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Historiogtl Review The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA. MISSOURI The George Caleb Bingham portrait of Confederate jS General Joseph O. Shelby, an unlisted painting that had jg| been in the Shelby family for nearly three-quarters of a | century, is a recent gift to the State Historical Society of JS Missouri by General Shelby's grandson, J O Shelby Jersig, ffl Lt. Col. Ret., United States Marine Corps, Clovis, New gj Mexico. y A native Kentuckian, General Shelby is best remem- pi bered as a Missouri manufacturer, farmer and Confederate M cavalry general. Hailed by some authorities as the best cav alry general of the South, his Missouri forays were highlights of the Trans-Mississippi Army of the Confederacy. At the time of his death in 1897, General Shelby was United States Marshall for the western district of Missouri. m Shelby's portrait, along with fourteen other canvases, one miniature and drawings, engravings and lithographs by Bingham were prepared for display in the Art Gallery, at m the Society's Sesquicentennial Convention, October 3, 1970, and will remain on display until late summer, 1971. On exhibit in the Society's corridors are the tinted en- JU gravings of Karl Bodmer's illustrations, prepared in the field during 1833-34, for Prince Maximilians of Wied's Travels in j|j the Interior of North America, published in the 1840s. 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. VOLUME LXV The REVIEW is sent free to all members of The State Historical 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 1970 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of the State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R.S. of Mo., 1959, Chapter 183. OFFICERS 1968-71 T. BALLARD WAITERS, 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 FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Columbia, Secretary Emeritus and Consultant RICHARD S. BROWNLEE, Columbia, Director, Secretary, and Librarian TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville 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 Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1972 GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis RONALD L. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe L. E. MEADOR, Springfield JACK STAPLETON, SR., Stanberry W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence HENRY C. THOMPSON, Bonne Terre ROBERT M. WHITE, Mexico 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 University 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 Com- mitte. ELMER ELLIS, Columbia, Chairman WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield OTsisisiais^^ M ® ® m ffllfrisintas (Stfts lj The giving of gift memberships in the State Historical Society, which in- g M eludes a subscription to the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, has come to be an M established part of Christmas with many members of the Society. The Society [g m invites you to give this distinguished Christmas gift. The gift membership serves a multiple purpose. It extends interest in Missouri's proud history, adds members to the Society, expands the influence of the REVIEW, and provides the recipient with an esteemed magazine rich in facts about Missouri and Missourians, which conveys pleasure throughout the entire year. With each membership which you designate as a Christmas gift, the Society will send a card to the recipient. The card will give your name as the donor of the Christmas gift membership. Please send names and addresses for mem bership to: THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, HITT AND LOWRY STREETS, COLUMBIA, MISSOURI 65201, on or before December 15, with enclosed check. Annual membership dues are $2.00. U b;ffl!«liS[§l^!g!gii!!§!§i§!§^ CONTENTS THE FOUNDING OF MISSOURI'S FIRST COLLEGE SAINT MARY'S OF THE BARRENS, 1815-1818. By Stafford Poole, CM 1 SENATOR GEORGE GRAHAM VEST AND THE "MENACE" OF MORMONISM, 1882-1887. By M. Paul Holsinger 23 THE EXCELSIOR SPRINGS ROUTE: LIFE AND DEATH OF A MISSOURI INTERURBAN. By H. Roger Grant 37 THE ST. LOUIS JEWISH COORDINATING COUNCIL: Its Formative Years. Bv Burton A. Boxerman 51 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Johnson County Historical Society Celebrates 50th Anniversary 72 Views from the Past: College Life Early 1900s 74 News in Brief 76 Local Historical Societies 79 Gifts 91 Missouri History in Newspapers 95 Missouri History in Magazines 100 In Memoriam 103 Editorial Policy 105 BOOK REVIEWS 106 BOOK NOTES 116 FIRST SCHOOLS IN NODAWAY 121 KATE CHOPIN Inside Back Cover iv The Founding of Missouri's First College Saint Mary's of the Barrens, 1815-1818 BY STAFFORD POOLE, CM.* One.evening in September of 1815, a Sulpician priest named Louis William Valentine DuBourg walked into his lodging at the church and college of Monte Citorio in Rome. As he entered the Walker—Missouri Commerce T a a protective ca„„P ^nTo!rihe ^o„Kf sr^rsSuS* imm^^^^m 2 Missouri Historical Review building, he saw in a hall near the entrance a large crowd of stu dents being addressed by a young and obviously eloquent priest. Inquiring who it might be, he was told that it was Father Felix De Andreis, a Piedmontese Vincentian who taught theology at the college for foreign missionaries operated by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. DuBourg sent word to the young priest asking for an interview. Out of that meeting came Missouri's first college and a large segment of the history of the Catholic Church in the nineteenth-century United States.1 Since August of 1812, DuBourg had been the administrator of the diocese of Louisiana, a territory which covered almost all of the original Louisiana Purchase.2 He had come to Rome to enlist clergy for the struggling diocese and while there had been informed of his appointment as Bishop of Louisiana. Since most of his deal ings in Rome were with the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, popularly called Propaganda from its Latin name, he found it convenient to lodge with the Vincentian Fathers of Monte Citorio who, since 1802, had acted as spiritual directors and part- time faculty for the Propaganda College.3 The bishop-elect was faced with an almost impossible task. An emigre from the French Revolution, he had been primarily an edu cator and had served as president of Saint Mary's College in Balti more. As administrator, he had spent the previous three years trying to bring some order and coherence into this vast and unmanageable territory. His jurisdiction included not only the entire Napoleonic cession but also the Floridas, where his authority was contested by the Bishop of Havana.4 In New Orleans, he had only eleven i Life of the Very Rev. Felix De Andreis, CM., First Superior of the Congregation of the Mission in the United States and Vicar General of Upper Louisiana: Chiefly from sketches written by the Right Rev. Joseph Rosati, C.M., First Bishop of Saint Louis, Mo. (St. Louis, 1915) , 59-66. This is an English translation of Rosati's life of De Andreis made by Father Francis Burlando, CM., with additions by the translator and an unknown editor. Hereafter it is cited as Rosati-Burlando. Joseph Rosati, CM., Memoirs sur l'£tablissement de la Congregatio?i de la Mission dans les Etats-Unis d'Amerique. Photostat of a handwritten manuscript, dated 1840. Photostat in the archives of Saint Mary's Seminary, Perryville. This and all the other facsimilies of documents now lost or in European archives were made by Father Charles L. Souvay, CM., former faculty member of Saint Mary's Seminary and former Superior General of the Vincentian Fathers. 2 An administrator is an interim official who has the jurisdiction of a bishop without actually being one. On Bishop DuBourg, see John Rothensteiner, History of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis (St. Louis, 1928) , I, Book III, Chapters 1 and 2. On his appointment, see Roger Baudier, The Catholic Church in Louisiana (New Orleans, 1939), 264. 3 Ibid., 268.