19 meeting. Work began in June to restore the The Society displayed historical library room at Taille de Noyer. items and articles of interest at the County Fair, July 25, 26 8c 27. Lee Foundation for Restoration of Wollard, chairman of the Museum Ste. Genevieve Committee, had charge of the plan­ The Foundation is to be commend­ ning. ed for publication of its first period­ ical, the Publicite, in July. It will be Daughters of Old Westport issued as often as necessary to keep Some 20 persons attended the May people up-to-date on the activities of 21 meeting in the Sky Top Room of Ste. Genevieve. the Winston Churchill Apartments, Announcement was made that Mrs. Kansas City. Hostesses, Mrs. Adrienne Mildred Rutledge Baum, owner of the Christopher and Mrs. Merle Wieden- Rutledge Drug Store, Ste. Genevieve, mann, surprised members with an old- had agreed to a Foundation request fashioned little girl's birthday party that her building be the first of those with gifts and favors for all. Mrs. facing the town square to be restored Christopher talked about Jim Bridger to the period of early Ste. Genevieve. and his life in Westport and Dallas, Restoration work was done this past Missouri. Mrs. Louise Lytle Davis of summer on both the historic Beauvais Riverside, the great-granddaughter of House and the Bolduc-LeMeilleur Bridger, was a special guest at the House also known as the Old Convent. meeting. Members voted to become a Officers elected for the coming year member of the auxiliary of the Gen­ are Dr. G. O. Lanning, president; Mrs. ial Hospital. Norbert Donze, 1st vice president; Glennon Sexauer, 2nd vice president; Dent County Historical Society Mrs. Jack Basler, secretary; and John Some 50 persons attended the June Koetting, treasurer. 9 tour of historic home sites in the Sa­ Tours of historic homes, a parade, lem area. At the beginning of the tour a French Market, the TV movie enti­ the group gathered on the lawn of the tled "Ste. Genevieve—A French Herit­ old courthouse and heard Ken Fibel- age," an art show, and a King's Ball man relate some of its history. Other and Prince's Cotillion were highlights stops included the Dr. J. N. McMurt- of the annual Jour de Fete, held Au­ rey, Alice Dent, J. S. Wingfield, Leigh gust 10-11. French, Spanish and Amer­ B. Woodside, Clyde Hedrick, Mary A. ican flags floated over the city. Judson, William Love, Mrs. Earl Seay, Frank H. Barnitz, and Dr. John Hyer Friends of Rocheport homes. Some 3,000 persons attended the sec­ Histories of these homes were related ond annual Friends of Rocheport Fest, in a series by Margaret Vickery in the June 22. Entertainment included a pa- 100 Missouri Historical Review

rade, street dancing, a turtle race and Hickory County Historical Society frog jumping, pony pulling and horse­ Members met June 11 at the farm shoe pitching contests. Afternoon walk­ home of Effie and Charles Almond, ing tours of Rocheport's historic land­ southeast of Wheatland. Pictures were marks were led by Mrs. George Russell, displayed and interesting stories of the Sally Russell, Mrs. Hugh Gardner old Baptist Church and Christian Col­ and Mrs. Dorothy Caldwell, associate lege at Weaubleau were given by So­ editor of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL RE­ ciety members. Eugene Harryman read VIEW. Catfish dinners were served late a poem he had written about Joe Car­ in the afternoon and evening. Copies penter's freighting service between of the 14-page illustrated booklet, Wheatland and Weaubleau. The group Rocheport, River Town of the Boons­ toured the Almond home and Mrs. lick Country, edited by Mrs. Dorothy Almond related some of its history. Caldwell and Mrs. George Russell, were sold for the occasion. Jackson County Historical Society Members and friends enjoyed an old- Gentry County Historical Society fashioned watermelon cut, July 28, on Some 60 persons attended the July the lawn of the Wornall House, Wor- 14 meeting at the Gentryville Com­ nall Road at 61st Street Terrace, Kan­ munity Center. Glenn Setzer, St. Jo­ sas City. seph, presented an illustrated lecture Some 45 persons participated in a on "Pioneer Lighting of Missouri." An­ bus trip to Arrow Rock, August 11. tique items were displayed. The group visited restored buildings in Arrow Rock, attended the Lyceum Theatre matinee and enjoyed a south­ Grand River Historical Society ern dinner at the Old Tavern. Fifteen members of the Society par­ ticipated in a guided tour of Watkins Joplin Historical Society Mill State Park, July 14. They were At the annual summer meeting, shown three floors of the restored June 12, at Connor Hotel, Joplin, woolen mill, built in 1861. James W. Goodrich, associate editor of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, Col­ Greene County Historical Society umbia, spoke on "Ewing Young, Fur Edgar Duane McKinney, a Master of Trader: Tennessee, Missouri, and Arts candidate at Southwest Missouri Points West." A special tribute to Jop- State College, Springfield, spoke on lin's fire department was made under "Slavery in Greene County, Missouri," the direction of Mrs. Lois Orr and Fire at the May 23 meeting in the Spring­ Chief Dan Abernathy. A history of the field Art Museum. department was related and relatives At the June 27 meeting in Ramada and descendants of local firemen were Inn, Springfield, Mario Gomez Hoover, recognized. Officers re-elected for 1968- a graduate student at Southwest Mis­ 1969 were Dr. A. Paul Thompson, souri State College, presented a paper president; Mrs. David Hoover, assist­ on "Assemblies of God Find a Home ant to the president; Stewart E. Tat- in Springfield." This was the third in um, vice president; Fern Gray, treas­ a series of research papers presented urer; and Mrs. Clyde Dixon, secretary. by students of SMS. A printer and The Society held its second annual translator at the Gospel Publishing historical homes tour, September 22. House, Mr. Hoover was born in Val­ paraiso, Chile, where he lived for Kansas City Westerners twenty-five years. At the May 14 meeting in Hotel Historical Notes and Comments 101

Bellerive, Dean Krakel, director of the Mr. and Mrs. Hal Richardson, Mount National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Ok­ Vernon. lahoma City, presented an illustrated Members of the Society visited Ver­ talk on his museum and other area ona's historic sites, which included attractions. Marbut Springs, site of the Red Mill, Dr. Donald J. Mclntyre showed Spring River Cemetery and the first movies he had taken of various South­ Sunday school marker at the July 21 western American Indian tribes at the meeting, which began at Verona Me­ June 11 meeting. Dr. Mclntyre, who morial Park. once lived with the Navajo, is an au­ thority on their philosophy and way Lewis County Historical Society of life. One of the highlights of his At the regular quarterly meeting, film was the Navajo sand painting July 17, in Williamstown School, Mrs. ceremony, an event rarely filmed by Faye Motter, Edina, gave a program on white men. Members were given a re­ old bottles. According to Mrs. Motter, print of a series of articles on the In­ the collection of old bottles is the dian in America, published by the third fastest growing hobby. She dis­ Kansas City Star. Membership roster played numerous items and answered booklets were also distributed at this questions concerning her collection. meeting. Reports were given by members work­ ing on old county cemetery projects. The 1867 court martial of George A. The Canton Chapter of the Society Custer was the subject of a talk given met August 6 at the Canton City Hall. at the July 9 meeting by Major Milton J. M. Gruber spoke on the "History of B. Halsey, Jr., of Fort Leavenworth, Lyon Grange," and W. A. Baxter told Kansas. Major Halsey, who had read of the importance of Granges in the first hand the court martial records, community. also gave background and aftermath information on the historic event. Marion County Historical Society A carry-in supper preceded the July Kirkwood Historical Society 10 meeting at the home of Mrs. Walt­ The Society held a box supper, June er Carroll on the New London Gravel 11, at the Kirkwood Park. Road. The group toured the 22-room Lafayette County Historical Society mansion which was built about 1865 A historical marker, with legend pre­ by John Garth, a Hannibal tobacco pared by the Society, was recently manufacturer and financer. erected at a site in Concordia where a McDonald County Historical Society Civil War massacre occurred in 1862. More than 100 persons from Jasper, The marker was sponsored by the Con­ Newton, Barry, and MacDonald coun­ cordia Community Betterment Associ­ ties and several out-of-state guests at­ ation and financed by the Corder tended the August 4 meeting of the Manufacturing Company of Concordia. Society at the McNatt Baptist Church Lawrence County Historical Society east of Goodman. Mrs. Pauline Wil­ Hollis Heagerty, Aurora, spoke on liams and Mrs. Leo Garber told of the fruit jar and bottle collecting at the medicinal properties of Indian Springs, April 21 meeting at Jones Memorial which became a popular health resort Chapel, Mount Vernon. Heagerty dis­ in the 1880s. Judge Paul E. Car­ played jars from his collection. Also ver read from a Newton County his­ exhibiting jars and bottles were Mr. tory about the 1837 riverboat journey and Mrs. Don Pruente, Verona, and of families down the Ohio and Missis- 102 Missouri Historical Review sippi livers to the mouth of the Ar­ displays in Jefferson Memorial from kansas and their overland travel to the 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. daily. site which later became the first coun­ The only-known portrait of the last ty seat of McDonald County, Rutledge. lieutenant governor of Upper Louisi­ A radio cabinet owned by Mr. and ana, Don Carlos deHault deLassus, Mrs. Victor Wasson, Stella, and con­ went on display in the St. Louis Room structed by the late Al Atkinson, at the Society, June 13. The Society which contains some 15,000 pieces of purchased the portrait through the wood, was on display, heritage fund with contributions made in memory of Marjory Douglas, curator Mercer County Historical Society of the Society from 1939 to 1959. The Forty members and guests attended work was painted in New Orleans by the June 30 meeting at Cain Church. W. Baclay in 1837. In a special cere­ Mrs. Stella Wickersham, Cainsville, mony it was presented by former Mis­ spoke on reminiscences of her 50-year souri Supreme Court Judge James M. career as a rural school teacher. She Douglas, brother of Miss Douglas, to presented to the Society an antique George R. Brooks, director of the So­ brass bell used by her father, who was ciety. a teacher in Harrison and Mercer counties more than a hundred years Missouri "Show Me" Club ago. A dramatic reading, "The Revo­ John Grisell, former president of the lutionary Rising," and recollections of Indiana State Society, presented color Decoration Day at Cain Cemetery were slides on Vietnam at the June 16 given by Mrs. Helen Stanley Bauer. meeting in the First Methodist Church, She also presented valuable papers and Los Angeles, California. deeds to the Society. At the July 21 meeting, Alan Mc- Elford Horn, chairman of the School Elwain, newspaper columnist for the Committee, reported on the histories Los Angeles Sunday Times, presented of Old Union and Cain Schools. a slide program on some of his inter­ esting trips. Missouri Historical Society Some 250 members attended the Moniteau County Historical Society 102nd annual meeting, May 12, at the Some 60 members attended the Jefferson Memorial Building, St. Louis. July 15 meeting at the California The dinner meeting was preceded by a Masonic Hall. Judge Hugh P. William­ tour of historic sites and buildings in son, Magistrate and Probate Judge of west St. Louis County. George R. Callaway County, Fulton, spoke on the Brooks, director, reported on the history of Missouri from 1492 to the growth of the Society. present. Judge Williamson is the au­ Officers elected at the meeting were thor of many articles on the history Carroll S. Mastin, president; Oscar W. of the Central Missouri area. Rexford, first vice president; Charles Geneaology sheets are being filled E. Claggett, second vice president; out and should be returned to the Charles P. Pettus, Jr., financial vice Society by the end of the year. They president; William H. Semsrott, treas­ will then be filed in a museum case urer; and Mrs. John E. Curby, secre­ in the courthouse. Thirty-four ceme­ tary. teries have been catalogued and filed The Society provides free museum for future reference. Historical Notes and Comments 103

Morgan County Historical Society members were auctioned as a fund raising project.

