MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW

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THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, COLUMBIA 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., 1969, chapter 183, as revised 1978. OFFICERS, 1998-2001 LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla, President JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City, First Vice President SHERIDAN A. LOGAN, St. Joseph, Second Vice President VIRGINIA G. YOUNG, Columbia, Third Vice President NOBLE E. CUNNINGHAM, JR., Columbia, Fourth Vice President R. KENNETH ELLIOTT, Liberty, Fifth Vice President ROBERT G. J. HOESTER, Kirkwood, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer JAMES W. GOODRICH, Columbia, Executive Director, Secretary, and Librarian

PERMANENT TRUSTEES FORMER PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid Avis G. TUCKER, Warrensburg LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville

TRUSTEES, 1996-1999 BRUCE H. BECKETT, Columbia JAMES R. MAYO, Bloomfield CHARLES B. BROWN, Kennett W. GRANT MCMURRAY, Independence DONNA HUSTON, Marshall THOMAS L. MILLER SR., Washington

TRUSTEES, 1997-2000 JOHN K. HULSTON, Springfield ARVARH E. STRICKLAND, Columbia JAMES B. NUTTER, Kansas City BLANCHE M. TOUHILL, St. Louis BOB PRIDDY, Jefferson City HENRY J. WATERS III, Columbia DALE REESMAN, Boonville

TRUSTEES, 1998-2001 WALTER ALLEN, Brookfield VIRGINIA LAAS, Joplin CHARLES R. BROWN, St. Louis EMORY MELTON, Cassville VERA R BURK, Kirksville DOYLE PATTERSON, Kansas City DICK FRANKLIN, Independence JAMES R. REINHARD, Hannibal

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Eight trustees elected by the board of trustees, together with the president of the Society, consti­ tute the executive committee. The executive director of the Society serves as an ex officio member. ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia, Chairman LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla WALTER ALLEN, Brookfield JAMES C OLSON, Kansas City FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood Avis G. TUCKER, Warrensburg H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid VIRGINIA G. YOUNG, Columbia VERA F. BURK, Kirksville MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW

VOLUME XCIII, NUMBER 3 APRIL 1999

JAMES W. GOODRICH LYNN WOLF GENTZLER Editor Associate Editor

ANN L. ROGERS AMY L. NORD Research Assistant Research Assistant

The MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW (ISSN 0026-6582) is published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201-7298. Receipt of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW is a benefit of membership in the State Historical Society of Missouri. Phone (573) 882-7083; fax (573) 884-4950; e-mail ; website . Periodicals postage is paid at Columbia, Missouri. POSTMASTERS: Send address changes to MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201-7298. Copyright © 1999 by The State Historical Society of Missouri

COVER DESCRIPTION: Between 1928 and 1930, the Pierce Petroleum Corporation built a chain of tav­ erns that sold gas, serviced cars, and offered overnight lodging in the Ozark Mountain region. The facilities, located in such Missouri towns as Springfield, Rolla, and Columbia, serviced and promot­ ed the area as a popular tourist destination. Keith A. Sculle examines how the boom in automobile travel led the Pierce company to use innovative marketing and development techniques in '"Our Company Feels that the Ozarks are a Good Investment . . . ': The Pierce Pennant Tavern System," which begins on page 293. The cover features an image of the Columbia tavern after Sinclair Oil took ownership in 1930. [Cover illustration courtesy of Keith A. Sculle] EDITORIAL POLICY The editors of the Missouri Historical Review welcome submission of articles and documents relating to the history of Missouri. Any aspect of Missouri history will be con­ sidered for publication in the Review. Genealogical studies, however, are not accepted because of limited appeal to general readers. Manuscripts pertaining to all fields of American history will be considered if the subject matter has significant relevance to the history of Missouri or the West.

Authors should submit two double-spaced copies of their manuscripts. The foot­ notes, prepared according to The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed., also should be dou­ ble-spaced and placed at the end of the text. Authors may submit manuscripts on disk, preferably in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word. Two hard copies still are required. Originality of subject, general interest of the article, sources used, interpretation, and style are criteria for acceptance and publication. Manuscripts should not exceed 7,500 words. Articles that are accepted for publication become the property of the State Historical Society of Missouri and may not be published elsewhere without permission. The Society does not accept responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by the authors.

Articles published in the Missouri Historical Review are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, Recently Published Articles, Writings on American History, The Western Historical Quarterly, and The Journal of American History.

Manuscripts submitted for the Review should be addressed to Dr. James W. Goodrich, Editor, Missouri Historical Review, State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201-7298.

BOARD OF EDITORS

LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN SUSAN M. HARTMANN University of Missouri-Rolla Ohio State University Columbus

WILLIAM E. FOLEY ALAN R. HAVIG Central Missouri State University Stephens College Warrensburg Columbia

JEAN TYREE HAMILTON DAVID D. MARCH Marshall Kirksville

ARVARH E. STRICKLAND University of Missouri-Columbia CONTENTS

CAMPAIGNING THROUGH MISSOURI: THE CLVIL WAR JOURNAL OF ROBERT TODD MCMAHAN, PART 2. Edited by Dennis K. Boman 241

EUGENE FIELD AND THE POLITICAL JOURNALISM OF ST. JOSEPH. By Lewis O. Saum 257

THE VISUAL ARTS IN EARLY KANSAS CITY. By George Ehrlich 277

"OUR COMPANY FEELS THAT THE OZARKS ARE A GOOD INVESTMENT . . . ": THE PIERCE PENNANT TAVERN SYSTEM. By Keith A. Sculle 293

HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

News in Brief 308

Local Historical Societies 309

Gifts Relating to Missouri 319

Missouri History in Newspapers 322

Missouri History in Magazines 328

In Memoriam 335

Graduate Theses Relating to Missouri History, 1998 336

BOOK REVIEWS 337

Waal, Carla, and Barbara Oliver Korner, eds. Hardship and Hope: Missouri Women Writing about Their Lives, 1820- 1920. Reviewed by Bonnie Stepenoff. Piott, Steven L. Holy Joe: Joseph W. Folk and the Missouri Idea. Reviewed by Gary R. Kremer.

Gardner, Mark L., and Marc Simmons, eds. The Mexican War Correspondence of Richard Smith Elliott. Reviewed by James W. Goodrich.

Norton, Richard L., ed. Behind Enemy Lines: The Memoirs and Writings of Brigadier General Sydney Drake Jackman. Reviewed by John F. Bradbury, Jr.

BOOK NOTES 342

Kingsbury, Lilburn Adkin. Hobby Horse Rider. Edited by Warren Taylor Kingsbury.

Gerard, Sue. Granny's Notes: "My First 84 Years."

CONTRIBUTORS TO MISSOURI CULTURE: VANCE RANDOLPH Inside back cover State Historical Society of Missouri

Campaigning Through Missouri: The Civil War Journal of Robert Todd McMahan Part 2

EDITED BY DENNIS K. BOMAN*

Born in Pennsville, Ohio, on November 8, 1832, Robert Todd McMahan enlisted in the Second Ohio Volunteer Cavalry (OVC) on August 10, 1861.! In January 1862, McMahan and the Second OVC traveled by railroad from St. Louis to St. Joseph. Until March, the regiment fought a series of skir­ mishes with guerrilla forces in Missouri. After taking part in an expedition against rebel Indian forces in Kansas and the Indian Territory, McMahan returned with his regiment to Fort Scott, Kansas, in early August.2 The following selection from McMahan's journal was written after the Second OVC returned to Fort Scott. The young Ohioan had been detached into Captain Job Stockton's battery and was escorting a wagon train from the

*Dennis K. Boman is an adjunct professor of history at Oklahoma State University and Rose State College, both in Oklahoma City. He holds the M.A. degree and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

1 Unidentified newspaper clipping of McMahan obituary, Robert T. McMahan Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Columbia. 2 For a brief summary of McMahan's education and military career see part 1, pages 133- 137. Part one appeared in the January 1999 issue of the Missouri Historical Review.

241 242 Missouri Historical Review fort, heading for northwestern Arkansas.3 The following entries of October 21-25, 1862, appear in the long version of the journal, in which McMahan provided a retrospect of his first year's military service.4

Fort Scott, Ks Oct 21st A.D. 1862. Nearly 18 months have passed since the attack on Fort Sumpter, by the rebels under Beauregard, and the surrender of the gallant Major Anderson and his handfull of brave men.5 During this time, thousands of our country's noblest sons have fallen in the defense of her "stars and stripes"; and thou victory has so frequently perched upon our banner, and a vast portion of territory has been reclaimed from the enemy, yet the "signs of the times" do, by no means, indicate a speedy termination of the war. When I enlisted (which was in Aug. '61)1 had no doubt but that the rebels would be completely conquered and peace restored within twelve months; and our Reg. (the 2nd O.VC.) dis­ banded and mustered out of service before the 1st of Sept 62. But I was mis­ taken. We have a brave and spirited enemy to cope with, and we may rejoice if he is conquered and peace restored by the close of our entire enlistment. But today, (Oct 21st '62) will, for a time at least, close my service as a cav­ alryman. On the 19th Capt. Hall detailed, by draft, from his company (E) three privates; Charles Etre, Theodore Campbell, and myself, as his quota of a detachment of 24 to be forwarded from the Reg. to Capt Stocktons Light Artillery, the members of which had been detached from the 2nd OVC Inf. with a promise of being restored to the Reg. within 90 days.6 I submitted rather reluctantly to this draft until reassured by our officers that there was but little doubt of the recall of the Battery within the time specified (90 days). On the 20th the train was not ready to move out and as we were to form a part of the escort of course we could not leave it and so waited until to day. There are about 125 wagons in the train including several "Sutler's teams." About 2 o'clock this P.M. our little squad of 25 including Sergt. Knapp appeared before the Cos quarters with blankets and all our personal property carefully rolled together and made fast for a march of ten days.7 According

3 For Job Stockton see part 1, note 8. 4 For information about the short and long versions of McMahan's journal see part 1, page 134. Both versions are located in the Robert T. McMahan Papers. 5 Fort Sumter was attacked on April 12, 1861, and Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort to General Pierre Beauregard on April 14. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 274. 6 For Captain Hiram A. Hall see part 1, note 36. Private Charles Etre was transferred to the Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery (OVLA) on February 17, 1863, and was mus­ tered out of the service on December 12, 1865. Whitelaw Reid, Ohio in the War: The History of Her Regiments and Other Military Organizations (Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, and Baldwin, 1868), 2: 640. For Theodore Campbell see part 1, note 51. 7 Franklin B. Knapp, a sergeant in Company D, was promoted to second lieutenant of the Ninth OVC on October 22, 1862. Reid, Ohio in the War, 2: 70. Campaigning Through Missouri 243 to the order for our detachment our arms were to be left or rather turned over to the Reg. (companies) but as we were to form part of the escort to the train the Col ordered us to take our "Revolvers and Carbines." So in case of an attack on the train we are now able to do battle against a hostl! My Greek Text, several likenesses, and letters I left with Jno. H Johnston to keep till my return or in case of death to send them to my Mother.8 When ready to leave only two mule teams are on hand, and the Col. hearing the men grumbling and threatening not to go a step unless another wagon could be furnished, instantly ordered another team and we were soon on our way to the train which had just started under escort of the 3rd Wisconsin (only 2 or 3 Comps) a part of the 6th Ks and a few recruits for the 9th Wis.9 We camped with our three wagons only about four miles from the fort while the train moved on to Dry Wood and camped there. Oct 22nd. Up this morning bright and early breakfast over and ready to march by sunrise. Overtook the train just after it had got under way and not wishing to go through Lamar and meeting with no resistence from the advance guard we passed ahead and kept the direct road to Carthage leaving Lamar off to our left. We did not hurry our mules to day and so to night with the train near a small brook. Oct. 23rd. This morning the commander of the escort requested Segt Knapp to fall in the rear of the train: but we were all opposed to this, and when ready to pull out concluded if we could pass the advance guard with­ out resistance we would make our own time to the command below (at Elk [Horn] Tavern or Pea Ridge) and run all risk of bushwhackers.10 So on we started, passed through the advance guard, who were grazing their horses and waiting for the advance to be sounded, and struck out for Carthage alone. We had quite a pleasant march during the forepart of the day, and had halted sometime at a farm house in a small grove on the edge of the Prairie about 8 miles from Carthage. We had not gone more than a mile or two from this grove when we saw a squad of horsemen coming up behind us at a full can­ ter, gallop. They rode up and halted us and said they were sent forward from the escort of the train to have us wait till it came up. We agreed to wait, but as there was a small brook about 2 miles ahead they permitted us to go on and camp there. But finding very little water here fit to drink and the squad of cavalry not in sight we put for Carthage again at double quick. We soon came to the River (Spring) and determined] at first to camp here, but Knapp,

8 Private John H. Johnston attained the rank of sergeant on March 1, 1865. Ibid., 2: 76. 9 Colonel August V. Kautz, formerly commander of the Sixth Cavalry, was an experi­ enced professional officer who had served in the Mexican War and fought at the Battle of Monterey. In 1848 he was appointed to West Point, and he remained in the regular army until the outbreak of the Civil War. Ibid., 1: 844-848. 10 Pea Ridge is located in northwestern Arkansas. 244 Missouri Historical Review

persuaded by Farley, concluded we had better go on to Carthage.11 In this we were all agreed, and I especially, as I had never been in this part of Mo. before and had a great desire to see the noted City and take a beautiful view from the tower or Court House steeple of the country around. From the top of this steeple or look out one can see several miles in every direction. Oct 23rd 1862. When we had crossed the River and were about half a mile from the City, our advance Guard consisting of Segt. Knapps, Farley, and a Citizen by the name of Culdis came suddenly on 4 or 5 mounted men who took to the Brush instanter and following a kind of bypath leading off around the town were soon beyond our reach. Knapp returned immediately to his command which was only a short distance behind. We halted and hav­ ing dismounted as soon as possible proceeded to distribute among ourselves the only two or three bunches of carbine cartidges in the entire squad. The command, after forming into double ranks, divided, fast marched in advance and part in the rear of our 3 wagons determined to sell our lives as dearly as possible. In this manner we marched into Carthage and halted on the south side of the Court House. Our train we corraled in the court yard and scatter­ ing ourselves as well as we could tried to make our small force appear as large as possible and thereby deceive the enemy should his spies be yet lin­ gering in sight. Chickens and shoats suffered this evening, and after partak­ ing of an excellent supper got up in the yard we prepared for rest in the hall of the court room. A guard of 12 men and 2 corporals were ordered for the night and then Knapp and his friend went scouting in the neighborhood among some of their old friends. Oct. 24th. This morning cloudy with high wind. Winchell and I acted as corporals last night.12 He the 1st 4 hours I the next 4 and 2 more of the 3rd relief making 6 hours from 10 till 4 this A.M. It was very windy, and more or less cloudy all night and though my six hours did not appear very long yet there was something so strange and exciting about it that I shall never forget my 6 hours as corporal in the city of Carthage. Most of the buildings that had escaped the usual destruction by fire were desolate and going to wreck as is the case in most little villages in South W Mo. During the night almost every old door & Windowshutter in the town was at the mercy of the winds, break! break! Slam Slam slam! bringing to mind all the old hobgoblin and ghost stories I had ever heard, in the distance howling and barking in concert, and occasionally an old Owl would startle us with his "too-whil" "too whil" "too

11 Sergeant Phineas J. Farley of Company F was discharged due to a disability on February 4, 1863. Reid, Ohio in the War, 2: 80. 12 Private Luman Winchell was transferred into the Twenty-fifth OVLA on February 7, 1863, and died in the general hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 27, 1864. Ibid., 2: 644. Campaigning Through Missouri 245

State Historical Society of Missouri

Completed in 1854, the two-story Jasper County courthouse in Carthage was destroyed by fire in October 1863, a year after McMahan and his unit sheltered there. who-o-a." I had heard of the hardships which union men had had to endure before Carthage was fully in possession of our forces, how that many of them had been taken out but a short distance into the bushes and brutally murdered and their bodies left to bleach without burial and many left dangling from the limbs to which they had been suspended by blood thirsty traitors. Also of the revenge that undoubtedly was taken upon these miscreants when the tide of power changed. Even the 2nd O.V.C. have shot not a few rebels in the neigh­ borhood of Carthage some they buried, others they left to be torn to pieces by hogs and dogs and birds of prey. Yes, I thought of all these things. Early in the evening when I saw one of the boys carelessly placing the heel of his boot in the under jawbone of some poor victim. This bone seemed exactly suited for a spur and from its shape can be easily fixed to the boot and the rowel as easily adjusted to the chin of the bone, but shame!! shame!! on such thoughts for entering the brain, but the law of association begets thought and can we help it?? It was determined that we should continue our march in advance of the train and so breakfast soon over we were again heading for Dixie but we had not gone far till we saw in and by the road a large number 246 Missouri Historical Review of fresh tracks (horses and mules). Our attention was drawn to this and after we had carefully examined the road further on concluded they had turned aside and took to the bush. Farly said he had played off as secesh on an old lady in town last night whose son was in a party of Jayhawkers and had been at home only a few nights before. She said also that Livingston with a band of 150 was at that time only a short distance from Carthage and intended to cut out squads of our men as they were on their way to the army below, and also attack the train if things should appear favorable.13 Taking all these things into consideration and knowing that our little squad was very poorly armed having only a few rounds for carbines and no certainty in the fire of this we concluded to "bout face" and await the train, 'twas not long before the advance made its appearance and we were soon in our proper position as part of the escort. We marched on to Sarcoxie where we arrived about 4 P.M.14 the air has grown quite cold and the drizzling has changed to sleet and snow. We are snugly housed tonight in an old storehouse on the Southwest side of the Square. Most of the buildings here are also deserted, and but few citizens dare remain perhaps they don't wish to as there is nothing now to prevent it except their unwillingness to take the oath. The Kansas 13th stayed here last night and when they left this morning they set fire to a very large Hall and office on the South east corner[,] its smolderings rising are yet in danger of firing the adjacent buildings unless carefully watched. There were several large stores and Dry Stores and 2 or three groceries and gaming Houses and places of refreshments and a very large tavern, but all have now suspended operations and are not likely to resume them very soon. Our boys are busy this evening with their explorations and I have no doubt will discover some­ thing before morning. Bought a pair of gloves this evening for $2.00 and sold Bina my old ones for $1.00.15 Oct. 25th. The doctor says fighting is going on at Pea Ridge. This morn­ ing snow about 1 inch deep. Are to march at 7. One of the boys gave me a copy of Anthon's Homer which he discovered somewhere in town, also sev­ eral other small volumes. Sutlers drink suffer'd last night our squad were quite jubilant, cost only the drawing. Our march to day was rough, being over a hilly and broken country. After marching about 16 miles we camped

13 Thomas R. Livingston led irregular forces against Federal troops in southwestern Missouri. He was killed on July 11, 1863, at the Stockton, Missouri, courthouse in a clash with Lieutenant W. A. McMinn's Seventy-sixth Missouri Enrolled Militia regiment. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), ser. 1, vol. 32, pt. 1: 445. Hereinafter cited as O. R.; all citations are to series 1. 14 Sarcoxie is in Jasper County. 15 McMahan is probably referring to Bina H: Rickard, who enlisted as a bugler in Company F. Rickard attained the rank of second lieutenant on March 29, 1865. Reid, Ohio in the War, 2: 637. Campaigning Through Missouri 247 at Jolly. There is a large Grist mill here run by water, and a distillery con­ nected with it. The place was formerly known as Isabels Mills. There is (or was) 2 stores, 2 grogeries, and one very large beautiful building in which lived an old Senator who had the honor of giving name to the place. This old Wiseacre was in the habit of canvassing his district and making big stump speeches, before the time of his election as is the case generally. Whether his speeches were of the 1st water, we are not told, but he was sure to wind up with an earnest appeal to his friends to accept his invitation to call around to his distillery and they would there have a regular "Jollyfication"16

McMahan and the Twenty-fifth OVLA continued south into Arkansas, occasionally skirmishing with the enemy, and participated in the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862. Soon, however, the unit was recalled to

16 Now a state historic site, the Jolly Mill was built in 1837 by George Isbel southeast of present-day Granby in Newton County. A two-story, "hand-hewn log building" with a cupola, the grain mill had originally been a brewery. Dorothy J. Caldwell, ed., Missouri Historic Sites Catalogue (Columbia: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1963), 114; Tulsa [Okla.] Daily World, 31 January 1962.

McMahan and the Twenty-fifth OVLA camped near Jolly Mill on their way to Arkansas in October 1862.

State Historical Society of Missouri 248 Missouri Historical Review

Missouri to a camp along Crane Creek, where the men were officially mus­ tered into the artillery service. From there the unit patrolled the south central part of the state, subject to the orders of Colonel William Weer, commander of the first division of the Army of the Frontier.17

Feb 26th, [1863]. Quite pleasant overhead. Saddles, bridles, whips, spurs, & blankets turned over and reissued. Lt Hubbard and escort took mis­ cellaneous horses to Springfield.18 Dance at Mount Vernon tonight.19 Some 25 of our boys went over. Given on the occasion of Capt. Stocktons last night with us in the Battery. I went to Mr Thatcher's about 1 1/2 miles south east of town. Mr Thatcher was formerly from Hamilton Co Ohio.20 Has two or three fine large farms here in Mo: is a union man and during the occupa­ tion of this section by the southern troops was at or near Rolla. After Price's retreat, returned home, joined the militia, and was taken prisoner by Coffee's men about the time of their raid to Lone Jack.21 So yet under parole though he had reported to Springfield some time since. Has been engaged for some time back in furnishing Herrons army with beef, was at the Battle of Prairie Grove.22 It was his mules and wagon we passed the day we left Blackburns woods. Roads were so muddy we had to light up. Met the 11th Ks to day

17 O. R., vol. 22, pt. 2: 130. 18 Lieutenant Edward B. Hubbard of Company A was transferred to the Twenty-fifth OVLA on February 17, 1863, and discharged due to a physical disability on September 12, 1864. Reid, Ohio in the War, 2: 56, 637. 19 Mount Vernon is in Lawrence County. 20 This probably refers to William M. Thatcher, who enlisted in the Sixth Missouri Cavalry, Company C, as a sergeant in July 1861. During most of 1862, he was detached as part of an escort to the paymaster at Rolla and later to the quartermaster's department of the Fourth Brigade. Thatcher's military service record states that he deserted on November 25, 1862, returned to his company on September 15, 1863, and was acquitted of the charge of desertion in early 1864. If Thatcher had deserted, the story about his capture and parole was fabricated to hide the fact from McMahan. Upon the expiration of his three years of service, Thatcher was mustered out on July 6, 1864. Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Missouri, M405, roll no. 149, "Sixth Cavalry Missouri, T-Wh," National Archives. 21 Sterling Price, a former Missouri governor, was appointed to command Missouri's Confederate forces by deposed Governor Claiborne F. Jackson. See Thomas L. Snead, "The First Year of the War in Missouri," in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, ed. R. U. Johnson and C. C. Buel (1884-1887; reprint, Secaucus, N.J.: Castle Publishing, 1991), 1: 268. The Battle of Lone Jack occurred on August 16, 1862. John Trousdale Coffee had fought as a vol­ unteer in the Mexican War and afterward with the regular cavalry. He had also served as a state senator, 1854-1855, and as speaker of the house in the Twentieth General Assembly. Leslie Anders, "Fighting the Ghosts at Lone Jack," Missouri Historical Review 79 (April 1985): 332- 333. 22 Brigadier General Francis J. Herron commanded the third division of the Army of the Frontier in the Department of the Missouri. He later participated in the Vicksburg campaign. O. R., vol. 22, pt. 1: 889; Ulysses S. Grant, "The Vicksburg Campaign," in Battles and Leaders, 3: 525, 526. Campaigning Through Missouri 249 about 3 miles this [side] of camp as we were on our way to town, several of their teams stuck in the mud. Feb 27th. Returned to Camp about noon: horse's back sore. Pony more life than bottom. On the evening of the 25th the 37th 111. camped in M't Vernon and had quite a time, there was a dance and some of the boys being drunk raised a row and broke it up. Next morning Col Allen of the Militia, turned out all the liquor in town.23 Boys have no affection for the Col, and they think he is somewhat tainted with secession. A few days ago he and Col Cloud were out after Livingston, gave chase but only captured a few and killed one captain.24 Col Allen would not permit his men to break ranks and chase the rebels as they should have done but kept them in line and as a mat­ ter of course could do but little with such a foe as Livingston. Whackers must be dealt with after their own style. When I returned to camp found the Bat had changed position from the low ground on the east side of the road to the high ground back of the farm buildings some 700 yards. Feb 28th. Some rain last night, but still pleasant to day. The word is we are to remain here for several days. March 1st. Beautiful and pleasant, hope this month which is usually so blustery will be as it has comme[n]c'd. This farm on which we are camp'd belongs to an Old Rebel by the name of Taliafero (pronounced tolifer) and contains 6, 80 acre lots.25 The Old Gentleman is unable to read[,] write and being the owner of several darkies was made believe that the object of the war was to oppose the Lincoln Government so as to protect this kind of prop­ erty. His son Jack was a secessionist and whatever he told the old man was received as truth and the result is they are all in the south and a militiaman now lives in his house. We are burning up the rails and I presume the farm will be bare before we leave it. This side Mount Vernon the timber is prin­ cipally oak, black Jacks, and White oaks[,] some hickory. In the Prairies (Ozark) are scrub oaks with Sassafras & Persimmon groves with an under­ growth of Hazel bushes and blackberry. Also Plenty of Shoemake. Lieut Hubbard back from Springfield this evening, boys are camp'd near Blackburns woods.

23 John Daugherty Allen, born in 1818, worked as a surveyor and sheriff before being appointed colonel of the Seventh Missouri State Militia in 1861. A year and a half before the end of the war, Allen was transferred into the U.S. Army. Jessie C. Miller et al., eds., Lawrence County Missouri History (Mount Vernon, Mo.: Lawrence County Historical Society, 1974), 113. 24 Colonel William F. Cloud commanded the second brigade of Weer's first division. O. R., vol. 22, pt. 1:889. 25 John Tolliver moved from Tennessee to Lawrence County in 1839 with his family and slaves and bought land northwest of Mount Vernon. Taliafero appears to have been the origi­ nal spelling of the surname. Miller et al., Lawrence County Missouri History, 449-450. 250 Missouri Historical Review

State Historical Society of Missouri

Both Union and Confederate forces foraged in the Ozarks region.

March 15th. Sabbath, very beautiful, warm and pleasant air balmy and sweet, birds as merry and happy as though 'twere May day. Had mounted inspection. Old man Roberts formerly from Warren Co Ohio visited us this P.M. Read us "Claib Jacksons last dream," from manuscript probably 150 verses 4 lines each, ten feet per line or intended to be.26 Strange old genius, this Roberts, strong unionist. Hid out for a long time when rebels were in possession of this part of Mo. Was also at Rolla a part of the time. Has dur­ ing this life been engaged in various employments[,] used to travel with a galvanic Battery, and electric apparatus give lectures &c&c. Has studied Fowlers works a great deal, shouldn't wonder if he has practiced feeling bump and giving charts.27 Also peddled books & maps, is acquainted with all this part Mo and even in the Indian Nation where he used to exhibit and in Arkansas where he says he got the dream. When he left camp this evening

26 Claiborne F. Jackson, who was elected governor of Missouri in August 1860, strongly supported the South and secession. He was forced to flee the state in 1861. Snead, "The First Year of the War in Missouri," 262-267. 27 Roberts may have practiced phrenology, the study of human skull shapes to determine a person's psychological makeup and intellectual capacity. This theory was developed by Viennese physician Dr. Franz Josef Gall but has since been discredited. QPB Dictionary of Ideas (New York: Quality Paperback Club, 1996), 409. Orson Squire Fowler popularized the study of phrenology in the United States. See O. S. Fowler, Human Science: or, Phrenology; its Principles (Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1873). Campaigning Through Missouri 251 gave me a very cordial invitation to call out and see him. lives about 3 miles North East of Camp in Ozark Prairie. March 16th. Today warm, quite so, grand review this P.M. Jno. Abells and I went out to the Old man Roberts this forenoon.28 He has 200 acres of very good land Prairie, lying partly on the dividing ridge between the waters of the Mo. & Arkansas. The water from the North side of his farm swims off to the Mo river. That on the south finds its way into the Arkansas. His house and orchard are on the South east part of the farm near an excellent spring of never failing water. He can tell many an interesting story of the war in this co. How this man was killed, that one hunted down like a wild beast and his bones left to bleach in the woods. Also his own narrow escapes from the rebels and bushwhackers, what band of ruffians burned down this and that house and left the families homeless and without anything left to eat. Said that one Mr Williams whose widow lives just east of camp Salomon was called out of his house one night by an Irishman and shot down in the door- yard. This Williams was secesh and was supposed by some to have bush­ whack'd it occasionally. When Paddy was asked why he did so he replied "Sure an' didn't I enlist to help put down the rebellion? Faith, and this is the way to do it." And I think Paddy was about right. For of all villains and ruf­ fians these whackers are the worst. Call at their house and if they are at home they are all good union men and perhaps before you are a mile distant from the house they will waylay and shoot at you from the bush, cowardly devils. Hanging is far too good for them, but the unionists and Ks men in this part of the west usually string up such fellows without ceremony. But very few of them are treated as prisoners of war when they are known to be bush­ whackers. March 17th. Revellie at 4 1/2 A.M. and ready to march at daylight for Forsyth. Rumor that rebels have attacked the Militia there and quite a fight ensued. Our forces had already lost 10 or 12 when messenger left. Officers were at Mount Vernon last night when the order came. Col. Wier was there and left instanter for the command and sent his order to the different Regimental and battery officers.29 Wishes to get a fight out of Marmaduke.30

28 John W. Abell had transferred from the Sixth OVC into Company I of the Second OVC on March 1, 1862, and was detached to the Twenty-fifth OVLA on February 17, 1863. He died on October 14, 1865, in a hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. Reid, Ohio in the War, 2: 95, 639. 29 Colonel William Weer commanded the first division of the Army of the Frontier. O.R., vol. 22, pt. 2: 130. 30 John Sappington Marmaduke, son of Meredith M. Marmaduke, governor of Missouri in 1844, was a West Point graduate. He was appointed brigadier general on November 15, 1862, and major general on March 18, 1865. In 1884 he was elected governor of Missouri. Mark Mayo Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, rev. ed. (New York: David McKay Company, 1988), 513. 252 Missouri Historical Review

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Bodies left hanging or unburied gave evidence of the terrible enmity existing between the opposing forces on Missouri's western border.

