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Plistoriogil The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI BOARD OF EDITORS 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 the late 1930s the Farm Security Administration initiated an ambitious project to resettle and rehabilitate sharecroppers in southeast Missouri. In the cover photo, a family awaits completion of their new house. Jeff Hearne examines the first year of this venture in "The Beginning of LaForge: An Experiment in Rural Homesteading," beginning on page 301. [Cover photo from Library of Congress Farm Security Administration Collection] MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI JAMES W. GOODRICH EDITOR LYNN WOLF GENTZLER ASSOCIATE EDITOR LEON A S. MORRIS RESEARCH ASSISTANT ANN L. ROGERS RESEARCH ASSISTANT Copyright 1994 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 3 Holiday Schedule: The Society will be closed May 28-30 for Memorial Day and July 2-4 for Independence Day. APRIL, 1994 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, 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 Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1996 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 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 format. Two hard copies still are required, and the print must be letter 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 publica tion. 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 else where without permission. The Society does not accept responsi bility 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 "IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE IN PARIS": THE LETTERS OF JEFFERSON BRIDGFORD. Edited by Richard E. Ahlborn and Lisa C. Thompson 243 WAVES OF REVIVALISM IN CLAY COUNTY, 1840-1918. By Louis W. Potts 262 PROHIBITION VINEYARDS: THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION TO VITICULTURE IN MISSOURI. By Robert F. Scheef 279 THE BEGINNING OF LAFORGE: AN EXPERIMENT IN RURAL HOMESTEADING. By JeffHearne 301 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Society Schedules Western America: Landscapes and Indians Exhibition, May 23-August 15, 1994 317 Society Libraries: Western Historical Manuscript Collection 317 News in Brief 320 Local Historical Societies 323 Gifts 334 Missouri History in Newspapers 338 Missouri History in Magazines 344 In Memoriam 351 Graduate Theses Relating to Missouri History 353 BOOK REVIEWS 355 BOOK NOTES 360 HISTORIC MISSOURI COLLEGES: WILL MAYFIELD COLLEGE Inside Back Cover Jst&iS }f,H J/um** §m^!^ff^K:, Courtesy Scotts Bluff National Monument Thousands of Americans headed west on the California-Oregon Trail in 1850. Unlike most, Jefferson Bridgford joined with a company of men driving cattle to sell for a profu to beef-hungry miners. "It looks like we are in Paris": The Letters of Jefferson Bridgford EDITED BY RICHARD E. AHLBORN AND LISA C. THOMPSON* A 1992 donation by Anne Bridgford Forrester to the State Historical Society of Missouri contains seven letters written between May 1850 and July 1851 by her paternal great-great-grandfather, Jefferson Bridgford of Monroe County, Missouri.x Written to his wife, Margaret, and their infant son, Eugene, the letters provide a personal record of an early Missouri cattle breeder who drove stock to the California gold fields, but found no "sighns" sufficient enough to keep him from returning to his cherished family and friends. The Bridgford family had a history of moving west. Jefferson Bridgford's *Richard E. Ahlborn is the curator of the Division of Community Life, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. He received the B.F.A. degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the M.A. degree from the University of Delaware, Newark. Lisa C. Thompson is a graduate student in the Department of History at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received the B.A. degree from Stanford University, Stanford, California. The editors wish to acknowledge the support given by Anne Bridgford Forrester in loan ing the Jefferson Bridgford letters to the Smithsonian Institution. 1 Jefferson Bridgford Letters, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Columbia. 243 244 Missouri Historical Review forefathers left colonial Virginia for Kentucky, and in 1836 his father, Richard, moved the family to Monroe County in northeast Missouri. Jefferson was born in Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1822.2 In May 1850, he headed west again, this time as an entrepreneur rather than as a settler. Young Bridgford joined a company of Monroe County men, six wagons and hundreds of "beefe" bound for the gilded streams of California. Planning for the trip must have begun in 1849, probably soon after word of the California gold strike reached Missouri. The first letter in the collection is a brief note dated February 26, 1850, apparently written by Jefferson's