Pettis County Historical Society The Society has announced that a new roof was placed on its "Little Red Schoolhouse," East Highway 50, Se­ dalia, in June. Plans now are for land­ scaping the grounds, marking the building and adding a chain link fence.

The Society held a grand opening for Pike County Historical Society the Morgan County Historical Muse­ The Society held its third annual um, located in the old Martin Hotel, carry-in-dinner, July 23, at the 1853 Versailles, on June 1-2. Members, St. John's Church at Prairieville, near dressed in period costumes, conducted Eolia. Jackson Smith, Louisiana, spoke guided tours for some 500 persons. to the group and presented to the Society, a Louisiana sesquicentennial The museum building, constructed by book. Samuel and Elizabeth Martin in 1877, contains an old-fashioned parlor with antique furnishings, tool and imple­ Pony Express Historical Association ments room, Miss Lucy Martin room, The second annual Heritage of a child's room, a typical rural school America Art and Craft Show was held room, war relics room, a master bed­ at Patee House, St. Joseph, June 30- room and the maid's room. The en­ July 14. Each exhibitor received a mer­ trance room holds the original hotel it award for his best work. Special registration desk and many old hotel Pony Express awards were also given guest registers, bound volumes of Ver­ for the best work in different classi­ sailles newspapers, pamphlets, papers fications. The exhibit included both and other items are located in the pictorial art and hand crafts. Merit museum library. and special award work remained on display throughout the rest of the At the June 24 meeting in the Bank summer tourist season. Each day a of Versailles, Aubrey Sims and Mrs. tourist visiting Patee House selected Preston Hutchison spoke on the mule the piece of work to receive a gold business in the old days. Mrs. C. E. star. A feature of the art and craft Willson told about the pioneer busi­ show was a large western oil painting ness of tie hacking and sales in Ver­ by Fred Harman, former St. Joseph sailles. artist, loaned for the occasion by Rob­ A program on entertainment of by­ ert Schroeder of Kansas City. gone days was presented by Mrs. M. S. Other special events at Patee House Otten, Mrs. George Clodfelter and included an antique car display, July Johanna McDonald, at the July 22 7, and a country and western music meeting in the Morgan County Bank, show, starring the Ellis Brothers, Versailles. July 16. Old Trails Historical Society A special Patee House display was The Society held its first annual fam­ shown in the mall of Ward Parkway ily picnic meeting on July 17 at Vlasis Shopping Center, the latter part of Park, Manchester. Articles donated by June, in cooperation with the Kansas 104 Missouri Historical Review

City effort to preserve the old Alex­ Saline County Historical Society ander Majors home. The Society held its 30th annual A rare bas-relief wall sculpture of a meeting and picnic dinner, July 21, Civil War cavalry scene was presented at Seminole Court, Indian Foothills to Patee House, July 4, by Charles Park, Marshall. Speakers on the pro­ Vories, St. Joseph. The work was given gram included Dr. W. Hobart Hill, on behalf of the estate of H. M. Vories, a founder of the Humanics Program a former justice of the State Supreme at Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Court. who told about the program's growth and purposes; and Dr. Thomas B. Hall, St. Charles County Historical Society who gave a description and location Gerhardt Kramer, a prominent St. of historic Sibley's Fort at Arrow Rock. Louis architect who has worked in the Dr. Hall was assisted by Henry Ham­ restoration of numerous St. Louis area ilton, Marshall. historic sites, spoke at the July 22 din­ Officers elected for the coming year ner meeting in St. Peters Church, St. were William E. Elder, president; Wil­ Charles. liam Bellamy, Jr., vice president; Mrs. James Golden, recently elected pres­ William Elder, secretary; and Mrs. ident, presided at the July meeting. Guy McAmis, treasurer. A. H. Orr, Membership in the Society now totals the Society's president for the past sev­ 1,183, 180 of whom are life members. eral years, presented to Mr. Elder a gavel made of wood from the home St. Joseph Historical Society of General Thomas A. Smith. At the August 11 meeting in the Two resolutions were read and Crafts Room at the St. Joseph Muse­ adopted by the group. One outlined um, Fred A. Hyde narrated a program the long and outstanding service of of slides depicting the Lewis and Clark former secretary Clarah Brown. The Trail on land and water in North Cen­ tral Missouri. Mr. Hyde is a member other was a memorial commending of the Society and of the Buchanan John Hall for his outstanding services County Lewis and Clark Trail Com­ to the Society. mittee. Shannon County Historical Society The Society has announced that it is St. Louis Westerners sponsoring a monthly publication, The The Westerners recently approved Ozarker. This will continue the pre­ a new emblem for use as a letterhead viously published quarterly, Shannon on stationery and for other appro­ County Historical Review. The new priate occasions. The new symbol, periodical will emphasize the history drawn by A. B. Mifflin, of South­ and folklore of the Current River Val­ ern Illinois University, Carbondale, ley area. featured a keelboat in dark gray, of the type used by early explorers, Shelby County Historical Society superimposed upon a chart of the Members held their annual carry- Missouri and Mississippi rivers in in-picnic dinner, July 28, at the Black blue, as they appear along the state's Creek Rendezvous. Some 60 persons boundaries and running through the heard Clarence Bower, Bethel, relate state. It was felt that this emblem his experiences in the army during would be an appropriate design to World War I. Charles Timmons, Clar­ suggest St. Louis' geographical posi­ ence, spoke on the Bethel Colony and tion and role as the Gateway to the displayed several articles concerning West. the group. Historical Notes and Comments 105

Smithville Historical Society 17 dinner meeting at the Westport On June 8 the Society sponsored a Presbyterian Church and heard John strawberry festival featuring home- Edward Hicks, speak on "The Litera- grown strawberries, homemade ice ture of The Santa Fe Trail." An en- cream and cake. Participants wore graved certificate of appreciation was early American costumes. presented to Howard Monnett, dean of More than 50 persons toured Pater- the Kansa§ a Metropolitan Junior son Memorial Museum, Tune 16, with ^ „ , . . . J College, who was moving to Arizona. Mrs. America Lowmiller serving as . , ° He was recognized for r his services to hostess. to. rru c • * J 11 •„• tne Society as co-editor of the Westport The Society sponsored all activities ; r on August 9 at the two-day Fun Fest, Historical Quarterly. He also wrote the held annually at Smithville. book> Action Before Westport, which the Society published in 1964. Mrs. Westport Historical Society Adrienne V. Christopher was appoint- Over 100 persons attended the May ed editor of the Quarterly.

Johnny Cake and Biscuits Monroe City News, August 13, 1931. Our grandmother took out of the ashes from the fireplace that pa had built, the famous johnny cake and her granddaughter takes out of an electric oven made in New York, a fluff of a biscuit eaten at one mouthful; the johnny cake was made from the meal that pa had raised; the biscuit was made from flour grown in Kansas and milled in Kansas City; grandmother put the johnny cake on a coarse dish bought from a peddler and set it on a table made by the dextrous hands of her husband, on a cloth made by her own clever fingers. Granddaughter puts the biscuits on a silver platter from Tiffany's in New York, upon a table made in Grand Rapids, covered by an embroidered cloth from Syria.

Mini-Skirts of 1926 Green Castle Journal, February 11, 1926. Women may have more sense than men. We don't know. A man might go around with his knees showing if they were good looking knees.

She Caught the Wrong Man Greenville Wayne County Journal, February 6, 1903. A Jackson lady suspected that her husband was in the habit of kissing the hired girl and resolved to detect him in the act. Saturday night she saw him pass quietly into the kitchen. The hired girl was out and the kitchen was dark. The jealous wife took a few matches in her hand and hastily throwing a shawl over her head, as the hired girl often did, entered the back door and immediately she was seized and kissed and embraced in the most ardent man­ ner. With heart almost bursting the wife prepared to administer a terrible rebuke to the faithless sponse [sic], and tearing herself away from his fond em­ brace, struck a match and stood face to face with the hired man. 106 Missouri Historical Review