Rec'd letter from my brother this morning. Is at Camp Chase Columbus Ohio, is Capt. of Co E 2nd Reg [P.F.] Wrote but a few lines. Halted at Mount Vernon about an hour and a half and there on to Honey Creek where we camped for the night. Roads much better than when we passed over it before. Hadly, Johnston, and Knowlton came up to the command after we got into camp this evening.31 No drafting instruments for me. Brought with them about 70 dollars worth of ware, Platters, knives and forks, tincups, pans, &c. March 18th. Off at daylight passed through Marionville where we halt­ ed an hour or two and then on to McCullooks Springs where we ha[l]ted and camped for the night. It is just 26 miles from here to Springfield. Wrote this

31 Captain Julius L. Hadley, commander of the Twenty-fifth OVLA, rapidly moved up through the ranks. He served as a private and first sergeant in Company C of the Second OVC, then second lieutenant of Company D and first lieutenant of Company L. In spite of his unpop­ ularity with the troops, Hadley took command of the Twenty-fifth OVLA on February 17, 1863 He was mustered out with the battery on December 12, 1865. Dennis K. Boman, "Conduct and Revolt in the Twenty-fifth Ohio Battery: An Insider's Account," Ohio History 104 (summer- autumn 1995): 179-181; Reid, Ohio in the War, 2: 65, 70, 105, 637. Lieutenant Joseph R. Johnston also began his career as an enlisted man, serving as a corporal, sergeant, and first sergeant in Company E before transferring to the Twenty-fifth OVLA. He resigned his com­ mission on September 9, 1864. Reid, Ohio in the War, 2: 76, 637. Corporal Emery E. Knowlton transferred from Company D of the Second OVC into the Twenty-fifth OVLA on February 17,1863, and was promoted to sergeant on February 18, 1864. He was commissioned as captain of the Fourth Arkansas Cavalry on October 18, 1864, and resigned on May 14 1865 Ibid., 2: 71, 638. ' Campaigning Through Missouri 253

PM to Thadd. There is talk of our not going farther than this camp, since we have learned that the surprise at Forsyth was nothing but an attack of a few rebels on a foraging party some miles from Forsyth. Only a man or two killed. Troops have already been sent there from Springfield both Infantry & Artillery, they will not stay there long. We learned also that we would have started for Fort Scott this morning had we remained in Camp Salomon. Hope we will be ordered there soon. March 19th. Up at 4 but did not march 'til 9. Started toward Springfield but turned soon on the righthand road. After marching 12 or 15 miles over a very mountainous country covered as usual with fragments of flint & pass­ ing only 2 or 3 houses all day we halted at James River in the valley, moun­ tains all around us. High bluffs on both sides of the river. The 1st high bluff on south side of river and above camp had harbored a nest of marauders high up in a cave where the Ks 10th found a shot gun, blankets, hams, and corn- meal, also boiled ham, and cornbread. The gentlemen had left rather sud­ denly and whether in the rear of the cavern or somewhere else no one could tell though search was made until after dark, blankets were taken out and burned. March 20th. Col seems to be undecided as where he shall go. Has rec'd an order that it is not necessary to go farther toward Forsyth. Rumor was in camp last night that we start back this morning. But to delude us we were ready and detained until nearly noon when the advance with the Ks 11th marched off as if to cross the river. Wier and staff who had gone on to the river now returned and meeting the 11th on their way to the river ordered a countermarch. Such cheering for it saved them a wade in deep water and cold enough for comfort. After reaching the ridge again we took to the left, and after marching 7 or 8 miles halted at the mouth of Crane creek at R s [sic] Mills near James River.32 This is the 2nd town of importance in Stone Co. There are a few houses and room for more. It is only 4 or 5 miles up James River to our last camp. Beautiful bluffs on south side of river. We are to remain here a day or two, says madam rumor and she knows. March 21st. Lay in camp to day and took sketch of bluff and plat of camp. March 22nd. Though this is Sabbath yet we are to march. Ks troops are to return to Ks. The 3rd Wis Cav. 9th Wis Inf. and our Battery go to Forsyth. Had heavy rain last night but pleasant this morning. Col Wier having called his Kansans together made a short speech to them in which he stated that we had volunteered to defend Forsyth and let the Ks troops go home. Three

32 This is probably a reference to Reynold's Mill, built in the early 1850s by Henry Reynolds and burned down during the Civil War. History of Stone County Missouri (Marionville, Mo.: Stone County Historical Society, 1989), 198-199. 254 Missouri Historical Review

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Bluffs on the James River Near Galena hearty cheers were given for Wier. 3 for the Dutch and three for the 25th Ohio. The command then left for Ks and we under Col Wier soon after left for Forsyth: After a rough march of 8 or 10 miles over hills and through gul­ lies we arrived at Galena County seat of Stone Co about 5 P.M. Our teams did not get in until after dark 2 or 3 of the wagons having upset, especially the one belonging to the 1st Section. This Co. is well named for there seems to be but little land fit for cultivation. Galena is a small village containing about a dozzen houses[,] most of these very small and at present unoccupied the court house is an ordinary 2 story prairie building now used by some car­ penters. 2 or 3 storehouses and a grocery or two besides a few small shops make up the trading establishments of the city. James River passes just to the east and runs nearly south. There is a company of Militia stationed here, about 40 in number under command of Capt. White. They state that near Berryville, south of White river is a large band of Guerrillas under McFarland and numbering about 100. These are death on the militia where they take them: hate them 10 fold worse than they do the Feds. Two com­ panies have been station'd here until within a few days back, the other Co is now west of this and has had several skirmishes with whackers lately killing some and taking but few prisoners, and when they do take them, if it can be ascertained they are whackers they are not treated as prisoners of war but strung up without further ceremony.

The first division under Colonel Weer soon traveled south into Arkansas. While on scouting expeditions, the division fought several skirmishes with Campaigning Through Missouri 255

Confederate General John Sappington Marmaduke but engaged in no large pitched battles. In this final excerpt from the journal, McMahan detailed the military movement toward Hartville, Missouri, and General Marmaduke's retreat.33

April 26th. Hard rain last night. Left this morning at 8 for Hartsville, county seat of [Wright] county.34 Roads bad and cannoniers have to walk. Small streams are up, water plenty. Marched 18 miles and halted at Hartsville and camped near the large spring north of town. Have the best kind of water in this country. About 6 miles west of this (Hartsville) Warren and Marmaduke had a skirmish. Warren threw a few shells in Marmaduke's ranks and they left for Hartsville. Warren also put for H by another road and so the two forces met here in the city and had quite a fight the court house is full of holes from cannon shot. The citizens say that full fifty men in all were buried here after the fight. Marmaduke was compelled to retreat.35 Hartsville like all other little villes of Mo. is nearly used up, only a few families live here. This community was nearly all secesh. A small company of Militia are stationed here and every day or two shoot down a bushwhacker or a desert­ er from the rebel army who has come home and lurking in the brush to avoid being taken prisoner by the Feds. They had far better give themselves up as prisoners of war. Hartsville is just 40 miles from Lebanon via Cave Spring, and 35 miles to Houston. The rain has so swollen the Gasconade that we may have to wait a day or two to cross. There is a large steam mill here.

On May 20, 1863, McMahan wrote a letter to his hometown newspaper, the Mahoning [Ohio] Sentinel, in which he expressed the view widely held among many Union soldiers that the South had conspired to subvert the democratic process and had sought to establish a southern "Slavocracy."36 The Ohioan especially abhorred the guerrilla factions with which he and his fellow soldiers contended in Missouri. "They are an unprincipled and law­ less appendage to the rebel service, are cruel and blood thirsty as the savage,

33 See Marvin R. Cain and John F. Bradbury, Jr., "Union Troops and the Civil War in Southwestern Missouri and Northwestern Arkansas," Missouri Historical Review 88 (October 1993): 29-47. 34 Apparently, McMahan intended to provide the name of the county later. The town's name is Hartville. 35 General Fitz Henry Warren's troops engaged General Marmaduke's troops in Hartville on January 11, 1863. See O. R., vol. 22, pt. 1: 189-191; Paul M. Robinett, "Marmaduke's Expedition into Missouri: The Battles of Springfield and Hartville, January, 1863," Missouri Historical Review 58 (January 1964): 151-173. 36 McMahan journal, 20 May 1863, McMahan Papers. 256 Missouri Historical Review and scruple not to use any means in their power to accomplish their purpos­ es." Regardless of the cost, he believed that the country must be reunited again. Despite all that he had seen, or perhaps because of it, he strongly favored waging "total war"; one that would wreak revenge upon the rebels.37 After serving in the campaign to conquer Little Rock, Arkansas, McMahan grew restless in the garrison at Fort Steele and again sought active military service. When his efforts to gain an officer's commission failed, he decided to return to civilian life at the conclusion of his enlistment. McMahan went back to Pennsylvania and resumed his studies, receiving his diploma from Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny City on April 18, 1866.38 During that time, he married Maria A. Walkinshaw, who eventu­ ally bore him eight children.39 As a Presbyterian minister, McMahan lived in Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota, and Missouri. He eventually moved to Jasper City, Missouri, not far from his Civil War adventures, where he died of pneu­ monia on January 11, 1892, at the age of fifty-nine.40

37 For an excellent account of the role that revenge played in intensifying the conflict see Michael Fellman, Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 92, 184-192. 38 Western Theological Seminary, diploma, 18 April 1866, McMahan Papers. 39 Robert T. McMahan and Maria A. Walkinshaw, marriage license, 26 February 1866; undated pages recording dates of children's births and deaths, ibid. Two of the children died in infancy. 40 Unidentified newspaper clipping of McMahan obituary, ibid.

Imagine the Fun

Canton Press, February 11, 1898. Extracts from the Klondike Gazette. A very attractive cotillion was held last evening at Mrs. Col. Stiggins. The dancers enjoyed themselves until a late hour. The costumes were very handsome. Miss Mamie Stiggins appeared in a new gown of Canton flannel trimmed with polar-bear skin, and ear tabs of seal. Mrs. J. Mortimer Peavey was handsomely attired in a stunning creation of her own make, the skirt having six godets, made of army blankets, trimmed with astrakhan and spattered with gold dust. The waist was constructed of jute bagging, with a fichu of crash toweling. Other ladies presented an equally fine appearance. The favors were of the useful kind, and consisted of coal, soda crackers and a delightful variety of canned vegetables. It is hoped that we shall have many functions of a similar nature during the coming season. . . .—Harper's Bazaar. State Historical Society of Missouri

Eugene Fields Lover s Lane, St. Jo

Eugene Field and the Political Journalism of St. Joseph

BY LEWIS O. SAUM*

Eugene Field has held a firm place in St. Joseph's heritage. In the 1870s he spent a good deal of time there, especially after marrying Julia Comstock, a member of a large St. Joseph family. In mid-decade he had full-time involvement there with the St. Joseph Gazette. Some of his very popular poetry, most of which came later, hearkened back to his times in Buchanan County. "Lover's Lane, St. Jo" yet figures in the maps of the city, and its identity got poetic underscoring as Field looked back fondly from a perhaps ill-advised European stay at the end of the 1880s.

SAINT JO, Buchanan County, Is leagues and leagues away;

*Lewis O. Saum received the Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Missouri- Columbia in 1962. He taught for three years at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield before moving to the University of Washington, Seattle, where he was a professor in the Department of History until his retirement in 1998.

257 258 Missouri Historical Review

And I sit in the gloom of this rented room, And pine to be there to-day. Yes, with London fog around me And the bustling to and fro, I am fretting to be across the sea In Lover's Lane, Saint Jo.

It will surprise no one that politics had no place in this scene of recollection as the poet enjoins his "brown-eyed maiden":

Let us sit awhile, beloved, And dream of the good old days,—

With your head upon my shoulder, And my arm about you so, Though exiles, we shall seem to be In Lover's Lane, Saint Jo.1

The nostalgic versifier moved the setting to one he loved almost beyond all others in a poem titled "With Brutus in St. Jo." As Field made his acquaintance with the city, a new and impressive place for theatrical activity came into being, and that involvement with Brutus begins there.

OF all the opry-houses then obtaining in the West The one that Milton Tootle owned was, by all odds, the best; . . .

Here too, sentiment and something bordering on exile inform matters as the poet and his interlocutor, recruited with others to serve as "supes" in the armies of Brutus and Marc Antony, bemoan the theatrical diminution of tragedy. It was a serio-comic tale of woe,

By which you see that public taste has fallen mighty low Since we fought as Roman soldiers with Brutus in St. Jo!2

Field's "The 'St. Jo Gazette'" moved things somewhat more toward mat­ ters political. In it he made the rounds of the city, with multi-faceted seg-

1 Eugene Field, "Lover's Lane, St. Jo," Second Book of Verse, vol. 3 of The Works of Eugene Field (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896), 37-39. 2 Field, "With Brutus in St. Jo," Songs and Other Verse, vol. 9 of The Works of Eugene Field (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896), 112-118. Eugene Field 259

State Historical Society of Missouri Called a "magnificent temple of amusement," Tootle's Opera House was erected in 1872 and could accommodate 1,500 people. ments yielding to this refrain: "When I helped 'em run the local on the 'St. Jo Gazette.'" Politics gained the "local's" attention in only one couplet:

For squibs political I'd go to Colonel Waller Young, Or Colonel James N. Burnes, the "statesman with the silver tongue;". . .

The sentimental tone that must have assured St. Joseph's appreciation crept in near the end of this piece. The poet allowed a wonderment as to whether "discontent" had figured "amid the toil I daily underwent."

If so, I don't remember; this only do I know,— My thoughts turn ever fondly to that time in old St. Jo.3

These three items came over a decade after Field's direct involvement in St. Joseph, and each had sufficient nostalgia to make it pleasing to sentimen­ tal susceptibilities. But Field—a very political man himself, as will be evi­ dent—had entered a St. Joseph setting replete with political tension, drama,

Field, "The 'St. Jo Gazette,'" Second Book of Verse, 147-152. 260 Missouri Historical Review

and near tragedy. The Civil War afforded, of course, the backdrop for such things, and with that in mind, the year 1868 provides a point of departure for the excitement Field would observe beginning in the very early 1870s. Eighteen-sixty-eight saw the return to St. Joseph of a man who, as his name might suggest, was a native of Virginia. James Hampton Roads Cundiff came as a boy with his family to the Platte country in 1840, and in the following two decades, he learned the printing and newspaper business. One of the founders of the Gazette, Cundiff made it a determined exponent of Democratic politics, and that has some congruence with his casting his lot with the Confederacy in 1861. He served through most of the conflict, and with Jo Shelby and others, he crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico. He tried agricultural pursuits and then became involved in railroad work. The Mexican situation then took an ominous turn, and after two and a half years south of the border, Cundiff made his way back to Missouri. There in mid- 1868 he reestablished his connection with the St. Joseph Gazette* The man who would shortly become his decidedly opposite number had also been doing some moving in those difficult years, some of it physical and some of it attitudinal. Charles Brownell Wilkinson had been born in upstate New York five years before his counterpart Cundiff. Apparently connected with prominent Wilkinsons such as Jemima and General James, C. B. Wilkinson did well in journalism and law in his native state and Ohio. In 1860 he arrived in St. Joseph and began a law practice, combining that with speeches championing the Democratic gospel as espoused by Stephen A. Douglas. Perhaps Cundiff's absence made a return to newspaper work more inviting to Wilkinson, and in 1862 he helped launch the Herald.5 Wilkinson's version of the Democratic faith had union as a mainstay, an emphasis not only removed from Cundiff's but sufficiently offensive to some Democrats of the area as to send Wilkinson, on one occasion, scampering across the river into Kansas and north into Nebraska in momentary exile. Almost inexorably, many union Democrats drifted into the Republican Party, and whatever the details of the gravitation, Wilkinson's Herald openly embraced the Republican candidacy of U. S. Grant in the election of 1868. One can do little more than wonder about the association of these two Democrats in the months they were together in St. Joseph just before war came. In 1868 they had come to represent intensely differing views, and they would continue to do so for the next few exciting years.

4 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 28 June 1868. 5 Basic reference sources for the region, such as the 1881 History of Buchanan County, Missouri (St. Joseph, Mo.: Union Historical Company, 1881) provide the outline of Wilkinson's career and, in less detail, Cundiff's. Eugene Field 261

Ads in the St. Joseph city directory dated 1868-1869 leave no doubt as to the relative positions of the newspapers. The full page devoted to the Gazette had this oversized pronouncement at the top: "DEMOCRATIC IN POLITICS!" Four pages earlier, the Herald ad featured this at midpage:

A REPUBLICAN PAPER, True to Liberty, Loyalty, Humanity and the Spirit of Progress.

Here it might be noted that Cundiff's Gazette and Wilkinson's Herald did not stand at the poles of the political spectrum of the time and of St. Joseph. Wilkinson's national union posture, illustrated by his participation in the Missouri contingent at an 1866 gathering in Philadelphia, did not pass muster in the view of the St. Joseph Union and its editor, R. C. Mitchell. The effort to continue the uneasy "Union" combination of the 1864 election—essen­ tially, Republicans and war Democrats—probably seemed an unacceptable compromise to that paper. Its ad in that same city directory had the attention- getting hand with index finger directed to this assertion: "The UNION is the only Radical Daily Paper published in the English language in the Seventh Congreesional District." That typographical error in the word Congressional had errant company. A stickler might say that placement of the Union between the Gazette and the Herald misrepresented the situation, and the table of contents indicates that yet another paper was to have an ad, which seems not to have materialized. The St. Joseph Missouri Vindicator appeared for a few months in 1868, and one assumes that it was slipping into disrepair or nonexistence when it came time to pay for the ad.6 These four English-language papers had identifiable places on a contin­ uum. To that "Radical" paper, the Union, national sovereignty was essential, but that served as precondition for the sorts of racial, social, and political alterations that men such as Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner espoused at the congressional level. As often happens, the Union and the Herald, with varying degrees of a like sentiment, spent a good deal of time pillorying each other. Likewise, Cundiff had for opposition not only these two varieties of Republican-unionist-Radical expression clear for all to see; he had as well,

6 The city directory was dated 1868-9 but published in 1868. The ads cited appeared on pages 67, 69, and 71. A table of contents on page 191 indicated that the Missouri Vindicator would have an ad. St. Joseph City Directory, 1868-9 (St. Joseph, Mo.: Frank Swick, Publisher, 1868). For a brief treatment of the delegation and its Philadelphia activities see the August 17, 1866, Columbia Missouri Statesman. The tenuousness of that "Union" political effort can be seen in the delegation's appeal to the central embodiment of that "Union"—a lifelong Democrat, President Andrew Johnson. Wilkinson—a Democrat turned Republican—repre­ sented that tenuousness in another manner. 262 Missouri Historical Review for a time in 1868, a previously mentioned crosstown rival of the notorious "red-hot" version of the Democratic faith, that being none other than the redoubtable Peter Donan and the St. Joseph Missouri Vindicator. For what­ ever reason, Donan's ad did not get placed in that city directory, and little trace of the Missouri Vindicator remains. The assumption that it much resembled what Donan would present in the Lexington Caucasian a few years later seems borne out by some of "Our Doctrines" as stated in the one extant issue: "This is a WHITE MAN'S Government, made by WHITE MEN, for WHITE MEN and their Posterity FOREVER! DOWN WITH THEN !!"7 The two radical extremes—the Union and the Vindicator—did not flour­ ish. The latter folded sometime in late 1868, and the former continued on in weekly form into the early 1870s. Cundiff and Wilkinson had the dominat­ ing roles in the press of the city, Wilkinson more than Cundiff. A matter of personality may account for Cundiff's lesser visibility. An editorial titled "New Series of the Gazette" in late June 1868 betokened the return of Cundiff and the revival of the Gazette. One assumes that Cundiff himself stated the "two leading objects" of the renewed paper: "First, to aid in wrest­ ing the government from the corrupt, profligate and tyrannical party now in power."8 That has clarity and directness, as does the effort to promote the prosperity of the region. Cundiff seems, however, not to have relished the embroideries that came easily to others. What was said of him suggests that the word gentleman may have had aptness. In 1873, William L. Visscher, who had already befriended Field in St. Louis and would join Field in enlivening St. Joseph in the mid-1870s, pub­ lished a little book that featured the newsmen of the city and surrounding area. Himself a Republican and an employee of Wilkinson's Republican Herald, "Vissch" dedicated his work to "J. H. R. Cundiff, especially," and to other newsmen "generally." The brief sketch on Cundiff in the body of the work described him as "a deep thinker and a strong writer," as well as a man who knew the business "from the roller to the leading editorial pen."

He is dignified and logical in his style, and nothing can provoke him to descend to the "mud throwing" personalities of journalism. He has the abil­ ity to say the most scathing things when it would seem to others to be nec­ essary, but he will not allow himself to be betrayed into that most unpleas­ ant feature of American newspaperdom. ... He is a very warm friend, who

7 St. Joseph Missouri Vindicator, 23 May 1868. This issue told that the paper had gotten under way in late January 1868. It apparently petered out in October, leaving one to assume that it was essentially an election-year paper. 8 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 28 June 1868. Eugene Field 263

Eugene Field

State Historical Society of Missouri

never forgets a favor, but as an enemy, he is hardly a success, for he cannot bear malice.9

The native of Virginia who had sojourned in Mexico served on the Democratic Party's state central committee, but his presence, both public and professional, pales in comparison with that of his counterpart, Wilkinson. At whatever pace, Wilkinson moved during these most critical years from the Democratic Party to the Republican. For him and others, union had become the imperative, and as previously mentioned, he had an active part in a twenty-man delegation in August 1866 to a national union gathering in Philadelphia.10 In this same, immediate postwar setting, he served a term in the state legislature, and wherever he was, his political views suffered no concealment. On the page opposite that vignette regarding Democrat Cundiff, "Vissch" placed a briefer piece regarding his own employer, C. B. Wilkinson. According to this assessment, Wilkinson had and deserved "the reputation of being one of the very best editorial writers in the West." Visscher continued in a way that separated Republican Wilkinson from his Democratic opponent. "His literary style is rather on the burlesque and satire order, and in personal journalism he is an enemy to be feared."11

9 William Lightfoot Visscher, "VISSCH." A Book of Sketches, Rhymes and Other Matters (St. Joseph, Mo.: J. B. Johnson, Publisher, 1873), 154. 10 Columbia Missouri Statesman, 17 August 1866. 11 Visscher, "VISSCH.," 155. 264 Missouri Historical Review

What "Vissch" wrote in 1873 registers well that "enemy to be feared" in the "personal journalism" that waxed in the tense election year of 1868. On September 13, for example, Wilkinson's Herald fired one of a good many shots at its Radical Republican opponent, the Union. That paper had ascribed a certain motivation to some of the Herald's editorial pronouncements, get­ ting this correction: "There is not one word of truth in that assertion, and the editor of the Union knew that he was lying when he wrote it."12 Two days later the Herald altered the indictment of the Union, expressing wonderment or doubt that "any sane man" could so misconstrue what the Herald had pro­ nounced.13 Here Republican Wilkinson berated his Radical Republican competitor, but he did not lose sight of the Democratic organ in the city, however gen­ tlemanly its editor may have been. That was all the more the case in the hurly-burly of the 1868 election campaign. Though somewhat modulated, the Gazette could get Wilkinson's attention, and his rancor. On September 10, Cundiff's paper mocked the Herald's comparatively happy view of black progress in parts of Latin America, noting that "decay, anarchy and ruin" pre­ vailed wherever that race predominated.14 Some two weeks later, Cundiff's paper triggered a considerable reaction from Wilkinson when it disparaged General John A. Dix after Dix openly pronounced opposition to the Democratic candidate for president, Horatio Seymour. The Gazette dis­ missed Dix as a "wretched old parody upon a soldier."15 Wilkinson responded the next day, quoting that offending passage and then dilating. In fact, maligning Dix may have worked an especial affront on Wilkinson. Boy-officer in the War of 1812, Dix later served as U.S. senator from New York. A lifelong Democrat, he missed even higher office because of southern opposition. When crisis and confusion came at the end of the Buchanan administration, Dix served briefly as secretary of the treasury. In late January 1861, he gave a notable directive to treasury officials in New Orleans regarding the security of a federal revenue cutter. In his rebuttal to ex-Confederate Cundiff, Wilkinson invoked its general spirit without quoting these famous words: "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." The man at the Herald left no doubt as to meaning in referring to Dix's position as the "key-note" of the war and as assurance that he would be "despised by traitors." "It is meet and proper that the gal-

St. Joseph Morning Herald, 13 September 1868. Ibid., 15 September 1868. St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 10 September 1868. Ibid., 23 September 1868. Eugene Field 265 lant old man should be despised by the editor of the St. Joseph Gazette. He fought for his country, while his maligner fought for its overthrow."16 In the same year that "Vissch" published his assessment of St. Joseph newsmen, and in the year that Field married a St. Joseph girl, Wilkinson got involved in a fracas deriving from his acerbity in political commentary. As described in a Jefferson City dispatch to the St. Louis Daily Globe, it involved "An Enraged Official," and it involved "Col. Wilkinson, of the St. Joe Herald, Assaulted by the Penitentiary Factor." That enraged factor proved to be none other than Waller Young, to whom in versed recollection, Field went to glean "squibs political." Not surprisingly, the "casus belli" of the "unpleasantness" that occurred in the House lobby of the capitol involved an editorial. Author Wilkinson sat in the lobby, and factor Young approached with "violent passion," then striking the older man on the side of the head.17 The Globe report then quoted lengthily from the "casus belli," that Herald editorial. In it Wilkinson ridiculed the appointment by the new gov­ ernor, Silas Woodson, a Democrat from St. Joseph, of Waller Young to the position of penitentiary factor. Aside from being the brother of Woodson's law partner, Young had no qualifications for the position. To be sure, the "'fawning parasites'" of the governor had taken to calling the man "'Judge Young,'" but that did not impress Wilkinson. "'He was never Judge of any-

St. Joseph Morning Herald, 24 September 1868. St. Louis Daily Globe, 27 February 1873.

