Response from Missouri Governor
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STATE CAPITOL (573) 751-3222 201 W. CAPITOL AVENUE, ROOM 216 WWW.GOVERNOR.MO.GOV JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI 65101 GOVERNOR STATE OF MISSOURI August 26, 2020 The Honorable David L. Bernhardt Secretary U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20240 Dear Secretary Bernhardt: Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback to the Task Force for the proposed National Garden of American Heroes. As my administration reviewed the criteria for establishing the National Garden of American Heroes and the guidance provided in your letter for a site that is proximate to a population center and a preference for lands in federal ownership, my Administration identified the Gateway Arch Grounds in St. Louis as a potential location for the National Garden. These grounds currently exist as Gateway Arch National Park under the care of the National Parks Service. St. Louis's Gateway Arch stands as a monument to westward expansion. St. Louis also maintains historical significance throughout the history of our country, including as a location on the Underground Railroad. Other suitable grounds in Missouri which are near population centers, but are not currently under federal ownership, include the Jefferson Barracks Park in Lemay, Missouri and areas located near the Katy Trail State Park or the Rock Island Spur of the Katy Trail State Park. The Jefferson Barracks Park in Lemay, Missouri is part of the historic Jefferson Barracks Military Post complex. This property contains a large park with trails and natural elements. The location already has a unique historical significance as a former installation of the U.S. Army and is near the current location of the Jefferson Barracks base which serves the Army and Air National Guard. The Katy Trail State Park and the Rock Island Spur of Katy Trail State Park provide recreational access to a trail that stretches across Missouri from Kansas City to St. Louis. This trail provides a central area that a given set of statues could be displayed at any time, it also would act as a repository for storing or loaning additional statues. In regard to potential statues for display, the State of Missouri does not currently have suitable statues that are not currently in use or integrated into existing facilities, such as the General John Pershing Statue in Pershing State Park or the statute of Lewis and Clark at the Lewis and Clark Landing in Jefferson City. In considering the criteria for potential American heroes to be included in a National Garden, the following individuals are recognized as making outstanding contributions to the history of the United States and have a significant connection to Missouri. These individuals include: Susan Elizabeth Blow (June 7, 1843 -March 27, 1916) - Born in St. Louis, Misso_uri, in 1843, Susan Blow was an influential American educator famous for establishing the first public kindergarten in the United States. She was raised in an affluent family that emphasized education - her father was a successful industrialist and U.S. Senator - which allowed her to attend private schools. She pursued her own studies vigorously until they were cut short by the Civil War. She continued to study on her own, and became a member of the St. Louis Society, a philosophy group that met to discuss important issues of the day. While traveling in Germany in 1870, Susan was introduced to the thinking of the German intellectual Friedrich Froebe!, who was pioneering new methods of teaching children, and she observed "kindergarten" classrooms inspired by his work. The experience was profoundly impactful, and upon her return to the U.S., she spent a year in New York further studying Froebel's educational approach. In 1873, she returned to St. Louis, where she opened the nation's first public kindergarten at Des Peres School. The following year, she established a training school for kindergarten teachers. By 1883, every public school in St. Louis had a kindergarten, and the city had become the model for a broader national kindergarten movement. Her hard work took a toll on her health, and in 1879 she left St. Louis, moving to Boston and New York where she focused the remainder of her life lecturing and writing books about kindergarten practice and Froebelian theory. Her life's work has had a significant, lasting impact on early childhood education in the U.S., and she is widely recognized as the "Mother of the Kindergarten." George Washington Carver (1860s - January 5, 1943) - George Washington Carver was born into slavery near Diamond, Missouri, in the early 1860s, shortly before slavery was abolished. From a young age, he developed a keen interest in plants, a passion that led him to become a world- renowned agricultural scientist and inventor. He spent much of his childhood traveling the Midwest, working and attending various schools. He attended college in Iowa, first' studying piano and art at Simpson College, then transferring to Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State · University) to study botany. Carver earned his bachelor's degree in 1894 and his master's degree in 1896, gaining recognition for his research and becoming the first African-American faculty member at Iowa State. In 1896, he was invited to head the Agriculture Department at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he taught and conducted research for 47 years. Carver gained national recognition for promoting methods of crop rotation that restored nitrogen to soils depleted by cotton production by alternating cotton crops with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans, a practice that improved cotton yields and provided farmers with alternative cash crops. His work had a major economic impact, revitalizing a depressed Southern agricultural economy. Carver devoted much of his research to developing practical applications for alternate crops, gaining considerable fame for his promotion of peanuts (he identified more than 300 recipes and applications for the peanut). Apart from his scientific work, Carver was a noted advocate of public health, the environment, and racial justice. After his death in 1943, the George Washington Carver National Monument was established in his birthplace of Diamond; it was the first national memorial to an African American. Carver left a legacy of scientific accomplishment and contributions to our nation's agriculture and economy. Dred Scott (1800?- September 17, 1858) and Harriet Robinson Scott (1815?-June 17, 1876) - Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet Robinson Scott were enslaved African-Americans who tried several times, unsuccessfully, to gain their freedom through the U.S. court system. Despite the outcome of their cases, the Scotts' courage and persistence in their efforts to establish the basic human rights of African Americans proved instrumental in the ultimate abolishment of slavery. Harriet Robinson and Dred Scott were both born in Virginia as slaves in separate households. They met in Ft. Snelling, Minnesota, in 1836 and were married in 1836 or 1837, becoming the property of Dr. Thomas Emerson. Despite living in "free" territory, their owners at this time were members of the military, many of whom kept slaves as they moved among posts in different states. In 1840, the Scotts were sent to St. Louis, Missouri, to be hired out for work while Emerson and his wife Irene continued to collect their wages, a practice that Irene continued after the death of her husband. In 1846, Dred and Harriet each filed separate petitions in the St. Louis Circuit Court to gain their freedom. Because they had lived extensively in free states, the Scotts' cases had a good chance of success, but were dismissed on a technicality. Their cases were not heard again until 1850, when the court ruled in their favor, granting them their freedom, albeit briefly. Irene Emerson immediately appealed, and in 1852 the Missouri Supreme Court, which included pro-slavery judges, overturned the previous ruling. The Scotts persisted in their legal pursuits; their cases ultimately were combined and raised before the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in its 1857 landmark decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford), ruled that Dred Scott was not a U.S. citizen due to his race, again denying the Scotts their freedom. The Court's decision enraged the public and enflamed growing tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions of the nation, which devolved into a civil war over this issue a few yeiirs later. Shortly after the Court's decision, the Scotts were transferred to new owners who granted them their freedom on May 26, 1857. Dred and Harriet Scott's determination for justice continue to fuel the long and difficult struggle for civil rights to this day. General John J. Pershing (September 13, 1860-July 15, 1948) - John Joseph Pershing rose from humble beginnings to become one of America's greatest military leaders. Born in 1860 near Laclede, Missouri, his family moved to Laclede when John was six years old. He led a normal boyhood until the family lost most of their wealth in the 1873 economic depression. The downturn forced John's father to become a traveling salesman, which put John in charge of the family and their farm. John took a job teaching and was able to save enough money to attend Kirksville Normal School (Truman State University), where he earned teaching degree in 1880. Soon after, he successfully applied to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1886. Pershing's early military assignments were frontier campaigns, protecting settlers from Native Americans. In 1891, he began a four year stint as a military science professor at the University of Nebraska, and earned a law degree while there. In the years following, he commanded troops in several notable campaigns, including the Spanish-American War, two tours in the Philippines, and expeditions against Francisco "Pancho" Villa during the Mexican Revolution.