HISTORICAL REVIEW
Columbia—Providence Plank Roac DGTOBER Published Quarterly The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of this State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R. S. of Mo., 1949, Chapter 183. OFFICERS 1959-1962 E. L. DALE, Carthage, President L. E. MEADOR, Springfield, First Vice President WILLIAM L. BRADSHAW, Columbia, Second Vice President GEORGE W. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe, Third Vice President RUSSELL V. DYE, Liberty, Fourth Vice President WILLIAM C. TUCKER, Warrensburg, Fifth Vice President JOHN A. WINKLER, Hannibal, Sixth Vice President R. B. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Columbia, Secretary Emeritus and Consultant RICHARD S. BROWNLEE, Columbia, Director, Secretary, and Librarian
TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City L. M. WHITE, Mexico Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1962 F. C. BARNHILL, Marshall ROBERT NAGEL JONES, St. Louis FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Columbia HENRY A. BUNDSCHU, Independence WILLIAM C. TUCKER, Warrensburg W. C. HEWITT, Shelbyville ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1963 RALPH P. BIEBER, St. Louis LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville BARTLETT BODER, St. Joseph W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence L. E. MEADOR, Springfield JACK STAPLETON, Stanberry JOSEPH H. MOORE, Charleston HENRY C. THOMPSON, Bonne Terre
Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1964 WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton FRANK LUTHER MOTT, Columbia ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis GEORGE II. SCRUTON, Sedalia GEORGE FULLER GREEN, Kansas City JAMES TODD, Moberly ROBERT S. GREEN, Mexico T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-eight Trustees, the President and the Secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and President of the University of Missouri constitute the Executive Committee.
FINANCE COMMITTEE Five members of the Executive Committee appointed by the President of the Society at each annual meeting of the Executive Committee constitute the Finance Committee. L. M. WHITE, Mexico, Chairman ELMER ELLIS, Columbia GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City W. C. HEWITT, Shelbyville T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield Missouri Historical Review
RICHARD S. BROWNLEE JAMES E. MOSS Editor Assistant Editor
Published Quarterly by
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI
VOL. LVII OCTOBER 1962 No. 1
The Missouri Historical Review is published quarterly at 119 S. Elson Street, Kirksville, Missouri. Send communications and change of address to The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. Second class postage is paid at Kirksville, Missouri. The Review is sent free to all members of The State Historical Society of Missouri. Membership dues in the Society are $1.00 a year or $20 for a life membership. The Society assumes no respon sibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. CONTENTS
Page
IN DEFENSE OF JOHN CUMMINGS. By Harold C. Bradley 1 A MISSOURI CONFEDERATE IN THE CIVIL WAR. THE JOURNAL OF
HENRY MARTYN CHEAVENS, 1862-1863. By James E. Moss 16
THE COLUMBIA—PROVIDENCE PLANK ROAD. By Paul C. Doherty 53
JAMES REDPATH, MISSOURI CORRESPONDENT. By James A. Hart 70
THE SAINTS BUILD A TEMPLE. By Roger Yarrington 79
HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Those Active in Increasing the Society's Membership 89 New Members in the Historical Society 90 Missouri News 93 Local Historical Societies 102 Anniversaries 109 Monuments and Memorials 110 Notes Ill Obituaries 113 Historical Publications 115 MISSOURI HISTORY NOT FOUND IN TEXTBOOKS 120
JOHN S. MARMADUKE Back Cover
THE COVER: This illustration portraying the building of the Columbia-Providence Plank Road was taken from a mural in the council chamber of the Columbia Municipal Building. The mural, painted by Kenneth Eugene Hudson during 1934-1935, consists of twelve 6' x 9' panels, and depicts the area's development from an early Indian settlement in all its simplicity to the advent of the industrial era. The subjects are general in nature and require no special explanation although several refer to specific incidents. Hudson explained the mural as "an attempt to sum up the surging forces that create a civilization rather than to glorify incidents in its development." For more on the Columbia-Providence Plank Road, see page 53. The artist was born in Xenia, Ohio, December 28, 1903, attended Ohio Weslcyan University, Delaware, Ohio, and received a B.F.A. degree at Yale in 1927. For two years he served as assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. He came to the University of Missouri in 1929 where he remained until 1938 serving as professor and chairman in the School of Fine Arts. Since 1938 he has been Dean of the School of Fine Arts at Washington University, St. Louis. IN DEFENSE OF JOHN CUMMINGS
BY HAROLD C. BRADLEY*
The one American in a thousand who recognizes the name of John A. Cummings knows it only as another in a long list of plain tiffs in civil liberties cases. Fewer know what he has to tell us about how to go on living as free men. Justice William O. Douglas has lamented that "during the 1940s and '50s legislatures, courts, and educational institutions in America forgot the lesson of the Cummings case."1 If it is unfortunate that we have forgotten the lesson of a case important in the history of our freedom, it is foolhardy for us to ignore the man responsible for the case and allow his story to fade from our consciousness. The glory of our jurisprudence is that it establishes and protects the liberty of the individual citizen, that it safeguards the conscience of each. This law was not worked out by wooden old men pondering abstract justice in cloistered chambers but argued out by lawyers confronted by citizens who would not suffer injustice in silence. John Cummings was such a man. To know something about him is to know more about the meaning of our law, how this meaning is established, and the importance of the so-called "little man" in history. Although he never attained historic stature before or after his brief interlude of notoriety, Cummings' name will live as long as there is an interest in Anglo-Saxon law. John Cummings died in 1873. His case, the result of a trial for preaching without taking an oath of loyalty to the State of Missouri was before the United States Supreme Court in 1866, but now it is impossible to gather any but the most basic facts about his life. Some of the little information about him which can be found in print is mistaken. It is said that he died as a result of his imprison ment.2 Apparently this writer did not know that Cummings was in jail only a week and that six years elapsed between the time of his release from jail and the day of his death. Someone reported that
*Harold C. Bradley, S.J., M.A., a member of the faculty at Saint Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, is currently on a leave of absence to study in Bogota, Columbia. iWilliam O. Douglas, An Almanac of Liberty (New York, 1954), 205. *The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907), XIV, 539. Missouri Historical Review
THE OATH OK LOYALTY PBE3CRIBED BY Ifil CQ1IOTIH AB0FT1B II 1105.
(do 6cdemn/u *wcai, tn eyn and domestic, dal &f wid t?cf>l Utt.< fiaitd and a// <$"Ji-j£.-d•'d andend ivetoitffcin to &edcis&fite mcr;io t/ic<,d£..<£3>A*L • //^•-^^^vwL^/^y t/?-5&jGj. &/L^P A. J. P. Garasche was given an honorary degree by St. Louis University for having defended him, but the degree was awarded before the case came up.3 A third writer has said that if Cummings and his advisors planned to make a martyr out of him to gain publi city for the case they did a fine job.4 But Cummings seems to have started with no advisors and no plan. Finally it has been mistakenly said that the case gained its importance and notoriety from its precedence.5 Missouri got a new constitution in 1865. Four years of inter necine struggle, with the ruthless bellicosity of the guerrillas equally matched by the inevitable stupidity of the military, had left Missouri in 1865 a political viper's nest. Loyal citizens divided into bitterly opposing groups, Conservatives and Radicals, and after four years of Conservative rule, the Radicals were gaining control of the State government. They were convinced that the best way to re-establish order in their state would be to set up an oligarchy of the super loyal, and to do this they held a constitutional Catalogue of St. Louis University, 18G5, 22. 4Thomas Barclay, "The Test Oath for the Clergy in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, XVIII (April, 1924), 355. 6William Leftwich, Martyrdom in Missouri (St. Louis, 1870), II, 341. In Defense of John Cummings convention early in 1865 to draft a constitution which was sub mitted to the people for their approval.6 This constitution required voters, officer holders, teachers, attorneys, and preachers to take an oath that they were and always had been loyal to the State of Missouri.7 Although the oath was a requisite for voting in the constitutional referendum, the necessary majority was obtained only after the absentee ballots had been counted.8 The loyalty oath required by Article II, Section 3, of this con stitution exacted a denial of eighty-six specific acts, which ranged a legal gamut from acts which could have been prosecuted under the constitutional definition of treason to "feeling sympathy" for the Confederate cause or anyone involved in that cause or "admitting dis-satisfaction with the Government of the United States."9 This oath was no Athena born fully armed in the minds of the Radical members of the constitutional convention. The loyalty oath here, as in many other instances, was born of two desires: one, to know who are the loyal members of the citizen body; and, two, to find this out in an easy way. The loyalty oath appeared on the scene of Missouri war-time poli tics in 1861 as a requirement for state office holders and as a pre requisite for former rebels wish ing amnesty.10 The next year it was extended to all voters, jury men, attorneys, and ministers of marriage ceremonies.11 It was a short step from this use of the oath as a touchstone of loyalty to its use as the cornerstone of tyranny in the Constitution of 1865. This Constitution became effective in July, and those concerned were to conform themselves within sixty days.12 What did this mean to John A. Scharf, History of Saint Louis Cummings, the young priest Archbishop Kenrick eJournal of the Missouri Stale Convention, 18Gb (St. Louis, 1865), 280. ^Constitution of Missouri, 1865, Article II, Sections 3, 9. 8\V. T. Switzler, Commonwealth of Missouri (St. Louis, 1877), 460. •Constitution of Missouri, 1865, Article II, Section 3. _ ^Francis N. Thorpe, ed., American Charters, Constitutions and Organic Laws (Washington, 1909), 2178. "Ibid., 2183. "Constitution of Missouri, 1865, Article II, Section 9. 4 Missouri Historical Review whose parish was Louisiana, Missouri? When the constitution had been ratified, Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick of St. Louis had sent his priests, all over Missouri, a letter advising them that they should not take the oath because it seemed to require a "sacrifice of ecclesiastical liberty."13 The Archbishop's letter went on to say that he hoped the civil officials would refrain from enforcing the law but that in the event that they did not the priests should let him know of their "particular circumstance, so that I may be able to give you counsel and assistance." Saturday, September 2, 1865, had been the last day of grace. The next morning John Cummings turned to preach his usual Sunday sermon to his few Irish parishioners. It would be interesting to know if this important sermon was also worthwhile, but his words have gone unrecorded. The act, not the words, is important. He knew that, along with most of the Catholic priests and a majority of the Protestant ministers in the State, he was conscience bound to preach in defiance of the law. The Supreme Court of the United States ultimately affirmed his right to do so. The Archbishop's hope for a lax enforcement of the oath require ment was not everywhere fulfilled. The Radicals, who had been divided about including the loyalty oath for clergymen in their constitution, were still divided in their support of it. In some parts of Missouri violations of the law were ignored but in other places enforcement was quick. Father Cummings could not have been surprised that in Louisiana, the "hot bed of Radicalism in Pike County,"14 his preaching without having taken the oath would lead to trouble. Nor did he need sensitive ears to hear echoes of the rumbling of that trouble over the twelve miles of green hills that separated Louisiana from the County Seat at Bowling Green. A grand jury empaneled on the day after his "crime" indicted him on Tuesday. Friday he was arrested and brought to Bowling Green for arraignment before the Circuit Court, Judge Thomas James C. Fagg presiding.15 The defendant stood before the court an alien. Less than a year before his arrest he had come to Louisiana to be the first pastor to the community of Irish laborers settling there.16 A small, impetuous man, who looked no more than his twenty-five years, John Cum- 13P. R. Kenrick to J. B. Goeldin, Archives of St. Louis University, St. Louis. The St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, July 30, 1865, published an English translation of this letter. The letter, as had been forseen by Edward Bates, was particularly effective in giving courage to the Protestant as well as Catholic clergy; see Bates Diary, July 18, 1865, page 218, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. 14A. J. Reid to James Broadhead, December 21, 1863, James Broadhead Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. 15Circuit Court Records, Pike County, Missouri, Vol. I. 16John Rothensteiner, History of Archdiocese of St. Louis (St. Louis, 1928), II, 386. Louisiana mings was not an important man in his community.17 Louisiana was the largest and oldest city in Pike County, one of the four original counties of Missouri, and her citizens had a proud tradition of leadership in Missouri. But the Irish and Catholic element had no part in this tradition. Since they were not old settlers nor land owners nor professional men, their pastor had none of the prestige that goes with the position of spiritual guide to the more influential members of the community. Whence came this man? His origins are unknown. In the lists of the priests of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, which usually give a priest's date and place of birth, only his date of ordination is given.18 The cemetery records where he is buried give Missouri as the place of his birth.19 The hospital records where he died name Ireland,20 but the office of vital statistics in St. Louis has recorded Missouri. His seminary, St. Vincent's in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which he attended between 1859 and 1863, has no record other than that he was there. Ordained by Archbishop Kenrick in St. Louis in 1863, exactly two years prior to the date of his indictment, he spent the rest of that year and part of the next as assistant to the pastor of a St. Louis church before he was sent to Louisiana to begin the parish there. This is all we know about the man, remarkable only for the manner in which he conducted himself after he had been indicted for refusing to take an oath which he and many others considered a violation of conscience. Ten years after he was ordained he died an 17St. Louis Dispatch, October 30, 1865. Description of Cummings in speech of R. A. Campbell. ^Sacerdotes Saeculares, 1690-1900, Archives of Archdiocese of St. Louis, 280, St. Louis University. ^Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, June 10, 1873. 20St. Vincent's Hospital, St. Louis. Missouri Historical Review obscure death, forgotten or ignored by his own people and the great and near great with whom his name had been linked during his trial. The case of Father Cummings did not become famous by acci dent, because of fate, or through whim. He was told not to take the oath, and he had not taken it. Although he was not commanded to preach, it was clear that he was expected to do the manful thing. He was arrested but others were arrested before him. In fact, his neighbor, the pastor in Hannibal, had been arrested on the preced ing Tuesday.21 It is Cummings who is known as the opponent of the loyalty oath instead of one of those arrested before him, because he decided to insist on a trial. Those who were arrested before him posted bond, and their trials were postponed to the next term of court by circuit judges anxious to pass the buck. By refusing to seek a delay and by insisting on an immediate trial, Cummings forced the hand of the court. Judge Fagg, who expected a postpone ment, was surprised by the turn of events, as was the Archbishop when he heard about it.22 This clergyman became the citizen who destroyed an unjust test oath because he happened to live where he would be arrested for refusing to take it, but also because he was willing to take responsible action afterwards. The court scene was a confused one. Pike County's courthouse had burned down in 1864 and court was being held in a Meth odist church.23 According to court records, this trial for "preaching without taking the oath" was actually two different trials on different days.24 In the first, Friday, September 8, the defendant attempted to act as his own counsel with the result that the rules of procedure were honored in their breach, and the day ended in confusion with him in jail. In the second trial, Saturday, he was represented by counsel, correct procedure was exactly adhered to, and the decision returned him to jail. 21St. Louis Dispatch, September 15, 1865. 22St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 21, 1865; St. Louis Republic, March 8, 1896. 23 St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 21, 1865 Louisiana Press Journal, Septem- ber 20, 1917. 