State Historical Society of Missouri

,^^^ i $ I

Silas Woodson served as governor from ?J1BF T5F 1873 to 1875. Upon his retirement from . ft i executive office, Woodson returned to his St. Joseph law practice and was later appointed judge of the criminal court of Buchanan County. 266 Missouri Historical Review thing, outside of a brandy-smash [sic], that we can learn.'" Before closing, Wilkinson called attention to other, similar appointments by the new gover­ nor, almost equally shameful parts of a '"ring performance.'" One wonders which of the St. Louis journalistic wags ended the Jefferson City dispatch in this fashion: "The Chaplain of the House failed to utter his accustomed peti­ tion to the Throne of Grace, this morning, else the Angel of Peace might have been hovering around and angry thoughts and intents dispelled."18 Likely suspects include George Gilson, Stanley Huntley, and Stanley Waterloo. And Eugene Field, just returned from Europe with the brother of that St. Joseph girl he would marry later that year, might well have been receptive to a tem­ porary appointment while getting himself more stably settled. Whatever the case, talk of a penitentiary and a ring in early 1873 strikes one as eerie antic­ ipation of what would beset St. Joseph two and three years later. Wilkinson's talents came into play in other than day-to-day newspaper tasks. In 1872 he served as a Republican presidential elector, an honorary designation but indicative of high regard. At the second annual meeting of the Missouri Editors' and Publishers' Association in St. Louis in 1868, he delivered the featured address. Earnest and somewhat grandiloquent, it had little place for politics. Interestingly, this former Democrat, in commending the press as teacher, guardedly invoked a hallowed part of the credo of his former party. The press, he noted, had taught the American people to "believe, and ever preserve, the States of the Union 'distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea.'"19 Three years later when the organization met in St. Joseph, Wilkinson, then vice president, took the role of poet with a piece titled "The Editor," and at the same gathering, he was selected president for the coming year. As befitted the partly playful nature of such conclaves, "The Editor" had some droll lines, but an undercurrent of the sardonic was there also.20 Almost an even year later in late May 1872, Wilkinson held forth on an occasion where the sardonic had no place but the solemn did. At the Decoration Day ceremonies at St. Joseph's Mount Mora Cemetery, he gave the major address. Remembrance was in order, but a certain confusion was much to be avoided. Not far into his remarks, he dilated sternly on that dis­ avowal. This day of solemn remembrance was not meant to encompass Confederate graves or Confederate dead, as some were making bold to sug­ gest. That involved a "sad perversion." The day belonged to "the memory

18 Ibid. Most of two years later, an item in the personals column of the December 19, 1874, St. Joseph Daily Gazette told that "Waller Young, Esq., state senator elect," had left for Jefferson City. 19 J. W. Barrett, comp., History and Transactions of the Editors' and Publishers' Association of Missouri 1867-1876 (Canton, Mo.: Canton Press Print, 1876), 10. 20 Ibid., 50-53. This poem also appeared in the May 25,1871, St. Joseph Morning Herald. Eugene Field 267 of heroes who fell in defense of the Republic, and patriots will not pervert and pollute it by attempting to preserve alike the memory of those who slew them." It was "perversion" to try to salvage those latter from "merited infamy or charitable oblivion." If Wilkinson spoke fully the text that appeared in his paper the next day, this theme must have occupied him near ten minutes, and it was never far from the focus of his attention. A year before, the committee that had selected him the next president of the editor­ ial association included J. H. R. Cundiff. That ex-Confederate might have mused with at least partial agreement if his eye or ear encountered this one of Wilkinson's thoughts: "those dark days are part and parcel of the present." Both men would be gone before it became common to view it otherwise.21 While these things transpired in St. Joseph, Eugene Field was making his way west. Born in St. Louis in 1850, he lost his mother at mid-decade and then spent the years of late childhood and early youth with relatives in New England. The westering came as an educational odyssey, from Williams College to Knox College in Illinois and then in the fall of 1870 to the University of Missouri. In Columbia he met Edgar V. Comstock and, in time, the Comstock family of St. Joseph, especially young Julia. Few details of timing remain, but in the summer of 1872, he spent an interval in St. Joseph shortly before a European sojourn on which he took Edgar Comstock. Aboard a Missouri River steamer bound for St. Louis, the brothers-in-law-to- be engaged in the political antics that would culminate in the election when they were in France. In a letter to Julia, Field told that, on that steamer ride, he had spoken up for Liberal Republican Horace Greeley while her brother stayed loyal to President Grant.22 Perhaps what happened in Missouri in those years taught Field to eschew renegade movements—Liberal, mug­ wump, Populist, or whatever. He seems not to have made the mistake again. Early the next year he returned from Europe, and that fall he married Julia. Evidently, he had come to know the prominent people of his near- adoptive city, as the Herald indicated the day after the wedding. Notable fig­ ures at the wedding reception included Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Wilkinson and J. H. R. Cundiff.23 But the Wilkinson-Cundiff editorial vis-a-vis had ended; ten days before that marriage, Cundiff had sold the Gazette.24 Perhaps the new management could be held responsible for reporting that Field had married Ida Comstock rather than her younger sister, Julia.25

21 St. Joseph Morning Herald, 31 May 1872. 22 Eugene Field to Julia Comstock, 2 September 1872, in Some Love Letters of Eugene Field (Buffalo, N.Y., 1927). This handful of letters was privately published with a foreword by Thomas B. Lockwood. The author used the copy at the Huntington Library, HM 317013. 23 St. Joseph Morning Herald, 17 October 1873. 24 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 1, 7 October 1873. The October 1 issue advertised the sale, and the October 7 issue told of its having been done. 25 Ibid., 16 October 1873. 268 Missouri Historical Review

Julia (Comstock) Field

State Historical Society of Missouri

Field became an adept at skewed information of one kind or another, so that Gazette error may have troubled him less than it did Julia, or Ida. But Cundiff's departure from that paper may have begotten personnel changes that cleared the way for Field to put in that mid-decade stint when he "helped 'em run the local" on the St. Joseph Gazette. The previously mentioned 1873 book by "Vissch" told that G. W. Buckingham was local editor of the Gazette, as does the 1873 city directory. "Vissch" added that "Buck" had held that position "so long that 'the memory of man runneth not to the con­ trary.'"26 By 1875 that had changed, and the city directory of that year shows "Buck" at the Herald.21 It seems fair to assume that "Buck's" move provid­ ed the opening for Field at the Gazette, one more compelling now that Julia's father had died, leaving Julia's mother and three younger sisters needing attention. A frequent visitor, Field now became, for a time, a fixture.28

26 Visscher, "VISSCH.," 154. 27 "Buck" did not appear in the 1877 directory. 28 In the fall of 1873 after Field's marriage to Julia, Alexander Comstock, age sixty, had a bad fall on a St. Joseph street, which apparently contributed to his death in December 1874. See St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 15 December 1874. His father-in-law's death and another reor­ ganization of the Gazette probably did a fair amount to cause Field to make the move to St. Joseph. The St. Joseph stay began in early 1875 and probably ended in mid-1876. With her husband's death, the widow Comstock was left with three minor girls, and Julia's assistance was likely valued by her mother. Those three, especially Augusta, the youngest, moved in and out of the Field residences in St. Louis and Kansas City. This situation begot the story that Field referred to it as "the Comstock load." Eugene Field 269

Across the page from his description of "Buck," Visscher devoted a para­ graph to Howard R. Hetrick, product of a comfortable Pennsylvania setting and known to all as "Het." The description began by styling him "a regular Bohemian." Then Visscher elaborated a bit on the man who, when not wan­ dering coast to coast, served as city editor of the Herald29 Sixteen years later, Visscher recalled "Het" and "Buck" doing impressive local work in St. Joseph and perhaps thereby setting challenging standards for Field when he arrived. According to Visscher, "Het" and "Buck" quickly rounded up the evident, denotative news items, and they then repaired to a place serving "the amber Teutonic beverage which they delighted in." Here they set to work "writing up events that had occurred—in their minds." They penned their tales and passed them back and forth, rewriting and paraphrasing, and then going their separate ways with plenty of arresting copy. Both papers carried those slightly variant items, so they seemed legitimate, though both versions were short of precise locations and the like. "In this manner 'Het' and 'Buck' slew babies, cut off men's legs with mowing machines, drowned boys in the river, and flung the direst accidents about in an appalling but harmless man­ ner."30

29 Visscher, "VISSCH.," 155-156. 30 Visscher, "Tales of Many Cities," Tacoma (Wash.) Morning Globe, 25 April 1889. Whatever became of "Buck," the fabled "Het"—once "as handsome as a picture" with "the physique of an athlete, the buoyancy of youth and a face that was perpetual humor"—came to a sad end shortly after "Vissch" recalled him in the Tacoma newspaper. Back in St. Joseph in 1889, "Het" was jailed at the behest of his friends who hoped to bring him out of a "protract­ ed spree." There he found a hideous way to end his alcoholic decline. Jefferson City Daily Tribune, 26 June 1889.

The Field Residence, St. Joseph

State Historical Society of Missouri v J )/;'- /..- \ ^

'If Uy 270 Missouri Historical Review

Field certainly knew "Het" and "Buck," but his imaginative forays seem to have taken different form. His few identifiable marks at the Gazette involved sports and entertainment and, here and there, politics. With the fabled 1876 election a few months away, he had some thoughts to offer. Almost surely, he wrote as "Slim Jeems," giving Gazette readers "The Three Black Crows. A Metaphorical Allusion" in verse. Near those three black crows, "black as black could be," sat three readily identifiable politico-jour­ nalistic figures of that time and place—Morrison Munford, John M. McMichael, and H. Martin Williams. Two of the three Field liked, and for one of them he would go to work in a few years, but the politics of all three offended him.

Said each of these unto the other, "Say, shall we eat our crow together?"

In Field's view, those three Democrats had experience at that, and so he put them metaphorically at work on those three crows then confronting them— hard money, soon-to-be governor John Smith Phelps, and not-to-be president Samuel Tilden.31 Three and a half years later, Morrison Munford of the Kansas City Times hired Field, and the ex-Confederate and the staunch Republican apparently got along well during their time together. Another of that trio eating crow aroused Field's open dislike, him who appeared poetically as "McMy," that being John McMichael of the nearby Plattsburg Lever. A few days before his crow-eating appearance, McMichael received on the front page of the Gazette an intricate parody that was certainly Field's. The Lever man, a native of Ohio, here came into highly imaginative association with former congressman and former governor William Allen, the "Ohio gong," who had near the end of his long Democratic career championed the greenback cause. To detractors such as Field, that meant inflation, soft money, or, with most derisive force, the rag baby. At the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis at the end of June 1876, the party turned a deaf ear to Allen's rag baby candidacy, choosing hard-money man Samuel Tilden. That meant the demise of the rag baby that McMichael had "adopted," and thus the "Tragic Death of Little William Allen of Plattsburg." In an account that must have mysti­ fied some and delighted others, the "inflation" process undoes rag baby

31 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 21 July 1876; Eugene Field to B. B. Cahoon, 4 August 1877, George N. Meissner Collection, Washington University, St. Louis. This segmented "Journal to Cahoon" had various parts. This one bears no year, but context makes it surely 1877. Among other things, Field told of his satiric exercises at McMichael's expense, referring likely to this poem and almost surely to the largely prose piece that follows. Eugene Field 271

Allen, and before ascribing an especially awkward ode to McMichael, Field quotes from the Active headstone at the grave of the departed, hard by the Lever office:

SACRED to the Memory of the Ragbaby, WILLIAM ALLEN, foster son of Doctor McMichael. LET HIM R.I.P.32

At the very beginning of that year, 1876, another of Field's imaginative forays occurred, and aficionados seem eager to acclaim it as an instance of the poet's ventures into the risque. "Slug 14," the verse tale of a feckless compositor, does marginally qualify in that regard. Far more fully, the egre­ gious waywardness of "Slug 14" evidences his non-union, his "scab," status that issues in his expulsion from the shop. That poem partakes far more of the politico-economic than of the sub rosa, and its January 1, 1876, setting at a printers' banquet at Wehrle's restaurant can be used as a point of departure. Visscher left town in the next day or two, and Field would go back to St. Louis in a few months. And "Slug 14" aside, that banquet gathering had signs of the times.33 When it got under way at 9:00 P.M., those in attendance chose former edi­ tor J. H. R. Cundiff to preside. He had become a court functionary, but evi­ dently he had a hold on printers' loyalty. The Reverend Doctor James Runcie, who had married Field and Julia Comstock over two years before, sought "Divine blessing" from above and "sobriety and kindly feeling" here below, and he left the gathering early. Both "Het" and "Buck" happened to be in town, and both were there. Francis M. Posegate, a longtime business associate of Wilkinson in the Herald, delivered an address treating the histo­ ry of St. Joseph journalism. He told mostly of the prewar days, including generous treatment of Cundiff. He avoided the war years, as he had been elsewhere, and merely generalized about the disruptive effect on the country and on the journalism of the city. One name got almost no mention, Posegate's partner, C. B. Wilkinson.34 As a defeated Cundiff had left the country a decade before, so the now- beleaguered Wilkinson had fled in August 1875. Whiskey Ring investiga-

32 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 18 July 1876. McMichael seems to have had some medical training, about which, in that less specialized age, it would be easy to make too much. 33 Ibid., 4 January 1876. 34 Ibid. 272 Missouri Historical Review tions had extended to St. Joseph, and Wilkinson, a federal revenue collector as well as an editor, had sought surcease elsewhere, Canada, England, and then Australia. Wilkinson and the malfeasance he seemed to represent caused Field to go on a couple of errands with political implications late in his St. Joseph stay. In February 1876, Wilkinson left Australia and returned to the United States, locating in San Francisco until his apprehension six weeks later. When the Gazette first covered the news, it placed the Wilkinson story, "IN THE TOILS," beside "THE ST. LOUIS RING," and the former had an inter­ esting ascription. Two parts of the San Francisco account appeared over the initials R. M. F, very likely Field's brother Roswell then doing newspaper work in the California city.35 Two days later, further information came from R. M. F.36 A week after that with legal formalities having been completed, Wilkinson and guard arrived in Omaha bound for Jefferson City and federal district court. On special assignment for the Gazette, Eugene Field met him, described him, and conveyed a long, two-part interview conducted aboard a southbound train. That interview ended with this "CONCLUSION:"

From the conversation I had with him I conclude, first, that Wilkinson will plead guilty to no indictment; second, that he will employ good coun­ sel and make a strong fight; third, that he will urge his claims to the propri­ etorship of the Herald. His line of defense had been adopted after months

Ibid., 9 April 1876. Ibid., 11 April 1876. State Historical Society of Missouri

Roswell M. Field, Jr. 's career in jour­ nalism led him to positions with the Kansas City Times, Kansas City Star, New York World, and Chicago Evening Post. Eugene Field 273

of study, and a careful and constant survey of all issues at stake, and I don't hesitate to predict that in his case we will have the most interesting one crooked whisky [sic] has yet induced. He has wisely postponed his return till after the March term convictions, and when several are imprisoned who might tell hard tales of him.37

Three weeks later, Field answered a summons to that federal court in Jefferson City. Friend Visscher, who had relocated in Omaha and had helped his rather feeble former employer from the train, also had a date at court, and his may have been a more important appearance than Field's. Field would offer testimony about a meeting held in St. Joseph in May 1875. A Jefferson City newspaper, whose editor had two years before figured as the object of Field's whimsy, reported the presence of "Vissch" and Field. The former had come to "bear witness," and the latter was "to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, for once in his life."38 Wilkinson did not figure directly in this part of the complicated proceedings before Judge Arnold Krekel, but as Field's interview had indicated, Wilkinson believed that if that part went badly, things would go badly for him. Things did go rather badly. Visscher and Field testified about an 1875 meeting in St. Joseph that seemed to involve Whiskey Ring affairs. Field testified directly about a personal item he had written in the Gazette the day after the suspicious gathering.39 As Field paraphrased Wilkinson on their train ride south in April 1876, things had become "fearfully mixed up."40 One might say that they had become so "mixed up" that the "true inwardness," to use a term Field used elsewhere, of the whiskey business of the mid-1870s defies clear under-

37 Ibid., 20 April 1876. This was a two-part interview, appearing on April 19-20. Field's essay written at Wilkinson's death makes it certain that Field was indeed the Gazette inter­ viewer. The Wilkinson part of the Whiskey Ring scandal seems not to have received much nation­ al attention, but the April 20, 1876, New York Times carried a long editorial titled "A CASE OF CONSCIENCE." It may or may not have reflected what the Field brothers had been telling more restricted readerships. 38 Jefferson City Daily State Journal, 10 May 1876. See Lewis O. Saum, '"Solomon Burch's Fighting Editor': An Early Poem of Eugene Field," Missouri Historical Review 89 (October 1994): 17-27. 39 Jefferson City Daily State Journal, 12 May 1876. 40 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 19 April 1876. On May 25,1876, the Gazette contained, like­ ly from Field's pen, "Press Personalities," with brief reports on, among others, Visscher, Donan, and Hetrick. Near the end, it conveyed this information: "There are four newspaper men in durance vile in Missouri just now: McKee of the Globe-Democrat, Wilkinson and Bittinger of the St. Joseph Herald, and Joyce, editor by brevet of the St. Joseph Herald.'" John L. Bittinger was Wilkinson's brother-in-law and his editorial partner at the Herald. By keep­ ing the focus on Wilkinson, this essay has probably slighted Bittinger's significance in that period. The reference to John A. Joyce is somewhat puzzling. 274 Missouri Historical Review standing to this day. Political motivations colored almost everything, and personal interests roamed almost as widely. That taxes bred of the war emer­ gency were evaded would surprise no one; that a "ring"—a widespread, orchestrated exercise in venality extending even to the White House—had existed and prospered seems unlikely. It does not require an answer here, other than to suggest that the "Great Whiskey Ring" may have been at least in part a politico-journalistic creation. As Mark W. Summers put it, studies of the press of that era focus too much on "the energy of the press rather than its malice." The press, as he sees it, was so deeply imbued in partisan pur­ poses that the very word "bias" is "too gentle and generous a term." "What, beyond the destruction of President Grant, had the Civil War journalists accomplished?"41 Local and regional voices such as those of Cundiff and Wilkinson would have differed widely in responding to that question, but as with the national figures Summers treated, they were passing. After a stint in St. Joseph court work, Cundiff returned to journalism, this time in St. Louis in 1879. He became a central figure in the Times-Journal, a paper that Field had been gracing with much wit and high jinks. In the rearrangements, that paper became the Times, and Cundiff and Field seemed to agree that it was better for Field to move on.42 Some six years later, an exhausted Cundiff sought rest back in St. Joseph. He died there at the insane asylum. He had not been committed there, but rather, on turning quite ill, he sought the medical atten­ tion of a doctor there who was an old friend.43 In A Checkered Life, John A. Joyce, one of the central and most fasci­ nating of those imprisoned in the Whiskey Ring rampage in Missouri, told of a select gathering in St. Joseph early in the 1870s to celebrate the city's suc­ cess in securing that state insane asylum, a mark of civic energy and securi­ ty. Joyce's book did not indicate if he had business in St. Joseph other than that celebratory event where Wilkinson and other notables of the city con­ gratulated themselves. It was, according to Joyce, a strictly closed event. "Doors were locked, and none were admitted without the royal counter­ sign—'Mumm.'" Mumm was literally the word, and when one basket of Mumm's champagne bottles was finished, another came forward in timely fashion.44 Cundiff died at age fifty-three or fifty-four, and his old competitor Wilkinson had preceded him to the grave by about four years and at roughly

41 Mark Wahlgren Summers, The Press Gang: Newspapers and Politics 1865-1878 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 313-314. 42 St. Louis Times, 28 October 1879. This issue contains a note from Field indicating that he had resigned, considering it better for both parties. 43 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 6 October 1885. 44 John A. Joyce, A Checkered Life (Chicago: S. P. Rounds, Jr., 1883), 223. Eugene Field 275 the same age. After Wilkinson's now-obscure legal and penal difficulties, he returned to St. Joseph in the late 1870s, and there he assumed control of the Gazette, of all things, that strongly Democratic paper that Cundiff had brought to consequence. The arrangement soured for evident reasons, and Wilkinson went to Denver where he took charge of the Republican. There he died in 1881, and some items regarding his very late times echoed earlier things. When former President Grant traveled eastward at the end of his world-circling tour, he and his party took a Colorado sight-seeing excursion. In the handful of Colorado notables who joined and guided the visitors was one C. B. Wilkinson, who had himself circled the globe a few years earlier. And when, a little over a year later, the last obsequies for Wilkinson came, O. H. Rothacker of the Denver Tribune served in sad capacity. Not long thereafter, Rothacker enticed Eugene Field to Denver.45 In his previously cited 1889 recollections, Visscher depicted Wilkinson in kind, positive, and exculpatory terms, but here the focus must be on Field and his heretofore-neglected essay in the Kansas City Times that came direct­ ly in the wake of the death of the veteran editor by "One Who Knew Him." Field came to know him, he recalled, in 1872, likely in the St. Joseph stay before leaving for France. Now, some nine years later, he offered a balanced assessment. He reviewed the man's contributions—verse and addresses—to the editorial association, and he went on to say that he was a fine occasional speaker. He told of Wilkinson's much-regarded home library and his literary tastes. Anecdotes did their part, such as a St. Joseph street attack on the edi­ tor that issued in friendship between attacked and attacker. Another told of a rich but "penurious" citizen who enjoyed the editor's favors without "as much as intimat[ing] beer." On winning a very rewarding case at law, he invited Wilkinson to have a drink on him, only to be shocked into swearing "violently" at learning the cost. Simply, Wilkinson was "generous to a fault—if he had a dollar in his pocket it was to be had for the asking."46 Interestingly, Field saw fit to let the Whiskey Ring business that ruined Wilkinson pass with a generality, as all in the area knew it well. Far more fully, he dwelt on the editor's facility with the "vindictive paragraph." Wilkinson was a very "repulsive-looking" man, and he seemed, in Field's account, to have qualities in keeping with that appearance. His love of "satire and bitterness" figured especially in his "eternal feud" with J. H. R. Cundiff. Their "journalistic duels" usually left Cundiff "in about the fix the parrot found himself in after his encounter with the monkey." As previously

45 St. Joseph Daily Gazette, 8, 9, 11-13 January 1881. The January 12 issue carried a shortened version of the essay Field wrote for the Kansas City Times, identifying its author. 46 Kansas City Times, 11 January 1881. 276 Missouri Historical Review

suggested, R. C. Mitchell of the Union, unlike Cundiff, seemed to be the only writer in the area who could "give Wilkinson as good as he sent." Perhaps Field's most telling indication of the deep-dyed negation in Wilkinson—and one that the compositor garbled in the original—appears here as Field intend­ ed: "His smile betrayed the true cynicism of his nature, for it was seldom unaccompanied by a sneer."47 Still, qualifying if not exculpatory words about writer Wilkinson bal­ anced the discouraging ones. "With all his gall and venom, he could write most tenderly." Some of his editorials were "gems of pathos," but he seemed to prefer other modes. In summation, Field returned to Wilkinson's physical infirmities, spelling them out in far greater detail than appeared elsewhere. These infirmities added much to the man's ill fortune and defeat. Field's conclusion aptly conveys a talented but much faulted man and his endeavors in the political journalism of an exceedingly tense time. Field knew it well.

In Wilkinson's life there was much to condemn. He had a splendid intellect in a very bad body, and his whole life seems to have been a con­ tinual struggle between the intellect and the body. When the body tri­ umphed, sensuality and cynicism and venom and hatred showed themselves in all he said and did. When the intellect predominated, purity and tender­ ness and brightness and charity were reflected from the lines he wrote. His last years were very, very sad. . . . Why, if he had piled up a mountain of sins in the cycle of his life, the suffering Wilkinson endured the four years before he breathed his last would have atoned for all. So, whether he sleep his last sleep among the everlasting hills of Colorado or on the banks of the Missouri, may there be peace to his ashes, rest to his soul and charity to his memory.

47 Ibid. In the January 14 Times, Field grumbled about the typo that had softened his meaning. 48 Ibid., 11 January 1881.

The Way to Pay

Canton Press, February 11, 1898. Extracts from the Klondike Gazette. ... We regret to have to say to our patrons that money will no longer be received at this office in payment of subscriptions and advertisements. We have already more gold than we can find room for in our limited quarters. Beginning with to-day all debts owed us will be payable in food products only. Five pounds of porter house steak will entitle the sender to a subscription for thirteen months, including our beautiful Christmas number, which, owing to the dearth of paper in this vicinity, will be printed in four colors on muslin, cotton and window shades. . . . —Harper's Bazaar. State Historical Society of Missouri

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City

BY GEORGE EHRLICH*

The cultural life of a city is derived from many sources, with the arts a major component. In Kansas City, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has been particularly important not only for the quality and quantity of the art it makes available to the public, but also for its substantial economic influence on the community.1 Now into its seventh decade of operation, the museum, which is located in the heart of the city, has become a landmark cultural insti­ tution of national—indeed international—stature. Its substantial cultural and economic influence began as early as 1927 when the trustees selected a site, six years before the building and inaugural collection of art opened to the

*George Ehrlich, an emeritus professor of art history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, received the B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. 1 The Economic Impact of Performing and Visual Arts, Museums, Historic Sites and Special Attractions on Metropolitan Kansas City (Kansas City: Mid-America Regional Council, 1 March 1990) is the result of a study that focused on the eight-county, bistate Kansas City Metropolitan Area in 1988. Among the seventy institutions and organizations participat­ ing in the study, one in particular stood out above the others: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

277 278 Missouri Historical Review public in December 1933.2 Stimulus to found the art museum came in large part from a desire by community leaders to have their city emulate older and larger urban centers replete with rich resources, such as St. Louis. Motivation also came from the steady accumulation of experience with the visual arts locally, experience that can be traced back at least to the mid- 18508. Nestled in the northwest corner of Jackson County, Kansas City was organized in 1839, about a dozen years after the founding of Independence, the county seat. The latter city attracted a diverse group of residents early on, enough so that by 1845 an itinerant painter of portraits and miniatures, Alfred W. Waugh, came to stay for several months. He may well have been the first artist to work as such in Jackson County. His journal documents his activi­ ties, including the painting of some portraits and the presentation of two pub­ lic lectures in Independence. The first lecture occurred in August 1845 and dealt with "the Fine Arts and their influence on society." This came in response to a request by members of the Literary Association, which spon­ sored the event as a means of reviving their organization. That lecture went over so well that Waugh gave another in September, this time devoted to the subject of architecture. These public lectures on art and architecture in Independence suggest a population already somewhat interested in the arts by 1845, but sustaining that interest in a frontier community clearly remained a rather precarious matter for some years.3 Waugh estimated the 1845 population of Independence as between eight and nine hundred, more than double the number then living in Kansas City. The latter community, however, held the potential for significant future growth, for in contrast to Independence, Kansas City's location on the Missouri River provided an excellent landing for riverboat traffic. Indeed, by 1855, Kansas City had become the county's largest town, with a population of about two thousand. A strongly commercial city from the first, Kansas City's growth benefited not only from the increasing traffic along the over­ land trails, but also, after 1854, from the organization of the Kansas Territory, which opened that area to homesteaders, many of whom settled fairly close to the city and depended upon it for supplies.4 As Kansas City continued to prosper, it became ever more attractive, drawing to it a variety of new resi­ dents, enterprises, and touring entertainments. Among the latter could be found a special type of art exhibit, the panorama.

