Missouri Historical Review
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Historical The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI BOARD OF EDITORS J LAWRENCE 0. 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 COVER DESCRIPTION: In January 1939 hundreds of south east Missouri sharecroppers moved their belongings onto the roadsides in protest of farm owners' practices. Amber Clifford examines this event and its aftermath in "To the Disinherited Belongs the Future" in this issue. [Cover illustration courtesy of Western Historical Manuscript Collection-St. Louis.] MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI JAMES W. GOODRICH EDITOR LYNN WOLF GENTZLER ASSOCIATE EDITOR LEONA S. MORRIS RESEARCH ASSISTANT ANN L. ROGERS RESEARCH ASSISTANT Copyright 1993 by The State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201 The Missouri Historical Review (ISSN 0026-6582) is owned by The State Historical Society of Missouri and is published quarterly at 10 South Hitt, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Send communications, business and editorial correspondence and change of address to the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201. Second class postage is paid at Columbia, Missouri. SOCIETY HOURS: The Society is open to the public from 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., VOLUME LXXXVIII Monday through Friday, and Saturday from 9:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., except legal holidays. NUMBER 1 Holiday Schedule: The Society will be closed November 25-28, December 24-26 and December 31-January 2. OCTOBER, 1993 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 1992-1995 Avis G. TUCKER, Warrensburg, 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, 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 TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau JOSEPH WEBBER, St. Louis Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1993 HENRIETTA AMBROSE, Webster Groves FREDERICK W. LEHMANN IV, H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid Webster Groves LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis ROBERT S. DALE, Carthage WALLACE B. SMITH, Independence Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1994 ILUS W. DAVIS, Kansas City DALE REESMAN, Boonville 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 Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1995 WALTER ALLEN, Brookfield W. ROGERS HEWITT, Shelbyville JAMES A. BARNES, Raytown EMORY MELTON, Cassville VERA H. BURK, Kirksville DOYLE PATTERSON, Kansas City RICHARD DECOSTER, Canton STUART SYMINGTON, JR., St. Louis BOARD OF TRUSTEES The Board of Trustees consists of one Trustee from each Congressional District of the State and fourteen Trustees elected at large. In addition to the elected Trustees, the President of the Society, the Vice Presidents of the Society, all former Presidents of the Society, and the ex officio members of the Society constitute the Board of Trustees. 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. WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington, Chairman BLANCHE M. TOUHILL, St. Louis FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood Avis G. TUCKER, Warrensburg H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid JOSEPH WEBBER, St. Louis JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City VIRGINIA G. YOUNG, Columbia ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia 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 considered for publication in the Review. Genealogical studies, however, are not accepted because of limited appeal to general readers. Manu scripts pertaining to all fields of American history will be consid ered 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 footnotes, prepared according to The Chicago Manual of Style, also should be double-spaced and placed at the end of the text. Authors may submit manuscripts on PC/DOS, 360K disk. The disk must be IBM compatible, preferably the WordPerfect 5.1 program. Otherwise, it must be in ASCII for mat. Two hard copies still are required, and the print must be let ter or near-letter quality. Dot matrix submissions will not be accepted. 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 pub lished elsewhere without permission. The Society does not accept responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by the authors. Articles published in the 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 The State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 CONTENTS MU BECOMES A SYSTEM. By James C. Olson 1 To THE DISINHERITED BELONGS THE FUTURE. By Amber R. Clifford 22 UNION TROOPS AND THE CIVIL WAR IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI AND NORTHWESTERN ARKANSAS. By Marvin R. Cain and John F. Bradbury, Jr. 29 CHESTER A. FRANKLIN AND HARRY S. TRUMAN: AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE AND THE "CONVERSION" OF THE FUTURE PRESIDENT. By Thomas D. Wilson 48 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Society Libraries: Reference Library 78 News in Brief 79 Local Historical Societies 82 Gifts 92 Missouri History in Newspapers 95 Missouri History in Magazines 102 In Memoriam 109 BOOK REVIEWS 110 BOOK NOTES 117 HISTORIC MISSOURI COLLEGES: PRITCHETT COLLEGE Inside Back Cover MU Becomes a System BY JAMES C. OLSON* Founded in 1839, the University of Missouri is the oldest public university west of the Mississippi River.1 The pioneer legislators who established the University sought a location that would be accessible to citizens in all parts of the expanding state and, fairly early in their deliberations, agreed that the insti tution should be established in one of the central counties along the Missouri River. The precise location was to be determined by a process that would give the University to the county submitting the highest bid in cash and/or land. The legislators assumed that these funds, plus the proceeds from the sale of two townships granted by the federal government at the time the state was admitted to the Union "for the use of a seminary of learning," would provide all the money needed for the support of the institution. This assumption, unfortunately, governed the state's approach to the University for many years and may be * James C. Olson is president emeritus of the University of Missouri. This article is adapted from the introduction to his Serving the University of Missouri: A Memoir of Campus and System Administration, to be published in December by the University of Missouri Press. 1 For the history of the University of Missouri see Jonas Viles, The University of Missouri: A Centennial History (Columbia: University of Missouri, 1939); Frank F. Stephens, A History of the University of Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1962); James and Vera Olson, The University of Missouri: An Illustrated History (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1988). 2 Missouri Historical Review seen a century and a half later as a precursor of the Missouri tendency to inau gurate activities with little regard for their continued financial support. Boone County submitted the highest bid, and the University was located in Columbia, then a village of about two thousand inhabitants. As the years wore on, the University, instead of being accessible, seemed to be increasingly remote. Even as transportation improved, the bitter sectional divisions in the state—Missouri was almost torn apart by the Civil War—made it difficult for the University to establish itself as a statewide institution. There were repeated efforts to move the institution, and in the controversy over the location of a col lege of agriculture and mechanic arts provided by the Morrill or "Land-Grant" Act of 1862, the University was saved for Columbia only through a compro mise. The concession provided that the board of curators—the institution's governing body—would establish a school of mines and metallurgy in