Honors and Tributes

George McCue Receives has been a professional writer of books Architectural Critics Award and historical articles for 40 years and From A. I. A. is best known for her books, The Man George McCue, St. Louis, a trustee Who Conquered Pain, a story of the of the State Historical Society, and art discovery of anesthesia, and The Chero- and urban design critic for the St. kees, a history of the Cherokee Indians Louis Post-Dispatch, was awarded the from 1520 to 1907. Her latest book, first Architectural Critics Citation by Pocahontas, will be published soon by the American Institute of Architects. the University of Oklahoma Press. The award was made at the national convention in Portland, Oregon, June Westminster College Cited 24. An honorary member of the Insti­ As National Historic Landmark tute, McCue was awarded the citation Westminster College President Rob­ for a series of articles written to in­ ert L. D. Davidson, Fulton, announced crease the public's visual perception May 23, that the college had been of the St. Louis environment. made eligible for a National Historic Landmark citation in connection with Nebraska Observes the "Iron Curtain" address delivered John G. Neihardt Day there in 1946 by Sir Winston Churchill. August 4 was proclaimed by Nebras­ The college was recommended for ka's Governor Norbert T. Tiemann to the citation by the Advisory Board on be John G. Neihardt Day. Neihardt, National Parks, Historic Sites, Build­ a Columbia resident and former teach­ ings and Monuments. It was approved er at the University of Missouri, lived by Stewart Udall, Secretary of the In­ for a while in Nebraska. He is that terior. state's poet laureate and is also known as the "Prairie Poet Laureate of Amer­ M. U. Honors ica." The governor described him as Women Graduates a "true poet of the early west," and a One hundred distinguished women man that all Nebraskans can be "just­ graduates and 100 outstanding women ly proud of." students of the University of Missouri, Columbia, were honored, May 7, at the Grace S. Woodward Elected Centennial Convocation in Jesse Au­ To Oklahoma Hall of Fame ditorium. The convocation was part of Missouri-born Grace Steele Wood­ a day-long Centennial Conference, the ward is one of eight prominent per­ final major event in the "Year of the sons elected recently to the Oklahoma Tigress," celebrating the 100th anni­ Hall of Fame by directors of the Okla­ versary of the admission of women to homa Memorial Association. She will the University. Selection of the dis­ be inducted at an annual Statehood tinguished graduates was made by in­ Dinner of the Association on Novem­ dividual colleges and divisions. Distin­ ber 16. Mrs. Steele was born in Joplin guished students were selected by a where she spent the early years of her committee of faculty and students on life. She attended college at the Uni­ the basis of academic excellence and versity of Missouri, the University of participation in campus activities. Oklahoma and Columbia University. Numerous scholarships were also In 1920 she married a Tulsa attorney awarded. Dr. Lois Knowles, professor Guy H. Woodward. Mrs. Woodward of Education and chairman of the Cen- Historical Notes and Comments 107 tennial Committee presided over the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. convocation. The Honorable Martha Genevieve, by Robert C. Glazier, ex­ Griffiths, U. S. Congresswoman from ecutive director of KETC-TV. Filming Michigan, spoke on "The Second One has started and should be completed Hundred Years Are The Hardest." by August. The script is being pre­ Other events during the day includ­ pared by Gregory Franzwa, a well- ed a symposium at Memorial Student known Ste. Genevieve historian. Union Auditorium on "Widening Women's Horizons"; a reception in the Review Editor Receives Memorial Union; and an evening ban­ MPW Award quet and speech by Dr. Blanche Dow, Mrs. Dorothy J. Caldwell, associate president emerita of Cottey College, editor of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL RE­ Nevada, Missouri, on "Emerging Is­ VIEW, was one of several winners re­ sues for Educated Women." Mrs. John ceiving awards in the annual Missouri W. Schwada, wife of the Chancellor, Press Women's writing contests. She re entertained the honored alumnae at ceived a first place award in Special a luncheon, a tour of the campus and Historical Articles and second place a tea in the historic chancellor's home awards in Magazine Page Makeup and on Francis Quadrangle. Magazine Page Edited by a Woman. Awards were presented at the Missouri Press Women's luncheon, May 3, at Money Award Given Breisch's Restaurant, Columbia. In For Ste. Genevieve Film keeping with the University of Mis­ KETC-TV Channel 9 Educational souri's centennial celebration, the TV Station in St. Louis, was awarded "Year of the Tigress," Mrs. Alma a $1,000 grant by Reader's Digest Vaughan, newspaper librarian at the Foundation for the program entitled State Historical Society of Missouri, "Ste. Genevieve—A French Legacy." presented a paper on the work and Six $1,000 awards to educational tele­ personalities of 19th-century Missouri vision stations were announced in women journalists and their pioneer­ April. The award money will be used ing achievements. She was assisted by to produce outstanding educational Margo Stanley, a student at the Uni­ television programs to be distributed versity of Missouri School of Journal­ nationally by the ETS Program Serv­ ism, who read selections from their ice. writings. Miss Stanley wore the cen­ On May 6 the award was presented tennial costume of the "Year of the to Dr. G. O. Lanning, president of the Tigress."

An Honest Man's Reward New London Ralls County Times, March 6, 1903. An Iowa farmer had a cow killed by the cars a short time ago and wrote to the railroad company asking slight remunerative damages, adding, "Thirty dollars will be considered satisfactory, as the animal killed was but a common cow and by no means the best of the herd." The claim agent of the road promptly answered the letter and enclosed a check for $100, saying: "It is the first instance since my connection with the claim department of the road that any other than a full blooded animal of great value has been killed by our line and I enclose $100 as damages and a reward for your honesty, and I would humbly ask your photo to be framed and placed in my office." 108 Missouri Historical Review

GIFTS

JOHN H. ARMBRUSTER, President, Community Federal Savings & Loan Association, St. Louis, donor: The First 25 Years of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, by donor. R*

JOHN BRADLEY ARTHAUD, Syracuse, New York, donor: "The Emile Arthaud Family," compiled by donor. R

MRS. GENE BARTRAM, President, Morgan County Historical Society, Versailles, donor: "Index Aids, Morgan County, Mo. & Vicinity as taken from newspapers." R "Aids to Morgan Co. Mo. Research," Volume II. R

OVID BELL, Fulton, donor: Ovid H. Bell Papers, 1808-1923. Included in this collection are papers per­ taining to the early history of Callaway County; notes and accounts of people who remembered the first settlers of Cote Sans Dessein; and history of the county after its formal establishment as related through reports and pro­ ceedings of the Commissioners of the Court House and Jail to the Circuit Court. M

ANNETTE BETZ, Kansas City, donor: Carl Betz (1854-1898)—Pioneer in Physical Education, prepared by Annette Betz, Alma Betz and Louise Betz Woods. R Betz-Wittig Genealogy, by donor. R

TRENTON BOYD, Columbia, donor: Photograph: 4th Annual Convention, Missouri Farmers Association, at Se­ dalia, August 24-26, 1920. E

E. BUCHANAN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, Publication Class, Gower, donor: East on Missouri, 1837-1968, and Gower Missouri, 1830-1968. R

MRS. OPAL STEWART BUTTS, Preston, donor: Typescript: "Bushwhacking Days in Hickory County," an account of the murder of the Reverend Thomas Glanville in 1863, by donor. M

DOROTHY J. CALDWELL, Columbia, donor: Some 235 color slides of historic sites in the following counties: Boone, Bu­ chanan, Cape Girardeau, Cole, Cooper, Gasconade, Greene, Howard, Iron, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Marion, Monroe, Newton, Perry, Phelps, Platte, Ray, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, Saline, Taney, Vernon, Warren and Washington. E Booklet: Rocheport—River Town of Boonslick County, edited by Mrs. George Russell and Dorothy J. Caldwell. R

*These letters indicate where the gift materials are filed at Society head­ quarters: R refers to Reference Library; E, Editorial Office; M, Manuscript Collection; N, Newspaper Library; A, Art Room; and B, Bay Room. Historical Notes and Comments 109

COLUMBIA BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S CLUB, donor, through MRS. ILENE FORD, Columbia: Columbia Business and Professional Women's Club minutes, memberships, committees, treasurer's reports, etc. 1941-1966. M

MRS. G. R. CURTIS, San Diego, California, donor, through MRS. HUDSON H. KIB- LER, Columbia: Orran Maybray, deed, 1819, a federal land grant for service in the War of 1812, being a half section of land in the Missouri territory. M

MRS. JAMES L. DEMARCE, Maryville, donor: "A Tentative Outline of U. S. Easley Lines, Primarily to the Year 1800," by donor. R

LESTER N. DICKSON, Hannibal, donor: Misc. papers concerning the Hannibal gas, coke and light companies. R MRS. LLOYD J. FAETH, Kansas City, donor: "Genealogy of the William J. Smith Family," by donor. R

MR. & MRS. ARLOW V. FERRY, Kansas City, donor: "Fair Oak Church and Cemetery (Johnson County, Missouri)," by Mrs. Agnes Taggart Ferry. R

R. W. FREEMAN, Carrollton, donor: Five issues of newspapers, including Daily Laclede Republican, August 30, and September 7, 1872, and Laclede Blade, May 23, 1891. N

MARJORIE GARANSSON, Sedalia, donor, through MARIE WOODS, Columbia: History of the Missouri Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., 1921-1968, edited by Mrs. Reitha McCracken. R

TODD MENZIES GEORGE, Lee's Summit, donor: Todd Menzies George Papers: personal and business correspondence, 1957- 1968; typescript stories of Civil War, Lee's Summit and Jackson County; newspaper clippings of Civil War, Jackson County and local history; and Sons of Confederate Veterans correspondence. M MRS. ROY GODSEY, Trenton, donor: Papers of Roy Godsey, journalist and early air-travel promoter; correspond­ ence, newspaper articles, misc. papers and manuscript of Aunt Betty. M MRS. R. R. GRAHAM, Chilhowee, donor: Abstract of title and land deeds registered in 1840s and 1850s at Clinton and Lexington Land Offices. M

MARIE A. GUENGERICH, Joplin, donor: Newsletters, official reports, programs and misc. items of the Missouri Mu­ sic Teachers' Association. R C. G. GUERRY, Columbus, Georgia, donor, through JOSEPH B. MAHAN, JR., Col­ umbus, Georgia: Letters and documents concerning the military service of Lt. Jacob T. Newbrandt, 1863-1891. Newbrandt's early service was with the 4th Regi­ ment, Missouri Cavalry. M 110 Missouri Historical Review

JACK HACKETHORN, Columbia, donor: Some 16 photographs of Rocheport scenes. E

R. J. HALSEY, Springfield, donor: "One Branch of the Halsey Family," compiled by Richard Jay Halsey. R

ROBERT L. HAWKINS, JR., Jefferson City, donor: Brochure: "Rotary Club of Jefferson City, Missouri, Fiftieth Anniversary, 1918-1968." R

MRS. ANNA HESSE, Hermann, donor: Items loaned for copying: By-laws of German Settlement, Hermann, 1837- 1877; records of the German Settlement Society of Hermann, concerning people who bought certificates in the Society, leases on wine lots (1845- 1855), island accounts of collectors and treasurers (1865-1872) and legal document for incorporation; legal papers concerning the land of Polly Phillips and George Bayer; maps, one drawn by Pierre Chouteau in 1799; and plans for the first Hermann school. N

H. I. HESTER, Liberty, donor: History of the Second Baptist Church, Liberty, Missouri, by R. P. Rider, A. M. Tutt and H. I. Hester. R JOSEPH C. HINSHAW, Wichita, Kansas, donor: "History and Genealogy of the Hinshaw Family," by donor. R

EDNA MONTGOMERY HULL, donor, through MRS. ALICE LA FORCE, Columbia: Montgomery, Hull and Related Families, by Edna Montgomery Hull. R

NANNIE JINKENS, Wheatland donor: Cemetery records of the Bishop-Cobb Cemetery, seven miles north of Quincy, compiled by Claudene Bartshe, Nannie Jinkens and Lucy Breshears. R MRS. G. DAVID KOCH, West Terre Haute, Indiana, donor: "Our Russell Lineage," by donor. R

MRS. HELEN COULSON LAND, Leasburg, donor: Booklet: 10th Annual Leasburg Homecoming, July 11-12-13, 1968. R

REVEREND RALPH LOOMIS, Columbia, donor: Copy: grade book of Minnie B. Hardy, teacher in Linn County rural schools, 1866-1869. Indexed by Mrs. Oliver Howard. R D. J. MCDANIEL, San Francisco, California, donor: Photograph: Dan Tucker, a Fulton businessman, taken about 1887. E