2 See Kristie C. Wolferman, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Culture Comes to Kansas City (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993). 3 John Francis McDermott, ed., "Alfred S. Waugh's Desultory Wanderings in the Years 1845-46," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 7 (1950-1951): especially 96-115. 4 For an excellent overview of the city's formative years see A. Theodore Brown, Frontier Community: Kansas City to 1870 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1963). The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City 279

The form and character of touring panoramas were fairly well standard­ ized by the mid-1850s. Physically, a panorama consisted of a rolled strip of canvas, perhaps five hundred feet in length and six feet high, on which were painted numerous scenes. These were presented serially to a seated audience as attendants scrolled the upright canvas from one spindle to another. A member of the panorama staff explicated the content and significance of the scenes as they were shown. Viewing a panorama not only gave the audience the opportunity to see a large and complex painting, but it also exposed them to an educational experience, since many of the panoramas depicted travel subjects or historical themes. Under the guidance of a presumably knowl­ edgeable narrator, the audience could vicariously take a trip to distant, even exotic, places or perhaps back in time. Such an experience clearly differed in character from an opportunity to view the less didactic easel paintings being produced in the mid-nineteenth-century United States, with their heavy component of portraiture. Also, a panorama performance had many similar characteristics to theatrical performances. A panorama painting remained in the memory as a large and pictorially complex work of visual art.5 The earliest panorama that can be documented as having been shown in Kansas City arrived in early January 1856. Carrying the title Blair's Panorama, a newspaper notice billed it as the "largest Painting in the World." Copy taken from the St. Louis Republican stated that the panorama "is, beyond a doubt, the most finished and beautiful exhibition of the kind ever exhibited in St. Louis. A moral and instructive attraction seems to pervade every scene, and the beholder is almost entranced with the gorgeous scenery of the pre-Adamite world, or delighted with the many faultless life-size fig­ ures." The Kansas City reporter noted that "the most attractive feature of this exhibit is its illustrations of Geology." Such comments suggest that the sub­ ject of the painting had been inspired, at least in part, by the biblical account of the creation. Apparently the proprietors of the Blair panorama believed that a "moral and instructive attraction" would engage paying audiences, even on the frontier.6 Given the weight and bulk of these large paintings, transporting and exhibiting a panorama on an extended tour constituted a substantial logisti­ cal challenge. Blair's Panorama undoubtedly came to Kansas City by river- boat, since the city lacked a railroad connection, and the Missouri River was very much the preferred "highway" between St. Louis and Kansas City for the movement of people or freight, even in winter. Consequently, any city of

5 Edgar P. Richardson, Painting in America: The Story of 450 Years (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1956) provides information about panorama-type paintings and their relationship to the evolution of painting in the United States during the nineteenth century. 6 Kansas City Enterprise, 5 January 1856. Blair's panorama was shown that evening in a church. 280 Missouri Historical Review size on the Missouri River west of Jefferson City held the potential to become the destination for the panorama exhibitors. The presence of sever­ al established riverports relatively close together, such as Lexington, Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Leavenworth in Kansas Territory, helped attract panora­ ma exhibitors to western Missouri, since all would be likely venues for the Blair panorama. Beyond the occasional and usually brief notices in local newspapers, very little documentation of the content or exhibition history of the Blair or other panoramas exists today. Also, the hard usage panoramas received has­ tened the inevitable deterioration of the canvas support, limiting their sur­ vival to probably no more than thirty years. Consequently, little knowledge remains of what the public actually saw. This lack of documentation also pertains to the artists who painted these mid-nineteenth-century panoramas. Most of the painters apparently had sufficient professional training to pro­ duce the necessary realistic imagery. Furthermore, with such skills, their esthetic vision would not have differed significantly from that of contempo­ raneous easel artists. As for the latter, whether painters of portraits, land­ scapes, or genre subjects, many of them also remain rather shadowy figures. George Caleb Bingham, however, constitutes a significant exception in the case of the visual arts in Missouri. He also holds a secure place in the history of American art, and he can be placed definitely as a resident of Kansas City prior to the Civil War, having opened a studio there in the sum­ mer of 1860. Coincidentally, at about the same time, some paintings arrived

State Historical Society of Missouri

By 1860, George Caleb Bingham was widely known both for his portraits and his paintings of frontier life. The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City 281 from Boston, intended for sale by auction to "all who desire fine parlor or hall ornaments."7 This sparse evidence suggests that by 1860 a modest mar­ ket for art had begun to blossom in the city, something that may have been stimulated by the continued arrival of panoramas. The Grand Historical Illustrations of Dr. Kane's Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin went on display in Kansas City in August I860.8 The Kane panorama, on thirty thousand square feet of painted canvas, was billed as "vividly portraying the sublime yet awful grandeur of the Polar Regions, with a full descriptive lecture by W. H. Paul, Esq." The presentation also included some "relics" of the expedition, including Dr. Kane's rifle "that saved the lives of all when in their greatest extremity," a flag, and a sledge dog. Admission was fifty cents, with children and servants charged half price. The Western Journal of Commerce reviewer reported the panorama as "vastly superior to, and better worth the money charged, than anything of the kind that has yet visited this city," implying thereby that panoramas had appeared in Kansas City during the years separating the Blair and the Kane exhibitions. From the little that is known of the Kane panorama, one can understand why it impressed the reviewer, who suggested that "those who love to gaze on the awfully sublime in nature" should go see it, for the rep­ resentation of "nature's dreary magnificence in those Arctic regions" would exceed the most vivid imagination. Newspapers, under the guise of provid­ ing presumably objective commentary, were then as easily enlisted to support overtly commercial events and enterprises as is true for today's mass media. Nevertheless, in this case the panorama was indeed special for it recorded in detail Kane's recent expedition to the Arctic, using sketches drawn by the doctor as sources for the painted scenes.9 An article published the next day finds the reviewer "pleased to notice that our citizens are appreciating [the panorama] both as a work of art and science" and that "there is not clap trap or humbug about this exhibition." Though the panorama no longer exists, there is good reason to believe it pro­ vided a rather accurate depiction of the expedition, which departed New York

7 Kansas City Western Journal of Commerce, 23 August, 1 September 1860. For more information on Bingham see E. Maurice Bloch, George Caleb Bingham: The Evolution of an Artist and Catalogue Raisonne (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967). 8 The expedition led by Sir John Franklin to discover the Northwest Passage left England in May 1845. After its last sighting in July, the two vessels with 129 officers and men aboard vanished somewhere in the Arctic. Search and rescue expeditions organized, including the one led by Elisa Kent Kane, M.D., U.S.N., during 1853-1855. Not until 1859 did another expedi­ tion finally discover the fate of Franklin and his crew, whose ships had been ice beset since September 1846 and abandoned in 1848, with the eventual loss of all who had served on them. 9 Unless otherwise noted, all references to the panorama of the Kane expedition are derived from several articles that appeared in the Kansas City Western Journal of Commerce, 10, 15, 16, 23 August, 1 September 1860. 282 Missouri Historical Review

E lis ha Kent Kane, from a prominent Philadelphia family, participated in two attempts to locate the John Franklin expe­ dition. His sketches from his Arctic explo­ rations formed the basis for the scenes in the panorama displayed in Kansas City in 1860.

Diet, of Amer. Portraits

City in 1853 and then passed two years in the Arctic searching in vain for Franklin and his crew. Paul's commentaries during the showing would have added to the panorama's aura of fidelity, since the reviewer noted that they "impress upon us more fully the reality of such a journey than could years of reading." Clearly aimed at encouraging attendance, the endorsement indi­ rectly suggests a negative assessment of the value of the two-volume, illus­ trated narrative authored by Kane, Arctic Explorations: the Second Grinell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin. Though attendance at an illustrated lecture provided a convenient and less-demanding way for a person to become informed about the Arctic and the expedition than the reading of a substantial publication, at best Paul's commentaries could summarize only portions of the two-year expedition. Furthermore, the number of scenes depicted surely was significantly less than the three hundred illustrations contained in the two books—probably no more than a hundred. As for the painter of those images, he has been identi­ fied as Edmund Beale, an elusive figure known to have other panorama asso­ ciations. The panorama, ready for viewing in early 1856, traveled to England in 1857. It also served as a movable memorial to Kane, who died in 1857 at the age of thirty-five, and the showing of the panorama was expected to help raise funds to underwrite a durable, fixed monument to him.10

10 Kane's report was published in 1857, with sixty-five thousand copies sold in the first year. For additional information about Kane see George W. Corner, Doctor Kane of the Arctic Seas (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1972). For Beale see Nicholas B. Wainwright, The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City 283

After being shown in Kansas City, the panorama traveled to St. Joseph, but its itinerary thereafter is not known. The start of the Civil War in April 1861 may well have discouraged further touring of the painting, as well as efforts to raise funds for the Kane monument. The war quickly exacerbated the already deep divisions among Missouri's residents, not only over the issue of slavery but also over whether or not the state would secede. The unsettled situation may explain why another panorama, which had been advertised as coming to Kansas City in 1861, never arrived. Identified as Gardner & Kiser's Grand Mammoth Panorama of Missouri River, Kansas, Trip Across the Plains to Pike's Peak and Utah (on thirty thousand square feet of canvas), it carried a theme that would appeal to local interest. Armed conflict, however, had erupted in the area, stalling the city's prosperity and physical development and then actually reversing them. The local newspa­ per even ceased publication for a time. Matters did not improve until mid- 1863, and in 1864 panoramas once again began to arrive, some depicting Civil War action.11 Pearson & Cutting's Original Unparalleled Polyrama of the Present Rebellion (presented by Antonia and Chambers) went on display late in May 1864. In mid-September, Captain Adam's Great Historical Panorama Views of the Wars, "embracing all the principal Actions since the first attack on Fort Sumter," was shown. Touring these war-based panoramas, which had been created even as the armies continued their bloody struggle, made good busi­ ness sense. The war clearly affected the lives of a great many people, including noncombatants. Large, colorful paintings served to illuminate the informa­ tion that the press furnished, which at best would have carried only a few small illustrations in black and white. Though these panoramas dealt with battles physically far removed from Kansas City, enough of the war had intruded on Missouri to make armed conflict a subject of deep interest as well as a continuing issue of concern. Indeed, soon after the Adam panorama departed the city, serious warfare returned to western Missouri. In October 1864, the area east and south of

"Education of an Artist: The Diary of Joseph Boggs Beale [a nephew of Edmund], 1856-1862," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 97 (October 1973): 487-488. Kane's obitu­ ary appeared in the New York Times on February 24, 1857. An October 28, 1859, letter from Sidney Kopman, corresponding secretary of the recently formed Kane Monument Association in New York City to John L. LeConte in Philadelphia, informed him of the association's objec­ tives and included a broadside announcing a series of lectures to be delivered at the Cooper Institute in November. LeConte Papers, B/L493, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. 11 Kansas City Western Journal of Commerce, 30 December 1860. For the war in Missouri see Jay Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865, reprint (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984). For an example of how a significant business operation in the city fared during the war years see George Ehrlich and Peggy Schrock, "The A. B. Cross Lumber Company 1858-1871," Missouri Historical Review 80 (October 1985): 14-32. 284 Missouri Historical Review

Kansas City became the setting for what would prove to be the largest battle of the Civil War to occur west of the Mississippi River. Consisting of a series of sharp engagements extending over three days, the Battle of Westport involved literally thousands of men on each side. Despite its size, this battle neither matched the brutality nor included the numbers of troops involved in the better-known actions depicted by the recently shown panoramas. Those differences alone are not the reason why the Battle of Westport is not wide­ ly remembered. Its reputation suffered also because it occurred west of the Mississippi River, and more importantly, no contemporary pictorial records were made that could persuasively memorialize—visually—what had tran­ spired.12 Of the many photographs documenting the Civil War, most deal with events and places in or near Virginia, and while providing at times some truly dramatic images, the slow photographic processes of that period made it impossible to record an actual battle. The graphic artist, however, could pro­ vide such imagery and, in the case of a panorama painting, could do so on a large scale and in color, two attributes not yet possible to photography. Consequently, even long after the cessation of hostilities, Civil War panora­ mas had something special to say to the public, and they continued to tour throughout the nation. Three arrived in Kansas City during 1886. The first, shown for three days in late July, depicted the Battle of Vicksburg. The other two were presented as cycloramas and opened to the public in September, each in a specially designed circular building. One represented the Battles of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Produced by artists in Germany, it quickly became known as "Chattanooga." The other, executed by a group of French, English, and American artists working under the supervision of E. J. Austin of London, England, dealt with the Battle of Gettysburg. They remained on display in Kansas City for about two years before moving to other cities.13 Panoramas depicting traditional subjects continued to appear in Kansas City after the end of the war. One was titled Europe on Canvas and had been scheduled initially for just two nights in February 1867. Its popularity led to the addition of two more evenings plus a matinee to accommodate school­ children. The painter of that panorama, a German artist identified simply as Gropius, produced "life-like views of every notable City and Landscape in Europe, from the Arctic Regions to the Tropics." Admission cost fifty cents,

12 Kansas City Daily Journal, 20 May, 16 September 1864. For the Battle of Westport see Howard N. Monnett, Action Before Westport, 1864 (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1995). 13 Kansas City Star, 20, 21 July, 3, 6, 11 September 1886. Cycloramas consisted of a long strip of canvas fitted to the interior wall of a large, circular space. The viewers would be sur­ rounded by the painting depicting realistically rendered action. The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City 285

State Historical Society of Missouri

Unlike photographs or this image of the Battle of Vicksburg from the July 11, 1863, Harper's Weekly, panorama paintings of Civil War battles depicted the action in color and on a large scale. with reserved seats priced at seventy-five cents and children under the age of twelve admitted for twenty-five cents. The reviewer who covered the exhib­ it for the newspaper commented, "Having visited many of the scenes here presented, in our youth, we scarcely expected to be impressed in the manner we were." He then stressed the excellence of the work and concluded by say­ ing, "To those who are able, we say go to Europe and see for yourself; but those who cannot go to Europe, should see Gropius' Panorama of it." Though presented as a local opinion, this critique reads very much like an exhibitor's press release intended to encourage attendance; still, its tenor sug­ gests that a more cosmopolitan audience existed in Kansas City than prior to the war.14 Confirmation of this increasing sophistication can be found in notices announcing exhibitions of art published by the local newspaper during the late 1860s. One of the exhibits consisted of "Chromo Lithographs, Engravings and Photographs" on display at the shop of Ames & Dagget. Another venue, The Picture Gallery on the Public Square, in 1867 attracted a great many spectators (admission was free), which suggests an exhibit of easel paintings. Another 1867 exhibit, at Frank's Hall on Main Street, car­ ried the title of Miltonian Tableaux, works identified in the newspaper as

Kansas City Daily Journal, 9, 10 February 1867. 286 Missouri Historical Review

"fine Paintings [that] everywhere attract and interest large audiences," with the added notice of a special afternoon showing "for the little folks."15 A decidedly different sort of art presentation opened in March 1867. Announced as "something new and beautiful," this display consisted of the projection of stereopticon dissolving views. Touted as "magic life-size pic­ tures," they were shown by means of a "Double Magic Lantern," using oxy- calcium and magnesium light. The pictures themselves were billed as being of "superior quality, finely painted, . . . magnified to a large size, and illumi­ nated with unequaled brilliancy." Content included subjects from "American and Universal History," the rebellion, biblical history, plus sculpture from the Louvre and the Vatican. The last category, according to the advertisement, consisted of pictures that would "show with [the] clearness of the marble itself," suggesting the sculpture slides were photographically made. Sponsored by an organization identified as the Theatrical Society of Kansas City, this exhibition seems to have emulated many aspects of a panorama showing while also providing viewers the novel experience of being able to visit the sculpture galleries of two major European museums with the assis­ tance of large-scale photographic projections.16 Lantern-slide projections, whether painted or photographic, provided an important new method for presenting pictorial images to a large audience. The technique held numerous advantages over showing a scroll-type panora­ ma. Not only was the equipment needed for a slide show easier to transport and set up, but the system also permitted flexibility in determining which images would be presented and in what sequence, making a showing adapt­ able to the individual circumstances of time, place, and audience—options not really available with a painted panorama. The technical quality of lantern slides, along with that of photography in general, steadily improved through­ out the later years of the nineteenth century, and by the 1890s, slides had become an extremely useful teaching tool. Paralleling the technical improve­ ments in late nineteenth-century photography were those in the printing industry, enabling publishers to produce high-fidelity, photomechanical illus­ trations before the century ended. Soon thereafter, they could also produce images in three or four colors. These developments provided the public with

15 For notices of paintings and other art on display during the 1860s see ibid., 17 December 1864; 11 May, 11 July 1865; 10 March 1866; 13 June, 7, 9 September, 16 October, 14 November 1867. 16 Ibid., 7 March 1867. The "invention" of photographically produced lantern slides is credited to the Langenheim brothers of Philadelphia, who used the albumen process starting in 1849; however, not until the perfection of the collodion process in the mid-1850s did photog­ raphy have an effective method for glass-supported photographic negatives, as well as the pro­ duction of the positive images on glass: lantern slides. See Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, The History of Photography (London: Thames and Hudson, 1969), 195. The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City 287 significantly widened opportunities to become better acquainted with the visual arts, both historic and contemporary. The improvements in printing and photography took place within the context of a general surge of industrial development and technological inno­ vation, achievements during the final decades of the nineteenth century that encouraged the rapid growth of many American cities. For example, between 1870 and 1890, Kansas City's population climbed from perhaps 25,000 to about 133,000, and with this increase came social and physical changes. Railroad service was substantially expanded. Other important improvements included a waterworks, the piping of gas for illumination, the organization of professional fire and police protection, the installation of telephones, the establishment of public transit service in the city, and the launching of a public school system and a public library. Boards of trade and health came into existence, and a major building boom led to the erection of some truly impressive and substantial architecture.17 As for the arts in Kansas City, residents and visitors now had access to a greater range of cultural attractions. And, similar to other growing cities, a local arts community finally became established, though for many years it remained rather small in size. Artists had opportunities to exhibit their work locally, with the annual fair, which first opened in October 1871, serving as an important venue. Four temporary buildings housed the fair that year, one of which carried the designation of Art Hall. The Kansas City fair emulated those established earlier in other cities, such as the one in St. Louis that dated back to 1855. The success of Kansas City's initial venture led its sponsors to construct more permanent buildings (with one still set aside for art) and to designate the event as the Kansas City Industrial Exposition and Agricultural Fair. Despite a name similar to that used in other cities, a conscious effort was made to display more than industrial or agricultural exhibits, and a broad spectrum of artwork was eligible for premium awards.18 The growing interest in the arts encouraged some local vendors to main­ tain a stock of artists' materials, a service that justified adding, in 1872, such a classified listing to the city directory. An analogous listing of artists, how-

17 The official 1870 census listed about thirty-two thousand residents in the city, proba­ bly a much inflated count according to Brown, Frontier Community, 228. For the city's phys­ ical development see George Ehrlich, Kansas City, Missouri: An Architectural History, 1826- 1990 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992), especially chapter two. 18 For more information on the St. Louis fair see James Neal Primm, Lion of the Valley, St. Louis, Missouri (Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Publishing Company, 1981). For the Kansas City fair see Carrie Westlake Whitney, Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People, 1808-1908 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1908), 1: 221-222, and Kansas City Times, 11 May, 26 September 1872. The site for the "permanent" fair became known as the Exposition Grounds. A catalog of the exhibits in the Art Hall at the 1877 exposition can be found in "Book 24, Native Sons Collection: Scrapbooks," box NS, A15, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Kansas City (hereinafter cited as WHMC-KC). 288 Missouri Historical Review ever, did not appear until 1880. The classified section of the city directory functioned as a form of advertising, similar to that found in today's telephone yellow pages. In both cases, those listed for a given category rarely, if ever, constitute all of the specialists available in the city. The number of those who listed themselves as either artists or dealers in art materials in Kansas City during the late nineteenth century was never very large, especially in the lat­ ter category where only two names consistently appeared: William E. Thorne and William W. Findlay. They were important components of the city's art community, for their shops also exhibited artwork, both locally produced and imported, in addition to vending materials. Findlay, who came to the city in 1870, slowly increased the exhibition and sale of artwork until it became his primary activity. Information about the artists listed in the directory is regret­ tably scant. Furthermore, some important artists were not always listed. James F. Fitzgibbon arrived in the city in 1882 but waited until 1888 before adding his name. Fitzgibbon, who had studied at both the New York National Academy of Design and the Chicago Art Institute, appears to have been the best qualified easel artist to work in Kansas City during the 1880s.19

19 For Findlay see Kansas City Times, 1 January 1924. Findlay eventually moved his gallery to Chicago but maintained a branch operation in Kansas City for many years. For Fitzgibbon see ibid., 23 September 1954.

The Interior of William W. Findlay's Store

Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City 289

Another type of professionally trained painter could be found in the city—fresco artists, who merited their own classification in the city directo­ ry. Fresco artists specialized in the decoration of interiors, utilizing a wide variety of ornamental motifs as well as figurative scenes that they placed on the walls and ceilings of public and domestic rooms, both large and intimate. The better artists in this category clearly prided themselves on their com­ mand of a rich design vocabulary and their technical skill at being able to transform dramatically the character and appearance of an interior space. In 1878 one such artist, E. A. Von Buhlow, prepared a newspaper notice direct­ ed at the "Art loving public of this city and surrounding country" and inform­ ing them of his readiness "to paint in either Fresco or Encaustic in any of the numerous styles of that art." He promised "strict originality and purity of design" and was ready to work in any known style with "artistic perfection and scholarly exactness, whether it be the severe beauty of the Grecian, the rotandancy [sic] of the Roman, the religious significance of the Byzantine, the symetrical [sic] lines and curves of the Persian and Arabian, the massive majesty of the Egyptian, the lavish richness of the Renaissance, the pompos­ ity of the Louis XIV, the solemn grandeur of the Gothic, the interlacing lines and ribbons of the Celtic or the volumptuous [sic] richness of the Pompian [sic].9920 Regardless of the merits of his claims (and the occasional spelling errors), Von Buhlow's ambitious list of qualifications advertised not only his skills but also the type of clientele he wished to serve, namely those desirous of having "high style" improvements added to domestic or business interiors or to entertainment venues such as theaters. Assuming that the city contained enough such people to provide him adequate employment, how might they have acquired a taste for frescoed interiors? Some prospective clients undoubtedly had gained the requisite experience in older and more cos­ mopolitan communities such as St. Louis. More likely, however, is the influ­ ence of the better trained architects who were working in Kansas City. They tended to acquire numerous professional publications, many well illustrated, that could be used both for ready reference and to help shape their clients' taste. Von Buhlow seemingly remained only briefly in the city, but other fres­ co artists were available. The team of Sharpsword & Suzen claimed to be a widely known firm of artist decorators and fresco painters. To inform prospective clients of their capabilities, they went so far as to install, in September 1880, an exhibit in the exposition's art hall, a venture apparently not very successful since the partnership soon dissolved. Joseph Suzen

20 Ibid., 5 May 1878. Von Buhlow listed two architects as references. The fresco tech­ nique associated with these artists typically used some form of glue-based paint suitable for application to dry plaster. Encaustic painting utilized beeswax as the binding agent. 290 Missouri Historical Review quickly joined with Jerome (Girlamo) Fedeli soon after the latter's arrival in Kansas City in 1881. A seasoned fresco artist, the Italian-born and -trained Fedeli quickly established a solid reputation for his firm, with work done on such Kansas City buildings as the Union Depot and the Coates House hotel plus an assortment of private residences. The partnership also received a major commission for the decoration of the Gillis Opera House, which opened in September 1883 as the city's newest and largest theater. Newspaper reports that described in some detail the building and the festive opening night made a point of commenting on the theater's decoration. Thereafter, Fedeli's employment in the city remained secure. Unfortunately, since a great deal of the city's nineteenth-century architecture has been demolished or radically altered, little of the work done by the city's fresco artists has survived, and of that, attributions are nearly impossible.21 As for the general art community in the city in the later nineteenth cen­ tury, knowledge of the people involved or their careers is rather fragmentary, and much of the work they produced has vanished or is poorly documented. One rather rough measure is provided by the listings found in the classified "Artists" section of older city directories. These indicate that the number of artists increased significantly throughout most of the decade of the 1880s, and of those listed, about one-third consistently can be identified as women. Another indication of that community's genuine interest and involvement in the visual arts is found in the formal incorporation in 1887 of the Kansas City Art Association for the "promotion of artistic education by means of exhibi­ tions, of pictures, lectures, a school, and a museum of fine arts." One off­ spring of this activity may well have been the short-lived Daphne Club for young women to study the history of art. The most lasting expression of the growing interest in the visual arts in still-young Kansas City, however, came with the art association's formation of a School of Fine Arts in 1888. Initially headed by James F Fitzgibbon and staffed by three other teachers (including two women), this school in time evolved into the Kansas City Art Institute, a highly reputed and still very much alive professional art school.22

21 For Sharpsword & Suzen see ibid., 22 September 1880; for the Gillis Opera House see Kansas City Journal, 2 September 1883. Most of what is known about Fedeli is derived from a small collection of designs and clippings in the Jerome Fedeli Papers in WHMC-KC. Fedeli came to the United States in 1869, moving permanently to Kansas City in 1881. A notice indi­ cates that he was prepared "to undertake the decoration, finishing and painting of private resi­ dences, halls, churches, theatres, hotels, banking and business offices." While portions of this work may exist in some surviving nineteenth-century structures (most likely residential), attri­ bution to Fedeli would be nearly impossible to prove. 22 The city directory listings increased from four artists in 1880 to forty-five in 1887- 1888. The following year, the number dropped to thirty-three, perhaps due to the depressed local economy after the collapse of the city's real estate boom in mid-1888. For the art asso­ ciation see Wolferman, Nelson-Atkins Museum, 26. For the Daphne Club, which dated to circa 1892, see Whitney, Kansas City, 1: 599. For the founding of the School of Fine Arts see Kansas City Times, 23 September 1954. The Visual Arts in Early Kansas City 291

State Historical Society of Missouri

The Gillis Opera House, located at Fifth and Main, was noted for its ornate interior and electrical lighting.

The art association began a program of acquiring pictures, a collection that was destroyed by fire in 1893. The loss prompted William Rockhill Nelson, the publisher and editor of the Kansas City Star, to give the associ­ ation his "Western Gallery of Art," provided they would make it available to the public. Consisting of about sixty painted copies of European master- works, some plaster casts of sculpture, and a great many photographs of art, the Western Gallery of Art was put on public display first in temporary quar­ ters and then, in 1897, moved to the newly completed public library. This building provided space for the expanding library collections and the offices of the school district and contained a specially designed area to serve as an art gallery and scientific museum. While that arrangement was a notable improvement in making the visual arts accessible to the general public, the space and the collections in Kansas City were very modest if compared to that of bona fide art museums, such as those in Chicago or St. Louis. Even so, the Western Gallery of Art constituted an important early step forward toward gaining a comparable museum of art for Kansas City.23

23 For the Western Gallery of Art see Wolferman, Nelson-Atkins Museum, especially page 26. For the library's role see William H. Hoffman, Kansas City, Missouri Public Library, 1873- 1973: An Illustrated History (Kansas City: Kansas City Public Library, 1973). 292 Missouri Historical Review

More or less concurrent with the launching of an art school and the pub­ lic presentation of the Western Gallery of Art were a number of other efforts aimed at improving the city's esthetic assets. The planning and construction of a city wide park and boulevard system, launched in 1893, stands out as a major achievement of lasting significance. Planning of that sort, which par­ alleled similar efforts in other cities, is associated with an esthetic sensibility that has been labeled as the City Beautiful Movement. Influenced in turn by the planning for Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the move­ ment placed a strong emphasis on enlightened urban design, including the construction of multibuilding civic centers. Planning for the latter in Kansas City was encouraged as early as 1906, and in subsequent years, various pro­ posals were advanced, many of which specifically incorporated a building for an art museum. An important stimulus to do so came from the 1911 bequest of Mary Atkins, which provided a large sum for such a building in Kansas City. The 1915 bequest of William Rockhill Nelson held the promise of funds for the acquisition of works of art. Bringing all the parts and parties together, both for an art museum and a civic center, proved politically diffi­ cult and required much effort and time. As matters evolved, incorporating the art museum into the city's civic center became impractical; however, both the privately funded art museum and a number of publicly funded civic buildings were erected in Kansas City during the 1930s. With the successful creation of a university (now the University of Missouri-Kansas City) and the formation of a symphony orchestra, these associated accomplishments dur­ ing the years of the Great Depression clearly serve to mark the closure of what one can call Kansas City's formative cultural years.24 Since then, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has grown steadily and become a major cultural institution. Reinforcing this role now are several other museums of art, one adjacent to the Nelson-Atkins and others within an hour's drive. Throughout the region there are various art galleries, both com­ mercial and not-for-profit, in addition to a fairly large and diverse group of artists and collectors. With the attention on the present and future expecta­ tions, it becomes easy to gloss over the early history of the visual arts. The various opportunities to become acquainted with the visual arts in those early years stimulated a lasting interest, sufficient to provide a solid foundation on which Kansas City's current strong involvement in the arts is based. That connection deserves to be remembered.

24 Jane Mobley and Nancy Whitnell Harris, A City Within A Park: One Hundred Years of Parks and Boulevards in Kansas City, Missouri (Kansas City: American Society of Landscape Architects and Kansas City, Missouri Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners, 1991); William H. Wilson, The City Beautiful Movement (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), especially chapter 5; Ehrlich, Kansas City, Missouri, chapters 3 and 4; Wolferman, Nelson-Atkins Museum, passim. National Petroleum News

This artist's grand view of a Pierce Pennant tavern is only slightly more exaggerat­ ed than what was built in Columbia and Rolla.

"Our Company Feels that the Ozarks are a Good Investment. . . ": The Pierce Pennant Tavern System

BY KEITH A. SCULLE*

On July 16, 1928, in Springfield, Missouri, Pierce Petroleum Corporation formally opened an $80,000 highway terminal comprising three buildings, the largest of which was a bus station housing a restaurant, soda fountain, and rest rooms. A gasoline station and a grease house with car washing facilities completed the complex. Nothing comparable to Pierce Petroleum's terminal existed anywhere else in the United States, according to both the National Petroleum News, the petroleum industry's foremost trade magazine, and the head of the nationwide Pickwick bus company. Edward

*Keith A. Sculle is the head of research and education for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in Springfield, Illinois, and serves as an adjunct instructor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He holds the Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

293 294 Missouri Historical Review

D. Levy, president of Pierce Petroleum, appeared in Springfield on the eve of the terminal's grand opening. He explained that the city had been picked to anchor a chain of elaborate facilities named "taverns" in both Missouri and Oklahoma because it was "the gateway to the Ozark region." Though grandiose for its time, Levy nonetheless was convinced of the value of Pierce's plan, "Our company feels that the Ozarks are a good investment and we are all for making them the most popular playgrounds in the United States." "Pennant" was an additional name Pierce dubbed its products, hence the name affixed to all the facilities selling them.1 As one of the nation's oldest petroleum companies, Pierce Petroleum had long been one of the leaders in the industry. Pierce Petroleum's forerunner, the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, which had been founded in 1871 by two St. Louis businessmen, W. H. Waters and Henry Clay Pierce, was run by Pierce. He developed a reputation for exceptionally aggressive, independent, and sometimes ruthless entrepreneurship. Pierce bought John Finlay and Company, his father-in-law's St. Louis refinery, the first west of the Mississippi River. Eyeing the sparsely settled area of southern Missouri, Arkansas, western Louisiana, Texas, and the Oklahoma Territory in the 1870s, Pierce foresaw it was on the verge of rapid growth. From his St. Louis headquarters, he rapidly established control of the petroleum market

1 J. C. Chatfield, "Now It's Transportation By Oil and Gasoline Station at Springfield, Mo.," National Petroleum News 20 (1 August 1928): 20; Springfield Sunday News and Leader, 15 July 1928.