24Records of County Court, Pike County, Missouri, Vol. I. In Defense of John Cummings 7 Since the Cummings case was not the first one called that morn ing, several lawyers were present when the case was called. Senator John B. Henderson, who was in court that morning attending to his practice, was later to distinguish himself in the eyes of posterity, but extinguished his political career, as President John F. Kennedy reminds us in his Profiles in Courage, by voting for acquittal in the impeachment trial of President Johnson. Also in court, among others, were Gilchrist Porter and Robert A. Campbell, both well known local lawyers. During the first day's proceedings the prosecutor prosecuted unwillingly, Judge Fagg adamantly insisted on imposing the legal punishment, and the courtroom audience took a more active interest in the trial's outcome than did the principal. When, in short order, the accused refused to post a bond, demanded an immediate trial, and informed the court that he would defend himself, the judge ordered the indictment read. After some hesitation the clerk read it. Asked then for a plea, Cummings offered, "Guilty, sir." This upset the court. The judge paused in confusion, then informed the defendant that if this were his plea it only remained for him to pronounce sentence. He inquired if the prisoner had anything to say. Apparently Cummings thought this was his cue. The answer he addressed to the court was called a "religious stump speech . . . entirely proper in itself, but not entirely pertinent to the occasion." He compared his trial to that of his Savior, denounced the idea that the state had the authority to interfere with his divine mission, and defended the Roman Catholic Church as a friend of the republic. Finally, he declared that, although he had done what the indict ment charged, it was patently false that he had violated any just or rightful law. This remark, betraying his apparent ignorance that his plea should have been one of "not guilty," was more than the listening lawyers could bear in silence. After some consultation, first a lawyer with Senator Henderson, then the Senator himself, and finally Gilchrist Porter offered arguments to the court in favor of Cum mings being granted the privilege of a plea of "not guilty," since his declaration of having violated no rightful law amounted to such a plea. Judge Fagg denied any ability to go behind the original plea. Senator Henderson then gave answer to the charges made by Cummings. For three quarters of an hour, in a confusion of law, politics and religion, he rebuked the priest for the clumsy way in which he had handled his case; he explained that it was actually a Missouri Historical Review heresy of the Methodist Epis copal Church, South, to say that the state had no authority over ministers of religion; and, finally the senator assured the priest that his sympathy for the Cath olic religion was as great as the priest's own, and as a sign of his good will, he offered to defend Cummings in this present instance. This offer of legal aid was declined. The senator could not have been expected to offer a spirited attack on an oath requirement of a constitution which, as a leading Radical John B. Henderson politician, he was pledged to defend. But Cummings accept ed the offer of assistance of a man who was the political antithesis of the senator, Robert Alexander Campbell. Campbell, too young to be characterized as a leading Conservative, was by no means unknown in Pike County, although he had opened his law office in I860.25 The choice of Campbell at this point was auspicious. He was the son of a prominent Presbyterian clergyman, popular in his com munity, and a politician who could raise state-wide support for this cause. He was a vigorous competitor. During the war, although he served as a junior officer under Henderson, then a general in the militia, he had opposed the Radical politics of his superior and had campaigned for the legislature as a Conservative in the canvass of 1862.26 Cummings had chosen a lawyer who could and would help his cause immensely. The outcome of Cummings' first day in court was that he agreed to allow Campbell to represent him, and Judge Fagg was prevailed upon to accept a "not guilty" plea. The case was docketed for the next day. Since the accused would post no bond, he was committed to the county jail in Bowling Green. Whether or not he shared a cell with a horse thief and two burglars, or a more depraved type of 25St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 21, 24, 1865; St. Louis Republic, March 5, 1892; St. Louis Globe Democrat, April 3, 1926, Campbell obituary. 2ej. B. Henderson to James Broadhead, October 23, 1862, James Broadhead Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. In Defense of John Cummings criminal, as has been reported, the prospect of a stay in the county jail was hardly a pleasant one for the young man.27 The second trial was brief, colorless, and its outcome pre dictable. The defendant admit ted the facts laid in the indict ment and was accordingly found guilty because he "did act as a priest and minister of the Cath olic persuasion without having first taken, subscribed and filed the oath of loyalty."28 Sentenced to pay a fine of $500 and stand committed until the fine was paid, Cummings entered the Robert A. Campbell county jail that Saturday, since he refused to pay or allow his friends to pay his fine Champ Clark, a famous Pike countian of a later vintage, says that on the next day Father Cummings' parishioners came up to Bowling Green from Louisiana and spent the best part of the day camped around the jail of their pastor.29 He does not say that Cummings preached from this very effective pulpit, but even if he did not, the mere presence of these people in Bowling Green added to the chagrin of his captors. Father Cummings stayed in jail exactly a week, for in those days of slower communication it took that long for newspapers in New York to look with shame on recent events in Missouri.30 After a week he had became a rallying figure for the opponents of the Missouri constitution and had enlisted public sympathy by focusing national attention on Missouri's loyalty oath. After the week had passed, his lawyers asked if an appeal might be taken to the State Supreme Court. When their request was granted, Cummings allowed some Protestant friends to post his bond, and the following Monday he took a steamboat down the Mississippi to St. Louis to report to the Archbishop and maybe to tell a few stories to his friends in the city.31 27St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 16, 1865; Leftwich, Martyrdom in Missouri, II, 343. 28Records of County Court, Pike County, Vol. I. 2*St. Louis Republic, March 5, 1892. 30New York Observer, September 28, 1865. Reprinted in St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, October 3, 1865. 31St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 22, 1865. 10 Missouri Historical Revieiv For the constitutional historian and the lawyer this is only the beginning of the story, but for Cummings, the citizen demanding justice, the story is really over. From this time forward the case was in the hands of lawyers. The only thing Cummings was right about was that he had been done an injustice. He was wrong in thinking that there was a constitutional guarantee protecting his freedom to preach the Gospel; consequently, as the case went through the courts, very little was made of this issue. Historians link the name of Cummings with the concepts of ex post facto laws and bills of attainder. It is hard to imagine anything farther from the mind of John Cummings that Sunday morning he preached his fateful sermon than that he was striking a blow for liberty as protected by the constitutional prohibitions of ex post facto laws and bills of attainder. The transition of the basic issue in this case from religious freedom to procedural freedom was brought about as it passed through the Supreme Courts of Missouri and the United States. In these two courts Cummings' lawyers developed the argument that the oath requirement was ex post facto. They reasoned that the Missouri law was ex post facto because it attempted to make criminal acts which were not criminal when they were done, for instance, feeling sympathy for anyone engaged in the rebel cause. They contended that the constitution was ex post facto because it provided a punishment more severe for so-called disloyal acts than the punishment prescribed for these acts when they were committed. Finally they objected that the Missouri constitution was ex post facto because by it the rules of evidence for proving disloyalty had been changed. Their critical problem was to show that those who refused to take the loyalty oath were punished. If it were admitted that the stipulations of the law were mere qualifications for office or that Father Cummings did not have a right as a citizen to exercise his profession, then the requirement of a loyalty oath could not have caused his punishment and therefore could not be unconstitutional. The second major argument offered for Cummings was that the Missouri constitution assumed that all clergymen were guilty of treason or at least of disloyalty and expected them to prove their innocence. If this were so the oath requirement was unconstitu tional as a bill of attainder. Here it had to be shown that their client had been accused of a crime and that the Missouri constitu tion punished him for the commission of that crime. Again the central issue was the matter of punishment. If there was no punish- In Defense of John Cummings 11 ment following from a legislative trial rather than the judicial trial to which the citizen had a right, there was no bill of attainder. Edward S. Corwin, eminent authority on the United States Constitution, says that prior to 1865 bill of attainder meant "such special acts of the legislature as inflict capital punishment upon persons supposed to be guilty of high offenses, such as treason or felony, without any conviction in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings."32 An act which did not inflict capital punishment was called a bill of pains and penalties. One of the things to be decided by the courts in the Cummings case was whether bills of pains and penalties were included in the definition of bills of attainder as understood by the framers of the Federal Constitution. Few expected the Missouri Supreme Court to judge impartially this attack on the Constitution of 1865 since the court was a creature of the same convention which had written the constitu tion.33 The three members of the court had been appointed to the bench not because the previous members were thought to be dis loyal but because there was a doubt about their willingness to preserve the new constitution intact. This court, installed by the militia, was considered the agent of a governor who was enthusiastic in his support of the test oath.34 Robert Campbell argued for Cummings in this court.35 As has been remarked, his main point was that the loyalty oath was in effect both an ex post facto law and a bill of attainder. The State's attorney denied that Article II, Section 3, of the constitution was ex post facto because (he said that) its intention was to punish not a past offense but the violation of an existing law. He saw the purpose of the law as merely to prescribe the qualifications for certain professions. Finally, he denied that the law acted as a bill of attainder since it convicted no one of anything. For two weeks the St. Louis newspapers speculated that the Missouri Supreme Court might repudiate the test oath, but the opinion was a unanimous rejection of the plea made for Cummings.36 The court found that the constitution did not have the character of a bill of attainder since its purpose was not to punish past actions but to specify the prerequisites for certain professions. They denied 32E. S. Corwin, ed., The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpreta tion (Washington, 1953), 315. 33St. Louis Dispatch, October 14, 1865. 34T. K. Skinker, "Removal of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Missouri," Missouri Histori cal Society Collections, IV (1914), 256 ff. 35Missouri v. Cummings, 36 Missouri 164. 36St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, October 19, 26, 1865; St. Louis Dispatch, October 17, 1865. 12 Missouri Historical Review that the oath requirement was an ex post facto law because it looked to future protection rather than to past action. Almost as soon as the court had given its decision, arrangements were made to appeal the case to the Federal Supreme Court. Father Cummings may not have been in St. Louis during the review of his conviction by the state court, but he was there to make provision for the appeal of the case to a higher court during the first week of November. On November 4 he was on the steamboat Harry Johnson returning to Louisiana, when he met a man who was to be of great help to him, Frank Blair, Jr.37 The upshot of this meeting was that Frank offered to have his brother Montgomery represent Father Cummings when the case should be called before the federal court. Father accepted the offer on the spot, and Frank later wrote his brother asking him to write Cummings and offer to take the case without fee. Through Montgomery Blair the aid of David D. Field and Reverdy Johnson was obtained, and thus the Cummings case went before the United States Supreme Court represented by the best legal minds money would have been able to assemble. David Dudley Field was one of the outstanding lawyers of his age. He had an international reputation as a codifier of law, and he assured himself of a place in constitutional history by his arguments in this case as well as in the Milligan and McCardle cases before the Supreme Court. He was a brother of Cyrus, of trans-Atlantic cable fame, and Stephen, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Johnson, a senator and well known lawyer from Maryland, had been active in such famous cases as the trial of Mrs. Suratt and the Dred Scott case. Montgomery Blair, scion of a political heritage that began in the Jackson administration, had been a member of Lincoln's Cabinet.38 Distinguished counsel for Cummings presented no new argu ments to the Supreme Court in behalf of their client during the two days they attacked the injustice of the Missouri loyalty oath before these ultimate arbiters of constitutional rights. Of course they gave a much more thorough development of the arguments intended to prove that the loyalty oath acted as an ex post facto law and a bill of attainder. But the argument was essentially unchanged. Lawyers for Missouri were George Strong of St. Louis and Senator John B. Henderson, who was probably the only person actually present at 37Francis P. Blair, Jr. to M. Blair, November 4, 1865, Blair Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. ™W. E. Smith, Francis P. Blair Family in Politics (New York, 1933), II, 350 ff; D. D. Field, Speeches, Arguments, and Miscellaneous Papers, ed. by A. P. Sprague (New York, 1884); B. C. Steiner, Life of Reverdy Johnson (Baltimore, 1914), 116-117. In Defense of John Cummings 13 both the beginning of this case in the frontier atmosphere of the church at Bowling Green and at its conclusion in the formal cham bers of the Supreme Court. Their argument, too, was basically unchanged and intended to show that the Missouri constitution was not attempting to punish anyone but rather to establish qualifica tions for office holders. Although they probably arrived at a decision shortly after hearing the case, the Supreme Court waited ten months before giving its opinion. On January 14, 1867, Justice Field delivered the opinion of the court. A majority of the court agreed that the Missouri constitution deprived Cummings of his right to preach as a punishment for the commission of an act which was not criminal when done. Further, they judged that the requirement of the oath of loyalty was a bill of attainder and as such a violation of the rights of a United States citizen. In answer to the argument of counsel for Missouri that the intention of the Missouri constitution was to fix qualifications for office and not to punish anyone, the court replied that such qualifications amounted to a bill of attainder as prohibited by the United States Constitution because "the constitution deals with substance not with shadows." The inhibition which the founding fathers placed in the constitution was directed at the thing and not at a name.39 The court ordered the judgment of the Missouri Supreme Court reversed and the Circuit Court to be instructed to reverse its judg ment, discharge the defendant from imprisonment, and suffer him to depart without delay. It was all over, although the effects of the case continue. This case had a decisive effect on the subsequent history of the United States, an appreciable effect on the State of Missouri, and a negligible effect on the life of John A. Cummings. The only real effect of the case on Cummings was ended before the case was argued in the Supreme Court in Washington. His last active connection with the litigation was his meeting with Frank Blair in November, 1865. By January, 1867, when the case was decided, he was no longer pastor of the church in Louisiana. Before May 6, 1866, he had been moved to St. Stephen's parish, Indian Creek, Missouri.40 He did not appear in the Circuit Court in Pike County when on March 4, 1868, the court finally received and acted on the order of the United States Supreme Court.41 Father Cummings 39P. R. Kenrick to T. B. Goeldlin, May 8, 1866, archives of the Missouri province of the Society of Jesus, St. Louis University; Barclay, "Test Oath for the Clergy in Missouri," 370. 40Parish records, St. Stephen Parish, Indian Creek, Monroe City, Missouri. "Records of County Court, Pike County, Missouri, Vol. J, 213. 