MISSOURI STATE LIBRARY, Jefferson City, donor: William Dyer, Memories of the Past With Thoughts of the Present and Future and other Matters (1919) . R

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, Washington, D. C, donor: "Historic Structures Report Part II, Architectural Data Section on Ray House—Wilson's Creek Military National Park," prepared by Charles S. Pope, and The Ray House, Wilson's Creek Battlefield National Park, by Edwin C. Bearss. R Historical Notes and Comments 111

GERALD PETTY, Columbus, Ohio, donor: Handwritten Boone County census for 1860 and 1870. N Index to the History of Randolph County, Missouri, by donor. M

REVEREND PETER J. RAHILL, St. Louis, donor: The Necrology of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, 1705-1967, by donor. R GEORGE POEHLMAN, Bevier, donor: Books, including the following about Missouri: Ripley Hitchcock, The Lou­ isiana Purchase and the Exploration Early History and Building of the West (1903), and Proceedings in Congress upon the Acceptance of the Statues of Thomas H. Benton and Francis P. Blair, (Jan. 18, 1899-Feb. 4, 1899). R MRS. E. O. PRICE, Knob Noster, donor: "Ancestors, Contemporary Relatives, Descendants, Allied Families of Marie Sophie Jeannin Gaume," by donor. R

MICHAEL REID, Columbia, donor: "Sterling Price Missourian," by donor. R

BERTHA M. RIGHTMIRE, St. Joseph, donor: In Search of Learning—A Brief Journey Into the First 50 Years (1860-1907) of the Public School System of St. Joseph, Mo., compiled by donor. R MRS. GEORGE ROZIER, Jefferson City, donor: Xeroxed copies of indictment and legal documents pertaining to the B. Gratz Brown duel of 1855. M Material relating to Mrs. Calvin Gunn, mother of Mrs. B. Gratz Brown. M

WILLIAM B. SCHWORM, St. Louis, donor: Manuscript: "History of Water Supply in the St. Louis Area," which in­ cludes, "St. Louis Water Works," by William B. Schworm, and "St. Louis County Water Company," by Don Marshall. R P. O. SELBY, Kirksville, donor: "Missouri's Treasurers and Auditors," and "Missouri's Secretaries of State and Attorney Generals," compiled by donor. R MRS. E. H. SHEFFIELD, Bay town, Texas, donor: Tree of Time, a genealogy of following Missouri families: McCoy, Hay, Campbell, Kirkpatrick, Gay, Alley, Lewis, Berthe, Brister, Nolen, Gillham, Willbanks, Waldrep, Matthews, Bush and Burkhalter, by donor. R

ESSIE STUCKER, Kansas City, donor: Material dealing with the James M. Elliott family of Savannah. R

MRS. LAWRENCE WAGANER, La Grange, donor: Civil War diary of Stephan Werly, 21st Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, Company K. M

LUCIAN L. WALKUP, Wheeling, donor: Photograph: Baptism at Medicine Creek, Livingston County, March, 1897. E

MRS. RUTH ROLLINS WESTFALL, Columbia, donor: "The Felicities of Old Age," Scraps of Paper and Obiter Scripta, an essay and two books of poems, by I. H. Lionberger. M 112 Missouri Historical Review

CLARENCE I. WHEATON, Independence, donor: Historical Facts Concerning the Temple Lot—'That Interesting Spot of Land West of the Court House". At Independence, Mo., by donor. R MRS. OLA B. WILSON, Shelbyville, donor: "1967 Supplement to Shelby County, Missouri Cemeteries." R

MRS. ILENE SIMS YARNELL, Versailles, donor: Typescripts: "Morgan County, Mo. Register of Attorneys," "Morgan Coun­ ty, Mo. Nurses and Practical Nurses as Recorded in the Courthouse, Ver­ sailles, Mo.," "Bible Record," from the Bible of Ernest Shepp, "Liv­ ingston's Company, Mo. Home Guards Enlisted in Versailles, Mo.. 1861," and "History and Decline Of Missouri Mule Business in Morgan County," by Aubrey Sims. R Picture postcard: P. F. Ross Photographer's Studio, Tipton, about 1910. E

A Translation Needed Columbia Missouri Statesman, July 27, 1886. One of the high flying young swells of this place recently asked a young lady to take his arm as follows: My dear miss, would you sacrifice your own convenience to my pleasure, and present the five digits and part of the extrem­ ity of your contiguous arm through the aperture formed by the crooking of my elbow against the perpendicular part of my mortal corporosity?

Suspended in Mid-Air Caldwell County Sentinel, Kingston, November 12, 1886. An exchange says: He was a Knight of Labor. He had lifted his hammer to strike a nail. Did he strike? Not much! The 12 o'clock whistle had blown. He was working by the day.

St. Louis Balloon Race Hartsburg Truth, March 27, 1914. The contest committee of the Aero Club of America decided that St. Louis, having complied with the requirements of international rules, would be the starting point of the national balloon race July 4.

A More Modern Method King City Tri-County News, February 15, 1924. Love used to sit in bay windows and write twenty-page letters. Now it uses the telephone. Historical Notes and Comments 113 MISSOURI HISTORY IN NEWSPAPERS

Buffalo Reflex May 2, 1968—Numerous old photographs of area residents.

Columbia Missourian May 15, 1968—"Do You Remember?" Miller's Shoe Store in 1890. June 2—"Do You Remember?" Buchroeder's Jewelry Store. June 5—"Visitors Welcome at Russell Green Home," by Diana Blackwell, a report on a restored Rocheport house.

Flat River Lead Belt News June 12, 1968—"The Battle of Pilot Knob."

Florissant Florissant Valley Reporter July 4-25, 1968—The weekly, illustrated column, "Calico Jam," by Lee Mercer, featured historic sites and area medical history.

Jackson Journal May 1, 8, 15, 22, June 5, 12,19, 26, July 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, 1968-A series of old photographs of the Jackson area. May 1—"Fort *D' A Tourist Attraction in The All-American City, Cape Gir­ ardeau." This and all articles below, written by K. J. H. Cochran. May 8—"Schumar Springs, Once a Popular Spa in Cape Girardeau County." May 15—"They Named Him John Brown." May 22—"Let's Go to Burfordville, The Biography of a Water Mill." May 22—"History of the Oak Grove Homemakers Club 1947-68," by Mrs. Alvin Phillips. May 29, June 5, 12, 19, 26 & July 3—A series on Colonel George C. Thil- enius and the Cape Girardeau State Line Railroad, written and illustrated by K. J. H. Cochran. July 10—"History of Old Salem Methodist Church," by Opal Welker. July 10—"History of Thebes Bridge." This and the articles below, written and illustrated by K. J. H. Cochran. July 17, 24, 31—A series on the Cape Girardeau Bridge.

Jefferson City Daily Capital News June 5, 1968—"Jefferson City's Program of Education.. .Planned & Devel­ oped Through 130 Years," a picture story.

Kansas City Star May 2, 1968—"To War in France 50 Years Ago, Area Men Proved Them­ selves in Fierce Battles," by Gilbert Cuthbertson. May 4, 11, June 1, 29, July 6 & 13—A series of old postcards depicting scenes in Kansas City, from the collection of Mrs. Sam Ray. May 18, 25, June 15, 22, July 6, 20 & 27—A series by Lew Larkin, "Missouri Heritage," featured respectively: Negroes in Missouri, War of 1812, Missouri River steamboats, Ste. Genevieve, labor organizations, river ferryboats and Old Bill Williams. May 26—A history, "Main Street Now Is on the Rise Again," by Joe Rob­ erts. May 28—"Kit Carson Remembered as a Daring Patriot," by Jules Loh. 114 Missouri Historical Review

May 30—"Historic Blue Springs Cemetery Restored," a history by Donald R. Hale. July 21— "Remembering [Ernest] Hemingway's Kansas City Days," by Mel Foor. July 21—"Pineville, Mo., Recalls Heady Era When Hollywood Invaded Town," by James A. Southern.

Kansas City Times May 3, 1968—"Tragedy of Modocs Ended in Missouri," by Patricia James Easterla. May 4—"Lesson of Life in Callaway County Fox Hunt," by Hugh P. Wil­ liamson. May 4, 11, June 1, 8, 29 & July 13—A series by Lew Larkin, "Missouri Her itage," featured respectively: women's suffrage, Camp Jackson, Edward Hemp­ stead, Louisiana, Missouri, John Cummins Edwards, and Benjamin Holladay. May 9—"[Rocheport] River Town Going 'Upstream'," by Margaret Olwine. May 17—A brief history of Kansas City airmail service was illustrated with a picture of Richards Field. May 18, 25, June 15, 22, July 20 & 27—A series of old postcards depicting scenes in Kansas City from the collection of Mrs. Sam Ray. May 29-' [David C. McCanles] Family's Honor vs. Wild Bill's [Hickok] Story," by Janice McCanles O'Brien. May 31—"Brave Firemen Were City's Heroes," by Calvin Manon. June 1— "A Missouri Town [Versailles] Preserves Past," by Albert H. Hind- man. June 4—"M.fissouri] U.[niversity] Alumni Recall WWI Years," by Charles Hucker. June 5—Information for the article, "E C. White School Began on Edge of City," was assembled by Helen Wagner Slusher. June 25—"[Kansas City Area] Marines Paid Price of Glory in 1918," by Rob Robinson. July 4—A history of Hannibal Bridge, the first bridge across the Missouri River at Kansas City, was related by Thomas J. Bogdon. July 4—"Fourth of 1868 Was One to Remember," by Calvin Manon. July 9—"[Saline] County History a Community Project," by Roderick Turn- bull. July 11—An article by Hugh P. Williamson, "Hour of Glory in Life of Drudgery," recalled the life of German immigrant Frederick von Sparkenburg of Carroll County. July 72—The article, "New Page in James Home's Story," by Margaret Ol­ wine, related some of the history of the Jesse James family. July 17—An account of one of the area's first recorded windwagon experi­ ments was related by Paul A. Lundren in "Prairie Wind Filled His Sail." July 18—A history, "Emery Bird [Thayer Dry Goods Company]—A Main Stop for Trolley." July 19—"Harold Wright's Threefold Career," by Harold O. Taylor. July 23—"Soldier-Editor [John N. Edwards] Founded the [Kansas City] Times," by Robert Pearman. July 26—"Up the Missouri to Ft. Benton in 1859," prepared from the jour­ nal of Dr. Elias J. Marsh by the Reverend Thomas S. Bowdern. Historical Notes and Comments 115

July 30—"Book Treasure in Missouri [Conception] Abbey [in Conception, Mo.]," by Muriel M. Alcott.

Linn Osage County Observer May 2, 23, 30, June 6, 13, 20, July 4, 11, 18 & 25, 1968-"History of Osage County," a series, by Hallie Mantle.

Maysville DeKalb County Record May 2, 1968—'The 101st Airborne Is There," by Bessie L. Whiteaker, a history which included notation of local men who served with the group.

Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic June 29, 1968—"Black River Missionary Baptist Church Plans 150th An­ niversary," by Mrs. Lucile Masnor.

St, Charles Journal April 18, 1968—"Dogwood, the State Tree." This, and all the articles below, written by Edna McElhiney Olson. April 25--"St. Paul M. E. Church [St. Charles]." May 2-"The 1904 Winton Car." May 9—"Historical Archaeology [resume of Preliminary Archaeological In­ vestigations at First Missouri State Capitol, by Robert T. Bray]." May 16—"Dr. T. L. Rives Home [St. Charles]." May 23—"History in the Making." May 28—"802 Monroe Street [T. J. Kaemmerlen Home, St. Charles]." June 6—"Crescent Baseball Team." June 13—"Farmers Tavern, 700 S. Main." June 20—"Victory of the Bulldozer." June 27—"Civil War Cannon." July 4—"Daniel Boone Bridge [Weldon Springs]." July i2—"Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable." July 18—"Marheineke Building [St. Peters]." August 1—"[Louis] Blanchette Statue."

Ste, Genevieve Fair Play May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, June 7, 14, 21 6- July 12, 1968'-"History of Our Town," a series by Mrs. Jack Basler.

St, Louis Globe-Democrat May 4-5, 1968—A short history of the St. Louis Car Company, by Roger Yockey. May 5, 12, 26, June 2 & 9—The column, "Looking Backward," featured re­ spectively: John Cardinal Glennon, Capt. Thomas B. Targee, Arcadia Ball­ room, automobile of the 1930s and early-day trucking industry. May 18-19—"St. Louis: Gateway to West," a history, by Sue Ann Wood. May 19—Memories of great days on the Mississippi River were told by Ben Lucien Burman in "Goodbye to the Great Boats." June 2—The Sunday Magazine, Part Two, featured some of the history of the St. Louis Municipal Opera. June 15-16—A history, "The Bach Society of St. Louis," by John Brod Peters. June 16—"When Mark Twain Was Mr. Clemens," by Patricia Campbell, in This Week Magazine. 116 Missouri Historical Review

June 16, 30 &r July 14—The column, "Then and Now," featured respectively the following: Old Courthouse, Ball Park and Broadway and Washington street scene. July 8—An article by Larry Weis reviewed the life and many accomplish­ ments of John Francis Bannon, S. J., who for 25 years has been chairman of St. Louis University's history department.

St, Louis Post-Dispatch May 1, 1968—"[Carl Frazier] Logger of Early 1900s Recalls Moving Ties Down the Current," by Wayne Leeman. May 5—A picture story, "[Thomas Hart] Benton's Impressions," by Robert K. Sanford. May 11—A history of La Maison de Ville, Catholic girls' academy in St. Louis, was told by Ellen Schlafly in "Nostalgic Adieu to City House After 141 Years." May 19—A number of historical articles concerning St. Louis and the Gate­ way Arch were featured in this issue. May 28—"100 Years of Tigresses at Missouri U.," by Clarissa Start, pre­ sented a history of the admission of women students to the University of Mis­ souri, Columbia, in 1867. June 1— "Kit Carson; Scout, Indian Fighter, Patriot," by Jules Loh. June 2—A history of the St. Louis Municipal Opera, "The Broadway of Summer Theaters," by Myles Standish. June 30—A short history of impeachment by the Missouri House of Rep­ resentatives, written by Cleon Swayzee II. June 30—"Fragments From A Fascinating Past, Jefferson County Seeking to Preserve Some of Its Landmarks," a picture story, by Harper Barnes and photos by Robert LaRouche. July 7 & 9—A two-part article on past proposals to revitalize the St. Louis riverfront, by Eugene G. Bryerton. July 21—"Life in Isolated Pocket Near Bootheel [Madrid Bend, Ky.]," by Grover Brinkman. July 29—"[Maramec Works] Pioneer in Missouri Iron," by Velma E. Zim­ merman, reprinted from National Parks Magazine.

Salem News June 24, 1968—An old photograph of Black School in 1904.

Salem Post June 27, 1968—Two old photographs, Cross Roads School in 1908 and Suc­ cess School in 1913.

Sedalia Capital July 17, 1968—"Historical Landmarks [Johnson County Courthouse and Country Store and Museum] Are Restored [by Johnson County Historical So­ ciety] in Warrensburg." July 24—"Illustrious History of Pettis County Began 135 Years Ago," by Hazel Lang.

Sedalia Democrat May 5, 1968—"City's Past Is Preserved in Buildings," a picture story. Historical Notes and Comments 117

Shelbyville Shelby County Herald July 3, 75><5S-"History of Red Star [School] District." July 24—"History of the Oak Ridge Church," by Adolph Vollmer.

Washington Missourian May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, June 6, 13, 20, 27, July 4, 11 & 25, 1968-A series on the German contribution to Washington, by Ralph Gregory.

Custom Made Ava Douglas County Herald, September 22, 1910. Because he considered that he had been cheated in two occasions in buying coffins for members of his family, George Brandon, a highly respected man living near Milan, ordered a contractor of this city to take his measure for a coffin, in which he plans to be buried. Brandon came to Milan and got in the coffin to see if it was all right. The casket is made of solid walnut and cost $20. Brandon is 68 years old and enjoying excellent health. The contractor is to keep the coffin until Brandon dies.

He Had to Remain in the Background New London Ralls County Times, February 27, 1903. Cole Younger, who recently received a full pardon from the Minnesota board of pardons, has formed a partnership with Frank James and purchased a wild west show. Younger will not appear in the arena, as it is one of the conditions of the pardon that he must not place himself on exhibition. He will simply act as treasurer and business manager. The show will open in Chicago May 20.

River Frolics Fayette Boon's Lick Times, May 9, 1846. Steamer L. F. Linn—This favorite packet is still plying weekly between Glasgow and St. Louis. The Captain is said to be a very clever man, but no­ body knows him—and on the contrary, everybody (particularly the ladies) "don't know anyone else but JEWETT," the obliging Clerk—Being a great favorite of the ladies and the ladies great favorites of his, it may well be imagined they are together frequently; and as the boat can't stay at one place all the time, and couldn't possibly get along without JEWETT, he manages to decoy the ladies on board on pleasure parties. We were fortunate enough to be on the "Linn" on a recent trip, when a party of this kind was made up by (or for) the ladies of Boonville, and the way things passed off was a caution to dry land frolics. Success to the Linn. 118 Missouri Historical Review MISSOURI HISTORY IN MAGAZINES

American Heritage, June 1968: "Joseph Pulitzer and his most 'indegoddampen- dent' editor," by Louis M. Starr; and "1948 Election," by Robert Shogan.

, August, 1968: "[John J.] Pershing's Island War," by Thomas J. Fleming.

American Jewish Archives, April, 1968: "Two Presidents and a Haberdasher— 1948."

American Scene [Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art], 1968: "Traveling Westward," by Donnie D. Good. American West, July, 1968: "Travelers by 'Overland,' Stagecoaching on the Central Route, 1859-1865," by George R. Stewart; and "Two Thousand Miles From The Counting House, Wilson Price Hunt and the Founding of Astoria," by William Brandon.

Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Summer, 1968: "The New Madrid Earthquake," by Margaret Ross.

Bulletin, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, July, 1968: "The De Soto Myth in Missouri," by Charles E. Burgess; "A Wedding with Obstacles," by Ralph Gregory; "Thomas M. Easterly's Pioneer Daguerreotypes of Plains Indians," by John C. Ewers; "Outfitting for the West, 1849," by Jane Hamill Sommer; and "Biographical Notice of Genl. William H. Ashley," reprinted from the Missouri Saturday News, April 14, 1838.

Clay County Museum Association Newsletter, May, 1968: "The Rudolph Irm- inger Family in Clay County, A Biographical Sketch of the Clay County Museum Association," story from Clara Irminger Hicks, written by Donald C. Pharis.

, June, 1968: "The James Minter Watkins Family," by Mrs. Frank Peters.

, July, 1968: "The Prather Family in Clay County," edited by Donald Pharis. Florissant Valley Historical Society Quarterly, July, 1968: "Peter R. Wagner," by Horace Wagner; "The First Owners of Taille De Noyer," by Harriet Lane Cates Hardaway; and "St. Stanislaus—Chapel," by Aloysius A. Jacobs- meyer, S. J. Jackson County Historical Society Journal, Spring, 1968: "Was Abandoned Val­ ley Once Outlet to River?" by Edwin A. Harris; "Historian Tells Story of House That Had Vital Role in the Past," by William J. Curtis; "Dr. David Waldo—Physician Soldier Santa Fe Trader and Big Landholder," by Waldo Douglas Sloan; "Old Lobb Church, One of the Oldest in County Is a Link with the Pioneer Settlers," by Fields Fisher Shrank; "Farm Home [of Judge Lee Chrisman], A Victorian Mansion Built in 1887, Will Be Razed," by Chris L. Phillippe; and "One of First Civil War Monuments Located in Independence Cemetery," by Donald R. Hale. Historical Notes and Comments 119

, Summer, 1968: "Old Webb Home Is One of Best Preserved Pre- Civil War Houses in Independence"; "Old Convention Hall, Leveled by Fire, Rebuilt in 90 Days for Demo Convention," by Edwin H. White; "[Fort Osage] Restoration Only One of its Type in the U. S.," by Fred L. Lee.

Journal of the West, April, 1968: "The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial," by Frank B. Sarles, Jr.

Kansas City Genealogist, July, 1968: "Lafayette County, Missouri Confederate Batteries in Civil War," contributed by Mrs. Agna Benjamin Richardson; "Removal of Cemeteries of Dade and Cedar Counties, Missouri," by Mr. and Mrs. Allen Hughes; "The Long Forgotten Westport Cemetery, Also Known As The Yoacham—Westport Cemetery," by Adrienne Christopher.

Kansas Historical Quarterly, Summer, 1968: "Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence: A Question of Complicity," by Burton J. Williams.

Kirkwood Historical Review, June, 1968: "The Fourth of July of Long Ago," by George F. Heege; "The Diary Of Miss Mary Elizabeth Hunt," conclus­ ion; and "Pianoforte Recital, Monday, June 16, 1919, Program," a reprint. Lawrence County Historical Society Bulletin, July, 1968: "History of the Goss Cemetery," by Mrs. Ruth Barker and Nolan Gunter; "Browning Geneal­ ogy," compiled by Mrs. W. W. Leatherwood. Mark Twain Journal, Summer, 1968: "Huckleberry Bumppo: A Comparison of 'Tom Sawyer' and 'The Pioneers,'" by Sacvan Bercovitch; "Mark Twain and Melville," by Margaret Myers; "Uncle Silas Phelps: A Note on Mark Twain's Characterization," by Elmo Howell; "Mark Twain's Passage to In­ dia," by Mohan Lai Sharma; and "Mark Twain and Hemingway: 'A Ca­ tastrophe' and 'A Natural History of the Dead,' " by Lewis E. Weeks, Jr.