State Historical Society of Missouri

Henry Clay Pierce The Pierce Pennant Tavern System 295 throughout the region. In the process, he quickly drove his company to national prominence in the era of industrialization.2 After 1878, when Standard Oil eagerly acquired 40 percent ownership of Pierce's company, it ranked as one of the most important independent dis­ tributors during the Standard Oil trust's duration. By the 1880s, the Pierce refinery in St. Louis was among the nation's largest, and by the early 1900s, Pierce used railroads to establish a sterling reputation for innovative market­ ing. He had introduced bulk handling, being the first to use special wooden barrels for delivering oil in St. Louis. Then, in cooperation with the railroads opening the southwestern territory, Pierce had been the first to use tank wag­ ons to unload oil from railcars at local destinations and deliver it to a network of oil company bulk stations. He had also been the first to market in Mexico, where he eventually built three refineries.3 Pierce also became a leader in tapping an important new petroleum demand: the automobile. In typical advertising hyperbole, Pierce said his company led the way in "abandoning 'shanty' service stations for architec­ ture and convenience." Indeed, the Atlantic Refining Company, an important eastern oil company, studied a Pierce station before launching a chain of sta­ tions that have been known as some of the finest early designs. Although Pierce had made Missouri an important place in the petroleum industry throughout the early days of the automobile, his fortunes foundered in 1925 when he lost control to new owners in a spectacular financial fight.4 Renamed Pierce Petroleum, the company was placed under the direction of Edward Levy, a former vice president of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad, popularly known as the Frisco. Levy drew on three Pierce tradi­ tions to improve profits: targeting the Ozarks for economic development, using innovative marketing techniques, and—to achieve both—exploiting

2 William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (New York: Southern History Company, 1899), 3: 1731-1733; The Book of St. Louisans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of St. Louis and Vicinity, 2d ed. (St. Louis: St. Louis Republic, 1912), 474; Harold F. Williamson and Arnold R. Daum, The American Petroleum Industry: The Age of Illumination, 1859-1899 (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press, 1959), 541, 545; Allan Nevins, John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940), 1: 438, 658-659. 3 Williamson and Daum, American Petroleum Industry, 532, 542-543; Roger B. Stafford, "Sinclair to Take Over Business Of Pierce Petroleum Corp.," National Petroleum News 22 (21 May 1930): 27. 4 Springfield Sunday News and Leader, 15 July 1928; John G. McLean and Robert W. Haigh, The Growth of Integrated Oil Companies (Boston: Harvard University, 1954), 268-269; Keith A. Sculle, "Jenney Manufacturing Company: A Proper Bostonian Appeal Along the Roadside," Pioneer America Society Transactions 19 (1996): 19; Stafford, "Sinclair to Take Over," 28. 296 Missouri Historical Review established railroad practices. The latter included advanced ticket sales, trip maps, and radio advertising. Levy envisioned a series of roadside services that would grow by incre­ ments in and around the Ozarks. People outside the region were just begin­ ning to tap the recreational assets of this splendid highland. Since the late nineteenth century, special weekend railroad rates had helped lure business­ men from Kansas City and St. Louis for hunting, fishing, and camping trips. Resorts provided diversified retreats for family city dwellers during the sum­ mers. The Frisco railroad branch to Memphis began to draw tourists early in the twentieth century. Lodging ranged from numerous small cottages to a few fine resort hotels. Looking like an "accident wandered out there and happened" when twelve hundred visitors descended on the health spa at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, one weekend in 1879, the site boomed in 1882 with the construction of a Frisco railroad spur south from Springfield and again four years later with construction of the Crescent Hotel. Styled in the period's florid eclecticism, with broad porches on each of its four stories and built of native stone, the Crescent Hotel was regarded in looks and service as the showplace of northwest Arkansas. Railroads serving splendid hotels in the Ozarks became commonplace, much like in the American West. It was the middle-income family, seeking bargain prices and traveling by automo­ bile, yet hungering for the pretenses of patrician services and settings, who swelled the tide of the Ozarks tourist boom of the 1920s.5 Developers of highways in the Ozarks hoped to tap the region's poten­ tial for outsiders. William Hope Harvey, a real estate developer commonly known as "Coin" for his interest in monetary reform, started a resort hotel for midwestern businessmen at Monte Ne in northwestern Arkansas about 1900. He launched the Ozark Trails Association in 1913 to promote regional high­ way development after the railroad to his resort closed.6 The association, a loosely knit group of local boosters that promoted a marked highway to California, broke into factions due to bickering about the exact route in the Southwest and disappeared in 1924. The Ozark Trails Association's align­ ment lay through the Ozarks between St. Louis, Rolla, Springfield, and

5 Carl O. Sauer, The Geography of the Ozark Highland of Missouri (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1920), 231-232; Fayetteville Arkansas Sentinel, 8 October 1879, 2 June 1880, cited in H. Craig Miner, The St. Louis-San Francisco Transcontinental Railroad: The Thirty-fifth Parallel Project, 1853-1890 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1972), 114; Milton D. Rafferty, The Ozarks: Land and Life (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980), 194-195. 6 For a history of the Ozark Trails Association see Clara B. Kennan, "The Ozark Trails and Arkansas's Path Finder, Coin Harvey," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1 (winter 1948): 299-316; Nan Lawler, "The Ozark Trails Association" (master's thesis, University of Arkansas, 1991); Arthur Krim, "The Ozark Trails: The Original Mother Road," Society for Commercial Archeology Journal 14 (spring 1996): 21-26. The Pierce Pennant Tavern System 297

Miami, Oklahoma, an early route followed as the most convenient upland trail across several ridges of the Ozarks. The Frisco railroad had used this same alignment as did Route 66 after its creation in 1926.7 Perceived as the gateway to the Ozarks from this pathway, Springfield served as Pierce's initial location for an elaborate set of highway facilities, anchoring the company's latest regional exploitation. Springfield had long been a good target for outside investors. By the 1920s, it was the state's fourth largest city, growing by almost twenty thousand inhabitants during the decade. Site of Southwest Missouri State Teachers College and the Frisco's extensive shops and switching yards, national headquarters for the Assemblies of God Church, base of operations for an estimated one thousand traveling salesmen, and depot for the timber, fruit, vegetable, cattle, and poultry industries of the Ozarks as well as manufacturer of many commodi­ ties used in local agriculture, Springfield was a very prosperous city, center­ ing the regional economy for 150 miles around. Into this profitable mix, Pierce added a terminal to service the fifteen bus lines passing through the city and automobile travelers, including tourists, traveling businessmen, and local residents. Attempting to assure success by employing experienced key personnel, Levy hired R. W. Lochrie from the management of the Harvey House restaurant in Frisco's station in Springfield to run Pierce's restaurant

7 Sauer, Geography of the Ozark Highland, 139, 223.

The style of the Springfield terminal was typical of the revival eclecticism pop­ ular in commercial architecture in the 1920s.

Shepard Room, Springfield-Greene County Public Library 298 Missouri Historical Review at the bus terminal. Harvey House restaurants had long represented the stan­ dard in railroad restaurants.8 Rolla's tavern opened next. Although it was a far smaller town, num­ bering slightly over five thousand residents by 1930, Rolla was an advanta­ geous setting for Pierce's second stake in the new Ozarks strategy and reflected the same pattern of regional development as did Springfield. Platted in 1855 by Frisco railroad contractors seeking private profit along the old interior ridge route, Rolla's constant traffic seemed assured as the coun­ ty seat and home to the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy. Roughly half way eastward between Springfield and St. Louis along the new U.S. Highway 66, Rolla was, according to Pierce's reckoning, within a convenient drive out of St. Louis, about one hundred miles, for an evening meal. Pierce bought the highest point on the edge of Rolla to house the terminal, allowing travelers to gaze for miles in any direction across the surrounding Ozarks. Like the Springfield terminal, Rolla's tavern boasted not only food ser­ vice and a soda fountain but spacious and clean rest rooms, a gasoline sta­ tion, and grease and oil services for automobiles. Rolla, however, merited a three-story building with a second-floor restaurant and dance floor. The third floor housed the manager and his family. The contrast with Springfield's one-story terminal probably seemed justified by the possibility of drawing private dinner parties from the fraternities of the Missouri School of Mines in addition to tourists. These upscale services were clearly designed for recreational outings as much as for the routine highway trade. Opened two weeks after the Springfield facility, the formal opening of Rolla's tavern on August 1, 1928, amidst pomp and pageantry was "an event that marked a new period in the life of Rolla," in the words of the local newspaper. With officials from Pierce's headquarters in St. Louis as well as local notables pre­ sent, an "elegant reception and dance" with a buffet was held until midnight. Pierce thus laid the basis for an innovative exploitation of the new automo­ bile trade in the two Ozarks cities, with services attuned to the respective needs of each.9 Pierce's experiment soon exceeded the company's expectations. Not only did Pierce sell large quantities of gasoline at Rolla—as much as one of

8 H. Craig Miner, "Hopes and Fears: Ambivalence in the Anti-Railroad Movement at Springfield, Missouri, 1870-1880," The Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 27 (January 1971): 129-146; Rafferty, The Ozarks, 75; Sauer, Geography of the Ozark Highland, 226; Missouri: A Guide to the Show Me State (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1941), 323-333; Dick Grosenbaugh, A Million Hours of Memories: A Condensed History of Springfield, Missouri Published on its 150th Birthday (n.p.: Springfield Sesquicentennial Committee, [1979]), 30-31, 33; Chatfield, "Now It's Transportation," 20; Springfield Sunday News and Leader, 15 July 1928. 9 Missouri: A Guide, 411-412; J. C. Chatfield, "Pierce Undertakes New Experiment In Caring for Motor Tourists," National Petroleum News 21 (13 February 1929): 92; Chatfield, "Now It's Transportation," 23; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 10 January 1929; Rolla Herald, 9 August 1928. The Pierce Pennant Tavern System 299 its most profitable bulk stations—it averaged 400 noon meals served during the first summer in Rolla. After Labor Day, when business was expected to decline, as many as 185 meals were served.10 Expansion seemed warranted. Hence, Pierce announced in January 1929 the plan for additional grand facilities in Columbia, on the northern edge of the Ozarks, and in Miami and Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the western edge. By February 1929, an unexpected degree of success in the Ozarks inspired Pierce to declare even larger plans, a chain of taverns coast-to-coast. A site on the outskirts of Oklahoma City would receive the first tavern outside the Ozarks. Because the location at Rolla had excited customers with a view of the countryside, Pierce reasoned that its newest facilities should also be built on the edge of their respective cities. Considerably more would be spent on each of these taverns, $20,000 and $30,000 over the cost at Springfield and Rolla, respectively. At least ten-acre lots would be purchased for each site, again more than for the first two. A parking lot for two hundred cars and con­ siderable room for future expansion would also be provided at the new ter­ minals. The buildings would be "white-washed brick colonial structures built to resemble a large country home," in the words of the National Petroleum News. Moreover, an emergency hospital with an operating table and a nurse in regular attendance would be added; experience in Rolla made the availability of medical help expedient. And, alert to the latest means of transportation as an income source, Levy selected a site for the Columbia tavern across the highway from the city's airfield. He hoped customers would be at the front door immediately after leaving their airplane flight. The completed network would provide the automobile traveler with "first class restaurants" every 125 miles and, with the addition of Pierce service stations with superior rest rooms halfway between each restaurant, would comprise the most elaborate roadside services owned by any company. But still more would come.11 The finishing touch to Pierce's innovative tavern system of automobile services would be hotels. Rolla and Columbia, both in the Ozarks and with available land for purchase to expand, would be the first recipients. Springfield and Tulsa and Miami, on the Ozarks' fringe, would receive hotels in the future.12

10 J. C. Chatfield, "Three More Tourist Terminal Stations To Be Built by Pierce Petroleum,'1'National Petroleum News 21 (2 January 1929): 105. 11 Ibid., 105-106; Miami [Okla.] Daily News-Record, 12 February 1929; Chatfield, "Pierce Undertakes New Experiment," 91. 12 Carleton Whiting, "'Gas' Stations Grow to Motorist Hotels Under Pierce Terminal System," National Petroleum News 22 (19 March 1930): 153; Norman Coats, son of Jake Coats, Pierce Petroleum warehouse foreman in Springfield, 1922-1930, telephone interview by author, 11 April 1997; Miami [Okla.] Daily News-Record, 12 February 1929. 300 Missouri Historical Review

The National Petroleum News lavished more attention on Pierce's road­ side services in a fifth and final article detailing the company's unrivaled "motorist hotels." Each cost $150,000 to build. "Equal in . . . appointments to modern hotels in large cities," according to the News, Pierce's hotels far surpassed the ordinary roadside lodging of the time.13 The facilities offered free garages for guests on the first floor. Upon arrival, they drove into the garage, gave orders for service if they wished, and retired to their rooms. Pierce personnel vacuumed every car's upholstery, washed the windows, and replenished the water and air—all overnight. The first floor also housed the office, a foyer, and sixteen guest rooms; the second floor sixteen guest rooms; the third floor a foyer, eight guest rooms, and quarters for the hotel hostess and other attendants; and finally, ten rooms on the top floor provid­ ed space for the guests' chauffeurs. Each guest room was spacious (sixteen feet by twelve feet, and eight and one-half foot ceilings) by the standards of roadside lodging at a time when the fledgling motel industry had a reputation for "shacks." Pierce's hotel rooms were incomparably provisioned with two full-sized beds; a writing table; a dresser with mirror; lights for the ceiling, beds, dresser, and writing table; upholstered chairs; a carpeted floor; a tele­ phone; steam heat; an electric wall fan; a folding ironing board; an electric

13 Chatfield, "Pierce Undertakes New Experiment," 90; Warren James Belasco, Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945 (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1981), 134-142, passim; John A. Jakle, Keith A. Sculle, and Jefferson S. Rogers, The Motel in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 232-240, passim. For a review with illustrations of Route 66's roadside services in Missouri see C. H. (Skip) Curtis, The Missouri US 66 Tour Book (Lake St. Louis, Mo.: Curtis Enterprises, 1994).

A Pierce Pennant Hotel Room

National Petroleum News The Pierce Pennant Tavern System 301 iron; and a clothes dryer. Each room had a private bathroom with tub, show­ er, electric fan, hot and cold running water, and floor and walls lined with rubber tile. Bronze plaques in each room portrayed the impression Pierce coveted, "The quality of this institution is indicative of the quality of Pierce Pennant Products."14 At this time, advertising through images came of age. Companies designed images with favorable impressions for the purpose of enticing shoppers to buy their goods and services. Business historian Thomas Dicke has argued that petroleum sales were especially susceptible to image adver­ tising because the newness of the commodity, the absence of tangible differ­ ences among competitors' commodities, and the numerous outlets could readily profit from catchy signs, slogans, and service. As calculated loss leaders, Levy hoped the high cost of the taverns would be recouped in increased petroleum sales, candidly acknowledging that Pierce's petroleum products were no better than their competitors'.15 Pierce's bronze plaques spoke these vanities, but it was the architectural styling that visually aimed at clinching the sale. Beverly T. Nelson, a respected St. Louis residential architect deft in the colonial revival motif, designed the hotels crowning Pierce's empire of roadside services for the hin­ terland Ozarks. Each hotel's exterior included a moderately pitched gable-end roof covered in slate, gable-end chimneys of squat proportions, cornices with returns, and most often, flat-arched windows. Semicircular arched windows on both sides highlighted the fireplace. In the dining room and bedrooms, delicate moldings delineated rectangular panels on each wall, and inside the terminal, a fireplace mantel complete with entablature and fluted columns distinguished the public space. Flower stands, mantel clocks in colonial revival motif, and paintings of early American scenes helped trig­ ger the sentiment for gentility that inspired the colonial revival style. Pierce's strategy with those elegant objects and a patrician setting was twofold. First, the company tried to distinguish itself from competitors in a business where makeshift and modest buildings characterized the norm. Second, Pierce hoped to appeal to motorists' vanity in a mass market where the consumers' selection of goods and services with highbrow imagery

14 "Roadside Cabins for Tourists," Architectural Record 74 (December 1933): 457; Whiting, "'Gas' Stations Grow," 157. 15 Stuart Ewen, Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1977), 100-102; Stuart Ewen, All Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 6-8, 14-16, 78-79; Thomas S. Dicke, Franchising in America: The Development of a Business Method, 1840-1980 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 88; Miami [Okla.] Daily News-Record, 4 August 1929. 302 Missouri Historical Review

National Petroleum News

This view of a Pennant restaurant illustrates the colonial revival style contrived for Pierce's commerce. implied the consumers' own high status. Feeling, not critical reflection, was at the root of the strategy.16 In the rustic Ozarks, moreover, Pierce's colonial revival snob appeal per­ haps was aimed at creating an even more glaring contrast. Vance Randolph had been making photographs throughout the 1920s for his first book, The Ozarks: An American Survival of Primitive Society, whose subtitle reflected the impression many would subsequently share about the region. Local peo­ ple too played to the popular sense of "otherness" by lining Route 66's road­ side to sell folk crafts to curious tourists. Pierce Petroleum was not alone in capitalizing on the Ozarks' evolving sense of place.17 Hoping to wring the fullest profit from the Ozarks market, Pierce adapt­ ed familiar railroad strategies to the new automobile trade. Tickets reserving a specific room at a Pierce Pennant hotel were sold in advance of arrival at the hotel, much like a Pullman ticket, Pierce claimed. "Time-table trip maps"

16 Esley Hamilton, letter to author, 25 February 1997. Hamilton is an architectural histo­ rian for the Department of Parks and Recreation, St. Louis County, Missouri. Whiting, "'Gas' Stations Grow," 157. 17 John R. Hensley, "Vance Randolph's Photographic Views of the Ozarks," Missouri Historical Review 82 (April 1988): 251-266; Elbert I. Childers and John F. Bradbury, Jr., "Basketville and the Roadside Craftspeople on Route 66," ibid. 91 (October 1996): 24-34. Emergence of the Ozarks' stereotype around Branson is traced in Damien Francaviglia, "Branson, Missouri: Regional Identity and the Emergence of a Popular Culture Community," Journal of American Culture 18 (summer 1995): 57-73. The Pierce Pennant Tavern System 303 were distributed free at Pierce stations. Claimed to be almost identical to those used by railroad engineers and passengers, these maps measured four by twelve inches and illustrated the type of road surface on a trip of one hun­ dred to three hundred miles between major cities in the Pierce market. Calibrations along each side showed intermediate distances between the major destinations. The reverse side provided the names of all the towns along the route, with the distances between them, and spaces for the motorist to log his time en route. These maps became so popular that almost every passenger wanted one, although only one per car had been intended. Pierce craftily provided no station with all fifty maps in order that "station atten­ dants" could tell customers where the next Pierce station was to obtain maps for the succeeding leg of their trip.18 Pierce also used sound trucks and radio broadcasting to entwine public service with commercial messages. The trucks, each with eight loud speak­ ers, traveled to special events in communities throughout Pierce's market, playing phonograph records to entertain and carrying microphones for local representatives to make public speeches promoting their community's dis­ tinctions. The company emblazoned each truck with advertising and score­ boards announcing inning-by-inning results of St. Louis's two major league baseball teams, both popular throughout Missouri. On radio station KMOX in St. Louis, Pierce sponsored various broadcasts, including the home games of the city's major league baseball teams and programs that lasted from 9:00 to 9:30 each evening except Saturday. The latter opened with fifteen minutes of music and closed with fifteen minutes of promotion for the Ozarks. Guests ranged from Missouri's game and fish commissioner giving tips on the best fishing spots to local spokesmen describing their area's attractions. Pierce freely admitted that it gained a commercial advantage by acquainting itself with local leaders. Questions were also invited from listeners seeking recreational opportunities in the Ozarks, and brochures describing destina­ tions accessible by car were offered by mail.19 By introducing signs that reached beyond the railroad experience, Pierce innovated again. Some ten thousand signs showing mileage to and from prin­ cipal cities were placed every two miles throughout Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico. Other signs included large billboards apparently placed only along Missouri's major highways. Located at the entrance to towns and at major highway intersections, these billboards listed the distances to impor­ tant cities and featured a state map showing road surface types and a Pierce advertisement. The company hoped that a public service for all drivers might

18 Chatfield, "Pierce Undertakes New Experiment," 92; J. C. Chatfield, "Radio Tourist Bureau Builds Sales As Well As Good Will," National Petroleum News 20 (8 August 1928): 26-27. 19 Chatfield, "Radio Tourist Bureau," 25-26. 304 Missouri Historical Review

Springfield Sunday News and Leader

A Typical Pierce Pennant Billboard in Missouri bait some trade for Pierce's private gain. Billboards like these foreshadowed the look of the future roadside, producing an eventual backlash against them by people wanting to beautify rather than unduly commercialize the land­ scape. In the meantime, gawking motorists who slowed or stopped to read Pierce's billboards produced complaints about traffic hazards from the Missouri highway department. Heedless of such disgruntlement, Pierce planned to increase the profit flowing from petroleum sales at its grand tav­ ern system, which billboards stimulated throughout the Ozarks.20 By the early 1920s, the Ozarks was well on its way to becoming a major tourist attraction. Pierce boasted of having been "largely instrumental" in bringing nearly one and a half million tourists to the Ozarks in 1929 alone. Although perhaps a bit exaggerated, the company nonetheless had been an important factor. For example, the Rose Cliff Hotel in Van Buren reported that five of the seven tourist parties staying at the hotel on one weekend in 1928 had come because they had heard Pierce's promotional radio programs. Despite this success, the Pierce hotels promised at Springfield, Miami, and Tulsa were never constructed, and the complete complex at Oklahoma City was never built.21

20 Springfield Sunday News and Leader, 15 July 1928; Daniel M. Bluestone, "Roadside Blight and the Reform of Commercial Architecture," in Jan Jennings, ed., Roadside America: The Automobile in Design and Culture (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1990), 172, 175-176; Chatfield, "Radio Tourist Bureau," 26-27. 21 Whiting, "'Gas' Stations Grow," 161; Springfield Sunday News and Leader, 15 July 1928. The Pierce Pennant Tavern System 305

Pierce's system of taverns, indeed, nearly died aborning. In June 1930, eight months after the last facility, the Rolla hotel, opened, Pierce Petroleum proudly made public its talks to sell out to Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation. Pierce had been unable to make satisfactory profits in the pre­ ceding six years, principally because it did not own any petroleum supplies. Having survived because of its strong marketing, however, Pierce was eagerly acquired by Sinclair in its drive to become a fully integrated and nationwide company. Although Sinclair never added taverns, it used Pierce's marketing techniques in the Ozarks, even down to retaining the name "Pennant" for the taverns in Missouri. The first page of a six-page Sinclair brochure elaborat­ ed twelve reasons for stopping at the newly renamed Sinclair Pennant Taverns: restaurants and hotels offering complete accommodations of the "finest kind, at low rates"; tasty dinners and breakfasts; curb service for sand­ wiches and soda fountain goods; clean rest rooms; prompt laundry and valet service; and facilities for doing small amounts of laundering in the rooms. For the tourists' cars, some automotive service was available twenty-four hours a day, and hotel guests could park in the garage free. "Diversions for young and old" included road maps with tour information; miniature golf facilities at Des Peres and Tulsa; playgrounds at Columbia and Rolla; a nine- hole golf course free to guests at Columbia; and radio rentals for a nominal fee in Columbia and Rolla. "And all these [are] in or near the famous Ozark Mountain Country—one of the loveliest spots in the whole world," hawked the brochure. Sinclair added its own tourist proposal to its system of acquired services: "An extremely interesting triangle tour of Missouri may

The Pierce Pennant Terminal in Rolla, Circa 1931

State Historical Society of Missouri 306 Missouri Historical Review be had with St. Louis, Columbia and Rolla as the turning points, and with Sinclair Tavern service at each corner. The trip is approximately 335 miles long from downtown St. Louis."22 As late as 1933, Sinclair highway maps of the area prominently identi­ fied the six locations of the system with large pennants. During the depres­ sion, however, the taverns' elegance probably became less of an asset. Their rates of $1.50 for a single with a "nearby bath" and $3.00 for one person, $5.00 for two, $6.50 for three, and $8.00 for four with bath inside the room certainly made them more expensive than the ubiquitous cabins of spare sim­ plicity charging from 50^ to $1.00 for lodgers.23 The system slowly disintegrated. The Greyhound bus company pur­ chased the Springfield terminal by 1936, and both the Columbia and Rolla hotels were sold to a local businessman by 1942. Eventually, all the build­ ings were razed except for the complex at Columbia, which survives as an assisted living facility at the time of this writing.24 Pierce's system of taverns, although short-lived, was eloquent testimony to the circumstances in which it arose. After the Ozarks provided home to permanent residents, their recreational delights began attracting outsiders with a passing yet passionate interest, first sportsmen coming by railroad, later families coming by car. Businessmen traveling through the area by car complemented the demand. Modestly housed services were adequate for most travelers, but the Ozarks also engendered renowned palatial hotels at health spas remote from railroads and highways. The Ozarks thus witnessed splendid settings combining wooded and hilly retreats at which all the civil­ ities of fine urban hotels could be enjoyed. Pierce Petroleum matured with this regional tradition as it expanded the new petroleum trade from the com­ pany's base in Missouri to the South and Southwest. During the twentieth century, when the greatest profit in petroleum turned from kerosene sales to gasoline sales due to the automobile's increas­ ing popularity, Pierce adapted traditional techniques of regional sales to its new customers. Car travelers were hosted at Pierce's taverns where fine food, commodious lodging, and reliable automotive work were available. The Ozarks tourist landscape began slowly to be homogenized, with aspects of the isolated, elegant spas applied to Pierce Pennant's taverns on the nation­ al highways. Pandering to the mass appetite for patrician surroundings at the

22 Stafford, "Sinclair to Take Over," 27; "Sinclair Pennant Hotels & Taverns" (n.p.: Sinclair Refining Company, c. 1931), 2, 7. 23 "1933 Sinclair Missouri Highway Map"; "Sinclair Pennant Hotels & Taverns," 4. 24 Polk's Springfield (Greene County, Mo.) City Directory, 1936 (Kansas City: R. L. Polk and Company, 1936), 159; John F. Bradbury, Jr., comp., "Phelps County During World War Two," Newsletter of the Phelps County Historical Society 11 (April 1995): 6. The Pierce Pennant Tavern System 307 proverbial affordable prices, Pierce built its taverns in upscale architectural pose, visual symbols of refinement belying their common origins. The tav­ erns also benefited by contrast with the region's rustic identity. Roadside signs and radio programs complemented the advertising as Pierce drew tourists to the Ozarks while profiting from the products and services they purchased. Pierce's contributions to the early phases of Ozarks automobile tourism held national meaning as well. The 1920s and 1930s witnessed the start of the roadside service industry for automobile travelers—gas stations, motels, and restaurants. A few places outside the Ozarks, principally in California, popped up to serve lodgers, diners, and their cars in one place.25 These resembled Pierce's taverns, and like the Pierce taverns, they were the creation of big corporate investment. Mom-and-pop services, however, predominat­ ed almost everywhere in the nation through the late 1940s. When big cor­ porations invested in the roadside again, they flooded it, pushing the small businessperson to the margins of profitability. Pierce's services seem com­ monplace now, further reason for placing them in the historical perspective of evolving roadside services for automobile travelers.

25 For example see W. E. Green, "Chain Stations De Luxe, By Highways, Are California Venture," National Petroleum News 20 (22 August 1928): 25-26; Lester B. Colby, "Standard Oil, Swift, National Dairy to Aid Chain of 1,000 Wayside Inns," Sales Management (23 May 1931): 313; "National Motor Inns Will Establish Chain of 'Super-Camps,'" ibid. (3 October 1931): 30.

New Old Proverbs

Maysville Weekly Western Register, January 21, 1869. "The least said, the soonest mended." The minimum of an offensive remark is cobbled with the greatest promptitude. . . . "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched." Enumerate not your adolescent pul­ lets 'ere they cease to be oviform.

Warming to the Method

Canton Press, February 11, 1898. Extracts from the Klondike Gazette. . . . The Klondike Milk Company is doing a thriving business, and has reduced the price of milk to 590 a hundredweight. Newcomers find it difficult to get used to the idea of having milk served in solid frozen blocks, but when they realize the advantages of having that neces­ sary fluid presented in such a way that it can not be spilled, they one and all welcome the change from the method of warmer latitudes. . . .—Harper's Bazaar. 308 NEWS IN BRIEF

The current corridor gallery exhibit at the The annual statewide Historic State Historical Society is titled Pacific Preservation Conference, hosted by the Railroad Surveys: Lithographs from John Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation Mix Stanley. The Pacific Railroad surveys and associated with the Joplin Museum were a series of exploratory journeys made to Complex and the Missouri Historic find the most economical railroad route from Preservation Program, will be held April 16- the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. In 17 in Joplin. Activities will include informa­ 1853, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, territorial gover­ tion sessions, tours of historic properties, and nor of Washington, headed an expedition to keynote speaker Nore Winter, an urban survey a route for a transcontinental railway design and historic preservation consultant. from St. Paul to Puget Sound. John Mix For more information contact Debbie Sheals Stanley, a painter of Indian portraits and at (573) 874-3779. western scenes, joined the expedition at Jefferson Barracks, making sketches to create a record of the land and people west of the On December 12 a meeting was held to Mississippi. The lithographs in this collec­ form the Missouri Chapter of the National tion illustrated the official report of the year­ Trail of Tears Association at Trail of Tears long journey. This exhibit will be on display State Park visitors' center. The group elected through May 28. Hershel Price as interim president, Jean O'Brien as interim vice president, and Denise The Society's art gallery exhibit, Master Dowling as interim secretary/treasurer. Works of Thomas Hart Benton: A Salute Members met on February 20 at the Golden Continued can be viewed through May 28. Corral restaurant in Columbia and discussed These selected works from the Society's col­ dues, bylaws, funding, and budgets. For lection include the Missouri Capitol mural more information about the chapter contact lithographs; the Year of Peril paintings; orig­ Hershel Price or Denise Dowling, 429 inal illustrations for Mark Twain's Moccasin Springs, Jackson, MO 63755. Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Life on Phone (573) 334-1711 or e-mail . Grow the Lilacs', and other watercolor, litho­ graph, and pen and ink works.