14 Missouri Historical Review continued as pastor of St. Stephen's at Indian Creek until Septem ber, 1870, when he was taken sick. He died June 11, 1873, in a St. Louis hospital, and no newspaper, religious or secular, ran an obituary.42 The immediate effect of the decision on the State of Missouri was that all ministers and priests were free of the restraints of the loyalty oath, and by application of the decision, first lawyers, then other professions were removed from the scope of the law.43 The decision did not end the oath as a test for voters and jurors. Not until an amendment to the Constitution of Missouri was passed on November 8, 1870, were the people of Missouri entirely free of retrospective loyalty oaths.44 Apart from its legal relevance down to our day, the opinion of the Supreme Court in the Cummings case is important as an incident in the perennial controversy over the supremacy of the various branches of the federal government. The Congress con sidered this decision, and others, an intrusion of the Supreme Court into reconstruction affairs. They debated the packing of the court, but finally decided it would be best to prevent the appointment of more justices to the court until the anti-Radical element died off.45 Justice Field, the only Lincoln appointee to vote with the majority in the Cummings decision, became the particular scapegoat of the Radicals. Since the other four judges of the majority had been on the court at the time of the Dred Scott decision, they were con sidered un-reconstructable. These judges were, with the exception of Field, over seventy years of age and the Congress, wrongly, expected them to retire before much longer. After debating the possibility of impeaching some of the justices, Congress finally was satisfied to pass a bill limiting the number of justices to seven when those sitting had been reduced by death or resignation to that number. Later, to protect their reconstruction legislation, Congress removed the appelate jurisdiction of the court. But by the time this last law was passed, the court had shown itself unwilling to "run a race with Congress" and had been reading if not election returns at least the handwriting on the wall, and any further decisions which might cause friction with the Radicals in control of Congress were avoided. 42Records of St. Vincent's Hospital, St. Louis. 43State v. Neal, 41 Missouri 118; State v. Highland, 41 Missouri 388; In Re Murphv & Glover, 41 Missouri 339. 44Franklin B. Hough, ed., American Constitutions (Albany, 1872), I, 791. 45Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History (Boston, 1937), revised ed., II, 518-598. In Defense of John Cummings 15 The decision in the case of Cummings vs. Missouri caused a new interpretation to be given to our law which has been effective for nearly a hundred years. In loyalty questions in recent years a majority of the Supreme Court has cited it favorably. Justice Douglas hailed it as an historic decision, and Justice Black referred to it as "one more of the Constitution's great guarantees of individ ual liberty."46 But besides the legal effectiveness of the decision in this case, Cummings himself has a valid message for us. Most men feel that, while they may live in a critical period of human history, they do not have an important part to play in their times. Events, they think, are dominated by the leaders, political, social and intellectual, of the crowd. They are content to be one of the crowd. One historical lesson to be learned from the story of John Cummings is that a lasting contribution to human well-being can be made by a man who has only a brief moment of notoriety or importance. The major contribution of the United States to Western and world culture is the amplification of the idea of personal liberty. Ninety-six years ago, in Missouri, this man, aided by his lawyers, helped to expand this idea of personal liberty. Not every "village Hampden" ought to be "a youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown." That the name of Cummings is little known does not detract from the reality of his part in forging another link for the unending chain of the common law. ^Garner el al. v. Board of Public Works of Los Angeles el al., 341 United States (1952) 716 at 730. OLD HOME REMEDIES From Granny Gore s Ozark Folk Medicine, by Sherman Lee Pompey "Had lots of cures fer warts. Rub them with a dishrag, and then bury the dishrag in the corner of the barn, an' the warts would disappear. Others bought warts for a penny or a nickle. Man down near Mincey, Missouri, says that a feller bought all his warts fer a nickle, and they all disappeared shortly thereafter. One of the better cures was to go to the crossroads, take nine stones, and throw each one in a different direction. Some folks had secret formulas that they would incant over the warts and they would disappear. A MISSOURI CONFEDERATE IN THE CIVIL WAR The Journal of Henry Martyn Cheavens, 1862-1863 EDITED BY JAMES E. MOSS* On Saturday, April 20, 1861, just a week after the guns at Fort Sumter boomed the opening of the Civil War, it was observed that three different flags floated in Columbia, Boone County, Missouri — the Stars and Stripes, the Border State flag, and the flag of the Confederate States. The sentiments of the residents of Boone County, like those of all Missourians, varied greatly. Many were convinced that the rights of the Southern States had been violated and called upon their neighbors to vindicate Southern honor, to "unhesitatingly link our destinies, our interest, our honor, our fate and our all, for weal or for woe, with our Southern brethren."1 Others determined to support the North without qualification and loudly applauded Union General Nathaniel Lyon's action in seizing Camp Jackson on the outskirts of St. Louis, and his subsequent moves to secure Missouri for the Union. Still others walked a moderate path, arguing that Missouri occupied "a position central between the two extremes" and resolved that "the true policy of Missouri ... is to maintain an independent position within the Sid Larson illustration *James E. Moss is assistant editor of the Missouri Historical Review 1 William F. Switzler, History of Boone County, Missouri (St. Louis, 1882), 403. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 17 Union—holding her soil and institutions sacred against invasion or hostile interference from any quarter whatever."2 Henry Martyn Cheavens was one of those in Boone County who cast his lot with the Southern cause. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 8, 1830, the son of John and Catharine (Allen) Cheavens. About six years later, his family moved to Alton, Illinois, and then to St. Louis in 1841. At St. Louis Cheavens studied under the famous educator Edward Wyman at his English and Classical High School. In the fall of 1847 he entered Yale University as a sophomore which he attended for two years, until illness forced him to leave. He returned to St. Louis, recuperated for a year, and then set out again for college, this time going to Amherst in Massachusetts where he earned his B.A. degree in 1852. After his graduation he taught school in Jacksonville, Illinois, for a year, and then moved to Boone County, Missouri, to become a private tutor to the sons of Eli Bass. In 1854 he accepted a position as a high school principal in St. Paul, Minnesota, but he later returned to Boone County and taught in various schools until 1861. In the spring of 1861, when General Sterling Price, commanding the Missouri State Guard, issued an appeal for volunteers to protect Missouri from "the outrages committed against the state by the federal government," Cheavens left Ashland in the southern part of Boone County to join Price's army and fight with the Confederates. He participated in the Battle of Carthage on July 5, 1861, and a month later at Wilson's Creek he was wounded in the right thigh. He was then taken home to Boone County and hidden in the attic of the house of a Confederate supporter, Philip J. Self. While convalescing Cheavens compiled a journal of his war activities up to the time he was injured at Wilson's Creek.3 Cheavens' wound kept him inactive for nearly ten months. By the time he fully recovered the provisional Governor of Missouri, Hamilton R. Gamble, had put into effect a drastic manpower draft. On July 22, 1862, Gamble published General Order Nine teen which in part stated: Every able-bodied man capable of bearing arms and subject to military duty is hereby ordered to repair without delay to the nearest military post and report for duty to the commanding officer. Every man will bring with him what ever arms he may have or can produce and a good horse if he has one. 2Columbia Missouri Statesman, May 10, 1861. ^Virginia Easley, ed., "Journal of the Civil War in Missouri: 1861, Henry Martyn Cheavens," Missouri Historical Review, LVI (October, 1961), 12-25. 18 Missouri Historical Review Unwilling to obey the Gover nor's order, Cheavens once more set out to fight with the South erners. Hoping to join Confed erate Colonel Joseph C. Porter who was operating in the north eastern part of the state, Cheavens spent August, Septem ber and November of 1862 engaging in guerrilla activities in central Missouri. In November, thwarted in his attempts to join Porter, he decided to rejoin Price's army, but on his way south he was captured and imprisoned, first at Springfield, Missouri, then at St. Louis, and finally at Alton, Illinois. Courtesy Virginia Easley Shipped east in April, 1863, Henry Martyn Cheavens he participated in a prisoner exchange near Petersburg, Vir ginia. He was then dispatched to the Trans-Mississippi army of Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith in Louisiana. Unable to cross the Mississippi River, Cheavens was assigned to Brigadier General John S. Bowen's Division, Second Brigade, Captain Schuyler Lowe's Missouri Battery. He fought with Lowe's Battery at the Battle of Baker's Creek, the Battle of Big Black River Bridge and the seige of Vicksburg. After the fall of Vicksburg he started east through Mississippi to Demopolis, Alabama, where a parole camp had been established. At Raymond he stopped for nearly two months to serve as hospital steward, nursing those who were unable to go any further. While in Raymond he compiled the largest portion of the journal which is reproduced here, recording his experiences from July, 1862, until the time he arrived at Raymond in July, 1863. Cheavens reached the parole camp at Demopolis early in September, 1863, and was reassigned to Captain William E. Dawson's Missouri Battery in Brigadier General Francis M. Cockrell's Division of Missouri troops. With Dawson's Battery Cheavens saw subsequent action in the Chattanooga campaign. He wrote intermittently during the campaign but compiled most of this portion of his Journal after returning to Meridian, Mississippi, in December, 1863. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 19 At the war's end, Cheavens entered St. Louis Medical College. He received the degree of Doctor of Medicine on March 1, 1866, and three and one-half months later married Sallie Ann Self in Boone County on June 17, 1866. There he practiced medicine and taught school until his death on May 13, 1920. The original text of the journal is reproduced below with changes in spelling and punctuation only where need for clarity. Persons who are listed by last names only are further identified wherever possible. JOURNAL OF THE WAR, 1862-1863 My wound, having been received in August of the preceeding year, kept me from active duties.4 But on the last of July [1862] the Proclamation of the Pseudo Governor [Hamilton R.] Gamble was received calling on all within the state of Mo., both friend and foe, to enlist in the State Militia. I found myself unwilling to obey the mandate so unceremoniously announced. So getting on my nag without bidding my friends goodbye I once more sallied forth. Hoping to meet Col. Jo. Porter in the northern part of 5 On Monday Aug. 1st, evening, myself and Will Bass6 rode off and riding all night, after various adventures in finding and los ing the road, at length put up at about 3 A.M. at Mr. Glasgow's in the town of Millersburg. We slept soundly until sunrise when arising we prepared for breakfast which in Great State was set before us by Miss Glasgow. There was also present a Miss Martin call Capt., being the leader of a female company. Also a school mistress in the neighborhood. We had no time to remain, so bidding our generous hosts goodbye we again moved off after those we were in search of. We rode seven or eight miles when we encountered some of our pickets who stopped us. We willingly went with them to a spot in the woods where two or three companies were encamped commanded by Capts. [Charles] Selby, Allen and We learned from them that on the previous day a skirmish had taken place at a place in Callaway Co. called Moore's Mills between Col. J. Porter and Col. O. Guitar in which the former, overpowered, had to retreat.7 We remained till about 7 P.M. when we started back 4Cheavens, a private in General John B. Clark, Jr., Division, Company E, was wounded at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, August 10, 1861, when a no. 6 grape shot lodged in his right thigh, four inches above the knee breaking the bone. Columbia Missouri Statesman, August 23, 1861; Virginia Easley, ed., "Journal of the Civil War in Missouri," 23. Confederate Colonel Joseph C Porter was engaged in guerrilla activities in northeastern Missouri. On July 28, 1862, he had penetrated as far south as Moore's Mill in northeastern Callaway County where Union Colonel Oden Guitar, commanding the Ninth Missouri Cavalry, defeated him in a hotly contested encounter. 6William H. Bass, Ashland, Boone County. 7Cheavens' chronology is confused at this point. According to his calculations the battle occurred on August 1 when in fact it was July 28. 20 Missouri Historical Review towards Boone. We crossed Cedar Creek and stopped near Boones- boro on Elijah Stephen's place. It rained the first night and we had poor fare. August 3rd, 1863—Arose from Birch bed. Capt. Julius McGuire came around and in accordance with his suggestion we disbanded, arranging the time and place for [our] next meeting, the following week being the time appointed. I was placed under the charge of Mr. James Langston, son of Widow [Cornelia] Langston, who has one son in the Confederate army and one has died in the same service.8 They live on Little Cedar Creek about a mile N. W. from Boonesboro. The family consists of the Old lady, James, and a very pleasant daughter, Nancy. I enjoyed my week very much indeed. Lived on fruits and vegetables with honey fit for a king. Aug. 8th, 1863. Again we were together with an increased force. I was sworn into the C. S. A.9 during the war and found a doubled barreled shot-gun to suit me. I was appointed commissary of our Squad of several companies. We were most of the time in the woods and had a different encampment every day. Sleeping and eating during the day while the night was occupied by traveling from place to place. One of our exploits during the last week of August I will describe. There were a number of Southern men imprisoned in the jail of Columbia. We squaded several of our companies together under the Captainship of Young Purcell, a brave but rash man. There were a number of us amounting to one hundred men. About II A. M. [Tuesday, August 13, 1862] we started and entered Colum bia about 1 P. M. with a whoop and a yell, clattering over the ground rough shod down to the Court House door. The Federals all ran to the University, scattering in all directions. Our men went to work breaking down the jail door and releasing the prisoners, who were led off in triumph. Nothing else was done in the town except ing taking the Federal flag floating over Redmond's building. One shot was fired by the Federals, which passed through the Court House door. We first took our picket and got 100 head of Govern ment horses which were feeding in a pasture. We then departed on the road back. We gave the flag to Mr daughters who tore it to shreds and gave them to the boys. I got a piece and gave it to my sweetheart afterwards to make a square in a quilt. That night we feasted. 8George Thomas Langston joined the Missouri State Guard (Confederate) and fought at the battles of Lone Jack and Independence. Joseph W. Langston was fatally wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Confederate States Army. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 21 In a few days Guitar10 was on our track and after us. We then had to disband and kept to the woods most of the time. During the time I staid mostly at Mrs. Langston's and again at Mr. Again's. I made two or three trips to my friends in the Southern part of the county. I went to the Self's and the Martin's when my other friends could not meet me and have a pleasant chat.11 I would come and go in the night and then have the day for pleasure. I also exchanged my little Mexican Mustang for a large U. S. horse, captured at Columbia. I became quite a favorite with Mr. [Julius] McGuire. One night while the Feds, were in the vicinity of Cedar Creek I rode on one side of Little Cedar and their pickets were on the other bank. The next day I and my horse stood in a thicket while the Feds, were ranging the next farm not a half a mile distant. About the middle of October we were ordered to be ready by a certain night to meet Porter in Callaway Co. and cross the river.12 We were all ready. I had been down to Salem meeting house and got back just in time to get with our party. We rode all night and arrived about daybreak near the spot, but by some mistake we did not find them. We slept till about 8 A. M., when our provisions were brought in and Capt. Purcell, with some few others, went to find the whereabouts of Porter. I got a fishing line and went to work in the creek catching fish. Had got quite a little string when our scouts came in, stating that the Feds, were in the neighborhood and had fired on them. After cleaning my fish and putting them in a sack on the horn of my saddle I saddled up and started into line. We got to the top of the hill, and there forming a line we gave out horses to be held while we loaded our guns ready for the charge. Pretty soon we saw the Feds, skulking in the woods, then a shot or two, then more Feds. I got a crack at one or two, then a ball hit a tree near me and soon I saw Sam Hodge pulling my coattail telling me to lie down. I soon looked around and saw all the men around me gone with three or four exceptions. I soon saw the 1st Lieut., who told me to mount my horse and retreat. I looked for Jim Boice, but he and horses were gone. I found a mule without a rider, and mounting him I started off. Two or three were wounded and one dead. Buck Lampton was wounded in the head by a glancing ball. I found my horse in camp, ^Colonel Oden Guitar, Ninth Missouri Cavalry. In August, 1862, the provisional Governor of Missouri, Hamilton Gamble, promoted Guitar to Brigadier General in the enrolled Missouri State Militia (Union). nPhilip J. Self and Lincoln R. and Isabella Martin. 12On October 16 about 300 of Porter's guerrillas crossed the Missouri River at Portland, Callaway County, on the steamboat Emilie, which they had commandeered. Porter crossed the Missouri by row boat at Providence. Boone County, and was later killed in a skirmish hear Marsh field on Tanuary 10, 1863. Richard S. Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy (Baton Rouge, 1958), 88. 22 Missouri Historical Review but lost everything on him. We went some 4 or 5 miles and stopped to gather our men together. [Young] Purcell, [Ed] Muir, [Jim] Wil son, and others were among the missing. We afterwards found that Purcell had been shot in the finger and had to have it amputated. About 2 A. M. we started for Callaway rebuffed but not dis heartened. We camped on the Western bank of the Cedar [Creek] and then disbanded. A few days previous we had quite an accession to our numbers by the arrival from Price's Army of several, all of whom had recruit ing commissions. Geo. Langston (brother to James), Parson, Prim rose, Jim Wilson, Lieutenant in my old company, Ike. I also became the most constant attendant in the family of Mr. Hodges and my wardrobe was refitted by Mrs. Langston and Turner. It is a most pleasant family, consisting of the Old Gentleman, Lady, two very pleasant, industrious, and amiable daughters, two sons, one lame, and another smaller one, then John and Samuel, two as clever and hearty companions as I ever want. John, Sam, Capt. Charles Selby (late 2nd Lieutenant in Capt. [H. G.] McKin- ney's Co. 5th Reg. Mo. V. C. S. and who died of fever in the late seige of Vicksburg. Requisat in Pace), Ed Muir, Jim Wilson, and myself mostly squaded together. When I wanted the best corn bread I went to Mrs. Hodge, the best honey to Mrs. Langston, the Colonel Oden Guitar's Missouri Troops (Guitar is Wearing a Shoulder Sash) ill ill ill 111 llll -A • ,11 * flPli llfil ' 111 fi A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 23 best mush to Mrs. Self, and anything good to all indiscriminately. We laid out in the woods, read and visited, some always on the lookout. Capt. Will Todd of Howard [County] was down to see us and his cousins, the Stevens (with whom I became acquainted). One Sabbath he left our camp, our tent being nicely stretched, and started off as the gallant of the fair cousins to Cedar Church. In the evening he came back at a great rate, the Federals had met and questioned him, and had it not been for the presence of the young ladies he would have been arrested. He gave us the hint and we were soon on our way to another camp. The Feds, searched for us but did not find us. During this time we had a little scout on the Black Foot camping ground, but it did not amount to anything. We were there some two or three days and then returned. One day, Sunday, I was aroused from my lethargy by the smoke arising from several points to the northwest, north, and east. We afterwards discovered that it was caused by the burning of Mount Zion church and several dwelling houses by the Federals.13 The first snow I slept under. Its soft fleecy flakes fell so smoothly that we were surprised in the morning at the amount. I enjoyed myself, but was not satisfied. Alas for man, he is never satisfied. On the first Sunday of November, 1863, we were all ready to cross the river of the great Missouri, an appointed place was known. We waited for the evening. A number of us in sheer despair thought we would go again to Church. Cedar was the spot. We got there and I met many of my friends, both male and female. Mr. and Mrs. James Self and the not to be forgotten Miss Sallie were all there. We listened to the sermon, and then came the goodbyes. I will not say a tear did not start to my eye. I know not when I will see them again. I dined at Elijah Stevens' and after adieus I started for the spot. We arrived about dusk and about 9 moved on towards Bonne Femme [Creek]. We traveled all night, striking the Bonne Femme north of Columbia. We camped next day, then on a little stream camped preparatory to crossing. Tuesday night we com menced crossing and had a hard time. It was but about four miles below Boonville, a poor landing, no rowers or guides who were acquainted with the river. The horses would not take to the river. I took mine, he would not swim and tried to turn over. The skiff finally got mired on a bar in the river. By hard pulling got him on 13On Sunday, September 22, 1862, a detachment of an Iowa regiment stationed at Mexico, Missouri, appeared at Mount Zion Church, about 12 miles northeast of Columbia, and burned it to the ground. They also burned the dwellings and barns of Robert H. Gay, and Elijah Crisman, in the same neighborhood. William F. Switzler, History of Boone County, 424. 24 Missouri Historical Review dry sand, where I had to leave him till morning. I remained on the south side, cold, wet, and weary. We made a little fire before morning and got some victuals from a neighbor. Our horses were all day on the bar in the middle of the river, and a steamboat passed up in the middle of the day. The next night by hard work we succeeded in getting over the men and horses, some 80 or 90 in number. We staid the next day resting ourselves. I occupied myself in directing the division of bread and meat and making cartridges. We fried out meat, took up the grease, made up our dough, and gave a piece to each man to make for himself on a piece of stick over the fire. The next night we traveled so as to be within a few miles of the railroad.14 Camped. In the morning men were sent out after corn for our horses and food for ourselves. About an hour after daylight we heard the sound of guns immediately in front of us. ft seemed to paralyse all, and all soon left the field after being ordered by officers. I left my horse. The last I saw of Capt. [Julius] McGuire he was mounting his nag. I soon came to where our men had formed and found 52 without any officers but one, Lieutenant Crutcher. We had three or four killed and several wounded and a number taken prisoner. Selby, Sam Hodge, and others. After getting together Crutcher told the company to look out every man for himself and concerning the railroad keep directly south. A few of us remained till night, tried to get a guide, failed, and started. We took the wind for a guide, but it changed before morning. We started to cross the railroad between Tipton and California. We went through farms, byways, and at last crossed. The rain then set in. I had to ride bareback and the darkness did not agree very well, so once or twice I found myself dismounted. After riding an hour or two we came to a halt overcome by fatigue and rain. My squad had become scattered in the darkness, but three of us were together. We took our blankets, laid them on the wet ground, and were soon in a heavy, if not sweet, sleep. Early in the morning we arose and, feeding our horses from a neighboring field, we went on our way. We soon found that we were but two miles east from Tipton. We hid our guns and ammunition, then the two young men with me said they would try it on foot. I took the best horse of the crowd with the best saddle and blankets and bidding them goodbye I started with my face Southwards, for, though it was raining, still 14The Pacific Railroad of Missouri operated trains between St. Louis and Syracuse in Morgan County. The last five miles of the 168-mile line were opened from Tipton to Syracuse on August 1, 1859. Here the railroad terminated in an open prairie. Margaret Louise Fitzsimmons, "Railroad Development in Missouri, 1860-1870," (Unpublished master's thesis, Washington University, 1931), 14. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 25 I could take the course by observing the moss on the north side of the trees. I traveled on till about 12 o'clock. I came to the edge of the prairie when, having become hungry, I stopped at a house for dinner. It was Sunday and a number of neighbors were in. They had a wounded brother. I ate dinner and started on my journey. I came in sight of a house where I put up though the owner was not at home. The young lady had a brother in the army, Southern of course, and seemed devoted to the cause. She gave me a comfortable meal and bed, the first for some time. I arose the next day refreshed and ready for my rough road to the banks of the Osage. I started about 7 o'clock and found my way very successfully. I soon took the main Linn Creek road as it was a rainy day and few people were stirring. I learned from a blacksmith that two of our company had been taken the preceeding day and were on their way to Tipton. I afterwards learned they were Joshua Baker and Cruger. I traveled over the rough road till dark found me at a widow woman's 5 miles from Linn Creek. I was received by them and put up with the accommodations when I found nearly all the sons were in the Militia.15 It rained all night and morning found it still raining. Tuesday morning I started and crossed at a ford above Linn Creek called Edward's Ferry. I rode all day and found at noon I had been taking the Warsaw Road instead of the Linn Creek and Springfield Road. For miles I saw not a living being or a house. At last I turned south by the trees and traveled till dark brought me up to a little cabin, where I found shelter for the night and a good supper. The people were Eastern Yankee. He was just returned from the Federal army in Tennessee, and seemed above the common run of people, only wishing for peace. Wednesday morn rose clear. I could not get my $10 bill changed, so the man had to go without his money. I rode all day, passing a large water mill and also meeting many Militia returning home from Buffalo. I stopped at night to see if I could stay, but the man would not let me stay unless I had a pass. I rode on some 4 or 5 miles and, my horse being weary and footsore, I walked. At last I stopped at a lady's where everything was done, my horse fed and myself also. I had just risen from the table when I heard a yell about the house and was ordered to "Keep in or I would be shot." Then came in a group of yelping curs in the form of Gamble Militia, 15The Missouri State Militia was organized by provisional Governor Hamilton Gamble and the Missouri State Convention (1861) to operate at the expense of the Federal Government and to co-operate with United States troops "in repelling the invasion of the State and suppressing rebellion therein." U. S. Senate, 57th Congress, 1st Session, Document no, 412, Missouri Troops in Service During the Civil War (Washington, D. C, 1902), 21. Harper's Weekly, November 30, lfidl Town of Springfield some 6 men armed and equipped. I surrendered, of course. They then searched the house for some they had heard were on their way also. I had to give up my pistol. I told them I had none. "If you don't bring it out we will shoot you." I told them to shoot ahead, I had none and they might search. They asked me what I was! I told them I was on my way to Price's Army. Where were the rest of my men I could not and therefore did not tell them. The man (Judge , I'll know him) who refused me lodgings was along and they took me to his house where we had supper. They became very friendly and treated me well. After supper they took me along to Brownsville about 6 miles from Buffalo . . ., where was the headquarters of this gang. This gang seemed quite pleasant afterwards. I slept on the floor and rested well about 1 or 2 A. M. I remained with them the 17th and 18th, during which time I was well treated. On the 19th I was taken by two of their number to Bolivar, Polk Co., the headquarters of their Col. On the same evening I arrived I was taken before the Provost Marshall and then to the Court House, which they used as a jail! I found three others who were also companions in misery. We had a pleasant room and a good fire with a tolerable supper. I laid on my blankets and had a comfortable nap, or rather sleep. The next day 20th nothing was done. The next I was called before the Provost Marshall and my confession under oath was taken and certified and signed by me. The succeeding day I wrote home, and it never reached its place. Sunday the 23rd I went to Springfield and arrived on the 24th. I was taken to the Provost Marshall there, to the Court House, where 160 prisoners are kept on the 3rd story. I immediately found a great number of friends. Capt. W. Todd and quite a number of others. I immediately was placed in charge of the hospital contain- Plaza at Springfield Harper's Weekly, November 30, tsfil A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 27 ing some 30 sick. It was in a miserable state. All lying on the floor filthy, with frequently no blankets. I had two, with one in constant use in the sickroom. Many had no change of clothing, nor had for six months. Many had been in prison for twelve months. The disease was mostly typhoid, pneumonia, mumps, diarrhea, and measles with some scurvy and much debility. Our diet was crackers and light bread, pickled pork, beef, coffee, grits, and hominy, with a few desiccated vegetables. I tried to do my best. I was there till December 24th and I think I did my duty. During that time but five deaths occurred, while in the Federal hospitals they counted by tens daily. We cooked for the hospital in the small room where the nurses staid. I made up most of the medicines and the druggist below the balance. Dr. J. Bonfils near the Abbey, St. Louis, was our first physician and a kind and considerate old man. The next was an Iowa Regt. Surgeon. The surgeons were very kind to me and allowed me many privileges such as a guard to go into town with me after clothing and cloths for dressing blisters, for food for the very sick, etc. Mr. Logan's family is to be remembered by me with the deepest gratitude on account of the many favors bestowed. I was busy all the time, scarcely a moment's leisure. A lady gave me a ball of yarn to knit a pair of mittens for a young boy, but I never found time. The days were short and we frequently had neither wood nor candles. Many nights our boys were without either. The last surgeon did all he could for the good of the sick. He procured cots and ticks filled with straw and a number of blankets with a number of changes of clothing which were also distributed. The College was filled with prisoners and Capt. W. Todd was sent there. He was afterwards paroled and subsequently it was taken from him and he was put in solitary confinement on a charge of breaking parole. The large room of the prison was inhabited by 160 men who slept on the bare and dirty floor, which was covered over at night so thick it was almost impossible to thread my way among them. The floor was filthy beyond comprehension, no spittoons, anibia [sic] from 160 mouths and pus from half as many, while every morning beheld one corner nearly a quarter covered with filth of the worst character. The city of Springfield contained about 2500 sick Federals. The weather was splendid. The Sergeant of the Prison was kind to us and would laugh and talk with us regularly. Several escaped while I was there. One was a fellow prisoner from Bolivar. Several 28 Missouri Historical Review Courtesy Springfield Art Museum Union Soldiers on Springfield Square. Courthouse where prisoners were kept is at left. tried to escape, a number took the oath some of whom joined the Feds. On the 24th December, 1862, 96 of us from the College and Court House, mostly prisoners of war, started from Springfield for St. Louis via Rolla. It commenced raining and rained for several days. We had a guard and a Major commanded us. The number of wagons was found to be but half enough, so one half had to walk through mud and water. Christmas Eve it snowed and was a very unpleasant cold night without tents and many with no blankets. One man had a breaking out like small-pox who traveled on till we arrived at Rolla. Every night I had to give medicines to our sick, as I had brought medicines from Springfield. Christmas Day brought us no dinner as in the good old times, but as I had to walk and was not able to get along fast enough the guard stuck his bayonet into me, for which I thanked the Major, who was behind me. He soon called me out, apologized to me, and I got to ride in the wagons all the time, which was one thing gained. We passed through some very poor land at one point. In one place we found block houses and fortifications. We gained some 6 additional ones at one town, one died, one was left at Rolla. 30th we arrived in Rolla, a very cold night. 31st we started on our way A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 29 to St. Louis. We took the cars.16 Open wood cars. It was a cold day and we were nearly frozen. We changed cars at Franklin [Pacific], where all had passenger cars. I had a seat in one all the time. I became acquainted with Daniel Fulbright of Springfield who has ever since been one of my warmest friends. At 9 P. M. 31st of December we arrived in St. Louis, the city of my childhood and youth, as prisoners. We were escorted by the Halleck Guards17 to the front of McDowell's College, otherwise called the Gratiot St. Prison.18 We stood in front of it till 11 o'clock before we were admitted. The weather was so cold that one of our number fell dead in his tracks of cold and exhaustion and many more were so exhausted they had to be taken to the Sister's [of Charity] Hospital in an ambulance. After long waiting we were ordered into the presence of our future jailers. Our names, rank, and regiment were taken and our persons were searched. All our pocket knives were taken and all our money over 5 dollars was handed into their keeping. We were then sent around to our quarters. I was immediately surrounded by friends who had been long separated. Saml. Hodge, Cruger, Ravenscraft, Joshua Baker, Winn, Charley Selby, and numbers of others not remembered at present. One gave me a ring, others brought bread, etc. It was 2 or 3 A. M. before this tired body was laid in sleep, Jan. 1st, 1863. The next morning I went to breakfast in the common room and then among the sick in the hospital. Some I was acquainted with. Ravenscraft was board master. I was installed as nurse. In 2 or 3 days the dispenser of medicines leaving I took his place, filling it during my stay. McDowell College is built of rock on 8th and Gratiot Streets, consisting of a three story octagonal tower and 2 wings. One wing was occupied by the Federal officers and attendants, with the upper story reserved for Confederate prisoner officers. The northern wing was a basement divided into a cook room and a large room, the middle story one large room and a dining room. The upper story (occupied formerly as a museum) was now a hospital, the loft was the dead room and rubbish room. The lower room of the tower was a cool room when we first went there but afterwards was fitted up for the use of prisoners. The middle room a large room commonly called the Round Room and an upper amphitheatre afterwards 16By January 1, 1861, the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad of Missouri extended from St. Louis to Rolla. See Fitzsimmons, "Railroad Development In Missouri, " 101-102. 