Montana the Magazine of Western History, Summer, 1968: "On Reading Lewis & Clark," by Donald Jackson; "Clark on the Yellowstone, 1806," by Ernest S. Osgood; "Lewis on the Marias, 1806," by Paul Russell Cutright; and "Stephen Long's Great American Desert," by Richard H. Dillon.

Nebraska History, Summer, 1968: "Territorial Omaha As A Staging and Freight­ ing Center," by Carol Gendler.

New Mexico Historical Review, July, 1968: "Navajo Campaigns and the Occu­ pation of New Mexico, 1847-1848," by Frank McNitt.

Oregon Historical Quarterly, June, 1968: "Meriwether Lewis: Botanist," by Paul Russell Cutright.

Ozarks Mountaineer, June, 1968: "Blind Tigers, Dram Shops and Temperance Leagues," by Elmo Ingenthron.

, July, 1968: "Verona Celebrates First 100 Years," by Derald Meyer; and "The Old Johnson Mill," by Nolan Gunter.

Pacific Historian, Spring, 1968: "The Back East Background of Jedediah Strong Smith," by Robert West Howard. 120 Missouri Historical Review

Publications in Salvage Archeology [River Basin Surveys, Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1968], Number 9: Big Bend Historic Sites, by G. Hubert Smith, included "I Fort George Trading Post (39ST202) "; "II 39LM241 (Medicine Creek) "; and "IV Loisel's Post and 39HU301."

Register, Kentucky Historical Society, April, 1968: "An Overland Journey in 1849," by Hugh P. Williamson. Today's Farmer, May, 1968: "Lewis and Clark Through Missouri—The Trail Today," by Michael Graznak.

, August, 1968: "At Restored Fort Osage—A Glimpse of American His­ tory," by Michael Graznak. Trail Guide, June, 1968: "Regis Loisel and Seventy Years of Kansas Land Claims," by Hamlin H. Miller. Westport Historical Quarterly, June, 1968: "Captain Dick Yeager—Quantrill Man," by Ethylene Ballard Thruston; "The Upton Hays Brigade," by Al­ bert N. Doerschuk; "Bullet Hole [Abraham] Ellis," by L. B. Rozar; "When Quantrill's Mother Came to Blue Springs," from Anna Ford's Scrapbook; and "Kate King Clarke—Quantrill's Forgotten Girl Bride," by Adrienne Tinker Christopher. Wi-Iyohi, Bulletin of the South Dakota Historical Society, July, 1968: "Spring­ time Expedition [of 1811]."

ERRATUM It was reported in the July, 1968, issue of the REVIEW, page 494, that a copy of the Diary of Garland Jefferson Mahan of Cole County, "Ox Train Trip West in 1864," was given to the Society by Paul R. Beck. It was instead given by Thomas J. Mahan of Jefferson City, through Mr. Beck. The Society is indeed grateful to Mr. Mahan for the gift.

A Rich Man's Lament Hannibal Morning Journal, October 4, 1902. "Ah," he sighed, "I was happier when I was poor." "Well," they answered him coldly, "it is always possible for a man to become poor again." But some­ how the idea did not seem to impress him favorably.

Endurance Test for Parents Kansas City Star, July 15, 1964. Another game the children will enjoy on a long motor trip is seeing which one can do the most realistic job of imitating a highway patrol system. Historical Notes and Comments 121

IN MEMORIAM

ABERNATHY, L. G., Fayette: April 29, JENNER, WILLIAM H., Maplewood: 1885-June 7, 1968. January 9, 1871-November 6, 1967.

AGEE, MRS. DAISY C, Sedalia: Febru­ JONES, BENJAMIN WILLIAMS, Ethel: ary 9, 1904-March 17, 1968. August 21, 1895-September 29, 1967. BARNETT, MRS. R. E., Clinton: Died JONES, DOUGLAS H., Webster Groves: August 28, 1967. October 14, 1888-October 26, 1967. BLAIR, C. O., Springfield: April 8, 1893-October 6, 1967. JONES, J. K., Mount Vernon: April 2, 1881-February 25, 1968. BOUCHER, HOMER R., Pierce City: April 6, 1889-June 6, 1968. KENASTON, A. F., Kansas City: Sep­ tember 11, 1892-January 4, 1968. BRAMMER, GEORGE C, La Plata: May 17, 1894-April 20, 1968. LOMAX, VICTOR W., Huntington, West Virginia: March 1, 1892-August BUCHER, MRS. J. C, Raytown: March 23, 1879-August 15, 1967. 16, 1967. MORSE, MATTHEW F., St. Louis: July BUNCH, TADE W., Jefferson City: February 22, 1897-August 23, 1967. 26, 1889-March 5, 1967. CANTALIN, JOHN E., St. Louis: Feb­ NEWCOMB, REXFORD, Princeton, Illi­ ruary 7, 1921-June 6, 1968. nois: April 24, 1886-March 16, 1968.

CLAY, JAMES M., Plattsburg: Septem­ PETETE, MRS. GENIA GRAHAM, Hold- ber 16, 1881-October 29, 1967. enville, Oklahoma: January 2, 1896- March 9, 1968. CONDIE, MRS. KATHERINE TEASDALE, St. Louis: May 13, 1891-March 24, 1967. SCHNUTE, SAMUEL E., St. Louis: June DARBY, WALTER N., Cameron: March 21, 1881-August 23, 1967. 11, 1886-February 14, 1968. SETTLE, J. BOULTON, New Franklin: GRIFFIN, ERNEST F., Tarrytown, New July 6, 1892-May 12, 1968. York: October 8, 1886-January 6, 1967. STALZER, THEODORE, Jefferson City: HAGEDORN, WILLIAM C, St. Louis: October 30, 1871-February 18, 1968. July 12, 1888-May 17, 1967. STIFFLER, R. EWING, Denver, Colo­ HALL, JOHN R., Marshall: November rado: July 6, 1888-September 2, 1966. 23, 1892-July 8, 1968. TOOMBS, MRS. GEORGE, Bowling HARVEY, MONTAGUE, St. Louis: June Green: April 3, 1870-November 27, 9, 1904-June 19, 1968. 1967. HOUCHINS, CLAUDE M., McLean, Vir­ WINKELS, AL, Brookfield: January 14, ginia: September 15, 1883-February 21, 1899-August 28, 1966. 1964. HUDSON, HAROLD J., Kansas City: WRIGHT, KENNETH M., Duke: June October 30, 1900-November 23, 1966. 23, 1896-August 27, 1967.

HUFF, MERRIFIELD M., Washington: YOUNG, R. W., Chicago, Illinois: De­ July 23, 1886-September 14, 1966. cember 20, 1902-August 30, 1967. 122 Missouri Historical Review

BOOK REVIEWS

An Artist in America. By Thomas Hart Benton (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1968). 369 pp. Third Revised Edition. Illustrations. $9.00.

In 1937, the first edition of Thomas Hart Benton's classic auto­ biography, An Artist in America, appeared and became an immedi­ ate publishing success. Another chapter was added to the 1951 revised edition, and now, under the auspices of the University of Missouri Press, Missouri's most famous twentieth-century artist and America's most famous muralist has updated the events of his life through the sixties. The strength and masculinity, the realism and social comment exhibited in Benton's canvases, sketch pads, lithographs and murals are equalled by his lively, frank, earthy and provocative style of writing. Born over seventy-nine years ago, Benton briefly takes his reader through the early years in Neosho and in Joplin; the travels to Washington with his Congressman father; the sojourn to Chicago for study to become a newspaper cartoonist (and escape the con­ fines of family and friends); the realization that he wanted to be a painter; his crossing to Paris to work with those ensconced in the in­ ternational cult of abstraction; and, the return to New York City where he continued to grapple with the abstract principles of the early 1900 art world. It was not until he served as a naval draftsman during World War I and reacquainted himself with common Americans that Ben­ ton abandoned the isms of the art world and launched his latent talents toward the illustration of the American scene and the realis- Historical Notes and Comments 123

tic objectivity for which he became famous. His marriage to Rita Piacenza became the steadying force that started his career on its path to success. Benton, through his art, eventually became one of the most im­ portant commentators on the American social scene. To achieve realism in his paintings and lithographs he researched his topics diligently. Most of his paintings evolve around the common people of the Midwest, South and West. By dismissing the traditional formats of an autobiography, he leads his reader on vicarious tours, painting perceptive portraits of the proud people found in the hills, along the rivers, the backwoods and the boom towns of those regions. These chapters, written in the thirties, are adept social commentaries that, in many ways, are equally enlightening for the 1960s. The name Thomas Hart Benton, to many people, is synonymous with murals, and rightly so, because he is acknowledged as the fore­ most muralist in America. Those who are interested in how Benton received his first and subsequent mural commissions, the research involved in each undertaking, the personalities encountered and the acceptance received after their completion, will find the artist's recollections illuminating and often humorous. Like his paintings, Benton's murals received more than their share of adverse com­ ments from the art critics. Fortunately for those who can visualize Benton's efforts as a native American art form, he continued his realistic and objective appraisals.

In the chapter written especially for this edition he recalls his associations with Jackson Pollock, one of his students who aban­ doned his teachings to become a major innovator in the nonobjec- tive-expressionist school. Proud of his student's accomplishments Benton, nevertheless uses Pollock's gifts to the world of art to take issue with the "dehumanization of art in favor of a purely aesthetic formalism." These opinions bring together the overall be­ liefs of Benton, the artist.

The murals of Jacques Cartier's discovery of the St. Lawrence River completed for the Power Authority of the State of New York and the history of Independence completed for the Truman Library are included in the last chapter. The meetings between Benton and former President Truman are extremely enjoyable reading and are illuminating studies of the personalities of both men. When Neosho 124 Missouri Historical Review organized a community-wide homecoming for their artist in May, 1962, the private railroad car of the former president transported the Trumans' and Bentons' to the southwest Missouri community. Because of Benton's popular controversial acceptance in the 1930s the art world felt required to label his work, and the work of Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry. Consequently they were classi­ fied as regionalists. In the late forties and the fifties Benton, Curry and Wood were ignored by their associates in the arts. Whereas Wood and Curry died with the feeling that they had failed in their personal quests of adding a lasting feature to their profession Tom Benton has received numerous assurances that the realistic por­ trayals of American life are still a part, and will be a part, of the American scene. Thomas Hart Benton's great uncle and namesake was Missouri's first United States Senator and left a lasting impression on the political history of nineteenth-century America. The Senator's grandnephew, in turn, has left a lasting impression on the social history of twentieth-century America through his art. He has been criticized and castigated often but this artist is his own man and his personal success is his victory. There is a genius in Tom Benton and the genius is exhibited through his life and his works. This book is well worth reading and the accompanying illustrations are an invitation to observe more of Benton's artistry.