The forty-first annual Missouri In conjunction with Black History Month, Conference on History will be held April 15- the traveling exhibit The Whitley Sisters 17 at Missouri Southern State College in Remember Segregation in Kansas City Joplin. The keynote speaker will be opened at the Missouri State Museum in the Professor James Axtell of the College of capitol building on February 18 and closed William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. on April 6. Its second venue will be at the For more information contact Virginia J. Bruce Watkins Cultural Heritage Center in Laas, Missouri Southern State College, 3950 Kansas City, from April 12 to July 6. East Newman Road, Joplin, MO 64801. Nonprofit Missouri organizations throughout Phone (417) 625-9793 or e-mail . For details contact John Viessman at (573) 751-2854. 309

LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

Adair County Historical Society bers enjoyed the annual tailgate party, with A purchase agreement has been made for individuals wearing team colors and logos. the Society to acquire the clubhouse of the The museum, located at 512 Main Street, is Sojourners organization in Kirksville as a open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and permanent museum and library location. The Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00. winners of the first annual History Award Program, a Society initiative to promote interest in local history among high school Benton County Historical Society students, are Melissa Coonfield, Michelle New Society officers are Phyllis Bidwell, president; Elizabeth Drake, vice president; Sack, and Leah Reschly. Edith E. Scarbrough, secretary; and Sandra Owen, treasurer. The annual Christmas din­ Affton Historical Society ner meeting was held on December 10. At The Society sponsored its twenty-first the January 14 meeting, members heard Santa's House celebration at the historic Warsaw city planner Randy Pogue discuss Oakland House from November 28 to the renovation of Main Street in Warsaw. December 8. The event attracted over thirty- Phyllis Bidwell spoke about her recent move five hundred people, a record-breaking num­ to Warsaw and her impressions of the area at ber, and offered children an opportunity to the February 11 gathering. Meetings are held visit with Santa and eat cookies with Mrs. monthly on the second Thursday at the Claus. Boonslick Regional Library in Warsaw. Andrew County Museum and Historical Society Boone County Historical Society A workshop to help individuals with com­ Along with the Columbia Parks and piling their family histories for volume two Recreation Department, the Society presented of Andrew County: A Community was held at the Christmas Past—Maplewood Candle­ the museum in Savannah on January 30. light Tour on December 5. In addition to old- Submissions are welcome through June 1. time music, visitors encountered a number of For more information about submissions or characters reenacting family life around the prepublication ordering contact Patrick Clark holidays in the Maplewood house. Author at (816) 324-4720. Sue Gerard signed copies of her new book, Granny's Notes: "My First 84 Years," at the Barton County Historical Society Christmas tea held at the Walters-Boone The Society met on January 10 at the County Historical Museum in Columbia on United Methodist Law Chapel in Lamar for December 13. In addition, Visual the quarterly meeting. President Bob Remembering: Sue Gerard's Folk Art, an Douglas presented the slide program and nar­ exhibit featuring Gerard's wood carvings and rative "Towns and Villages of Barton clay works, was displayed in the museum's County." Montminy Gallery through January 6.

Belton Historical Society The museum opened on the evening of Bridgeton Historical Society November 28 in conjunction with the lighting Members hosted the annual Christmas of the mayor's Christmas tree. The January candlelight tour of the Payne-Gentry house in 24 meeting in the Old City Hall featured a Bridgeton on December 5-6. The annual Civil War presentation by Mr. and Mrs. Jim fund-raiser and membership drive, known as Beckner. A display of clothing and weapons the Grog Party, was held on January 23 at the enhanced their program. Afterwards, mem­ Carrollton Club in Bridgeton. 310 Missouri Historical Review

Brush and Palette Club Chariton County Historical Society Officers for 1999 are Lois Puchta, presi­ At the January 17 quarterly meeting held dent and treasurer; Horace Hesse, vice presi­ at the museum in Salisbury, Lainy Buffington dent; and Rita Thomas, secretary. The Club's spoke about two missionary trips she took to new e-mail address is . Russia. A slide presentation provided mem­ bers and guests a view of contemporary Russia, in addition to documenting her mis­ Carondelet Historical Society sionary work. Members celebrated Christmas on December 13 with a traditional holiday din­ Christian County Museum ner that included turkey, cranberries, and and Historical Society pumpkin pie. The children's choir from the The Society has changed the standing St. Stephen Protomartyr Catholic Church meeting time and date. In 1999 meetings will provided the entertainment. be held quarterly on the third Sunday of March, June, September, and December at Carroll County Historical Society 1:30 P.M. Each will be held in a different The dinner meeting on November 19 at community in the county. The museum in the Norborne Baptist Church featured a dis­ Ozark is open Friday-Sunday, 1:00-4:00. play of Wilcox stoneware that accompanied a talk by Jerry Dover. Members participated in Civil War Round Table of Kansas City the Festival of Wreaths in November and On November 24 the following new offi­ December and held a quilt raffle to raise cers were elected for 1999: Betty Marshall funds to support the museum in Carrollton. Ergovich, president; James Beckner and At the January 27 meeting at the Carrollton Doug Renfro, vice presidents; Cecilia Methodist Church, the Reverend Jim West Kinsella and Carlene Berry, secretaries; and shared a music program. Dave Landes and Paul Gault, treasurers. Following the election, Roy D. Bird dis­ cussed the Second Kansas Volunteers. Bird Cedar County Historical Society is on the faculty at Washburn University in At the November 30 meeting held at the Topeka and has written several books and museum in Stockton, members discussed articles about Kansas. Kenneth Apschnikat, Society business and possible restoration superintendent of the Manassas National options for the museum, which is housed in Battlefield Park in Virginia, presented an old jail. Also at the meeting, Truman "Managing the Manassas National Brown spoke about the Edward Hayward Battlefield Park" on January 26. He drew family in Missouri. County assessor Eddy upon his twenty-eight years with the park to Johnson spoke at the January 25 meeting show how one of the nation's important his­ about the changes in the county through the toric sites is preserved and interpreted. years. Plats, maps, and official records were Members meet at the Leawood Country Club available for inspection. in Leawood, Kansas.

Centralia Historical Society Civil War Round Table of St. Louis Christmas Through the Years, a holiday At the December 2 meeting, Donald open house held at the museum on December Waldemer presented "Turning Point at the 5-6, 10, and 12, attracted over two hundred James: Myths and Reality," about the 1864 visitors. Rooms featured seasonal decora­ Overland Campaign in Virginia. Waldemer tions and nativity scenes. In addition, an has written a book on this subject titled extensive Santa Claus collection was dis­ Triumph at the James: The Checkmate of played. The Society celebrates its twenty- General Robert E. Lee. "Lincoln and the fifth anniversary this year. Politics of 1864" was presented by John C. Historical Notes and Comments 311

Waugh at the January 27 meeting. Members museum, located in the Buffalo Head Prairie meet monthly at the Two Hearts Banquet Historic Park, for the annual Thanksgiving Center. dinner. Chris Keller played favorite tunes of the past on the piano, and members joined in Clay County Archives a sing-along. The annual meeting, held on and Historical Library December 1 at the Crescent Schoolhouse, New officers for 1999 include Patricia also located in the park, featured a tree-trim­ Rendon, president; Kevin Fisher and Bill ming and a gift exchange. New officers Hawkins, vice presidents; Shirley Fansher elected for 1999 include Thelma Kurtz, pres­ and Carol Olson, secretaries; and Stuart ident; Monty Viets, vice president; Eva Marie Elliott, treasurer. Glor and Leni Howe, secretaries; and Ralph Tucker, treasurer. Cole County Historical Society Patrick Lee portrayed Thomas Jefferson DeKalb County Historical Society at the Society's annual meeting, held on The Society has a new e-mail address: November 1 at the Jefferson City Ramada and an Internet site: Inn. Members and guests gathered on

Friedenberg Lutheran Historical Society Gasconade County Historical Society Society members represented the On December 5 the Society's art guild Bavarian Germans, the earliest settlers in held a show and Christmas display at the Friedenberg, at the Fair of Nations held at the museum in Owensville. The third annual Concordia Seminary in St. Louis on dinner dance, a fund-raiser for the museum, December 13. Various ethnic groups were was held on January 23 at the parish center in represented through Christmas trees, enter­ Owensville. Following dinner, members and tainment, and native foods. guests danced to the big band sounds of the Blue Knights, a musical group from St. Friends of Arrow Rock Louis. Members heard about the life and Stabilization of the 1880s Black Lodge times of Charles D. Eitzen at the February 7 was completed before winter. Improvements meeting held at the courthouse in Hermann. consisted of new concrete and stone founda­ tion piers, new sills, and a new wood shingle Glendale Historical Society roof. The Friends are celebrating their forti­ The Christmas program, held on eth anniversary in 1999 and have chosen the December 10 at City Hall, featured refresh­ renovation of the Dr. John Sappington ments, socializing, and musical entertain­ Memorial Museum as the anniversary pro­ ment provided by Jean Das and Jean ject. Schlichter. They played both the hammered and mountain dulcimers. Friends of Historic Boonville The organization now maintains a site on Golden Eagle River Museum the Internet: . Restaurant in St. Louis for a Christmas lun­ cheon on December 5. On January 23 the Friends of Jefferson Barracks group met at the Missouri Historical Society In a project slated for completion in in St. Louis to hear Bob Mullen, manager of December 2000, the Friends received almost collections at the society, present a talk and $250,000 through a grant and matching funds slide show titled "Date With a Steamboat." to reconstruct the second story of the Visitors' Center building in Jefferson Grain Valley Historical Society Barracks Park, St. Louis. The annual holiday At the November 19 meeting held at the party at the Barracks featured reenactors rep­ United Methodist Church, members viewed resenting major events in American history Petticoat Pioneers, a video about women and Suzanne Corbett's traditional holiday who have contributed to history. The pastries. Jefferson Barracks Park also hosted Christmas in the Country homes tour, held on exhibits on the Spanish-American War and December 5, featured four area houses in the Battle of the Bulge as well as a black his­ addition to the Society's new facility. tory video series. Members met on January 28 for the first time in the new Society building, located at 506 Friends of Old St. Ferdinand Shrine Main Street. School superintendent David The Friends held Christmas concerts at Hackett discussed the upcoming school bond the shrine in Florissant on December 6 and issue. Historical Notes and Comments 313

Grand River Historical Society holiday lighting ceremony, the Society held a The Society met on January 12 at the Living History Open House at the museum American Legion Home in Chillicothe. After and historic village. Members dressed in a carry-in supper, county presiding commis­ period costumes and answered questions sioner Eva Danner discussed the three court­ about the area's history. houses that have served the county and recent improvements to the contemporary court­ Historic Florissant house. New Society officers include Frank The annual Christmas in Old Florissant Stark, president; Karen Hicklin, Don house tour, held on November 30, attracted Underwood, and Dean Brookshier, vice pres­ over four hundred visitors. Members com­ idents; Robert Pigg, secretary; and John bined efforts with the Friends of Old St. Cook, treasurer. Ferdinand and Florissant Old Town Partners to reprint St. Ferdinand de Florissant, origi­ Grandview Historical Society nally published in 1923. To order send Members and guests met in December for $25.00 plus postage to Historic Florissant, the annual Christmas dinner; a musical per­ 1067 Dunn Road, Florissant, MO 63031. formance followed. The February 1 meeting, held at the Depot Museum, featured a show- Historic Madison County and-tell. The Society's cookbook is available At the November 20 monthly meeting, for $7.00, plus $2.00 shipping and handling. held at the Historic Jail facility in Order copies from Bonnie White, 13612 Fredericktown, John Paul Skaggs displayed Cambridge, Grandview, MO 64030. illustrations and photographs of the county through the years. These pictures are includ­ Greene County Historical Society ed in a new calendar being offered for sale by Robert Flanders, a Society member and the Society. Members celebrated Christmas former director of the Ozarks Studies with music and singing on December 15 at Program at Southwest Missouri State the Fredericktown Senior Center. The event University, presented "Ozarks Memories also included a gift exchange and the sharing From the Great Depression to Prosperity" at of Christmas treats. the Society's December 10 meeting at Mrs. O'Mealey's Cafeteria in Springfield. New Historical Society of Polk County officers installed at the meeting included Don The November 17 dinner meeting, held at Akers, president; Robert Neumann, vice Simon B's Cafe in Bolivar, featured the president; and Greta Huff, secretary. music of Paul Hebbert.

Grundy County Historical Society Huntsville Historical Society The Society meets the second Tuesday of The museum, located at 107 Main Street, each month at 2:00 P.M. at the museum in is open on weekends through October 30; Trenton. The museum opens on May 1; hours are 2:00-5:00 on Saturday and Sunday hours include Saturdays and Sundays, 1:00- afternoons. Call (660) 277-3188 or (660) 4:00 P.M. It is also open on holidays. 277-3207 to schedule a tour during the week.

Henry County Historical Society Iron County Historical Society Over one hundred members gathered for Members gathered at St. Paul's Episcopal the Harvest Dinner held at the museum in Church on January 17 to continue the tour of Clinton on November 19. Following dinner, historic churches in Arcadia Valley. the Society's president presented the annual Heritage Award to Ralph Clary in recognition Jasper County Historical Society of his many contributions to the Society. On Society member Eleanor Coffield hosted November 27, in conjunction with Clinton's the annual Christmas party at her home in 314 Missouri Historical Review

Carthage on December 13. Elaine Smith, Nadine Garland, president; James Naes, vice from the Ozark Wilderness Dulcimer Club in president; Sylvia Fromm and Madeline Joplin, presented a program about the dul­ Sheltman, secretaries; and Diane Naes, trea­ cimer that included the history of the instru­ surer. At the February 4 meeting in ment and the presentation of several musical Kimmswick Hall, members perused and selections. recorded information from a large collection of photographs recently donated to the Joplin Historical Society Society. The museum complex hosted the second annual Toy Train Show on November 28, Kirkwood Historical Society attracting over three hundred train enthusi­ At the December 8 meeting, former state asts. Pillars of the State: A History of representative Francis M. Barnes presented Missouri's Capitols, a traveling exhibit spon­ "James P. Kirkwood, the Greatest Civil sored by the Missouri State Archives, was Engineer of the 19th Century," a talk about displayed at the museum through December the life and times of the city's namesake. The 23. Another archives traveling exhibit, meeting was held at Grace Episcopal Church. Missouri's Past Preserved: Highlights From The Christmas Parlor Tour, a candlelight tour the Missouri State Archives, opened in the held on December 13, showcased nine local museum on January 23. Two February houses and the historic Olive Chapel. events were held to raise funds for the muse­ Refreshments were served at Mudd's Grove um complex: the second annual Bridge Party following the event. on February 10 and a collectibles and memo­ rabilia show on February 14. Laclede County Historical Society Members celebrated Thanksgiving on Kansas City Westerners November 23. For the January 19 program, At the November 10 meeting, William Charlene Hopkins discussed the county poor Worley presented "Isaac McCoy as Indian farms in Phillipsburg and the Eldridge area. Agent and Friend of the Indians." Members Meetings are held the fourth Monday of each heard a talk by Don Inbody titled "Bible in month at the Harwood Manor in Lebanon. Pocket, Gun in Hand: Religion on the Frontier" at the December 8 meeting, and on Lee's Summit Historical Society January 12, Fred Krebs presented "The The Society met on December 4 at the Frontier Is My Home: An Evening with Kit Lee Haven Community Building for a Carson." The February 9 program, by Kevin Christmas program. Members shared Phillips, was "What's happening at the favorite holiday memories. Arabia Steamboat Museum." All meetings were held at the Wyndham Gardens Hotel in Lincoln County Historical Kansas City. New officers for 1999 include and Archeological Society Betty Marshall Ergovich, president; John At the November 19 meeting at the Ingram and Don Inbody, vice presidents; Britton House in Troy, Harris Maupin pre­ Barbara Larsen, secretary; and Kevin sented "Fur Traders and Mountain Men." Phillips, treasurer. Members held a Victorian open house and tour of the Sheriff's Residence and the Old Kimmswick Historical Society Jail Museum in Troy on November 29 and The Society's twenty-first annual candle­ December 6. light tour, held December 4-6, included sev­ eral public and private historic buildings, all Meramec Valley Genealogical decorated for the holidays. Members held a and Historical Society Christmas party on December 7 at the Blue On November 18, Thelma Pedrotti dis­ Owl Restaurant. New officers for 1999 are cussed the Catawissa area and Pedrotti family Historical Notes and Comments 315 history. Bimonthly meetings are held at the John G. Neihardt Corral of the Westerners Scenic Regional Library in Pacific. Adolf Schroeder, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Columbia, pre­ Mid-Missouri Civil War Round Table sented "Hermann at the Turn of the Century," The November 17 meeting, held in a slide-enhanced talk on the years preceding Jefferson City, offered an array of short pro­ and during World War I at the December 10 grams. Joe Seiling discussed Dr. Mary meeting. On January 14 astronomer Val Walker, the only woman to receive the Germann spoke on "Carr Waller Pritchett: Congressional Medal of Honor in the Civil Pioneer Astronomer." Both meetings were War. To accompany a display of period held at the Holidome in Columbia. The weapons, uniforms, and photos, Roger Baker February 11 program, held at Jack's spoke on Colonel Ezra B. Fuller. Ralph Restaurant, Columbia, featured Chief Kreigh wrapped up the program by present­ Beverly Baker-Northup and Robert ing a video about Civil War artillery pieces. Northup's talk on Cherokee history in the "The Music of the Civil War," presented by Boonslick country. Bob Kountz, highlighted the January 19 meeting held at the Walters-Boone County Nodaway County Historical Society Historical Museum in Columbia. In December the Society held the Magical Christmas celebration at the museum in Miller County Historical Society Maryville. The museum resumed regular Approximately sixty members attended hours on February 16. Visitors are welcome the annual Christmas dinner and party held at on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons the museum in Tuscumbia on December 13. from 1:00 to 4:00. The museum will reopen in mid-May. Normandy Area Historical Association Missouri Historical Society The Association conducted two tours of The fifth annual holiday book fair held at Normandy in 1998 to showcase the proper­ the Society on December 6 offered shoppers ties of the Lucas and the Hunt families. an opportunity to purchase books about St. Louis history. Many authors were available O'Fallon Historical Society to meet with visitors and sign books. The Members celebrated Christmas on Society held several programs in conjunction December 7 at the log cabin. A traditional with the visit of Pope John Paul II to St. dinner was served, and each member and Louis in January. On January 10, Robert guest brought a homemade Christmas orna­ Duffy, an editor of the St. Louis Post- ment to decorate the tree. The singing of car­ Dispatch, presented "Making a Difference," ols and Bible readings rounded out the a program about past and present religious evening. leaders in St. Louis. A panel consisting of representatives from various St. Louis Old Trails Historical Society churches discussed "The Meaning of On January 20 members gathered at the Religion in St. Louis Today" on January 24. Manchester Methodist Church. Emily Kerr, who volunteers at the Butterfly House, dis­ Moniteau County Historical Society cussed this new tourist attraction in St. Louis Members held a show-and-tell program County. featuring antiques at the January 12 meeting in the Cultural Heritage Center, California. Osage County Historical Society New officers for 1999 are Nancy Martin, Members gathered for the annual meeting president; Dottie Gump, vice president; on November 23 at St. George's Church hall Colleen Grosvenor and Delia Huff, secre­ in Linn. Ralph Rowlett, a professor of taries; and Grover Snead, treasurer. anthropology at the University of Missouri- 316 Missouri Historical Review

Columbia, portrayed Hrolf Rodsander, a Missouri authors of the past and present. The Viking from circa 980 A.D., in a presentation January 18 meeting, also held in the Yeater titled "Close Encounters of the Early Kind." Building, featured Fred Fausz of St. Louis Also at the meeting, the following officers discussing "Images of the Indian in American were elected: Roberta Schwinke, president; History." Walter Ryan, vice president; and Constance Reichart, secretary. Platte County Historical and Genealogical Society Overland Historical Society Annals of Platte County, by William The annual Christmas candlelight tour, Paxton, is available through the Society. held on December 12-13, showcased the Considered the premier reference source for Society's 1850s log house and historic barn. information on the county, it can be ordered Guests enjoyed homemade cookies and hot for $100.00, plus $3.50 postage, from Platte cider. Members met at the community center County Historical and Genealogical Society, on January 11. Member Don Dallas, a vol­ Attention: John Jackson, sales; P.O. Box 103; unteer archivist at the National Civilian Platte City, MO 64079. The museum and Conservation Corps Alumni Headquarters library will reopen on April 6; hours are and Museum at Jefferson Barracks, presented 12:00-4:00, Tuesday-Saturday. the program. Pleasant Hill Historical Society Pemiscot County Historical Society Ann Cotter presented a program recalling Guest speaker Randy Butler, director of her youthful memories of the town at the the Caruthersville Parks and Recreation January 17 meeting. Department, spoke about the local park sys­ tem at the November 20 meeting at the Pulaski County Museum Presbyterian Church in Caruthersville. and Historical Society Waynesville's old courthouse museum Perry County Historical Society received over one hundred visitors during the The annual holiday sale, held on Christmas on the Square celebration on December 5 at the community center in December 3. Perryville, offered crafts, homemade baked items, candy, canned goods, and Society pub­ lications. Ray County Historical Society The annual meeting, held on January 14 Perry County Lutheran Historical Society at the Eagleton Center in Richmond, featured The roofing project at the Old College in a carry-in dinner and the election of officers. Altenburg was completed in November. The Guest speaker Thad Henry from William log college, the first Lutheran seminary erect­ Jewell College in Liberty spoke on Alexander ed west of the Mississippi River, is listed on Doniphan. the National Register of Historic Places. Members decorated the Old Trinity Church in Raymore Historical Society Altenburg with a pine tree and other adorn­ At the November 10 meeting, Kirk ments for the holidays. Powell presented "Civil War Soldiers." New Society officers for 1999 include Theresa Pettis County Historical Society Waltmire Cotter, president; Raymond The Society met on November 30 at the Calahan and Vera Jean Gorsky, vice presi­ Yeater Building at State Fair Community dents; Pat Setser and Ethel Williams, secre­ College, Sedalia. President Rhonda Chalfant taries; and Charlene H. Hubach, treasurer. and Marian Fleischmann, manager of Sedalia The Society meets on the second Tuesday of Book and Toy, gave a presentation on each month at the museum. Historical Notes and Comments 317

Raytown Historical Society Wednesday-Saturday, 1:00-4:00 P.M. The Society held the volunteers brunch and annual dinner at the museum in Scott County Historical Society December. The January 18 meeting included Members gathered on December 15 at the a soup and chowder dinner and entertainment county probate records office in Benton to provided by the Mic-O-Say dancers of the learn more about finding and using the Boy Scouts of America. The museum exhib­ office's records. The director of the Hunter- it features items from the private collection of Dawson State Historic Site in New Madrid, Walter Cook, a leading county historian. Michael Comer, spoke at the January 19 Articles on display include documents, meeting held at the courthouse in Benton. diaries, journals, and other materials depict­ ing the early days in the area and western Shannon County Historical migration. and Genealogical Society The Society, formerly the Winona St. Charles County Historical Society Historical and Genealogical Society, has cen­ Joan Kniest spoke on Fort San Carlos at sus, marriage, and cemetery information for the quarterly meeting held on January 23 at sale. For listings write to P.O. Box 335, the Golf View Inn in St. Charles. Winona, MO 65588. Monthly meetings are held in the Winona Public Library on the sec­ St. Clair County Historical Society ond Thursday at 4:00 P.M. The November 17 meeting, held at the Osceola Senior Center, the standing location, Shelby County Historical Society featured Judith Guthrie of the Missouri State The Society has been entrusted with the Archives discussing "How To Find Those preservation of sports trophies won by teams Old Records." A completed copy of the from Shelby County. The collection includes Society's cemetery project book was present­ many awards won by the 1952 Shelbyville ed for members' approval at the January 19 High School boys' basketball team. meeting. In addition, Velda Faye King dis­ cussed the vanishing towns of Tiffin, Pape, Sons and Daughters of the Blue and Dyer. and Gray Civil War Round Table At the January 17 meeting, members St. Francois County Historical Society viewed a video titled The War of the The Society gathers on the fourth Rebellion. Monthly meetings take place in Wednesday of each month, January to the lower level meeting room of the October, and the third Wednesday of the Maryville Public Library. month in November at the Ozark Federal Bank in Farmington. Meetings begin at 7:30 Stone County Historical Society and include a keynote speaker and refresh­ The Christmas pot-luck dinner on ments. December 6 featured dishes made from recipes with historical backgrounds. New St. Joseph Historical Society officers for 1999 include Lois Watkins, pres­ The fourth annual candlelight tour of ident; Jay Pace, vice president; and Elba Robidoux Row was held on the first two Johnson, secretary. weekends of December. Nineteen ninety- nine marks the Society's fiftieth anniversary; Texas County Missouri Genealogical a number of activities are planned throughout and Historical Society the year in celebration. New Society officers for 1999 include Shirley Wenger, president; Christine Hadley, Scotland County Historical Society vice president; Doris Montgomery and Velma The museum in Memphis is open E. Adams, secretaries; and Oneta Farris, trea- 318 Missouri Historical Review

surer. The January meeting featured Helen Louise Meyers, Dorine Lowell, and Jeanette Stenger, who discussed women's dress in the Caliguri, vice presidents; Beverly Shaw and eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Alice Phister, secretaries; and Leonard Photographs enhanced the program. Stroud, treasurer. Volunteers met on Decem­ ber 5 to decorate the Harris-Kearney House Vernon County Historical Society museum for the holiday season and for the At the Society's annual meeting, held on annual Christmas Open House held on January 17 at the new museum in Nevada, December 6. Members met on February 12 Steve Cottrell of Carthage discussed Civil at the Woodside Racquet Club in Westwood, War books that he has authored and his Kansas, for the year's first quarterly meeting. adventures participating in Civil War reenact- The program featured Jane Fifield Flynn, a ments. All sitting officers were reelected. Kansas City author, presenting "Kansas City Downtown in the 1880s; Boom and Bust!" Washington Historical Society The museum, located at 113 East Fourth White River Valley Historical Society Street, reopened on March 6. Hours are On December 13 members met at the Saturday-Sunday, 1:00-4:00. College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, for the quarterly meeting. Mabel Phillips of Ozark Webster County Historical Society spoke on the precounty history of the area. The Society has reinstituted monthly meetings. Members and guests gather on the Winston Historical Society fourth Tuesday of each month at the museum, At the annual meeting in November, the located at 219 South Clay Street in following officers were reelected for the Marshfield. The museum will be open to vis­ 1999 term: Barbara Caldwell, president; itors on Tuesdays-Saturdays, 1:00-4:30, Cindy Lang and Lynn Martindale, vice presi­ May-October. The Society can be reached dents; Jay Groves, secretary; and Melba through its Internet site at . Officers for 1999 include Donald W. Rost, Wright County Historical Society president; Stan Whitehurst, vice president; Volume II of History and Families of Suzanne Thorns, secretary; and Diane Wright County is now available. To order Barnett, treasurer. this hardbound volume send $59.50, plus $5.00 for postage and handling, to the Westport Historical Society Society at P.O. Box 66, Hartville, MO 65667. The Society's new officers to serve in The Society can also be reached online at 1999 include Daniel Verbeck, president; .

How Many Umbrellas?