17Major General Henry W. Halleck, commanding the Department of the West with head quarters in St. Louis. 18In December, 1861, the McDowell Medical College was confiscated by the Union provost- marshal of St. Louis and converted into a military prison, commonly known as the Gratiot Street Prison. St. Louis Missouri Republican, December 24, 1861. 30 Missouri Historical Review Gratiot Street Prison, St. Louis fitted up into 2 stories, one as a convalescent hospital the other as a dungeon. The large rooms were fitted up with 3-story double bunks with one and two stores to a room. The dining room with table and benches with the cups and plates kept in order by the dining room squad, the cook room was fitted up with brick furnaces with sheet iron boilers for boiling coffee, meat, etc., with a cook room squad, all of whom were prisoners. Then there was an office squad who called the rolls, and rolls were called every morning before breakfast. The food was boiled beef, hot and cold coffee, soup, peas, potatoes, light bread, and bacon. One meal between 9 and 11 A. M., the second between 3 and 5 P. M., rooms going out in order. Masterson was Captain of the Prison and tried to do all he could for the comfort and health of the prisoners, although he was not very affable to most. To me he always acted the perfect gentleman. 3 sergeants at every door and outside. We had a little strip of land about 4 feet wide in which there was a hydrant and the last month a yard 20 by 60 feet. The rooms were swept every morning and scrubbed every two weeks. The Hospital contained 76 bunks arranged in 8 lines or 4 wards. To every half ward or 10 patients were two nurses assigned who staid on all day, one always being present. Making 16 nurses and A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 31 2 dishwashers, in all 18. 4 stood every 4th night 2 till 12 o'clock, the other 2 the balance of the night. It was the usual practice for the surgeon to come in the morning, make prescriptions, and have them put up. I would go around with him and then make up the medicines and give them as prescribed. We had a sink and hydrant with a bath tub in one corner of the room. Everyone who comes from the lower rooms is taken to the bathtub, a good bath given, clean clothes given, and put in clean beds. Thus vermin are excluded from them. The floors were mopped up every morning, the beds made, and each man with a fresh bowl of water to wash with. The meals consisted of light bread, beef fried and boiled, and mutton soup. The Sisters of Charity visited us every day once or more. They brought chicken soup, milk, eggs, jams, and other delicacies such as coffee and tea. These two sisters were all that were allowed to visit us. Father also came and many a poor man had the benefit of the sacrament and was baptized with the holy water.19 The small-pox raged while I was there, and I have sent off as many as 10 a day to the island with it. Some few died with it in the worst form. I read a great deal of medicine and had a good deal of practice. I could tell a man with the small-pox as soon as most physicians. Measles, pneumonia, chronic diarrhea, erysipelas, some wounded in the last of January, quite a few from Arkansas. Several wounded were put in the hospital and we had a convalescent room with Dan Fulbright ward master. I found in officers' quarters Ed Muir, Parson, Primrose, Lieut. Crutcher, Capt. George Langston, Capt. Jim Wilson, Major Rucker, and several others. Capt. Bob Maupin now aide to Col. [F. M.] Cockrell. Jim Monde and several others whose acquaintance I made. I at last understood that we were to leave on exchange, as many thought, but I soon found it was merely a change of prison to Alton. Capt. Masterson told Fulbright and myself that if we wished we could stay in St. Louis, he would keep us there, but we both thought there was a better chance for exchange by going with our boys, which we afterwards found to be so. I was started off to Alton on the 25th Feb. and landed in Alton after dark, taken to the Peni tentiary near which I had wandered as a child 24 years before. We were ushered into the hall and searched, our money taken, and tickets were given for the amount. Our knives were not taken. I then found two of the Todd boys, Elijah and his brother, with 19Griffen Frost, also a prisoner at Gratiot Street Prison at this time, wrote that a Father Ryan came in and preached a sermon. Griffin Frost, Camp and Prison Journal (Quincy, Illinois, 1867), 29. 32 Missouri Historical Review Harper's Weekly, October J, lSO't Confederate Prisoners whom 1 slept. The next day we went to the table, where there was a scanty supply of food, meat, and potatoes, and bread, and coffee. I found Dr. McFarlane and was installed in the Hospital Squad. The first week I rested myself from the duties which had been wear ing on me for some 3 months or more. I then took charge of the Hospital Squad, then assistant apothe cary. The Hospitals were 4 in number, one occupied by wounded, one by small-pox exclusively, and two with all kinds together. Our cooking was done in the house and we had a little better food than the grand table d'hote. I learned a great deal about medicines, weights, and constituents. The hospitals were in a very filthy condition, the vermin were thick, traveling over everything, and the floors were never scoured. Bed clothes had not been washed for weeks. There were a great number of deaths the first 3 months of the year. Small-pox was very fatal, 300 were buried during the time. 10 would sometimes die of a day and night. The health was improving when I arrived there, measles, small-pox, erysipelas, and pneumonia were predominant. There was a sutler from whom we bought at double the rates various things and knickknacks. We had a pretty good ground for promenading in. Every fine morning you would see the boys promenading talking and smoking. Ring making was the prominent employment, with some pipe and knife makers and one violin A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 33 manufacturer. Several violins were made and we frequently had a dance in the open air. I was very healthy the whole time, and many was the dose of medicine I put up. One night the guards shot at one because he refused to put out the light. We had all classes and characters of men. I have seen men grabble in the slop barrels for food thrown there by the dish washers. Many men seemed to have no other employment than to eat. Men with no mind and education would almost invariably do so, while those who had some employment of mind and ingenuity for hand would do well in body and mind. For this reason, I always got a working station. On the last week of March the officer of exchange with his books made his welcome appearance for the pur pose of calling our names. We were glad, and many were the joyful faces when their names were called, and many a long and lingering look was given when it was failed of being called. On the 31st [March] one of the cooks had a stove to fall on his foot, and it caused the amputation of his great toe, which I saw. He started on the 1st with us. The 1st of April we were all called out with our knapsacks and haversacks of 5 days' provisions. We got on the cars, and about 10 A. M. I bid adieu to the sight of Missouri which lies opposite Alton, and the Mississippi River, which I have since seen at Vicks burg. I cannot at this time pretend to give a daily [account] of our trip or the exchange. But I can say that there were about 850 prisoners from every state in the south and not a few from the north ern states. Our course was the following: Mattoon or Pana [Illinois] at the junction of the Illinois Central, Terre Haute in Indiana, Xenia, Dayton, and Columbus in Ohio, to Belle Air on the Ohio River. To this point we had cars of the 2nd and 3rd passenger trains. Then crossing into Virginia we were installed into our cars, freight and old ones. Then over the rail over the way, our provisions going fast, crowded up, cold, on to Cumberland on a road I once traveled while going to college. Then by Harper's Ferry, where it snowed, all the way to Baltimore, where we arrived about 8 A. M., Sunday morning, 5th April. The train remained a long time in the city. The ladies tried to give us all they could, but the police forbade all communications whatever. At last we were drawn down to the coal wharf and packed in masse into a large warehouse, where we remained during the day and had some crackers and raw bacon issued to us. We slept on the ground. Next morning the 6th we were taken about 34 Missouri Historical Review 10 A. M. on board of the steamer and soon after we started down the Chesapeake River.2U It was a pleasant scene to me, and as I was on the Hurricane Deck I had a good view. The air at night was quite cool and on the deck was rather unpleasant sleeping, but I made out. Next day about 10 we came in sight of Fortress Monroe [Virginia], where we remained some 2 hours anchored off the Fort, which looked fierce, with its line of bull dogs pointing out plainly in view. There were a number of vessels at anchor, among which we plainly discovered the English flag on a Man of War and a French ship. We soon started up the James River, and after going up a little was the wrecks of two Federal steamers, the Cumberland and one other which our famous gunboat Merrimac overthrew. Their remains were above water. We saw the turret ship Monitor at the mouth looking like a big turtle. After going some distance the white flag was raised at the bow and soon our names were called to sign a parole not to fight till exchanged for the requisite number. We landed at City Point about dark and laid alongside of another boat, on board of which Fulbright and our crowd got and had a good berth in the passenger hold or cabin of the boat. I enjoyed the rest. Early in the morning we discovered a train of cars on the bank of the river getting ready for us. How happy I was on April the 8th, 1863, my 33rd birthday, to place my foot on southern soil and go upon the cars at City Point, Va., under a guard of our own men for the City of Petersburg, Va., distant 20 miles. We soon went over ground and then I saw peach trees in full bloom the first time this year. About 1 P. M. we arrived in Petersburg, a pretty town, and marching through it went to exchange camp at the model farm a mile from town. There I found many of my old friends and acquaintances. Capt. Harvey McKinney from Rocheport, Missouri, had come from Richmond and had by Orders from Headquarters organized the Missouri 125 exchanged in March into a company of which he was elected captain and Charley Selby, 2nd Lieutenant. I tried to join his company, but it was full. We remained till Monday, the 13th. Peddlers came to camp and sold provisions; sweet potatoes, 50c to $1; pies 25c to 75c; tobacco $1 per plug. The money we had left with the Feds, was turned over to us, or at least part of it. 1 received $2.50 out of $7.50 due me. The two or three days succeeding our arrival we marked by the arrival of a number of prisoners from St. Louis and Chicago. We were divided off into squads of 100 men and rations issued to us and cooking utensils. Flour and meat with sugar and salt and rice. 20Cheavens refers here to the Patapsco river which empties into Chesapeake Bay. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 35 On the 13th of April Capt. McKinney's company of 125 men with 40 men of us called Elgin's Squad started off with orders to report to Gen. [Edmund] Kirby Smith at Alexandria, La. The great majority of the Western troops had previously been sent on to Gen. [Braxton] Bragg. Our route lay through Western Virginia, and a very poor and hilly pass among the Blue Ridge mountains through the town of Lynchburg, one of the stanch old Virginia towns on the hill. Then on to Bristol on the line between Virginia and Tennessee, where we staid a couple of days in the Round House. I walked over the town. Then on to Knoxville, Tenn., where I examined the arsenal and saw a number of six pound and 12 lb. guns with piles of ammunition. Then on to Montgomery, Alabama. I went to the State House situated on a hill with a gradual ascent overlooking the entire city. I went over the city, it is a beautiful place. I entered the room in which Jefferson Davis was inaugurated. The view which met my eyes was beautiful, the city spread out below like a map before me. Green trees shading the streets in pleasant contrast to the white houses of the citizens. I entered a gun manufactory in which I found a Missourian who was in charge of the works. Montgomery is situated on the Alabama River. At the Navy Yard we saw a gun boat in course of building. I here saw the first strawberries. Our boys bought quite a number of cedar canteens at 75 cents. We had been on freight cars all the time, but here we took the steamboat for Selma. About 6 P. M. we started and proceeded all night. Morning found us at the promised point. We again mounted on cars. I preferred the top of the car on account of the air. Here we again were hurried on through the peninsula formed by the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers to Demopolis on the Tombig- bee. This was the fairest portion of the south. The people seemed to treat us more like men than others. The ladies brought us bouquets, socks, and a large lot of cooked vegetables and milk was brought to us. The ladies and general bearing of the inhabitants made me think of our own state of Missouri, which so far stands ahead of all states for hospitality. At this point we again took a boat for 4 miles to a nameless point where the railroad again com menced. And such a road!! Help me!! It seemed more like going in an ox wagon. We really did not make more than 50 miles a day between this point and Meridian [Mississippi]. At Meridian I saw my old Captain of the State Guards, Dick Carter of Columbia. He was assistant quartermaster. Here we remained a day. A speculator had here about 75 hogsheads of sugar. Our boys broke open several hogsheads and helped them- 36 Missouri Historical Review selves. Although I took none, I acknowledge to eating it and using it after being taken. We here went on to Hickory Station, where news was brought us by a station master at Newton Station that [Union Colonel Benjamin C] Grierson with a large body of Cavalry were awaiting our train, having taken two former trains of passenger cars. We immediately reversed the engines and went back to Meridian, where before night all was hurry and bustle with a clash of arms and military preparations to resist the threatened attack. Guns were issued to all our men who were unarmed, ammunition was given out, cannon drawn up in front, men drilled in their use, guards mounted and sent out. Towards night we were sent out on picket. Then from our detail 3 of us, Sam Hodge, myself, and one other, were sent to guard a certain road. We had orders to let no one pass without orders, and if in a large party to shoot and run about dark [sic], I saw a large company of men advancing. Calling upon the other guards I cocked my gun and ordered them to halt. One came forward, the captain of the company, and informed me they were mounted men for the protection of the place. On the produc tion of the order for their assembling, I let them pass. We took up a couple of darkies, one of whom trembled like a leaf and begged like a good fellow to be let off. At daylight we were relieved and went back into town. After our morning meal we rested some. About night we got on the cars and performed picket duty on the Big Chunky Bridge. Next day we went on to Hickory Station (near which General Andrew Jackson camped in his march to New Orleans). Here we remained on guard a day and a night, and then we returned to Meridian, whence we we took the cars for Jackson. On the road at Newton we saw the remains of the burnt trains, a place 4 miles was torn up and we had to walk the distance. At Jackson we arrived and were soon sent to guard a group of Federal prisoners in a new barracks. While on guard the 1st night a new guard came and we had orders to report in town, which we did at 2 A. M. It was my guard. We immediately camped by the cars waiting for transportation. Tents were given us, also cooking utensils. We were told it was impossible to cross the Mississippi. We were not impressed with the goodness of the people of Jackson. Indeed, virtue and hospitality seemed at a low ebb. On the 4th of May we left for Vicksburg and landed in Bovina, where we formed the Missouri division under Gen [John S.] Bowen, commanding; Col. [Francis M.] Cockrell, commanding 1st brigade of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th regs., Missouri. Gen. Martin Green, A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 37 commanding 2nd brigade of 1st Mo. Cavalry. [Colonel Elijah] Gates [1st Missouri Cavalry] and [Lieutenant Colonel D. Todd] Samuels [3rd Missouri Cavalry] Batallion [were] consolidated and dis mounted.21 Several Arkansas regiments with Wade's, Landis, Loewe's [Lowe's], Dawson's, Guibeau's [Guibor's] batteries.22 The order came for all Missourians to be temporarily divided among several commands and sixty-five men of [Captain Harvey G.] McKinney's [5th Missouri Infantry] company divided out among the batteries. I went to Loewe's [Lowe's] battery with some 11 others.23 This battery is mostly from Jackson County, Mo., and the officers are Capt. Loewe [Lowe], 1st Lieut. Thomas Catron (who was educated at Columbia at the State University), 2nd Lieut. Jos. Jackson, 3rd McCarty. The company is made up from more traders than usual, 2 blacksmiths, a tailor, shoemaker, barber, several apothecaries, several printers, several schoolteachers, a couple of lawyers. Stevens W. Harrison, commonly called at home Harrison Basnett, was a member of the company of one of my old scholars. Wm. Grooms, another of my scholars, joined with me, also Joel Nevins and one of the Barnes. We made quite a pleasant mess of 12 at first. Finally 10, and considering all we agreed very well. On the 6th we joined and found our company with the guns was camped on the banks of Big Black River just below the railroad bridge on the farm of a Mr. Townshend, who I found had been educated at Yale College a year or two before I was there. We had a Sibley tent given to our mess. We had very good rations of beef, corn meal, sugar, and rice. I was head of mess. I found many of my old friends and acquaintances. Don Sitton I found to be saddler to the 1st brigade, he was as delighted to see me as I to see him. I could tell him more than any of his friends. We had many pleasant talks about old times. As I was in need of money, he supplied me. Tinsley, brother to Sam Tinsley, I found in the 3rd Regt. Turner, who nursed me in Springfield, was in Gates' regiment, also the 21On April 17, 1863, Brigadier General John S. Bowen assumed command of Major General J. H. Forney's Division. Forney was assigned to command the Division of Major General Dabney H. Maury who was ordered to the Department of East Tennessee on April 15. For regimental and company commanders of Bowen's Division see United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and the Confederate Armies (130 volumes, Washington, D. C, 1880-1902), Series 1, Volume XXIV, Part III, 705. Hereafter cited O. R. 22Cheavens refers here to other commands making up the division. Those commanding Missouri Batteries were Captain John C. Landis, Captain Schuyler Lowe, Captain William E. Dawson, and Captain Henry Guibor. Also included was Colonel William Wade's Missouri Battery commanded by Lieutenant R. C. Walsh (Wade was killed April 29, at Grand Gulf, Mississippi). The Arkansas regiments were the 15th, 19th, 20th and 21st Arkansas, the 1st Arkansas Cavalry Battalion, and the 12th Arkansas Battalion Infantry. 