State Historical Society of Missouri James W. Goodrich

The Eighteenth Missouri. By Leslie Anders (New York, N. Y.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1968). 395 pp. Indexed. Footnotes. Illustrations. Maps. $4.95.

Leslie Anders has added still another book to the preponder­ ance of Civil War literature of the last decade. Unlike many of these other works, Anders' book is a study of the war at the lowest level possible, that of the common soldier. His work is a unit history, that of the Eighteenth Missouri, but in it war is viewed in its to­ tality. There is sometimes criticism leveled at historians who write regimental histories which are, in a sense, local histories. But it is Historical Notes and Comments 125 from local histories that national histories are written and, to this extent, Anders has made a meaningful contribution. The Eighteenth Missouri was a unit from a border state fight­ ing for the Union. The war experiences of the men in this unit ran the full gamut from fighting guerrillas in Missouri and Ten­ nessee, participating in great battles such as Shiloh, occupying captured territory in Mississippi, to marching to the sea with Sher­ man. Around all of these experiences Anders constructed a story of the Regiment from its youngest private from Platte County to its ever-changing officer staff. Anders evidences considerable insight into the perplexing prob­ lems of a state unit mustered into the Federal service. Control, politics, promotions, and duties are all well developed. Here the reader can see the clashes between Missouri's Governor Gamble and the Federal authorities. Most significantly, however, the reader can see war as it really exists. Anders describes the humor and the comradeship of the units, but he exposes, too, the horrible reality of a bloody war. The battlefield operations, the untimely life-consum­ ing deaths, and the reactions of the men and of their families back home are authentically unveiled. When one finishes this book, the realization that war is not a glorious pageant is uppermost in mind; war is a real and personal struggle and so Anders describes it. The vivid picture of John Edgar digging up the body of his brother so that he might take it home will leave an unforgettable impression on the reader's mind. Perhaps Anders' own experiences in World War II helped him to successfully bring war down to its common denominator, man himself. Anders' work reveals a great deal of research. The sources used, which included diaries, letters, newspapers, and official correspon­ dence, were vast and permitted the author to personalize this most personal of experiences. Leslie Anders' book is doubly useful; it adds both to Civil War history and to Missouri history as well. In making his contribution Anders has offered us both living history and enjoyable reading.

Lincoln University Charles R. Mink

Spanish War Vessels on the Mississippi 1792-1796. By Abraham P. Nasatir (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University 126 Missouri Historical Review

Press, 1968). 359 pp. Map. Notes. Line drawing. Documents. Index. $10.00.

The author, a noted authority on the Spanish regime in the Upper Mississippi Valley, presents from Spanish archival material a dramatic account of the activities of the Spanish river fleet dur­ ing the closing years of Spain's dominance. Spain successfully re­ sisted British, American and French intrigues to weaken her control of the Mississippi Valley. With the threat of agression from three different sources, she had few means of adequate defense. Although Baron Francois Luis de Carondelet could not supply the land forces necessary for the defense of Louisiana, he established a royal squadron of galleys on the Mississippi River which became the key to his entire program of defense of the Spanish Empire in the Mis­ sissippi Valley. His Catholic Majesty's Light Squadron of Galleys was comprised of five galleys, two galiots (smaller vessels) and one lancha canonera (gunboat).

Fearing that Edmond Charles Genet, French minister to the United States, and Kentuckian George Rogers Clark were secretly planning an expedition against Louisiana in the fall of 1793, Caron­ delet sent Juan Barno y Ferrusola to the upper river. Ferrusola reached New Madrid, January 10, 1794, and found the post in great activity, building fortifications. He carefully searched all descend­ ing vessels for revolutionary agents. Carondelet designated New Madrid as a major point for armed resistance to foreign aggressors. Men and munitions were sent to Thomas Portell, New Madrid commandant. To check the proposed Franco-American expedition, the entire Spanish squadron, under the command of Pedro Andres Rousseau, reached New Madrid on April 26, 1794, three months after its departure from New Orleans. Nasatir says:

It was a great occasion. The militia was drawn up in review formation; the inhabitants of the region and hun­ dreds of savage allies swarmed to the river to see the aston­ ishing sight of a war squadron. When Rousseau gave the signal, the full armada discharged all its artillery in a loud general salute. . . . Never before had the heavy gal­ leys gone further up the river than Nogales [Vicksburg].

After the recall of Genet reduced the threat of invasion, the squadron returned to New Orleans, leaving a galiot at New Madrid to form a naval station to cruise and patrol the upper river. Historical Notes and Comments 127

Because of the ever-present invasion threat, the Spanish gal­ leys were dispatched to the Chickasaw bluffs in 1795 to estab­ lish Fort San Fernando at Barrancas de Margo [near Memphis, Tennessee]. Gayoso de Lemos, governor of Natchez and the sec­ ond in rank of Spanish officials, took possession of the fort in the name of the King of Spain. In the summer of 1795 Gayoso ascended from the Barrancas to visit the Illinois posts to impress the in­ habitants and Indians with Spain's power and to inspect defenses. A salute was fired as he reached New Madrid. At Cape Girardeau he charmed a band of Indians with a flattering speech, gifts of a little tobacco, a barrel of whiskey and four white porcelain neck­ laces. He was received in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis with military honors and made brief visits to St. Charles, Cahokia, New Bourbon and Kaskaskia before his return to New Madrid. The fort at Bar­ rancas served as a naval base for the galleys' operations on the Up­ per Mississippi until Fort San Fernando's evacuation in the spring of 1797. Nasatir concludes that although the galleys were never put to the test of actual combat, their mere presence created a salutary effect upon the aggressors. Included in this work are the "Diary of Captain of the Army Don Pedro Rousseau January 5-March 25, 1793"; "Diary of Juan Barno y Ferrusola November 9, 1793-February 16, 1794"; "Diary of Gayoso de Lemos' Expedition on La Vigilante, Parts I-IV"; and "Gayoso de Lemos' Trip to Illinois: A Report 1795." In his "Report" Gayoso described a magnificent "assembly" in the home of "Mr. Chouteau" in St. Louis. He reported that he saw neither a tricolored ribbon nor an adornment that could arouse suspicion as to the manner of thinking of the families. He said, "only the wife of Mr. Robidou had a dress of three colors, but I attribute it to the lady's bad taste; besides, it was older than the French Revolution, . . ."

In these diaries and the report, Spanish Missouri history be­ comes a living reality and not mere statements of fact about a dim and distant past. The author is professor of History at San Diego State College. In this work he has made a significant contribution to the history of the Spanish regime in Upper Louisiana.

State Historical Society of Missouri Dorothy Caldwell 128 Missouri Historical Review

BOOK NOTES

Twenty-Twenty Hindsight. By Harold Calvert (Carrollton: Midwest Marking, Inc., 1968). 31 pp. Not indexed. Illustrations. $2.00 (plus 15c postage). The author has reprinted in a one-volume booklet his remi­ niscent sketches of Carroll County which were published in the Kansas City Star, Kansas City Times and elsewhere. His article, "Old Chariton, Only a Memory," is reprinted from the October, 1967, issue of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. An excellent choice of illustrations adds color to the stories about Carrollton and Carroll County, which originate from Mr. Calvert's own youthful experi­ ences. These vignettes of Carroll County life will interest those conversant with the history of the area and serve as prototypes of past life in many Missouri communities.

Sesquicentennial Louisiana, Missouri, 1818-1968. (Louisiana: Historical Program Committee, Mrs. John Dorward, chairman, 1968). Not indexed. Illustrations. $1.50. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Louisiana, Missouri, the Historical Program Committee presents a booklet intimately connected with the past and present industries of the city. The booklet, distributed at the celebration of the sesqui­ centennial, June 11-15, includes the program of events, a synopsis of the pageant entitled "Our Precious Heritage," lists of commit­ tees appointed for the celebration, and an illustration and descrip­ tion of the seal adopted for the occasion. Pages and half pages of the booklet were sponsored by various Louisiana business firms and other firms made cash donations to meet printing costs. His­ tories and pictures of Louisiana's oldest enterprises, the Stark Nurseries, Louisiana Press-Journal, Mercantile Bank, Bank of Louisiana and Nord-Buffum Pearl Button Company are included. Brief sketches and illustrations of other industries, schools, churches, homes, and prominent citizens are presented. These, with the his­ tory of Mississippi River boats, bridges and ferries in the Louisiana area, provide a record of historic and modern Louisiana.

Historical Review of Franklin County, Missouri, 1818-1968. Edited by Melvin B. Roblee and Vera L. Osiek (St. Clair: St. Clair Chronicle, 1968). 65 pp. Illustrations. $2.00. Historical Notes and Comments 129

This booklet, an excellent example of a countrywide historical project, was compiled by various people in Franklin County com­ munities. Letters were sent to thirty-four people throughout the county requesting them to compile the history of their area and twenty-eight favorable responses were received. Local libraries, newspapers, and persons other than those who wrote the sketches supplied additional material and photographs. The editors state that this method of compilation may have resulted in some errors and they cite a more scholarly history of the county. However, the disadvantages are offset by the interest engendered by those who assisted with the publication. The persons who wrote the area sketches and collected pictures and information contacted many Franklin County citizens who, no doubt, will read the booklet and become more conversant with the history of their county. Rare photographs of political, cultural and social life of the past add interest to the volume. The booklet, with excellent format, attrac­ tive binding and good quality paper, is a significant contribution to local history.

Tales of Old Hickory County, Fact and Fiction. By Opal Stewart Butts (Dallas, Texas: Royal Publishing Company, 1966). 83 pp. Not indexed. $3.25.

Dedicated to all people of Hickory County who love the area, this little hard-bound booklet is a reminiscent history of one of the smallest counties in the State. The county, located in South Central Missouri, was named for former President Andrew Jackson whose nickname was "Old Hickory." The county seat was called Hermitage after Jackson's home in Tennessee. The fifteen short stories comprising this booklet are accounts of historic and scenic sites, early settlers, historic homes, pioneer businesses and early towns as they are remembered by the writer. They provide interesting reading for those persons interested in social history, especially in the Hickory County region.