Fulton Telegraph, January 4, 1878. In answer to the statement that the umbrella was invented 150 years ago, we are met with the following doubt: It may be that the invention was then first made public, but who can say how often it had been invented previously and stolen before the inventor could show it? 319

GIFTS RELATING TO MISSOURI

John Bradley Arthaud, Columbia, donor: Descendants of Burnett, Head and Sossey Families, by the donor. (R)* Ted Franklin Belue, Murray, Kentucky, donor: The Life of Daniel Boone, by Lyman C. Draper, edited by the donor. (R) Joseph L. Brumit, Sun City West, Arizona, donor: Henry Otto Keehart (Otto Heinrich Kuhhirt): A German to Missouri, by the donor. (R) Charles R. Carpenter, Sun City West, Arizona, donor: Military records of Charles G. Carpenter. (R) Beatrice J. Sapp Carr, Hurricane, Utah, donor: Elijah Everett SapplOna Catherine Rippeto Genealogy, by the donor. (R) Mrs. Frederick R. Carr, Florissant, donor: Pastoral Records of Reverend Karl Frederick Albers, by Cynthia Zenita Albers Carr. (R) Albert Castel, Hillsdale, Michigan, donor: Bloody Bill Anderson: The Short, Savage Life of a Civil War Guerrilla, by the donor and Thomas Goodrich. (R) Corporate Parkway Branch Library, Wentzville, donor, via Brad Smith: Wentzville Union issues from 1985 to 1988. (N) Anne F. Cosper, Carefree, Arizona, donor: More Roses Than Thorns, by B. Hanly James. (R) Norma G. Davis, Galesburg, Illinois, donor: Collins Citizen, 9 July 1896. (N) Eugene D. Denman, Farmington, donor: Denman Families in America: A Compilation, by the donor. (R) Skip Gatermann, St. Louis, donor: Various publications from: Blue Knights of Missouri, Harley Owner's Group, National Association of Railroad Passengers, St. Louis Railway Enthusiasts, Gateway Postcard Club, Motorcycle Riders Foundation; photos and slides of the St. Louis area. (R) & (E) Glendale, Arizona Historical Society, Glendale, Arizona, donor, via Carol St. Clair: Diploma of W. S. Horsman from the Missouri Normal School. (M) Peggy Ann Gulland, Lincoln, Nebraska, donor: Perkins family group sheets. (R) Jim Hamilton, Buffalo, donor: Reflexions II: A Pictorial History of the People and Communities of Dallas County, Missouri, edited by the donor. (R) Orval Henderson, Independence, donor: Central Methodist College Scribblings 1949. (R) John K. Hulston, Springfield, Missouri, donor: "The First and Only Verified Autobiography of the 32nd President of the United States," Missouri Law Review, winter 1991, by the donor. (R) Kathy Johnson, Houston, Texas, donor: Photograph of Missouri State Capitol foundation, 1913. (E) Debbie Kilgore, Macon, donor: Telephone directories from central Missouri counties, 1988-1997. (R)

*These letters indicate the location of the materials at the Society. (R) refers to Reference Library; (N), Newspaper Library; (E), Editorial Office; (M), Manuscripts; (RFC), Reference Fitzgerald Collection; (B), Bay Room; and (A), Art Collection. 320 Missouri Historical Review

Linnea D. Lilja, Columbia, donor: Ninety-eight children's books. (RFC) Edna Hazel Lowery, Falls Church, Virginia, donor: Parade Magazine, 13 December 1998, including an article on Bogard, Missouri. (R) Marie A. McCollom, O'Fallon, Illinois, donor: Index to the Versailles Leader-Statesman July 1997-June 1998, by the donor. (N) David Meyer, Columbia, donor: St. Louis Business Journal: Book of Lists 1998, vol. 18, no. 16. (R) Midway Locust Grove United Methodist Church, Columbia, donor, via Tom Statler: Out of the Wilderness: One Hundred and Eighty Years of Methodism in Boone County, edited by Dolores L. Sanders. (R) Missouri State Library, Jefferson City, donor, via Nancee Dahms-Stinson: Joy School, by Elizabeth Berg; Hiding Mr. McMulty, by Berniece Rabe; The Unprotected Witness, by James Stevenson. (RFC) Marian Ohman, Columbia, donor: Photographs of peanut vendors at Missouri State Fair and Lawrence Beall Smith; slides relating to the Scruggs-Vandervoort-Barney art collection at the University of Missouri- Columbia; biographical and other data on Missouri architects. (E) & (R) Kirk Pearce, Lebanon, donor, via Cechita Hoke: Laclede County Republican, 5 June 1914, 29 June 1917; Laclede County Sentinel, 26 June 1903; Lebanon Republican, 9 March 1894; Lebanon Rustic, 23 August 1888, 23 June 1892, 2- 23 February 1893, 4 January 1894, 16 December 1897, 12 November 1914, 23 August 1917; Lebanon Rustic-Leader, 8 September 1881; Daily Rustic Republican, 3, 4, 9-14 February 1880, all loaned for microfilming. (N) Walter and Beverely Pfeffer, Columbia, donors: Publications and brochures relating to various civic, cultural, political, and academic organizations and institutions. (R) William E. Preston, Ocala, Florida, donor: Scrapbook of Sally Rand photographs, news articles, advertisements, and letters. (R) Ripley County Historical Society, Doniphan, donor, via Ray Burson: Star of Doniphan, 25 September 1881. (N) Salina Public Library, Salina, Kansas, donor, via Judy Lilly: Photographs of rock paintings in Palmyra. (E) Virginia Schmidt, Mount Vernon, donor: AuroralMonettlCassvillelCranelMount Vernon/'Pierce City and Surrounding Areas Direc­ tory, 1998. (R) Bernard K. Schram, Ste. Genevieve, donor: The Ste. Genevieve Artists' Colony and Summer School of Art, 1932-1941, by James G. Rogers, Jr. (R) Millicent Ann Schreiber, Ventura, California, donor: Clippings about Glen Wade and family. (R) Rebecca B. Schroeder, Columbia, donor: Blind Boone: Missouri's Ragtime Pioneer, by Jack A. Batterson. (R) Sons of Confederate Veterans, Missouri Division, Jefferson City, donor, via Darrell L. Maples: Sons of Confederate Veterans, Missouri Division, one-hundredth anniversary pin. (M) Marilyn Stanley, Auxvasse, donor: The Meissens from Wien: Descendants of John William Meissen and Rosa Bohrer, by the donor. (R) Historical Notes and Comments 321

United Methodist Church, Missouri East Conference, Ballwin, donor, via Ann B. Sherer: 1998 Directory. (R) Kenneth E. Weant, Arlington, Texas, donor: Boone County, Missouri, 5558 Deaths Reported In & Chronological Index To Selected Articles From The Columbia, Missouri Herald 5 January 1871 to 31 December 1891. (R)

Asking the Right Questions

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 8, 1995. The best etiquette questions from children get right to the point: "I was wondering," a Gentle Reader now in the sixth grade inquires, "what if one of you guests get sick and through up." One in the second grade writes . . . "Are you ulaud to berp outlaud at the tabel?" It is for their content, rather than their form, that Miss Manners relishes these problems. (She has declared a new rule of etiquette forbidding people who have computers equipped with spell-check to take a patronizing attitude toward people who don't.)... [Miss Manners column]

THE RICHARD S. BROWNLEE FUND

In 1985 the executive committee of the State Historical Society of Missouri established the Richard S. Brownlee Fund to honor the longtime executive director upon his retirement. Income from the corpus of the fund is used annually to provide cash awards for individuals and organi­ zations proposing to publish, or make other tangible contributions to, the history of Missouri and its citizens. Individuals, local historical societies, museums, and governmental and nongovernmental agencies are eligible to apply for funding. Residency within the state is not a requirement. Applicants for Brownlee Fund monies should direct their proposals to James W. Goodrich, executive director of the Society. A cover letter out­ lining the goals and presenting a synopsis of the project should be accom­ panied by an itemized budget detailing the manner in which the requested funds will be used. The deadline for 1999 applications is July 1. 322

MISSOURI HISTORY IN NEWSPAPERS

Bethany Republican-Clipper December 16, 1998: "Cainsville mill could become museum," by Phil Conger.

Boonville Daily News November 26, 1998: "Five men search for remains of [the Washington] steamboat near Franklin," by Melissa Johnston.

Branson West Stone County Gazette November 27, 1998: "How and Why Joe Bald Road got its name." December 4: "A road by any other name would still be called 'bald.'" December 18: "The Rest of the Story," of Joe Bald Road and Joe Bald Mountain. January 1, 1999: "What really is a hillbilly, and are you'ens one?" January 15: "Ghost towns reveal area's past," towns of Stone and Taney Counties. All articles part of the "History of Here" series by James Barrett.

Butler News-Xpress November 20, 1998, January 8, 1999: "Museum Memories . . . ," featured, respectively, the Fisk Theatre and tent shows in Butler.

Canton Press-News Journal December 3, 1998: "Yesteryear's Pictures" featured the history of the Canton post office/Press-News Journal building.

Carthage Press January 6, 1999: "Refugees fled Carthage in the aftermath of battle," by Marvin Van Gilder. January 13: "Building [owned by Dorothy Ann Greenwood] on the Square holds history, surprises," by Sue Vandergriff.

Centralia Fireside Guard October 28, 1998: "The History of the Centralia Public Library: Mid-Week Club did not believe in doing things 'by the book,'" by Mildred Knowles, reprinted.

Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune November 18, 1998: "Grandson [Boyd Finch] searching for information about Kate Baker's Ladies Silver Cornet Band." December 9: "Chillicothe's first hospital established; St. Mary's Hospital 1888-1916," by Joe Welschmeyer. January 8, 1999: "Passing through the hands of time: Historic buildings express the char­ acter of the community," featuring the Leeper Hotel; the Luella, Ben Bolt, and Dickinson Theaters; the New York Store; the Coburn Building; the Livingston County Jail; and the Livingston County Library, by Carolyn Cook Leffler.

Clinton Daily Democrat November 6, 1998: "Solomon Blatt was the first Mayor."

Columbia Daily Tribune January 21, 1999: Special section, "Time Passages," included stories on local historical Historical Notes and Comments 323 organizations, a time line of Boone County history, and local business history.

Concordia Concordian October 21,1998: "How Concordia's creamery got started," by Edward Stuenkel, reprinted.

East Prairie Eagle January 14,1999: "Belmont, Missouri at the turn of the century: Reminiscences by Myrtle Marie McFadden."

El Dorado Springs Sun November 19, 1998: "The [Benjamin Franklin] Burch House: home built for a young bride," by Allene Reynolds.

*Farmington Daily Press Leader October 31, 1998: "Fredericktown publisher lands in Hall of Fame," Oliver Ferguson, by Donna Hickman.

Fredericktown Democrat News December 9, 1998: "Recalling Iron Mountain Train Wreck" near Marquand, by John Paul Skaggs. January 20, 1999: "Saluting Our Madison County Veterans," Ernest Calvin Robbs and Adolph Lafayette West.

Gainesville Ozark County Times January 20, 1999: "History of Ozark County Times," by Linnie M. Ingram.

Glasgow Missourian January 28, 1999: "Price's Hotel."

Greenfield Vedette November 5, 1998: "A Schoolhouse With A Story," Eudora School, by Brenda Parrish.

Hannibal Courier-Post November 26, 1998: "Hydesburg: Settlement preceded Hannibal's earliest development," by Roberta and J. Hurley Hagood.

Independence Examiner October 22, 1998: "Truman's 1948 Surprise," part of the Examiner's one hundred year celebration. January 20, 1999: "The Inauguration [of Harry S. Truman]: The city's proudest moment. The social event of a lifetime," by Frank McCleary.

Jackson Cash-Book Journal November 11, 1998: "History and charm abundant in Ste. Genevieve," by Elane Ertman. December 9: "Mueller Meat Market sold franks three for 50 in 1884." December 30: "McAtee Mercantile ... from Red Goose shoes to groceries." This and the above article by Beverly K. Hahs.

indicates newspapers not received by the State Historical Society. 324 Missouri Historical Review

Jefferson City Sunday News Tribune November 22, 1998: "Scores of buildings still stand as silent testimony to architect," Morris Frederick Bell, by Gary Kremer.

Jefferson City Word & Way December 3, 1998: "Columbia [First Baptist] church marks 175th."

Joplin Globe November 4, 11, 1998, January 20, 1999: "The way we were" featured, respectively, the Famous Clothing Store and First National Bank, the Sixth Annual Joplin Fiesta, and Grome Street.

Kansas City Star October 18, 1998: "The name changed, but the films keep rolling," Fine Arts Theatre, for­ merly Dickinson Theatre, celebrates sixtieth anniversary, by Robert W. Butler. October 25: "The 1970s: A footnote: On strike!" November 1, December 27: The series "Kansas City in the 20th Century" featured, respectively, "So much, so fast: The 1980s dealt horror and high times in stunning sequence" and "In the 1990s, our past is helping define . . . The city of the future." Both articles by Rick Montgomery. November 22: "The 1980s: A footnote: A giant grows from humble beginnings," the his­ tory and formation of Sprint Corporation. November 29: "The 1980s: A footnote: A morality play," the Coalition Against Pornography headquarters in Kansas City.

Kearney Courier November 5, 1998: "Remembering the contributions of Kearney-area [veterans]." November 19: "Tale of a deadly neighbor, deadly friend," the killing of Salmon and John Bigelow, neighbors of Jesse James. December 3: "Deadly Neighbor, Deadly Friend," continued. December 17: "A few letters home from the battlefield," letters of Confederate Sergeant Phillip Henry Gill of Haynesville. December 31: "Let the church bells ring out," history of Methodist church bells in Clay County. January 14, 1999: "Minnesota heist was a mistake for James gang," the Northfield bank robbery. All articles by Kent Kooi.

Lebanon Daily Record November 2, 1998: "Bennett Spring Hotel-1912." November 20: "Phillipsburg Cumberland Presbyterian Church Organized In 1871," by Kirk Pearce. January 25, 1999: Special anniversary section, "Lebanon, Missouri, 150 Years: Part I: The building of a small town 1849-1900."

Linn Unterrified Democrat November 11, 1998: "An instrumental part of Koeltztown's history," the Koeltztown brass band, by Joe Welschmeyer. December 23: "Osage County 1998 Christmas Trivia," historical Osage County trivia, by Joe Welschmeyer; "Freeburg centennial history to be written." Historical Notes and Comments 325

Mansfield Mirror January 28, 1999: "Early Days of Mansfield," the Mansfield public square.

Monett Times November 11, 1998: Photo essay depicting Company E of the Second Missouri Regiment in the Spanish-American War. November 12: "Veterans Salute To The Monett Area's First Official War 100 Years Ago: Spanish American War," by Murray Bishoff.

Montgomery City Montgomery Standard November 4, 1998: "Landmark," the lumberyard.

Mount Vernon Lawrence County Record November 18, 1998: '"Remember the Maine'—and Co. E," by Kathy Fairchild. December 23: "The Mt. Vernon square ... 80 years ago."

New Haven Leader November 4, December 9,1998: The series "Franklin County ... the early days" featured, respectively, "Small Farms . . . From Horses to Monster Tractors" and "Leslie's Equine 'Filling Station,'" the old Leslie watering trough, both by LeRoy Danz.

New Madrid Weekly Record October 23, 1998: "The History of New Madrid's Street Names." November 20: "Growth of New Madrid; Its Street and Place Names." This and the above article by H. Riley Bock.

Norborne Democrat Leader December 10, 1998: "From The Files Of Yesteryear," featured Mrs. Emelie Wegeng's rec­ ollections of the Lutheran and Marshall Schools.

North Kansas City Press-Dispatch January 8, 1999: "If trees could talk," the Red Crown Tavern, site of police shootout with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, by Martha Zirschky.

Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic October 21, 1998: "Civil War Soldier Tells of Doniphan Fighting," the diaries of Sergeant J. C. Steakley; "445 N. 11th St. Historic House A Sample of International Style," the J. Herbert Moore house. January 6, 1999: "Railroads, Timber Put Butler Co. On Map," by Bob Manns.

St. Joseph News-Press November 22, 1998: "Rededication of covered bridge brings back fond memories," the Burfordville Covered Bridge in Cape Girardeau County, by Mark Bliss.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch December 20, 1998: "Gaslight Square had colorful, short life," by Dan Yount. January 3, 10, 17, 24, 1999: The "20th Century" series featured, respectively, "The Louisiana Purchase Exposition: 1904 World's Fair: 'Our Fair' brought the world to St. Louis," by Mary Delach Leonard; "St. Louis and the Olympics: The Third Olympiad: The 1904 Olympic Games stand alone in sports history," by John M. McGuire; "St. Louis and Aviation: 326 Missouri Historical Review

Those Magnificent Flying Machines," by Jeff Daniel; and "St. Louis and the Titanic: A Ship To Remember," by Sue Ann Wood and Mary Delach Leonard. January 11: "It was so cold . . . They walked across the Mississippi," the winter of 1936, by Sue Ann Wood. January 18: "St. Louis Wrapper," Barry-Wehmiller Companies, by William Flannery.

St. Louis Review November 20, 1998: "Holy Ghost Parish in Berkeley celebrates its 75th anniversary"; "Final Mass at St. Lucy [Parish in Jennings] on Nov. 21." December 4: "Striving for excellence: Fontbonne's 75th anniversary called sign of stabil­ ity," by Kelly Debrecht.

Sedalia Democrat November 9, 1998: "Mystery woman: Portrait collector seeks model's identity," by Ron Jennings.

Seneca News-Dispatch November 12, 1998: "Seneca, A Long Time Ago," Main Street, early 1900s. November 19: "Matt Murdock's Meat Market," early 1900s.

Sheridan Quad River News November 25, 1998: "Little Red Schoolhouse Part of Nation's History," the Adams schoolhouse in Worth County, by Pansy Rinehart.

Sikeston Standard-Democrat November 8, 1998: "Area's past rediscovered: Cemeteries yield clues," the McMullin/Grant City Cemetery, by Margaret Cline Harmon. November 19: "[Sikeston] Depot's history goes back 125 years in town." November 22: "Cemeteries reveal Scott County's past," the Benton Cemetery. December 20: "St. Denis Cemetery in Benton enjoys storied past." January 10, 1999: "Lambert Cemetery [in Benton] tells story of struggle, triumph." This and the above two articles by Margaret Cline Harmon.

Southwest City Republic December 9, 1998: "White Rock School's 60th construction anniversary," by Ralph Pogue.

Springfield News-Leader October 27, 1998: "In his own words," Charles O'Reilly's remembrances of Springfield in 1927; "Charles O'Reilly: Catching the car craze," the story of O'Reilly Automotive, by Lisa Wingo.

Sullivan Independent News December 2, 1998: "Weeding Out the One-Room Schoolhouse," by E. Kimker.

Troy Lincoln County Journal December 1, 1998: "Troy Marble & Granite Works," part of "Lincoln County Recollections" series, by Charles R. Williams. Historical Notes and Comments 327

Washington Missourian January 27, 1999: "When the Century Was New and I Was a Boy," fur trapping, by Ralph Gregory.

*Waynesville Pulaski County Democrat November 11, 1998: "First female drill sergeant on post says it wasn't too difficult," Pat "Kris" Kristoff, by Kim Rich.

Webb City Sentinel October 23, 1998: "Joining the W Club was quite an honor," by Jeanne Newby.

Webster Groves Webster-Kirkwood Times December 11-17, 1998: "A Craft Handed Down Four Generations," the Frei family stained glass trade, by Marty Harris.

Shortcut

Hannibal Tri-Weekly Messenger, August 21, 1852. The last case of indolence is that [of] a man named John Hole, who was so lazy, that in signing his name, he simply used the letter J. and then punched a hole through the paper.

Doesn't Stay Long

Jefferson City Jefftown Journal, August 25, 1958. A government report states that the life of a paper dollar is only seven or eight months. Could be, but I never had one die on my hands yet.

Hiram Spudd's Letter

Kansas City Missouri and Kansas Farmer, February 1, 1914. To the Editor: ... I hope you are not worrying any about the beef shortage. The farmers will raise lots of hogs and chickens and eggs and some fellow will learn how to cross the ele­ phant and chinchbug and Kansas will raise enough meat for everybody. . . . Yours truly, Hiram Spudd 328

MISSOURI HISTORY IN MAGAZINES

America's Civil War March, 1999: "The beleaguered women of Missouri were caught up in a savage war with­ in a war," the Missouri-Kansas border war, by Frances Lowe; "Strange Odyssey of the 1st Missouri [Cavalry Volunteers]," by Anthony Monachello; "[William] Quantrill's Last Ride," by Stuart W Sanders.

Ancestors Unlimited November, 1998: "A Glance Back in Time At the Old Pioneers of Barry County," the Elias and Mary A. (Raber) Horine family, by Georgia L. Farwell.

The Blue and Grey Chronicle October, 1998: "Two Points of View: One From the Outside-One From the Inside," on the defeat of William Clarke Quantrill; "Can You Believe This! Tintypes all taken by the same photographer," by Joanne C. Eakin; "Spencer Cone McCoy (24 Jul 1844-8 Jan 1863)," by Fred L. Lee; "Lemuel E. & Mary Hall were Branded as Rebels," by Ronald Hall Richey; "The Mounted Arabs: Are those Jayhawkers we see riding away?" reprint of an army report by Colonel John T. Hughes, First Missouri State Guard, 1861. December, 1998: "Did [John] McClatchey Make it Across the River?" record of the U.S. v. Henry Hill murder trial; "Lone Jack Veteran [W L. Roney] Writes The Governor," about a monument for the Eighth Regiment Missouri State Militia Cavalry; "Doctor Pleasant Lea," by Joanne Chiles Eakin; "Mattie Lykins writes to the President," on behalf of a bushwhacker named Maddox; "William McCoy writes to Ellen [(Waddle) McCoy]"; "The Letters," between Anna Eliza Polk and her mother, Mary (Aud) Kean McClanahan; "'Bruz' [Henry Clay Chiles] writes to his little sister [Mary Jane Chiles]."

Boone's Lick Heritage, Boonslick Historical Society December, 1998: '"Living on Hominy and Sweet Milk': The Cole, Allison and McClure Families on the Virginia and Missouri Frontiers—Part 1," by William H. Lyon and Eleanor Leiter Vallieres.

The Bugle Call, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Foundation Autumn, 1998: "Personalities at Wilson's Creek: Quantrill," by Vincent Tyndall.

The Bushwhacker, Civil War Round Table of St. Louis December, 1998: "A House Divided," Civil War clashes between Missourians.

Bushwhacker Musings, Vernon County Historical Society January, 1999: "The 3 R's at Frogholler," Pleasant Valley School, by Eva M. Pettibon; "A Courthouse for Vernon County," by Charles W Goodlander.

The Callawegian, Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society November, 1998: '"Los Goddamnies': A Brief History of Callaway and North Missouri troops in the Mexican War."

Chariton County Historical Society Newsletter January, 1999: "Jim Hell Went There Saturday Night," the death of bushwhacker Jim Carter, by Tom Kenny, reprinted. Historical Notes and Comments 329

Christian County Historian November, 1998: "Remembering Gertrude [Hunter Roper]," an Ozark teacher and pio­ neer in special education, by Shirley Stewart.

Collage Of Cape County, Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society December, 1998: "Solomon George Kitchen: Colonel, 7th Missouri Cavalry, CSA," by Ray Nichols; "Captain Dan Able," reprinted; "Battle of Cape Girardeau," continued, researched by Steven Pledger.

Columbia Senior Times December, 1998: "The Little Known History of the [Columbia] Holiday Parade," by Edward F. Gaebler; "Columbia's First Baptist Church Marks Its 175th Year," by Michelle Long Windmoeller. January, 1999: "Historic Cemetery Honors Columbia's William Jewell," Jewell Cemetery. February, 1999: "The Columbia Public Library Has Long and Rich History." This and the above article by Michelle Long Windmoeller.

Columbiad Fall, 1998: "An Eye for an Eye," the Missouri-Kansas border war, by Mark J. Crawford.

Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly Fall, 1998: "Recalling Our Heritage, Part I: Missouri's Founding and Her Debt to [Martin] Luther," by Daniel Preus.

DeKalb County Heritage January, 1999: "Old Time Christmas in DeKalb Co.," recollections of Henry Thomp Harris; "Memories of Old Stewartsville," Thomas L. King, by Bennett M. Stigall; "[Dr. John Black] House is 100 Years Old," reprinted; "Tidbits of History," collected newspaper clippings from the late 1800s, reprinted.

The Despatch, Recreated First U.S. Infantry and Boone's Rangers November-December, 1998: "The Wood River Massacre, July 10, 1814," by Michael D. Harris. January, 1999: "Private Lloyd Pyott," soldier in the War of 1812, by Dave Bennett; "A Mummy in a Uniform," an unidentified War of 1812 soldier, and "Pond Fort on the Boonslick Road," both by Michael D. Harris.

The Fence Painter, Mark Twain Boyhood Home Associates Fall, 1998: '"Twins of Genius' Tour," Mark Twain's lecture tour with George Washington Cable.

Friends of the James Farm Journal Autumn, 1998: "Photo of outlaw [Jesse James] as Rebel shows insight into period," by Phil Stewart and Marcia Horn.

Gasconade County Historical Society Newsletter Winter, 1998: "Lippe Tal? You can hardly get there from here!" Elvira Brandt's life in the Lippe Valley, by Arthur G. Draper. 330 Missouri Historical Review

Gateway Heritage, Missouri Historical Society Fall, 1998: "Prosperity in the Face of Prejudice: The Life of a Free Black Woman in Frontier St. Louis," Jeanette Forchet, by Christine Williams; "On the Go in a Wide-Open Town: Harry Truman's Kansas City," by Lenore Bradley; "In the Collections: Paintings and Painters, Part One," by Thomas E. Morrissey; "Josephine Baker's Mill Creek Valley," introduction by Katherine Douglass; "Little Germany on the Missouri: The Photographs of Edward J. Kemper, 1895-1920: A Book Preview," by A. E. Schroeder; "The St. Louis Scene: History, Place, and the St. Louis Arch" and "Reading the Past," the Arena Buildings in St. Louis, both by Kirsten Hammerstrom.

Glendale Historical Society Bulletin December, 1998: "A Lifetime in Glendale: Roger Armstrong Tells His Story," by Roger Armstrong as told to Marion Reisenleiter Dowell.

The Herald, Grand River Historical Society and Museum January, 1999: "Asper School," by Letha Reed McGregor; short articles concerning slav­ ery in Livingston County, by Al Shelton, James Stout, and Sue Jones.

Hoseline History, Harry S Truman Independence 76 Fire Company November, 1998: "1906, A Year of Fires on the [Independence] Square," by Eric Cramer, reprinted.

Jefferson Barracks Gazette, Friends of Jefferson Barracks January-March, 1999: "Winfield Scott Hancock's St. Louis Connection," by Esley Hamilton.

Journal of Douglas County, Missouri December, 1998: "The Infamous Elder S. G. [Samson Gamiliel] Haws: Man of God or Criminal?" by Paul Barker and Kenneth Brown; "Douglas County Office Holders—1857 to 1902," by Kenneth W Brown; "Early Office Holders of Ozark County," by Ruby Robins, reprinted; "The Execution of Edward W Perry," reprinted; "William and Louhana (McMahan) Jenkins," by Donna Bradshaw; '"The Headless Cobbler of Smallett Cave,'" by Susan Watterson.

Journal of the West October, 1998: "When They Ousted the Earl of Hillsboro: A Singular Event in the History of the Missouri Senate," the conflict between Earl R. Blackwell and Warren E. Hearnes, by Will Sarvis.

Kansas City Genealogist Fall, 1998: "John W Reid, The Forgotten Hero," by William J. Curtis; "A Lady Revealed," Cora Totty, alias Louise Heorath, by Byron C. Shutz; "A History Lesson in Those Old Abstracts [of Title]," by Joanne Chiles Eakin; "Hard Times for John Sutter in Westport, Missouri," by Fred L. Lee; "May We Present . . . The Founders of Central [Presbyterian] Church," William P. and Ruth M. Allen, by Helen Gordon; "Warren W Welch Left His Mark," researched by Annette Curtis and Joanne Eakin; "Gone But Not Forgotten: George Thoman 1819-1907," by Fred L. Lee; "James Madison Lyle: A Martyr of the Kansas Border War in 1857," reprinted. Historical Notes and Comments 331

Kirkwood Historical Review Fall, 1998: "Kirkwood's Sam Murphy: The Late 'Train Man' Reminisces," by Sam Murphy as told to Marilee Lewis.

Lawrence County Historical Society Bulletin January, 1999: "First Sunday School in Southwest Missouri," in Spring River Township, by Dottie Elliott.

Lenoir Living, Lenoir Retirement Community January, 1999: Special fiftieth anniversary issue, "A Half Century of Caring: 1949-1999," the history of Lenoir Retirement Community, Columbia.

Missouri Historical Society Magazine Winter, 1998-99: "A Tale of Two Cities: George Kessler's Influence and Legacy [upon St. Louis and Kansas City]."

Missouri Magazine Fall, 1998: "100 Years of History: The State Historical Society of Missouri celebrates its centennial," by K. Michelle Burgess.

Newsletter, Cass County Historical Society Fall, 1998: "Strasburg History."

Newsletter, Cedar County Historical Society January, 1999: "History of the Prairie Valley Community," by Mary Ellen Beall, reprint­ ed.

Newsletter, Iron County Historical Society January, 1999: "The Rev. Jerome C. Berryman (1810-1906)," reprinted.

Newsletter, Laclede County Historical Society December, 1998: "Historical Memories: Cemeteries," the Hicks and Turner Cemeteries, by Dorothy Calton.

Newsletter, Osage County Historical Society November, 1998: "Loose Creek School—Part II." December, 1998: "Koeltztown School—No. 66." January, 1999: "Eichholz School—No. 47."

Newsletter, St. Francois County Historical Society November, 1998: "Milton P. Cayce," by Bob Schmidt; "St. Francois County Notable: General James Robinson McCormick," by Gene Murdock.

Newsletter, Sappington-Concord Historical Society Winter, 1999: "The Jennewein Family in the Sappington-Concord Area."

Newsletter, Scott County Historical & Genealogical Society November, 1998: "A Brief Sketch of the Eighth Missouri Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A. Marmaduke's Brigade," by James E. McGhee. January, 1999: "Hon. Marshall Arnold," reprinted. 332 Missouri Historical Review

Newsletter, South Central Missouri Genealogical Society October-November-December, 1998: "Big Springs School," continued.

Newsletter, Washington Historical Society November, 1998: "The Strange Mixed-Up Case of Charles F. Batt," by Marc Houseman; "Washington's Most Horrendous Day," Sterling Price's raid, by Norvin Kampschroeder.