23Lowe's Battery, also known as the Jackson Battery and Lucas' Battery, was consolidated with the St. Louis Battery, also known as McDonald's (Emmett) Battery, Dawson's Battery, and the 3rd Missouri Battery. U. S. Senate, Missouri Troops in Service During the Civil War, 334. 38 Missouri Historical Review husband of Mr. Self's daughter, Tom Neal, also Gabriel Long, who staid winter before last at Will Bass'. To all these it seemed as if it were a heavenly blessing to see old friends. We remained but a few days before the tocsin sounded the enemy is coming. We are prepared to meet them. Men were work ing on the breastworks on the eastern bank of Big Black. Then we were drilled in artillery tactics. My post was no. 6 which is the cutting of fuses and charge of ammunition in the limber. On the 11th day of May we made a move on a false alarm. On the 12th we started forward towards Edward's Station, a few miles to the south of which we staid one night and part of the day. It rained nearly all the time. Next day I went out on picket towards Raymond where we distinctly heard the Federal drums. We remained the night of the 14th and then moved on. The night of the 15th we camped in an orchard on Baker's Creek, as it is called. In the morning bright and early I arose and soon found a sweet potato patch and then had the camp kettle on quick enough. I scarcely had them cooked before we heard the guns popping in front. The orders were soon given to harness up and we were soon put in position on a hill by some cabins. After cutting clown some trees to begin, we then changed position to a field in our rear. We first went to a wood, then out on an eminence in the field. We were there ordered into a wood where our guns (Parrott) did their first firing, then we were ordered onwards to where a number of Negro cabins were standing in a field. There we came to a stand. There we were ordered into a field when McKinney's company passed us by, charging the enemy. We fired but one shot here. One of our drivers here was shot in the arm by a minie ball. The balls were flying thick around us. Our men were mostly behind trees. Soon the enemy gave signs of flanking us on the right, so [we] filed back to the road point just out of the field, and there we went to work in good earnest, and if ever boys worked it was then. We fired 25 or 30 rounds of spherical case and bombs at them, which soon them. I worked till the perspiration fell in streams from me. I knew the enemy fired a shot when we were in the midst of it. The swab buckets got dry and one of the boys took the old leather bucket to a neighboring hog wallow and filled it. On his return all the boys rushed to get a drink, and how refreshing it was. When I got through my work I looked around, and within a few feet of me lay a Federal dead. I found some letters in his pocket, which I took and read, from people in Illinois to brothers in the army, and all showing that Ab. Lincoln's government A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 39 is not the people's government. I also ate some provisions from a haversack. I took a Captain wounded and made him wait for our escort to take him prisoner. Piles of Federals laid all around dead. One of our batteries had been disabled here, and in consequence left a gun. One of the infantry privates worked it himself. I ate my sweet potatoes at intervals, and enjoyed them much. The dead and dying were all around us, and fast they fell. Here it was that the brave [Captain Harvey G.] McKinney received his death wound of which in a few days he died. Soon came that order so galling to a soldier, Retreat!! And then through bush and brake and hill and hollow, swamp and road we kept going, till at last dark night found us behind the entrenchments at Big Black [River Bridge]. We slept as soldiers sleep, on the cold earth. Sunday morning, May 17th, 1863, rose fresh and fair. Two years before I was sworn into the service of the Southern Con federacy at Jefferson City with the lamented McKinney. He is mortally wounded and I am on the eve of another battle. So the "Providence of God differs, however man prospers." We were soon ordered to our position in the entrenchments. We fixed our guns and rolled cotton bales to cover our caissons. Then a foolish thing was done, our horses were ordered off the field to the rear about % mile. We awaited until the sun was fairly on his road to the zenith when the enemy made a charge on our center, but our guns soon drove them back. Yet their shell came bounding around us, throwing dirt all around, while I was behind my cotton bale gouging spherical case and reading. At last one [Union soldier] on the left came sneaking along, then another, till more and more came the same road. I jumped for my neighbor's revolver, but he would not let me have it or I would have sent some back. Col. Cockrell came to us before this and said wait till you can do execution, then fire. But the Georgia Regiment on the extreme left ran, then one and then another till at last all deserted us. The Missourians were the last to leave. And Col. Gates' Regiment were mostly left behind and many were taken prisoner. Many swam Big Black. I had to go when my orders came. The field was half a mile across and you could see men flying across pursued by the Federals. Our guns, 4 in number, 2 10-pound Parrott guns, and 2 12-pound Howitzers, were left behind. All the other Missouri Batteries had to leave the guns except Landis', who got off one or two. Alack the day. 40 Missouri Historical Review I took up my line of march as did the others. I ran some hundred and fifty yards, then thought I would prefer to walk, which I did, to the banks of the Big Black where we had a bridge across and were protected by some guns on the hill above. I picked up a gun, cartridge, and cap box, although we were under heavy fire all the time. Col. Cockrell was trying to bring his men into line. After crossing, I went to the first house, and finding a sauce pan I got a drink of water, quite refreshing after our run. I soon found some of our boys, and we went into the big road, where we found our officers and the artillery horses, one of which I mounted and soon was on my way. We soon came across some tents filled with cloth ing. I got a gun, coat, and pair of blankets in lieu of mine, which I had left with the guns. We travelled on toward Vicksburg. We arrived in Vicksburg Sunday, May 17th, 1863, about 3 or 4 P. M. dispirited, weak, fatigued, and generally not in good humor. Our camp was near the graveyard. Our wagons were soon there, and we put up our tents and went to work getting supper. We rested that night, the 18th. Some of our boys went to Snyder's Bluff after cannon and ammuni tion. They returned late at night with a 32 lb. Parrott but no ammunition, after being fired upon by the pickets. They brought a great many coats and clothes of all kinds. I went into town and saw my own Mississippi River once more. I was not particularly taken with the town, although there are some pretty houses and many pretty yards. The China trees make a splendid shade and the flowers are out, the pomegranates with their beautiful scarlet flowers. I went to the top of the Court House, and could see above and below the city for many miles, but both above and below were infested by the enemy's fleets of gunboats and transports. Our camp was in a very pretty place, a graveyard with many nice shade trees and beautiful flowers and not a few blackberry bushes on one side. On the other was a creek flowing through a valley hilled up on all sides by high hills, except on one, where this brook lazily crept to the river. Our defenses were about three miles in circuit from left to right. The defenses were not such as we had expected to find, in fact almost nothing. Our men had to go to work to complete what laziness and 2 years had failed to do. Our men worked all night and stood guard all day. Our force did not consist of more than 30,000 men and 12 days provisions, which by quartering were made to do for 48 days. We soon had work to do, for Tuesday, 19th of May, made us sensible that the enemy was at hand. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 41 For the first 4 weeks we had corn meal, 1/5 of a pone for one meal and a small piece of beef with some cornfield peas, a cooked cupful a day. Stewed rice one meal in three days. Then we had several days peas and corn ground together made into bread which would make the heartiest sick. Then we had some nice flour, then flour enough to make two biscuits a day, a piece of fat pork one inch square, one cupful of beans composed our rations for the last two or three weeks of our stay. I took a piece of mule flesh fresh killed and cooked and ate it. It tasted very well, and all wished for more. There were a few green apples on some trees when we first entered, but they soon melted away before our never satisfied saucepans, and how good and refreshing a few spoons of apple sauce tasted to us. Parsley was cooked by all to make a little more food. Crowds stood by the butcher waiting for liver, heart, lungs, head, tripe. The price for the above was $5.00. Sugar was sold for 60 cents and caked like maple sugar it tended to lessen the hunger. The boys got a plug of tobacco among 5 men to last 2 weeks every three days. Our food was good in quality but dreadfully lacking in amount. The boys in our mess got along remarkably well indeed. We divided everything equally, so whether he were present or absent his part was always saved. If he was at the [breast] works it was carried to him. While the others complained of not getting their share, there was very little of it with us. I got a cup of blackberries every evening of 10 days in the graveyard. Some of our messes lost the whole of their provisions some nights by others stealing. Fighting commenced in earnest Wednesday, 20th, and charges were made by the enemy the whole of the first week in vain. We lost many, very many, brave men, but more of them lay in the sallies below our works, and after a week's hard fighting they sent a flag of truce to bury their dead. Our men fought with the energy of despair. For though on the second morning of our arrival many packed up expecting to be taken to the Northern prisons by the Yankees, yet after the first day's fight and our triumph, the courage of our men gained ground, and they rose from the Slough of Despond and seemed to stand on firm ground once more. The feeling was, "We can save half the war by keeping Vicksburg." Then came the heavy mortar fleet to work on us. I was placed on the opposite side of the peninsula and two miles from the city. The shells were 13 and 15 inch weighing 200 pounds. They were mostly directed at the City Hospital. These fell day and night in the street, some exploding a half mile in the air, others going 10 feet in the ground before exploding, and many never exploding. Harper's Weekly, June 2<), lSf>'3 The Iron-Clad Gunboat Cincinnati It was a great fear to the women and children, most of whom left their homes and lived in holes in the ground dug out laterally. One bomb went through the Court House from the roof to ground floor, exploding on the ground. Nearly every house had one or more through it, yet very few lives were lost by these same bombs. 8 would be the amount of females and children killed. Then the gun boats would come up every now and then and give a charge. One of these charges I had the pleasure of witnessing one day from a high point on one of the ridges. 4 gun boats made the attack on the lower water batteries. We could see the flash of the guns and in about one minute the report would be heard. They fought about an hour when one rang a bell for assistance. Another came to her relief, and she was towed off. They had been hit several times. One day the Cincinnati came from above, and I thought she was running along finely when a few shots from "Whistling Dick"24 made her soon get to shore, where in a short time she sank above the portholes.25 We first volunteered as sharpshooters, and every day would find some 20 in the ditches. I was up one day. At last we had 2 guns given us, one 6 lb. and one 12 lb. I was on the 6 lb. every other day, then the 6 lb. alone every 4th day. Then we changed the 6 lb. for one on the other side of the stockade in a parapet, to which was 24An 18-pound, rifled gun. O. R., Series 1, Volume XXIV Part II 339 *The Cincinnati* turreted iron-clad Union gunboat of the largest elass'carrying 14 guns was sunk by Confederate batteries on May 27, 1863. Ibid 331 A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 43 added a 20 lb. Parrott called "Crazy Jane." Finally, a week before the surrender, we got a 10 lb. Parrott, which we dragged up the hill Sunday night. I was on the 20 lb. piece the last 2 weeks nearly all the time. It was in the following form. The last gun was fired, then whirled around in the embrasure, out of reach of the enemy's fire, while we could enjoy ourselves in the covered way, out of the sun, out of trouble. We would fire from 5 to 30 shots a day. Very few of our shots seemed to burst. We made some good shots in their White House filled with officers. We saw them skedaddle from it. Also knocked two fires with men around, also knocked out one tent. This we could see. We afterwards were told that our balls did immense damage among their men, going all through their sallies and killing many. A sergeant on one of their pieces got out of the notion that this parapet was casemated with the railroad iron, another said their own shots did much damage among their own men, for every shot that missed us went on and hit them. I after wards found enough solid 32 lb. to casemate our embrasure. Many of the shells burst in our works by us, but did no damage to us or our boys. One day I had been getting ammunition from the caisson, and, returning for more, found pieces which had exploded by the ammunition. Shells sometimes burst and let out the canister all around. One day after the shooting, and neglecting to drag in the piece, a shell struck the reinforcement and burst within 5 feet of me, and I thought my head was split. One night while sleeping, cannon and mortar went to work in good earnest, shelling our camp. I woke about 1 o'clk, all had left the tent, and the close proximity. I took to the bank of the creek, and while there, was covered with dirt from shells. Soon after the firing ceased I returned, and found my tent with a hole made within a few inches of my bed. Several times I had shots strike within a few inches of me. In going to the ditches we had a long open space to traverse, and never did I pass without having shot, shell, or minie balls pass within a few feet or strike the ground at my feet. At night it was splendid to see the curves formed by ascending and descend ing shells, also to see the shells pass through the air. Mules were killed in abundance and hauled off every night to the river. Sickness was not very prevalent, and that mostly diarrhea. I was in the Hospital No. 2, where Charley Busby lay wounded of a ball at Baker's creek, in No. 3, where Smith, otherwise Cheroler, of Boone was sick. Also in the Brigade Infirmary, were Charley Selby lay sick and died just before we surrendered, Joshua Baker, who has 44 Missouri Historical Review since died, Samuel Hodge, nurse of Lieut. Selby, who went home and died in prison. King was wounded in the forearm at Baker's [creek]. . . . Capt. Lowe was wounded in the little toe by a shell in camp. Conelly by a piece of mortar in the forearm. Slight, while within 3 feet of me. Lieut. McCarty was killed while sitting under a tree afar from camp and out of danger, as he thought, by a ricochet shell falling perpendicular. He lived but a few hours, the top of the broken skull broken off and the brain laid bare. Thornton Porter was killed the Monday before the close of the seige by a minie through the brain, and two others the same week by the same means in ditches. None of the four ever spoke a word afterwards. They were all buried in the graveyard. Many men were killed in camp, some reading, some sleeping. Our tents bore several marks of balls, our skillets were broken by minie balls. The blowing-up of the parapet where the 6th Mo. was, and where Col. [Eugene] Erwin was killed, was seen by me, but while the dust was blowing I had to run the fire to attend to hand gernades. At last, after 47 days hard fighting, and not a single day without the regular bom-bom sounding like a woodsman's axe, and the crash of falling trees, came the flag of truce taken out by [Lieutenant General John C] Pemberton (bad luck to him). We had been Vicksburg—Life in the Trenches—The White House Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 25, 1S0'3 A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 45 looking for Johnson,26 and it was all the cry for Johnson in the rear. Yet, on July 3rd, terms set a going, and on July 4th were completed between [Union General] U. S. Grant and Pemberton, and about 12 A. M. the Federals began to swarm in. I saw them all through town. Terms of capitulation were: surrender of all arms and government stores—officers to keep side arms and private prop erty—soldiers to keep knapsacks, to be paroled, receive 5 day's provisions, to have a horse wagon for each Regt. and a two-horse wagon to each battery. Though I was hungry before; it seemed when abundance of crackers, ham, peas, and rice came all appetite left. We remained till Friday morning, when we were paroled. Saturday morning, 11th July, we started on our road towards Big Black [River]. And such was the ending. We travelled hard after our famine. Our men were like skeletons, and many came out but to die. It was really lamentable to see men in [the] last stages of chronic diarrhea eating green corn and green melons. One man ate 25 ears and died in 2 hours. We stopped near Big Black the first night, and then Gen. Bowen, sick with dysentery, staid till he died in 3 days. We went on till we were tired. Joel Nevins had been quite sick, and soon gave out. I staid with Joel; all day we stopped. I ate some corn and peaches and tomatoes sparingly for fear of disease. We went on several miles and camped within 3 miles of Raymond on Sunday night. It rained Sunday night, and Monday morning. Giving my coat to Nevins, I saw him ride along. We got up with the company at Raymond, when Lieut. Catron27 said Lincumfeller and Nevins had better stay, and me to nurse. I arrived in the Court House hospital, upper Courtroom of Raymond, Monday, July 13th. I took charge of my two patients. I found John Hume of Boone wounded in both thighs, yet still alive. Sergeant Henry of McKinney's Company staid to assist. A. J. Mallett is surgeon of the post. J. W. Cockram is apt. [apothacary]. B. J. Dysart of 5th Mo. is volunteering services and has the upper ward. He is a skillful and attentive surgeon, much liked by all. The nurses were mostly paroled after the Baker's Creek fight to wait on the wounded. There were 100 wounded and 100 more have been added of the sick soldiers that were paroled. Of this number nearly 30 have died since I have been a nurse of this hospital, and nearly all were Vicksburg men. I gave myself up to attending. Soon the house was crowded and I had my hands full. From two it came 26Cheavens refers here to General Joseph E. Johnston who was headquartered at Jackson, Mississippi, during June, 1863, with a force of about 28,000 men under his immediate command. O. R., Series 1, Volume XXIV, Part III, 978. 