Gasconade County Tours. By Anna Hesse and Marion South (Copyright, 1968, by Anna Hesse, Hermann). 31 pp. Not indexed. $1.00. In this concise and attractive booklet four county tours are outlined, with points of interest marked on maps for each of three tours. A pen-and-ink drawing of the Gasconade River, by Mrs. 130 Missouri Historical Review

Hesse, Hermann artist, introduces the volume to the reader. The preface includes a brief outline of the history of Gasconade County, accompanied by a map showing principal towns and highways. Detailed maps trace each point of interest in three of the four tours presented. Tour I guides the tourist over 40 miles of blacktop roads on State Road 100 and County Route J. Mileage is given from one point of interest to another. A resume of each historical site and a description of all modern points of interest are presented. Tour II directs the tourist to the picturesque Frene Valley, starting from the Gasconade County Courthouse and following State Highways 19 and 50 through Bay, Mount Sterling and Little Berger. Tour III describes and locates 36 places of historic interest in picturesque Hermann. Tour IV traces the old Iron Road, used from 1840 to 1860 to haul iron blooms from the Massey Iron Works, near St. James, to Hermann for shipment on the Missouri River. Inserted in the tour guide booklet is a map of Hermann, illustrated in color, the work of the Hermann Brush and Palette Club, originators of the annual Maifest. The traveler who follows the four tours with the aid of the guide will gain an appreciation and knowledge of the German and American heritage of the county.

Historical Sketches of Cedar County, Missouri. By Clayton Abbott (Greenfield, Missouri: Vedette Printing Company, 1967), 276 pp. Photographs. Not indexed. $3.75.

Clayton Abbott, with the help of other county citizens, has compiled a most interesting historical sketch of Cedar County. Following the traditional format of most county histories, Abbott has relied on reminiscences, early newspapers, Goodspeed's county history and primary source material to develop his narrative. Oc­ casional footnotes denote where some of the material was ob­ tained. The narrative is liberally sprinkled with quotations that add color to the sketches. One of the most interesting chapters is the "Saga of William Wells." Included in this chapter are letters writ­ ten by Wells as he traveled to, and worked in, the California gold fields. Through Abbott's efforts some of Cedar County's history has been preserved for future generations. Historical Notes and Comments 131

Tower Rock (la Roche de la Croix). By Jess E. Thilenius and Felix E. Snider (Cape Girardeau: Ramfre Press, 1968). 48 pp. Not indexed. Illustrations. $1.00. Tower Rock, a one-third-acre island in the Mississippi River about one mile south of Wittenberg in Perry county, was noted by Father Jacques Marquette, who traveled down the river in 1673 the first recorded visit of a white man to Missouri. Tower Rock (Grand Tower Island) was withdrawn for public purposes by the executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant, February 24, 1871, although it is neither a national park, monument nor military reservation. Probably the first religious service in Missouri was held there by Father Buisson de Saint Cosme, accompanied by two other Canadian seminary priests. In a letter to Quebec, dated January 2, 1699, Father St. Cosme described in detail the raising of a cross, December 13, 1698, on Grand Tower Island, and the firing of three volleys of musketry to celebrate the event. In the booklet the authors relate the story of St. Cosme's visit and place Tower Rock in the historical setting of the Missouri Saxony hills, named for the historic 1830 Saxon settlements in the area, and of the town of Grand Tower on the Illinois side. In this loosely organized work, fact and legend are combined. Descriptions of other unusual rock formations popularly known as the "Devil's Backbone," "Devil's Bake-Oven," and "Devil's Tea-Table," and di­ rections for viewing Tower Rock and the other formations from the Missouri and Illinois shores and from the Wittenberg-Grand Tower ferry boat on the river, will interest tourists.

Advice to the Sorrowful Greenville Wayne County Journal, February 6, 1903. Don't attempt to drown sorrow in drink; you will only discover that sor­ row is an excellent swimmer—Chicago Daily News.

Word Analysis Jefferson City Jeffersonian Republican, August 19, 1843. Heroine is perhaps, as peculiar a word as any in our language. The first two letters of it are male, the first three female, the first four a brave man, and the whole a brave woman. It runs thus—he, her, hero, heroine. gi«ii§iigii§ii§igigiiaiiiigisiisiiiisiHi«iisisii

(Efyrtsimag (itfts

IS H The giving of gift memberships in the State Historical Society, which in- y IS eludes a subscription to the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, has come to be an IS d established part of Christmas with many members of the Society. The Society § [l invites you to give this distinguished Christmas gift. gj IS 1 is 3 IS The gift membership serves a multiple purpose. It extends interest in M H Missouri's proud history, adds members to the Society, expands the influence IS jj| of the REVIEW, and provides the recipient with an esteemed magazine rich in g] JS facts about Missouri and Missourians, which conveys pleasure throughout the H §1 entire year. M m IS Hj With each membership which you designate as a Christmas gift, the Society g H will send a card to the recipient. The card will give your name as the donor B IS of the Christmas gift membership. Please send names and addresses for mem- [S 1 bership to: THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, HITT AND 1 | LOWRY STREETS, COLUMBIA, MISSOURI 65201, on or before December 15, § IS with enclosed check. Annual membership dues are $2.00. H IS g ® i m is ffisiaisisisisisisisiss™^ K. C. Star, June 4, 1950 TRANSPORTATION Railways on City Streets

When the growth of cities in the mid-19th century created problems of mass transit Missourians borrowed from the East the idea for horse-drawn street railway systems. Long coaches mounted on iron wheels were pulled by horses or mules over railroad tracks imbedded in the middle of the street. The first St. Louis streetcar was opened to the public on July 4, 1859. Even when the car repeatedly jumped its Olive Street track, enthusiasm for the new vehicle was not dampened. Twenty years later nearly all populated districts in St. Louis were served by horse- and mule-drawn cars. St. Joseph's first street railway was built in 1866. Under a franchise granted on March 27, 1869, the Kansas City and Westport Horse Railroad Company constructed and operated the first street railway line in that community. From the 1870s through the 1890s other large cities in the state added horse-powered streetcars including Hannibal, Carthage, Lexington, Springfield, Sedalia, Clinton and Cape Girardeau. Early horse-drawn streetcars could accommodate from 12 to 16 people on seats running lengthwise. Many more could stand inside and on the rear platform. Sometimes the load was so heavy that passengers had to get out and walk beside the animals as they stumbled up steep hills. The fare, usually amounting to 5 cents, was deposited in a box at the front of the car. The upper part of the box was glass enabling the driver, seated outside, to see that the amount was correct. Later passengers could purchase a large supply of tickets, and shopkeepers, bartenders and newspaper boys came to use street car tickets as a form of currency.

133 134 Missouri Historical Review

During the winter months early streetcar interiors were covered with a generous amount of hay reaching halfway to the passengers' knees to keep the feet and legs warm. The hay clung to men's trousers and women's long skirts but it solved temporarily the heating problem. Crowded horse cars, overworked horses and slow rate of travel inspired ideas for other methods of mass transportation. Robert Gillham, a brilliant and ambitious engineer, was granted a franchise to construct the first cable- drawn streetcar line in Kansas City in 1882. On this line horses were substituted for an endless moving rope concealed underground. The operator, who came to be called the gripman, attached or detached the car from the rope. Cable cars only required the laying of flat rails or bands of steel which left nothing to impede free use of roads by other conveyances. The greatest danger of this type of service was in the raveling or breaking of the cable. When ropes became worn, they tangled the grip, making it impossible to stop the car. If this happened the gripman sounded his gong for all in front to move out of the way. The conductor would then leap off the flying car, reach a call box and order the power house to stop the cable. Maintenance crews closely inspected the rope each night. Gillham also constructed Kansas City's 9th Street incline from the steep West Bluff to the Missouri River bottom below providing greater ease in the movement of people and merchandise over what had once been a major transportation handicap. The cable not only hauled the car up the incline quickly, it retarded its speed on downward trips. St. Louis added cable car service in 1886. Before other Missouri cities installed the cable, John C. Henry, a Kansas City telegraph operator, conceived the idea of operating a streetcar by electricity. Supplying electric power by the use of an overhead cable, Henry purchased four open summer cars and had a trolley line in operation in Kansas City in the summer of 1887. When winter came on, business dropped and the Henry Electric Railroad Company went bankrupt. Despite the failure the inventor prophesied that within ten years electricity would be the popular motive power. His prediction proved correct. St. Joseph began operation of an electric line in the fall of 1887 and by 1895 almost all principal cities had converted their transit systems to electricity. Since electric trolleys provided greater speed, their lines could extend further into the suburbs. Real estate values were so closely related to the availability of a streetcar that sometimes a builder erected his own streetcar line to open up a subdivision. Interurban trolley systems also developed. St. Louis trolleys traveled to Ferguson, St. Charles, Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, and across the Mississippi River to Illinois. Lines also radiated from Kansas City. Trolleys ran from Jasper County to nearby counties in Kansas and Oklahoma from the 1890s to 1939. Another large interurban system served the area from Joplin to Pittsburg, Kansas, until 1954. Despite their advantages and popularity, streetcars also caused numerous complaints. They required too much room on streets, blocked traffic and had to move slowly through congested areas. With the perfection of the auto­ mobile in the early 20th century streetcar passengers greatly diminished. Tracks began to be removed or covered with hard surface material for easier auto­ mobile travel. By the 1950s motor buses had all but replaced the streetcar in Missouri cities. Missouri Women In History Emily Newell Blair Emily Newell Blair, a Missouri woman who combined a prominent political career with outstanding lit­ erary achievements, was born January 9, 1877, in Joplin. She was graduated from Carthage High School in 1894 and attended Goucher College and the University of Missouri. In 1900 she married Harry W. Blair. To them were born a daughter Harriet and a son Newell. Her "Letters of a Con­ tented Wife," later published in book form, appeared in the Cosmopolitan in ©1926 The Hearst Corp., 1910. From 1910 to 1914 her articles reprinted by permission of were published in Lippincott's, Harp­ Good Housekeeping magazine. er's, Outlook and Woman's Home Com­ panion. In 1914 she served as chairman of the press in the initiative campaign of the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association and as the first editor of The Missouri Woman, a suffrage magazine. In the April-July, 1920, issue of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW she wrote the foreword to the "History of Woman Suffrage in Missouri." She was one of 26 Missouri women whose names were inscribed in 1924 on a bronze tablet erected in Washington, D. C, honoring pioneers of the woman suffrage movement. During World War I she served in Washington, D. C, as an aid to Ida Tarbell on the United States Council of National Defense. She was the author of the official history of the Council's work, published by the Federal govern­ ment in 1920. With her husband, who had served overseas, she returned to Joplin in 1919. The following year she was elected to the National Democratic Com­ mittee and from 1922-1928 was the first woman to serve as vice chairman of the Committee. As associate editor of Good Housekeeping, 1925-1933, she con­ tributed a monthly section on books and reading. In 1933 she moved to Wash­ ington where her husband served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior in charge of Indian affairs. Appointed chairman of the consumer's division of the Na­ tional Recovery Act in the 1930s and as public relations director of the Women's Army Corps in World War II, she spoke to groups throughout the country. She died at Alexandria, Virginia, August 2, 1952, after a long illness. She was the author of Creation of a Home (1930) , The Letters of a Contented Wife (1931), and A Woman of Courage (1931) .