The Northeast Reporter, Northeast Missouri Genealogical Society December, 1998: "Missouri State Song: 'The Missouri Waltz'"; "Why is Missouri Called the 'Show-Me' State?"; "How Did The Boundary of Missouri Come to Include the 'Bootheel?'"

Novinger Renewal News January, 1999: "History of Novinger," part two, by Walter J. Novinger, reprinted.

Old Mill Run, Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society January, 1999: "Blacksher Family History," by Dale Morrison; "Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Absher," submitted by Dean Wallace; "Murphy [Family] Gathering," submitted by Rhonda Herndon.

Old'n Newsletter, Randolph County Historical Society October-November-December, 1998: "Dr. Thomas S. Fleming's letters to WWII Randolph County Soldiers," continued.

Our Clay Heritage Winter Quarter, 1999: "RFD [Mail] Carrier Has Fond Memories," correspondence between Marge Wyatt and Georgia (Smith) Cummins.

Ozar'kin, Ozarks Genealogical Society Winter, 1998: "First Baptist Church, Conway, Missouri Celebrates 120 Years," by Glenn Gohr.

Ozarks Mountaineer December, 1998: "Wild Bill Hickok's Ozarks Connection," by Jim Reed; "A Munificent Gift—The Gasconade County Courthouse," by Dorothy H. Shrader; "An Ozarks Cattle Drive," by David B. Weems.

Ozarks Watch No. 2, 1998: "Small But Mighty: Laura Anderson, 1884-1983," by Jennifer Boone; "Great-Aunt Catherine [Basz Kappes Cornelison Lipscomb Elsbree]: Lessons from the Ozarks," by Linda Ramsey; "The Seeds of Selu: Women of the Corn," by Pam Burch; "Berthe [Daniel]'s Bread," by Barbara Radford-Kapp; "But the Nights are Cool: Excerpts from a 1998 taped interview with Mary Scott Hair," by Kathryn Long; "Uncommon Women," Mary Whitney Phelps and Mary Anne Phelps Montgomery, by Julie March; '"Hillbilly Heartbeats'— The 98 Years of May Kennedy McCord," by Willa Garrett.

The Paddlewheel January-February, 1999: "Rules and Regulations of the Steamboat Lexington," by Bob Mullen. Historical Notes and Comments 333

Perry County Heritage Volume 16, Number 3, 1998: "Owners of the [Perryville] Town Lots in the 1850s."

The Pikers, Pike County Genealogical Society Winter, 1999: "Biographical Sketch" of Marion O. Biggs, reprinted.

Resume, Historical Society of Polk County November, 1998: "The Year the Water Came," Bolivar's town spring.

Ripley County Heritage December, 1998: "Experience in a Wilderness During the Civil War," by Annie A. Ryrie; "Civil War Soldier [Sergeant J. C. Steakley] Tells of Doniphan Fighting," reprinted; "Eighty- five Years in the Twentieth Century," the autobiography of Jim Patterson; "Memories of Big Barren," by S. E. Glore; "Oar Stem [Found Near Doniphan] Historic Find," by Ray Joe Hastings, reprinted.

Rural Missouri December, 1998: "Echoes of History in Fulton," by Jeff Joiner.

St. Charles County Heritage January, 1999: "Tainter Drug Store," by Arthur "Artie" Tainter; "Lindenwood College 1859," reprint of second annual catalog of Lindenwood Female College; "Samuel Wells, 1754- 1830," by Dennis J. Hahn.

St. Louis Bar Journal Winter, 1999: "Springtime of Promise, Lemma Barkaloo and Phoebe Couzins," by Marshall D. Hier.

St. Louis Genealogical Society Quarterly Winter, 1998: "Docket of Frederick W Steines, Justice of the Peace 1879-1913 Meramec Township, St. Louis County, Missouri," prepared by Joyce Mercer; "Who Got Henry [Schaffner]'s Pension Benefits?" edited by Linda Young Nehring.

Seeking 'N Searching Ancestors February, 1999: "Mining in Miller County During the 19th and 20th Centuries," by Peggy Smith Hake.

The Semaphore, Winston Historical Society December, 1998: "Winston Pioneers: H. C. Kelso"; "Winston Pioneers: Edward F. West," reprinted.

S.E.MO. Record, Dunklin County Genealogical Society January, 1999: "Beech Corner School," by Anna Watkins.

Show Me Route 66 Fall, 1998: "The Banana Stand" became a restaurant called the Diamonds, by Skip Curtis; "33 Mile Post," by Milton Hurt; "Martha Jane Farm Auto Court Deluxe," by Gene Wagner. 334 Missouri Historical Review

Springfield! Magazine December, 1998: "Condensed History of The Queen City Of the Ozarks, Part XX," by Robert C. Glazier; "The Story of Lindenlure, Part IV," by Donna Baxter; "Killian Construction and the Young Titan [William F. Killian], Part II," by Sherlu Walpole. January, 1999: "Condensed History of The Queen City Of the Ozarks, Part XXI." February, 1999: "Condensed History of The Queen City Of the Ozarks, Part XXII." This and the above article by Robert C. Glazier.

Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Historical and Technical Society Newsletter Winter-Spring, 1998: "Remembering Diesels at the Fourteenth Street Shops," by Robert Tracy; '". . . Working Two Round Trips with Seven Days Off . . .' Remembering the United States Railway Mail Service," by Tom Semchee, Sr.; "The Last Customer on the TRRA's Central Belt," by David R. Bales.

Tree Shakers, Meramec Valley Genealogical and Historical Society November-December, 1998: "Poertner Family Recollections," by Irma (Bebe) McKenzie.

The Twainian December, 1998: "The Seditious Mark Twain?" by John Huffman.

Wagon Tracks, Santa Fe Trail Association Quarterly November, 1998: "Carmel Benavides, An Early Santa Fe Trail Woman," by Mary Jean Cook.

What've You Missed?

Columbia Missouri Herald, September 29, 1899. 'S I look back, it ain't the money 't I've spent fer the good times 't I've had 't regret, it's the good times 't I might 's well 've had an' didn't. I'm inclined to think, that after Adam an' Eve got bounced outr of the gard'n they kicked themselves as much as anythin' fer not havin' cleaned up the hull tree while they was about it.—David Harum [by E. N. Westcott].

Cannot Walk on Water

Kansas City Times, May 5, 1898. Jambleson: "By George, I'm glad I didn't go into the naval reserves when they were after me last winter. If I must fight, I'm going into the militia." Parker: "Why do you prefer the militia?" Jambleson: "Why? Great Scott! I shouldn't think you'd have to ask such a question as that. What chance will the naval fellows have if it becomes necessary to run?" 335

IN MEMORIAM

HENRIETTA AMBROSE Survivors include two daughters, Karlah State Historical Society trustee Henrietta Gibbs of Cincinnati and Cheryl Nash of Ambrose died in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Creve Coeur; a son, Walter Ambrose, Jr., of January 14, 1999. Ambrose, born on Fairfax, Virginia.; six grandchildren; and two February 26, 1928, in St. Louis, lived most of great-grandchildren. her life in Webster Groves. A graduate of Douglass High School, she attended Tucker Business College before marrying Walter L. Ambrose in 1948. He preceded her in death in 1998. She worked for the Division of BAER, ELEANORA A., St. Louis: Family and Children's Services and then the December 22, 1907-June 16, 1998 Social Security Administration before retir­ BOWMASTER, IDA CANAVAN, Kansas City: ing in 1985. May 20, 1907-October 20, 1998 An active member of the Webster Groves BROWN, WILLIAM R., Springfield: community, Ambrose was appointed to the August 23, 1924-September 13, 1998 city council in 1986, then elected to two more CLARK, EARL D., JR., Shawnee Mission, terms. She served as a liaison to the Historic Kansas: February 10, 1923-June 1, 1998 Preservation Commission and as a member COYLE, NANCY, Sanger, Texas: May 30, and president of the board of directors of the 1957-July 22, 1998 Webster Groves Historical Society and the DECKER, E. WM., Jefferson City: Webster Groves Optimist Club. She also January 31, 1914-September 24, 1998 served on the boards of the Missouri GRAFF, MRS. JOHN T., Longmont, Humanities Council, the Interfaith Housing Colorado: July 10, 1920-February 14, 1998 Commission, the North Webster LEBEDEFF, VINITA J., Detroit, Michigan: Neighborhood Coalition, the Friends of February 12, 1922-June 3, 1998 Father Dickson Cemetery, and the Friends of MCCLURE, ARTHUR E, Warrensburg: the Missouri State Archives. Ambrose's love January 24, 1936-January 20, 1998 of history and her commitment to the preser­ NEWLIN, MARGARET W., Shawnee vation of the historical events of the African Mission, Kansas: December 10, 1916- American community culminated in the book February 24, 1998 North Webster: A Photographic History of a POWELL, C. FORREST, Penis, California: Black Community, which she coauthored March 13, 1913-August 16, 1998 with Ann Morris and John Nagel in 1993. SCHOENTAG, JOHN S., St. Joseph: Ambrose became a trustee of the State August 11, 1930-June 8, 1998 Historical Society in 1989 and served until STAFFORD, LOIS, Columbia: her death. August 18, 1918-June 16, 1998 336

GRADUATE THESES RELATING TO MISSOURI HISTORY, 1998

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA MASTER'S THESIS

Isom, Scot, "Postscript to an Era of Art and Business: The Missouri Heart of the Nation Art Collection at the University of Missouri, Columbia."

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

Boman, Dennis K., "The Life of Abiel Leonard: Eminent Jurist and Passionate Unionist."

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, ST. LOUIS MASTER'S THESIS

Joseph, Deepu George, "Individual and State Expectations in Public Health: Shifting Assumptions in Saint Louis' 1849 Cholera Epidemic."

All Is Not Lost

Unionville Putnam Journal, August 8, 1902. Peary is ready to come back. He hasn't found the north pole, but he has enough material for a new lecture and another book.

Long Distance Diagnosis

Tuscumbia Miller County Autogram, April 27, 1905. Since telephones have been placed in farm houses, the doctors on the North Side complain that the women insist on holding their babies to the 'phone to hear them cough. 337

BOOK REVIEWS Hardship and Hope: Missouri Women Writing about Their Lives, 1820- 1920. Edited with an introduction by Carla Waal and Barbara Oliver Korner (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997). x + 315 pp. Bibliography. $19.95, paper.

There is more in this book than hardship and hope. In 1818, forty-eight- year-old Rose Philippine Duchesne hears the answer to a prayer and leaves Paris for a frontier mission in St. Charles, "the remotest village in the United States" (p. 11). In 1894, Laura Ingalls Wilder passes through the thriving city of Springfield on her way to a new home at Rocky Ridge Farm. Six decades later, novelist Fannie Hurst turns her attention from the New York high life to rediscover her roots in St. Louis. In their own words, twenty-two famous and obscure women tell stories of change, adventure, courage, commitment, doubt, ambition, love, sadness, fear, loss, nostalgia, and whimsy that help to illuminate Missouri's character. Carla Waal and Barbara Oliver Korner began assembling these stories for a series of dramatic readings, which they performed in venues through­ out the state and in Bergen, Norway. Their skill as actors and directors added sparkle to the women's writings, but the words themselves still shine. When Carry Nation writes about setting up a hotel business in a "regular bed-bug nest" (p. 190), a vivid image forms in the reader's mind. When Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley describes her origins as a slave, "free in God-like thought, but fettered in action" (p. 103), she sets the stage for an extraordinary per­ sonal drama. When Marie Watkins calls "loudly for hot water" to cure "a severe sick headache" (p. 129), she speaks for every young woman who ever had an attack of nerves before accepting a marriage proposal. Waal and Korner have included in this anthology many excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs that they could not use in their one-hour show. The authors' stated goal is to present women's private writings that "cap­ ture personal perspectives on events and evolving culture" (p. 2), and they achieve this admirably. Short biographical sketches place each woman in time, place, and social position; the selected essays and letters bring individ­ ual personalities into sharp focus. A roughly chronological arrangement gives the reader some sense of changing times. The authors suggest that cer­ tain events, such as the passage of the suffrage amendment in 1920, altered women's perceptions of themselves and their roles; however, the book does not advance new theories about gender relationships. It simply illuminates the ways in which the cultural construction of gender shapes individual lives. This is a very lively anthology. Many of the pieces beg to be read aloud. Teachers might do just that or encourage students to give dramatic readings. The book should be accessible to young adult and adult readers. For those who want to delve further into the histories of each of these interesting 338 Missouri Historical Review women, there are lists of primary sources and secondary references. A host of interesting research papers could begin here. The book has value for infor­ mation, inspiration, or pure enjoyment.

Southeast Missouri State University Bonnie Stepenoff

Holy Joe: Joseph W. Folk and the Missouri Idea. By Steven L. Piott (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997). xi + 208 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $34.95.

This highly readable biography of Joseph W. Folk is, hopefully, the first of many volumes on Missouri governors to be published in the University of Missouri Press's Missouri Biography Series. The feisty Folk became active in St. Louis Democratic politics even before he was elected to the position of St. Louis circuit attorney in 1900 at the age of thirty-one. During his single term, Folk gained national attention for his spirited attacks on corruption ("boodle") in St. Louis government, much of it embod­ ied in the person and practices of Edward "Boss" Butler. Folk rode the wave of reform to the governor's office in 1904 and subsequently sought unsuc­ cessfully a Senate seat and, Piott shows, the presidency of the United States. Hence, this is more than a biography of a Missouri figure: it is a profile of a key Progressive Era politician and a commentary upon the Progressive movement. Piott portrays Folk as a moralistic crusader whose self-righteousness often alienated as many of his constituents as it attracted. (One is tempted to draw comparisons between Folk's early-twentieth-century career and that of late-twentieth-century representatives of the so-called "religious-right.") Party loyalty seemed less important to him than the righteousness of a cause vigorously pursued. Consequently, Folk had no groundswell of support to sustain him in his postgubernatorial ambitions. The biographer has done a commendable job in narrating the life of Folk, although this reviewer does not believe that scholars of Missouri history, par­ ticularly those who have studied the early twentieth century, will find much that is new. Rather, the strength of Piott's book is that he tells the Folk story clearly, succinctly, and in an entertaining way. Still, the reviewer was disap­ pointed with at least two facets of the book, the first of which resulted, no doubt, from the dearth of personal papers that Folk left behind. Piott asserts that even before Folk arrived in St. Louis, he had been "imbued with a strong sense of Protestant moral values" and that he "left Brownsville [Tennessee] with a set of moral precepts that would guide him throughout his professional life" (p. 9). Although Piott is probably right, writers from Lincoln Steffens to Louis Geiger have made this same assertion about Folk, and none, including Piott, has proven it. Piott tells us much more Book Reviews 339 about what Folk did than why he did it. Perhaps Folk did believe his moral­ istic pronouncements. Perhaps, alternatively, he thought moralism was what voters wanted. In the absence of documents that give us greater insight into Folk's motivation, we may never know exactly what drove him. But there is a paradox that needs to be addressed about Folk: if he was as driven by "the Christian faith" as Piott asserts, why was his church attendance "always less than enthusiastic" (p. 5)? Piott criticizes other historians for being too critical of Folk. He seems to want to rescue Folk from his detractors and prove that "[Folk] accom­ plished a great deal" (p. 191). This reviewer believed that Piott provided convincing evidence of Folk's failures and inadequacies throughout the book and was surprised to find him defending Folk so strongly in the epilogue. On page 189, for example, Piott intends praise by pointing out that "Folk brought forty-one indictments for bribery during 1902 alone." But earlier in the book, Piott indicates that the overwhelming majority of those indicted by Folk escaped punishment; indeed, some even escaped prosecution. Why? There were a variety of explanations; among them, Folk's "failure to pay attention to detail" (p. 57).

William Woods University Gary R. Kremer

The Mexican War Correspondence of Richard Smith Elliott. Edited and annotated by Mark L. Gardner and Marc Simmons (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997). Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $29.95.

The outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846 interrupted the languishing St. Louis law practice of Richard Smith Elliott. For students and scholars of that conflict, Elliott's participation as an officer, but even more importantly, as an observer for the St. Louis Reveille, has provided an important written docu­ mentary on the part Missourians played in the contest. During his lifetime, Elliott pursued a number of occupations, once clas­ sifying himself as a "'lawyer, agent, collector, miner, writer, &c, &c.'" (p. 12). The etcetera included Indian agent, newspaper editor, and publisher. Born in Pennsylvania in 1817, Elliott engaged in the newspaper business early on, at one time owning a Whig newspaper in Harrisburg, the state cap­ ital. He also studied and practiced law. Not satisfied with his modest legal success, he traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1842 and secured the appoint­ ment of Indian agent at Council Bluffs, Iowa. He arrived in St. Louis in 1843. A year later, using the nom de plume of "John Brown," he began send­ ing dispatches and poems to Charles Keemle's St. Louis Reveille. Elliott resigned his government post to help the Potawatomie negotiate a treaty in the nation's capital and then returned to St. Louis to open a law practice. 340 Missouri Historical Review

When war between the United States and Mexico began, he won election as a first lieutenant in Thomas Hudson's mounted volunteers, who became known as the Laclede Rangers. Elliott begins his dispatches while traveling by steamboat to Fort Leavenworth, the starting point for Stephen Watts Kearny's Army of the West. Kearny's "Santa Fe Expedition," he notes, creates an economic wind­ fall for the fort and the surrounding area. His facile pen also informs his readers about readying for war and the lack of discipline of some of the vol­ unteers. But he gives high marks to Kearny, who "enjoys the utmost confi­ dence and respect" (p. 37). While Elliott views Kearny in a positive manner, he is at times critical of the conduct of the war. Not overly impressed with Sterling Price, who is given command of Santa Fe while Kearny and Alexander Doniphan are away, on more than one occasion he pens a derisive comment about the Missourian. Likewise, he is less than complimentary of Doniphan's "pru­ dence and foresight" (p. 158) at the Battle of Sacramento. Elliott is equally adept at recounting the horrors of war and depicting day-to-day boredom. He recounts the poor living conditions of troops on the march and the unsatisfactory fare for men and beasts. His portrayal of the Taos Revolt is particularly graphic. The original excitement over going to war subsided for Elliott as the hos­ tilities progressed. On April 14, 1847, he remarked about the dull life being experienced and that "a good deal of dissipation [is] going on, and morals generally are at a low ebb" (p. 164). Not long after, he reports: "I am hearti­ ly disgusted with volunteer service" (p. 185). In the end, disgusted or not, Elliott's wartime dispatches make for qual­ ity reading. Incisive and informative, his jottings range from gruesome to humorous. Fortunately for the editors and the readers, gaps in the lost letters to the Reveille could be filled in from the author's 1883 autobiography. Fortunately for the readers, the editors in this volume also included literary sketches that Elliott sent to the newspaper. The introduction and the annota­ tions ably complement Elliott's observations. Those interested in Missourians' participation in the Mexican War will welcome the edition.

State Historical Society of Missouri James W. Goodrich

Behind Enemy Lines: The Memoirs and Writings of Brigadier General Sydney Drake Jackman. Compiled and edited by Richard L. Norton (Springfield, Mo.: Oak Hills Publishing, 1997). vi + 225 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $29.95, cloth; $16.95, paper.

Behind Enemy Lines is a three-part compilation on Sydney Drake Jackman of Bates County, Missouri, who led Missouri State Guard and Confederate troops in Missouri and Arkansas during the Civil War. Although Book Reviews 341 frequently noted in Union dispatches, historiographically he is relatively obscure. Part one is the editor's seven-page biographical sketch of Jackman, whose introduction to civil war began in the late 1850s during the troubles on the western border of Missouri. He progressed from border volunteer to state guardsman to Confederate officer in a career spanning the conflict. In 1863, Federal authorities expelled Jackman's family to Louisiana. Arrested briefly following a trip to Mexico in 1865, Jackman rejoined his family in Texas, where he lived until his death in 1887. Part two is the core of Behind Enemy Lines. It consists of Jackman's unpublished reminiscence of service and letters to newspapers written in the 1880s. The memoir, unknown to most historians, concentrates on recruiting in western Missouri in 1861, the action at Lone Jack in August 1862, and recruiting north of the Missouri River in 1863. Jackman described the Lone Jack campaign in detail, drew a sketch map of the battlefield to correct "many false reports" (p. 67), and included a letter from Joseph Shelby vali­ dating the accuracy of his statements. Given the absence of Confederate reports, Jackman's account of Lone Jack and his 1863 exploits in Boone and Howard Counties are the most important parts of his memoir. Jackman oper­ ated frequently in Union-controlled territory, where much of the guerrilla war was clearly associated with Confederate recruiting efforts. His narrative describes a futile attack on the jail in Columbia to rescue a comrade, an unusual encounter with Abiel Leonard's nephews, and a reckoning with a militiaman who had abused Jackman's family. The reminiscence concludes at the beginning of Price's Expedition in 1864. The memoir reveals a cantankerous and unreconstructed former Confederate. The opening sentence, regarding the incompetence of a Missouri guardsman on the border before the war, sets the tone of the mem­ oir. Jackman commented freely on comrades including James S. Rains and John T. Coffee (gallant but exasperatingly alcoholic), Dewitt C. Hunter (incompetent at Lone Jack), John C. Tracy (cowardly), R. V. McCool (larce­ nous), and John F. Rucker (treacherous). He complimented Joseph Shelby, Jeremiah V. Cockrell, and even some federal adversaries but criticized the lack of cooperation between Missouri State Guard and regular Confederate troops, and Missouri and Arkansas soldiers. Jackman was unapologetic for his controversial remarks. Part three is Jackman's report, written in November 1864, concerning the activities of his brigade during Price's Expedition. Although previously pub­ lished in The War of the Rebellion, it benefits from the editor's annotations and provides a conclusion to the unfinished memoir. Norton's editing, indexing, and bibliography are well done, making Behind Enemy Lines a welcome addition to the Missouri Confederate bookshelf.

Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Rolla John F. Bradbury, Jr. 342

BOOK NOTES Hobby Horse Rider. From the writings of Lilburn Adkin Kingsbury, edited by Warren Taylor Kingsbury (Oakland, Calif.: Timestream, Inc., 1998). xii + 346 pp. Illustrations. $24.95, plus $5.00 shipping and handling.

As a collector, historian, genealogist, and journalist, Lilburn Adkin Kingsbury of Howard County always had a hobby horse to ride. Perhaps the most enduring and historically important of these hobbies was letter writing. In this volume, editor Warren Taylor Kingsbury, nephew of Lilburn, brings together a lifetime of his uncle's letters to family and friends. As a whole, these letters relate two stories: one of the life of Lilburn Kingsbury, and the other a vivid picture of his beloved "Boonslick Country" throughout the twentieth century. Hobby Horse Rider is available for purchase through Warren Taylor Kingsbury, 12000 North 90th Street #1038, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 and from Friends of Historic Boonville and South Howard County Historical Society.

Granny's Notes: "My First 84 Years." By Sue Gerard (Columbia, Mo.: Whip-Poor-Will Books, 1998). 280 pp. Illustrations. Maps. $20.00, plus $2.00 shipping and handling.

Author Sue Gerard learned early on that people liked to read the journals she had kept since her youth. After graduating from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia, she submitted stories from her diaries to magazines, turned them into books for her grandchildren, and shared them with the public in her weekly column in the Columbia Daily Tribune. Now she has gathered these writings about growing up on a Missouri dairy farm, family life, and the history of Daniel Boone country into a book. Full of midwestern wisdom, it will be enjoyed by both history lovers and casual readers. The volume can be ordered from Whip-Poor-Will Books, 2000 East Broadway, Columbia, MO 65201.

Can't Do Without It

Columbia Missouri Herald, November 4, 1898. . . . Much of the sloven and inaccurate work of pupils may be traced to bad black-board. . . . We may afford to do without expensive globes, geometric blocks and such like . . . but the black-board is used at almost every recitation and when properly used is productive of much interest, enthusiasm and permanent good. . . . Geo. H. Beasley, County School Commissioner. 343

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A Centennial History of the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1898-1998. By Alan R. Havig, 1998. $29.95, plus $5.00 mailing and handling.

Directory of Local Historical, Museum, and Genealogical Agencies in Missouri, 1998-1999. Compiled by Ann L. Rogers and Lisa Auanger, 1998. $7.00, postpaid.

Grand Army of the Republic-Missouri Division-Index to Death Rolls, 1882-1940. Compiled by Marie Concannon and Josiah Parkinson, 1995. $10.00, postpaid.

Guide to Selected Holdings of Microfilm at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Compiled by Linda Brown-Kubisch, 1997. $14.00, postpaid.

Historic Missouri: A Pictorial Narrative. 2nd ed. 1988. $9.95, plus $2.00 mailing and han­ dling.

Index to Missouri Military Pensioners, 1883. Compiled by Marie Concannon, 1997. $7.00, postpaid.

Index to Residents State Federal Soldiers' Home of Missouri, St. James, Missouri, 1889-1946. Compiled by Marie Concannon, 1998. $15.00, postpaid.

Marking Missouri History. Edited by James W. Goodrich and Lynn Wolf Gentzler, 1998. $17.50, plus $5.00 mailing and handling.

Missouri Newspapers on Microfilm at the State Historical Society of Missouri. $14.00, post­ paid.

Missouri Union Burials—Missouri Units. Compiled by Edward Parker, 1989. $6.00, postpaid.

My Road to Emeritus. By Elmer Ellis, 1989. $19.95, postpaid.

Report of the Committee of the House of Representatives of the 22nd General Assembly of the State of Missouri Appointed to Investigate the Conduct and Management of the Militia. Indexed by Linda Brown-Kubisch and Dianne Buff on, 1998. $17.00, postpaid.

Selected Union Burials—Missouri Units. 2 volumes. Compiled by Edward Parker, 1988, 1993. $5.00 per volume, postpaid.

Thomas Hart Benton: Artist, Writer, and Intellectual. Edited by R. Douglas Hurt and Mary K. Dains, 1989. $22.95, postpaid.

These publications can obtained by sending a check or money order to the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201-7298. Credit card orders can be placed by calling (573) 882-7083. 344

. Jam theState Historical Society to help preserve Missouri's heritage.

Founded in 1898, the State Historical Society is the preeminent research facility for the study of the Show Me State's heritage. It is the only statewide historical society in Missouri. The Society has assembled the second-largest specialized research library in the state and the largest collection of state news­ papers in the nation. The Society invites interested individuals to support its mission of col­ lecting, preserving, and making accessible the state's history by becoming a member. Membership entitles you to a one-year subscription to the Society's quarterly publication, the Missouri Historical Review. The State Historical Society is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization. Gifts of cash and property to the Society are deductible for federal income, estate, and gift tax purposes.

Individual membership $10.00 Contributing membership $25.00 Supporting membership $50.00 Annual sustaining membership $100.00 to $499.00 Annual patron membership $500.00 or more Life membership $250.00

To join the Society or to inquire about gifts or bequests contact:

James W. Goodrich State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201-7298 Phone (573) 882-7083 Illustrator Rose O'Neill drew this image of her friend Vance Randolph. In her autobiography, which Randolph typed, she wrote of the folklorist: "He became convinced of the romance in these hill people and has never been able to get rid of it. He has made an unparalleled collection of superstitions, riddles, folk-tales, and dialect material, and has made hundreds of phonograph records of. . . ballads still sung by the mountain people"

State Historical Society of Missouri CONTRIBUTORS TO MISSOURI CULTURE Vance Randolph

The distinctive and sometimes bawdy culture of the Ozark Mountain region fascinated Vance Randolph from his first encounter with it as a child, and subsequently, he committed more than fifty years of his life to collecting and preserving the region's folklore. Randolph's vast writings, photographs, and collections of songs, stories, superstitions, folk language, and games illuminated the region for both casu­ al readers and scholars across the country. Though known as "Mr. Ozarks," Randolph originally hailed from Pittsburg, Kansas. Born in 1892, he received a B.S. degree from the State Normal School in Pittsburg and an M.A. degree in psychology from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Lured back to the Ozarks by childhood memories, he moved to Pineville, Missouri, in 1919 and worked as a beekeeper. Except for extended visits to Kansas, New York, and California, Randolph would spend the rest of his life living in the Missouri or Arkansas Ozarks. Randolph traveled locally by foot, horseback, or mule-drawn wagons. Long journeys found him on a train or driving his Model-T Ford, but regardless, he was always talking, listening, and taking notes about the people he encountered and the stories they related. Linguistic and folklore scholars considered Randolph a master at mentally recording the language and idiom, with its speech inflections, accents, and phrases, and then relaying them in stories or nonfiction. His active participation in and assimilation to the culture, both through effort and marriage, found the folklorist fishing and hunting, attending backwoods dances and baptisms, and engaging in numerous activities involving mountain people. Even as an elderly man, Randolph continued his life's mission. His last publication, Ozark Folklore: A Bibliography, was published in 1972, at the age of eighty. He died in 1980. With classics such as Ozark Folksongs, a four-volume collection containing about nine hundred ballads; Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech; and Ozark Magic and Folklore, Randolph assured his place as the preem­ inent collector and scholar of Ozark Mountain folklore.