27Lieutenant Thomas B. Catron now commanding Lowe's Missouri Battery. 46 Missouri Historical Review to'lO, then to a quarter of the house, then Dr. Dysart had me give all the medicines, and I had abundance of work. The food was good, though not very varigated. The ladies of Raymond have been very attentive to the sick. Mrs. McCombs was ward matron, very efficient. Since gone to Texas. Mrs. Jenkins and daughter took care of the ward continual ly. Miss Harriet Hunter and her sister Martha have been very attentive. Also Miss Fidelia Wharton, Miss Lip Grey, Miss Mary Dabney, Mrs. Alston, Mrs. Lins, Mrs. Gibbs, and many others came to shed abroad over the sick a pleasant and homelike influence. It seemed to me a different place to what my last few months have been passed in. Everything has gone on harmoniously enough. About 1st August I was appointed Chief Ward Master and soon after, Acting Hospital Steward, and I have reason to believe I have acted with satisfaction to all. I have stood beside the bedside of from fifteen to twenty men. Many of these men hastened and brought on their own deaths by imprudence in eating and drinking. The Federal Army passed through on their way to Vicksburg. They passed through, and for 3 days destroyed everything in the neighborhood, killing chickens, hogs, sheep just for the pleasure of the thing. Pulling off fruit green on the ground, taking all animals and vehicles. Soon afterwards Dysart went to Big Black and got some supplies for the Hospital, 25 lbs. flour, 15 lbs. pickled pork, 5 lbs. shoulders and hams, coffee and tea. Since that time we have lived well. And had plenty of buttermilk from John Shelton's, Major Payton's, Mr. Grey's, Dr. Lattimer's. Joel Nevins and F. H. B. Stout both went in the country to Mrs. Julia Harney's, 2 miles out. Since being here I have studied a good deal of medicine and practiced more. In Materia Medica. Make up a great propor tion of the prescriptions. Helped at the amputation of Martin's leg. Resection of Russell's arm. And 2 or 3 other operations. Have been well, gaining strength all the time. Have eaten figs and pomegranates and liked them well. Musk melons, apples, and peaches. I have enjoyed myself much, and now, 8th of September, am on the eve of leaving for Parole Camp, after having seen to the breaking up. There are but now 4 wounded men. Dr. Mallitt has been gone for some time. Wednesday, September 8th. Dr. Dysart, Henry Henderson, and myself started for Parole Camp at Demopolis [Alabama]. The Dr. horseback, the rest of us in a spring wagon, for which we paid $14.00 apiece, to Brandon [Mississippi]. We had scarcely got l/2 mile from town when one of the wheels broke down and we had A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 47 to return to get another vehicle, which we did about 3 P. M. About 10 P. M. we camped at Pearl River. An hour before day we started on our way to Brandon, which we reached about 12, where we remained till about 4 P. M., when we took the cars for Meridian. Charley Mount and [his] mother and Miss Annie Mount came with us, also Mrs. Jenkins, all of Raymond. At 3 A. M. we arrived in Meridian. We started early in the morning for Demopolis. The cars wrere so crowded we had to sit on the platform. We got about 25 miles when one of the truck wheels on the tender broke off near the end and ran the tender off the track. It kept us back till about 3, when having got the tender on the track and started, we got to McDon nell's Landing, when we took the boat. We soon arrived at Demo polis, when I found about 20 of our company camping at the Mill just above the town, with a splendid spring of water and everything pleasant. Sunday I went to the Methodist Church in town, and heard a splendid sermon from Dr. Mitchell. I there saw W. Carpen ter, also Bob Maupin. Today, 14th [September, 1863], I saw Hosea Williams and Sidney Woods, whom 1 left in Springfield Mo. 24th Dec. [1862]. John Parker, Sam. Terrill. News came yesterday of exchange of [Major General John S.] Bowen's and Stephenson's [Major General C. L. Stevenson] Divs., 2nd Texas and Wall's [Colonel T. N. Waul] Texas Legion. I saw Dr. Dysart, and he will call an order to have me examined as Hospital Steward Very soon. I have since seen one who nursed me in Springfield, whom we have called Yank. He has professed a belief and come forward. Wm. Carpenter was Baptized by Bishop Andrews. Last Sabbath, the 20th, Sacrament of the Last Supper was celebrated in the 1st [Missouri] Brigade. Gen. [Francis M.] Cockrell partook. We have some very interesting prayer meetings in the grove morning and night. Last night I led the prayer meeting. Since the last was written much as been done. The prayer meet ings continued and many were converted. Then came the order for consolidation,28 3rd and 5th [Missouri], Gates' and Samuels'. Then our battery [Lowe's] and Dawson's, Dawson commanding, Catron 1st Lieut., Jackson 2nd Lieut., Sleall 3rd Lieut. . . . Halleck of the 6th hounded in Vicksburg was appointed Orderly. Dick Steele 28After General Bowen's death, Colonel Francis M. Cockrell, who had commanded the 1st brigade of Bowen's Division, was promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of the Division. On September 12, 1863, he requested the Confederate War Department to instruct all Missouri troops east of the Mississippi river not engaged in actual service to report to his command at the parole camp in Demopolis, Alabama. His request was approved and the order issued. When the troops were assembled the Division was reorganized. O. R., Series 1, Volume LII, Part II, 524, 526, and Series 1, Volume XXXII, Part III, 673. 48 Missouri Historical Review charge of 3rd Detachment, in which I am. We have a good company of 76 or 80 men, 110 when all are present.29 I also saw Wm. H. Hayden, Livingston Co. [Missouri], formerly of Jack Stone's Co., Reeves Regt. in the old [Missouri] State Guards, who helped me off the field at Oak Hill. Also Hutchinson, Livingston, who was in prison with me. T. Callaway, who I left in Alton with small-pox. Dennis of Boone Co. in 3rd Mo. Lonks, Vaughn, Dr. Tip Phillips (6th), Boone. Don Sitton has come to Demopolis and is in the saddler's shop. Nevins has not yet arrived. 1 have written several times, no answer. I have rec'd 2 letters and written 3 to Miss Fidelia Wharton, one from Mr. Garrow. The 1st Brigade went to Gen. [John W.] Whitfield's, then in a week had to leave for Meridian. Before this we had a grand review by Lieut. Genl. [William J.] Hardee and Gen. Johnson [Joseph E. Johnston]. Then Pres. [Jefferson] Davis came on and reviewed the men. We then went from the Fair Grounds to Gen. Whitfield's where we set up our tents and made houses out of the old boards. Before this we went into the Alabama Brigade, where a great revival was going on and 65 were received into the church, and it was still going on last account. At this camp we messed off Robin son, Walker, Minor, J. Russell, Morris, Dimmits, Harding, Clements, and myself, equals 9. Good beef, a little pork for shorten ing, corn meal. We bought sweet potatoes, $2.00, flour at 25c lb. Good cooks and everything going on well. Oct. 28th we started off to Chattanooga.30 The wagons started off and the 29th we started. The 28th I was appointed Hospital Steward. I saw Mrs. McClune who was so kind to the prisoners in St. Louis. She was banished from St. Louis in May. I merely got a few words with her. We started for Selma [Alabama], where we arrived at 3 o'clock. We staid all night. The ladies brought us biscuit and meat. Saw Col. Rosser,31 his son Allen remained. The company stole 3 sacks of flour. I went over the new gunboat build ing, of pine mostly, with oak knees and timbers, 250 feet long, 64 beam. I went over the top and under the bottom. Also the Foundry, where 8 large Brooks guns were in the process of being 29Men from both the First and Second Brigades of Bowen's old Division were placed in this company. They came from the 3rd and 5th Missouri Infantry regiments, the 3rd Missouri Battery, previously commanded by Captain William E. Dawson, Lowe's Battery, previously commanded by Lieutenant Thomas B. Catron, the 1st Missouri Cavalry (dismounted), previously commanded by Colonel Elijah Gates and the 3rd Missouri Cavalry Battalion (dismounted), previously commanded by Lieutenant Colonel D. Todd Samuels. O. R., Series 1, Volume XXIV, Part III, 705; O. R., Series 1, Volume XXIV, Part II, 326; and U. S. Senate, Missouri Troops During the Civil War, 314-315. 30Cheavens' company was attached to Moore's Brigade, Brigadier General John C. Moore commanding, which joined the Army of the Tennessee in its attempts to resist the Union Army attacks at Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 31Colonel Thomas H. Rosser, Commandant of the post at Selma, Alabama. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 49 bored and gauged, also saw the pits for casting. The town is pretty, some of the streets have 3 rows of trees through the streets, one through the center. We took the boat for Montgomery [Alabama], arriving next morning and staying one day. We started Sunday morning for West Point [Georgia]. All along the road the ladies came and greeted us, throwing bouquets at the men. We arrived at night, next day we started for Atlanta, arriving the evening of Monday. We went over the town and saw a great deal of the city. We could see Stone Mt., some 25 miles distant. I met Dupont, an old friend from Alton Prison. We saw many pieces of Artillery taken at Chickamauga by General Bragg. Some 11 mountain Howitzers. One piece made in 1852 in Massachusetts for L. C. with an inscription of a palmetto tree on the vent. Then I bought a pair of boots for $28.00. We then started for Chickamauga Station. We had a rain that night and all next day. Then we stayed for several days. Sunday night we started for the foot of Lookout [Mountain]. We are now, Nov. 19th, still here. The firing sometimes is heavy. Two shells fell in our camp. We yet have no guns. I went to the top of a near ridge one night, saw many thousands of fires up the mountain over to Missionary Ridge. I ascended Lookout and was well repaid for the trouble. Wat Anderson is one of the Lieutenants of Bledsoe's Battery,32 which was on the mountain but is now at the foot. I rec'd a letter from Mr. Farrow. We live on % lb. beef and % lb. corn meal. Dr. Coffee is appointed our surgeon. There are many have been sick with the chills. We remained at the foot of Lookout Mt. without much change. On Nov. 23rd a feint was made by the enemy upon the right, and several Brigades were brought down from the Mt. to strengthen our lines. The morning of the 24th was very foggy the mist never left. The whole day the clouds rested low. In the morning the Federals attacked our pickets and outposts on the extreme left on the other side of the Mt. Walthall's Brigade of Mississippi troops broke and ran and came down the Mt. and streaks of mud all down their backs. Moore's and Pettus's Brigades of Alabama troops stationed on the Mt. as pickets fought manfully and stood their ground, fighting till 12 midnight.33 We were ordered to go along with the wagon train to the rear as the Mt. was to be evacuated. We moved along slowly, leaving all our mess chests and very many of our tents. Our boys 32H. M. Bledsoe's (Missouri) Battery, commanded by Lieutenant R. L. Wood during the Chickamauga Campaign. 33E. C Walthall, John C Moore and E. W. Pettus, all Brigadier Generals, commanded brigades during this campaign. 50 Missouri Historical Review carried some all night, with much of the mess kit. About 3 in the morning the total eclipse commenced. About the total [of the eclipse] we stopped near Chickamauga Bridge. Clemens and I slept in an ambulance by the wayside. In the morning we arose, crossed the river, and soon found ourselves camped near Chickamauga, where we remained all day. The fight continued heavy all day on the right, and we whipped them well at that point, covering the ground with their killed and wounded. Few of our men being killed, but the center gave way and Mannigold division especially.34 Our artillerymen fought with rocks, and one Irishman knocked down a Federal color bearer with a sponge staff. About 11 or 12 at night we started in retreat, first for Ringgold [Georgia]. We got ahead of the wagons, and, as it was very cold, freezing, we stopped by the wayside and, building large fires, remained until morning. Next morning, Nov. 26th, we started with the wagon. The tongue soon broke, which delayed us some time, and then we travelled on till we crossed the river and railroad at Graysville. We then had a fine road, but at this point in the afterpart of the day the Federals got after our men and captured [Captain T. B.] Fergu son's Battery, cutting off Bledsoe's, which, however, got off and came up with the rest of the main army. In the evening the wheel of our wagon broke just before getting to Ringgold. Our teamsters returned and brought a good wagon from beyond Graysville. Most of our boys started on, some wading the Chickamauga, others, myself, crossed a footbridge below. Got into Ringgold after stopping a while with Lieut. Hull. Then some of us, about 8, went through Ringgold over the first railroad bridge. There we laid on the ground by a large fire. Next morning Gen. [William J.] Hardee whaled with his sword a man who would not take a widow woman some Irish potatoes he had taken. We soon got en route. After crossing the 2nd railroad bridge [Major General P. R.] Pat Cleburne's Div. of Texas and Ark. troops ambuscaded the Federals, killed and wounded 1500 and took 250 prisons and 3 flags, making 9 flags we have taken from the enemy. This was the last of our fights. Our loss in killed and wounded and prisoners will not amount to over 3000, while they acknowledge 4000. Our loss of stores small.35 34Cheavens refers here to Brigadier General Arthur M. Manigault who commanded a brigade in the battle and not a division. Robert U. Johnson and Clarence C. Buel, eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (New York, 1956), III, 658, 660, 728. 35Union and Confederate losses in the Chattanooga campaign: Union loss—killed, 752; wounded, 4713; captured or missing, 350; total, 5815. Confederate loss—killed, 361; wounded, 2180; captured or missing, 4146; total, 6687. Johnson and Buel, eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 729, 730. A Missouri Confederate in the Civil War 51 We marched all day. About noon, being with Dick Steele, Runt Alsop, Charley Beazley, and several others, the wagons took a sudden scare and started back. We kept on. At night, being without provisions, we killed and skinned a pig. Afterwards we built a rousing fire, and, hanging it up before the fire, we roasted it. Then going on for several miles we came to a barn in which we made a bed and slept soundly. It rained during the last of the night and early in the morning. We started for Dalton [Georgia], 2 miles. Soon coming on 2 wagons overturned and mired we extracted some flour and cooking utensils with some medical stores. We went on to town and getting there we made a fire and cooked bread and meat. We then went on through town to Bledsoe's Battery. We then found our wagon had started for Resaca. I soon got lost from my men and taking up with a Louisianan we walked through the mud till we were tired. At last he bought from a man some boiled pork, $3.00, for the two of us. With my bread we made a meal, then we travelled till we got to Tilton. Seeing some acquaintances on the cars I got on, intending to go to Resaca, but they did not go so we got down and went into an old blacksmith's shop filled with hay and a good fire. I lay down was nearly asleep when one colored one woke me up to eat some honey. I ate, asking no questions for conscience sake. It was good. Next morning we started for Dalton, arriving on the cars. I went to eating slapjacks and sugar with some potatoes. Charged upon and stole them from a peddler who sold them for 25 cents apiece. Next day our battery came up. I joined in a few hours. Here a secession in the men took place, Minor, Hanks, Dimmit, and Morris going off. Phillip came up also. Nevins in answer to my letter. We heard that having no chance of artillery (38 of our pieces having been captured) we had better return to Cockrell, 1st Brigade, at Meridian, for further orders, which we are now awaiting.36 We arrived [Meridian] 14th [December, 1863]. As a supplement to his journal, Cheavens compiled the following list of those enrolled in his company on February 1, 1864. DESCRIPTION LIST OF 3RD MO. BATTERY, FEB. 1ST, 1864 [COMMANDED BY CAPTAIN WILLIAM E. DAWSON] NAME AGE HAIR EYES COM FT. IN. STATE OCCUPATION W. J. HALLECK 19 d g F 5 6 111. Merchant L.N.NICHOLS 30 1 b F 5 5 Va. Farmer NAT. COOPER 22 1 b F 6 Ky. Wagon Maker STEELE 31 1 g D 6 Ky. Farmer J. LACY 26 d b G 5 6^2 Mo. Loafer 36On December 5, 18G3, Lieutenant General William J. Hardee relieved Captain William E. Dawson's company from duty in his department and ordered it to report to General Joseph E. Johnston, Meridian, Mississippi. 0, R., Series 1, Volume XXXI, Part III, 788. 52 Missouri Historical Review NAME AGE HAIR EYES COM FT. IN. STATE OCCUPATION CHAS. PHILLIPS 24 1 g G 6 Va. Farmer J. FRAMPTON 28 d br F o 7H Mo. Clerk W. H. IRVIN 23 1 b F 6 Mo. Farmer J. DAVENPORT 26 d b D o 10 Va. Farmer W. GANTRY 26 d h D 5 8H N. Y. Brick Layer G. KERLEY 28 1 g G 6 Yi Ky. Farmer R. W. FINCH R. ALSOP 28 black b F 5 9 Ky. Merchant ANDERSON 19 aub b F 6 Vt Mo. Farmer D. ALLEN 27 1 b F 0 11 Ind. Farmer M. ALLEN 23 1 b F 5 10 Mo. Farmer CH. BEAZLEY 24 1 dark F 5 8 Va. Tailor W. BROWN 22 black g D 5 8 Ark. Farmer H. M. CHEAVENS 33 d g D 5 8 Penn. Teacher CLEMENTS 35 d dark D 5 6 Ky. Farmer M. CRAWFORD 21 1 g F 5 9 Mo. Farmer CAFFEMINS J. CHAMBERS 31 d b D 5 10 H Ky. Fisherman CROWDER 17 1 g F 5 7 Mo. Printer G. W. DAVIS 33 d b F 0 8 Tenn. Butcher DICKEY 22 black br F o 11 Mo. Farmer S. DUNN 23 d b D o 6 Va. Druggist J. DIMMITS 30 d h F o 11 Md. Cabinet Maker DERBYSHIRE 36 d g G o (J Eng. Clerk F. ERVIN 22 1 g F 5 6 Mo. Farmer EVANS 22 d black Hon'd 5 7 Kv. Peddler Jos. FREEMAN 34 1 b F ^ 8 Va. Printer JNO. GALLAGHER 32 black g D 5 *y Ireland Stone Cutter O. HARWOOD 21 d b F r-y 10 2 Mo. Schoolboy JOHN HARDING 32 aub b G I) 7^2 Mo. Farmer JIM HARDING 23 1 b G 10 Kv. Farmer HEISKELL 30 black b F ffr) 0 Va. Merchant J. HEIFNER 26 d black F 11 Mo. Farmer C. HALL 25 1 br G 5.') 5 Mo. Plasterer HANLEY 21 d g G 5 9'/4 Ky. Farmer N. HENRY 31 d g G rj 8 Penn. Cooper HOLLIMAN 22 1 h F 5 9H Mo. Farmer JOHNSON Blacksmith WM. KELLEY 19 d b F 5 6 Mo. Printer ROBT. KELLEY DAN. KING 23 1 b F 6 Mo. Farmer KEEVIN 24 1 g G 5 7 Ireland Saddler T. KYLE 24 d h D 5 5^ Mo. Cooper H. LINCUMFELLER 24 black black D 5 6 Ky. Nothing A. LOVELACE Wagon Maker LAROSE 24 d br. D 5 8 Mo. Farmer MINOR 26 1 b F 5 8 Mo. Farmer LAROSE 23 1 b F 5 9 Mo. Farmer W. MOORE 27 black black D 5 8 Ga. Printer L. MENCHOT 27 h black D 5 6 La. Farmer V. B. MAURIS J. J. NEVINS 20 b 1 F 5 6 Mo. Farmer NOOKS PECK 29 b d D 5 7 N. Y. Farmer A. PIRES 22 black black D 0 6 Port. Farmer E. POTTS T. PRICE 30 b 1 F 5 8 Mo. Farmer PHELPS 28 g h F 5 10 Mo. Farmer PHILLIPS 42 b 1 F 5 7 Mo. Farmer T. RUSSELL 28 g d F 5 7 Texas Teacher J. W. ROBINSON 28 black black F 5 11 Mo. Lawyer J. RODDING 17 b 1 F 5 5 Mo. Farmer SILVEY 22 g 1 L 6 Mo. Farmer W. STONE 21 aub b F 5 9H 111. Clerk E. STONE 21 1 b F 5 9V2 Ky. Farmer W. STRODER F. SUTHERLAND 23 1 g L 5 7 Ala. Farmer SEELEY 48 d g D 5 N. Y. Carpenter ? » SPENCER 16 br. d I rt 6 O. Schoolboy TEKOTTE THOMPSON 26 g 1 F 5 1 Ky. Miller VERMILLIONED 22 black dark F 5 11 Mo. Farmer L. WALKER 35 1 b L 5 5 N. H. Carpenter F\ WINSLOW 22 1 b F 7 Mo. Printer R. WATSON 21 d d D .) 10 Mo. Farmer WISEMAN 26 black g F .o) 6 Mo. Farmer L. WILLIS MOORE 21 (\y2 Mo. Farmer REAVIS , &Sm®B$m ^g^^^-A^^v^i^^^^ig^j^^^S^^ THE COLUMBIA—PROVIDENCE PLM mini BY PAUL C. DOHERTY* Quite obviously, Colonel William F. Switzler, editor of Colum bia's Weekly Missouri Statesman, was upset when he wrote: The people interested must at once come to the rescue or the plank road project from Glasgow to St. Louis is as dead as a mackerel. Indeed, in view of the existing state of public feeling, we believe we would be safe in saying that it is now dead—dead as dead can be.1 No one else seemed to care. The editor's enthusiasm for this new means of transportation, the plank road, had been intense, but he was able to arouse only feeble interest in this projected road. The specific project whose demise Colonel Switzler is here reporting was a plank road from Glasgow, in Howard County, to St. Louis, a total distance of 165 miles. Even before the Missouri legislature had passed an act establishing provisions for plank road companies, Colonel Switzler's excitement about this potential solution to Missouri's road problems had rilled the pages of the *Paul C Doherty, M.A., is an instructor in English at the University of Missouri. Columbia Weekly Missouri Statesman, May 30, 1851. 53 54 Missouri Historical Review Statesman. Summarizing the virtues of plank roads, he had written; "Its practicability and the capacity of those interested to construct it, can be put beyond cavil by an examination of the subject." Condensing "an authentic report put before us," he statistically enumerated the advantages of plank roads, or "Farmers' Railroads" as he called them, and concluded that they were twice as effective as gravel or macadam roads, which themselves were three times as effective as dirt roads.2 Through the winter of 1851 the editor of the Statesman presented his subscribers with fuller explanations of the new type of road, and enthusiastic reports from other towns up and down its proposed line. When he returned from a plank road convention in late April, his enthusiasm was even stronger. The convention evinced the proper spirit, a spirit which, if felt by the people, will build the road at once. Mere talk and fruitless wind work and good wishes, however numerous and strong avail nothing unless followed up by actions to corre spond. Some deciple [sic] of the old school once said action was the true eloquence of orators; we declare that action is the true eloquence of all works of internal improvement, and THAT NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION CONCERN ING THE PLANK ROAD. Let the people awake and put their energies to the work. Now is the time . . . LET US GO TO WORK AND PUT THE BALL IN MOTION. Now, therefore, for stock in the road. How many shares will you take? No dodging* On May 9, the editor was able to announce that the books would be opened at the County Courthouse on May 19, at which time the public could purchase stock. The results of the meeting must have dismayed the plank road proponents. With succinct sadness, Colonel Switzler tolled: But little spirit—few in numbers—scarcely any stock: in short, a beggarly account of empty pockets and boxes too. Such might well suffice for our account of the Plank Road meeting in this place on Monday last.4 The blame he placed squarely upon the people; they wanted improvements, but were not willing to pay for them. To a Louisiana Banner statement that "in every portion of the state people seem to be alive to the subject of good roads," he replied: ilbid., February 21, 1851. *Ibid., April 25, 1851. *Ibid., May 23, 1851. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 55 The people seem to be alive, do they? . . . The people here, we feel pretty sure, are not alive to the importance of plank roads; they are generally dead on that subject as a stone wall; they seem content to drive their teems [sic] in mud up to the hub.5 The sense of defeat was not unique to Columbia. From the St. Louis end of the aborted road came a resigned shrug. "We have been so long accustomed to the roads which nature has formed for us that it seems a hard matter to get the people started in improve ments of this kind." In the spring of 1851 there was every reason to believe Colonel Switzler. The plank road project, after its fevered spring growth, was indeed "as dead as a mackerel, as dead as dead can be."6 The apathetic discarding of the Glasgow and St. Louis plank road project, however sound it may seem in retrospect, did not solve central Missouri's transportation problems. And these problems were serious. In 1850, the carriers of transportation in Missouri were dirt roads and the river network. They had serious short comings. The meanness of muddy roads was too ubiquitous to be news, though an occasional rankling protest was printed.7 But muddy roads were more than an inconvenience; they hindered commerce and trade. Quite certainly, the description of the plank road as an "all weather road" had a sound psychological basis. River traffic in 1850 was slow and dangerous. From 1843 to 1870, eighty-one steamboats were destroyed on the Mississippi River, usually following a boiler explosion, and over four thousand persons were killed.8 Yet river traffic was not ready to die. The westward migration from 1850 to 1860 made these years the peak of steamboat transportation on the Missouri River.9 The peak was not reached until 1867, when seventy-one steamboats were in opera tion. The decline was quick; three years later, the number of boats in operation had fallen to nine.10 Considering the transportation problems which faced Missouri in 1850, the enthusiasm of enlightened citizens such as Colonel Switzler for any alleviation, including plank roads, is natural. The virtues of plank roads seemed tojoutnumber their defects, and indeed, none of the latter were everjbrought up. Hbid. 6Quoted in the Statesman, May 2, 1851. ^Statesman, November 26, 1852. 8Walter B. Stevens, Missouri, The Center State (Chicago, 1915), I, 106. 9Edward J. White, "A Century of Transportation in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, XV (October, 1920), 141. 10Stevens, Missouri, I, 113. 56 Missouri Historical Review The chief missionaries of plank roads were George Geddes, a Syracuse engineer, and William Gillespie. The gospel according to Geddes and Gillespie seemed to make sense. Gillespie stated the problem. The common roads of the United States are inferior to those of any other civilized country. The faults are those of direction, of slope, of shape, of surface, and general deficiency in all the attributes of good roads. Some of these defects are indeed the unavoidable results of the scantiness of capital and labor in a new country, but most of them arise from an ignorance of the true principles of road making, or putting these principles into practice.11 Geddes, through his midwestern popularizer, J. E. Ware, solved the problem. Ware summed up the advantages of plank roads, their inexpensiveness, their durability, and their adaptability, con cluding that they create markets at home wherever they reach, adding wealth and population: and generally, that they are better adapted to an agricultural country, from the fact that they can be constructed and kept in repair easily, and that farmers and planters can own and manage them so as to make the transient travel pay the expenses of carrying their own produce to market, and also to return a handsome dividend besides.12 The genealogy of the plank road has been traced from Russia, where the first one was built in 1834, to Canada, to upper New York state. In New York the success of a road from Syracuse to Central Square caused the construction of four or five hundred additional miles of plank road, and the projection of twice as many more there and in New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.13 Tales of these roads spread West. By the late 1840s, the Mis souri legislature was chartering road companies by special acts, and, in 1851, a General Act was passed which stated the rights and obligations of these companies.14 Within a few years, charters had been granted to forty-nine plank road companies in the state.15 At this same time a second possible solution to Missouri's transportation needs presented itself. This was the railroad, which like the plank road, did not in 1850 exist west of the Mississippi. uHistory of Transportation in the United Stales Before 1860, ed., B. H. Meyer (Washington, D. C, 1917), 302. 12J. E. Ware, "Construction of Plank Roads," Western Journal and Civilian, VI (Mav, 1851), 177. 13G. Geddes, Observations Upon Plank Roads (Syracuse, 1850), 3. uLaws of the State of Missouri, 16th General Assembly (City of Jefferson, 1851), 259. lsNorth Todd Gentry, "Plank Roads in Missouri," Missouri Historical Revieiv, XXXI (April, 1937), 272. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 57 In fact, at this time there was some confusion as to the relation of of the plank road to the railroad. An article in DeBow s Commercial Review suggested that they were competitors, and gave an account of the road from Schenectady to Saratoga Springs, New York, which did more business than the sluggish iron horse which ran beside it.16 Some felt that it was the railroad which was the foe of progress. A letter to the Chicago Democrat in 1848 chastized the railroad builders for not bowing aside to the plank road.17 Most commentators in 1850 realized that the railroad and the plank road each had different aims, that they were not rivals. The plank road was the Farmers' Railroad, operating in thinly populated areas where a railroad would have been too costly. Railways are, doubtless, to be preferred for long lines, or for comparatively short lines, where the volume commodities [sic] or number of persons required to be transported are sufficient to give constant employment to locomotive power. But railways, canals, and navigable streams can never supply the wants of an agricultural country, so far as to dispense with the use of animal power.18 Syracuse Plank Road—1846 Photo by courtesy U.S. Bureau of Public Roads ""Plank Roads—No. 1," DeBow's Commercial Review of the South and West, VII (November, ' "Quoted in History of Transportation in the United States Before 1860, 197. ""Internal Developments—Plank Roads," Western Journal and Civilian, IV (April, ISoO), 72. 58 Missouri Historical Review These new-fangled means of transportation did not replace the river, however; it was still supreme. There seems to have been little apprehension that the end of the bustling river trade was close. Many of the first proposed railways in Missouri and all but one of the proposed forty-nine plank roads, connected a landlocked town with a river.19 As late as 1848, the future of the railroad was hidden, as a Western Journal and Civilian editorial clearly illustrates. If the rivers of the State of Missouri were improved by dams and locks so as to afford slack water navigation as far as practicable, there would exist no great necessity for railways; for such improvements, in connection with macadamized or planked roads, would afford the means of transportation to every part of the state.20 The plank road seemed to have several selling points which the railway had not. It not only cost less, but it seemed more economical to operate. Furthermore, the plank road was not as revolutionary as the railroad, and the people could more easily conceive of it. Many considered the railroad a diabolical machine. Columbia readers who opened their Statesman on May 20, 1853, would have been hard pressed to justify a rail over a plank road. From left to right, the headlines read: PLANK ROAD TO ANOTHER RAILROAD TERRIBLE MASSACRE PROVIDENCE ACCIDENT ON NEW HAVEN RAILROAD In short, practicality favored the plank road; it took uncommon wisdom to foresee the future of the railroad. The advantages of the plank road—cost, convenience, and savings—seemed more imme diate than those of the railroad. When the Glasgow and St. Louis road failed in 1851, the dismay of Colonel Switzler, seen in the context of the times, was quite natural. The apathy which choked the Glasgow and St. Louis road also stifled further discussion of plank roads in Columbia, though in other parts of the state, Lexington and Louisiana for example, plank roads were being built.21 The state legislature, by the end of 1851, began to favor the railroads. The turnabout of Thomas Hart Benton in 1849 had had something to do with it. Opposed to the railroad throughout the 1840s, Benton concluded his speech to a national transcontinental railroad convention in St. Louis with a ringing vision. 19Switzler's Illustrated History of Missouri, ed., C R. Barns (St. Louis, 1879), 2S9, and Gentrv, "Plank Roads in Missouri," 273. 20Quoted in F. C Shoemaker and Walter Williams, Missouri, Mother of the West (Chicago, 1930), 558. ^Gentry, "Plank Roads in Missouri," 273-278. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 59 Let us beseech the national legislature to build the great road upon the great national line, which unites Europe and Asia—the line which will find in our continent the bay of San Francisco at one end, St. Louis in the middle, the national metropolis and great commercial emporium at the other end—the line which will be adorned with its crowning honor, whose design it accomplishes, hewn from the granite mass of a peak of the Rocky Mountains overlooking the road—the pedestal and statute a part of the mountain, pointing with outstretched arms to the Western horizon and saying to the flying passenger, 'there is the east—there is India.'22 The subject of the plank road bill two months later occasioned no comparable eloquence, though the Statesman commented that it would be a fine thing indeed for Columbia to have both a plank road and a railroad.23 The St. Louis Intelligencer was more helpful. We look upon this bill as one of the most important bills ever to come before the legislature. Its influence will be felt (if it is passed) in every section and in every neighborhood of the State. The impulse it will impart to every branch of industry will doubtless surpass what the most sanguine would now predict.24 However, the immediate success of the railroads was more verbal than physical. Although the state had granted the Pacific Railroad $2,000,000, the tracks, after two years of construction, extended only thirty-seven miles. Two more years, and Jefferson City had not been reached. But Jefferson City would be reached, no one doubted that, and Columbia would be left high and dry, no one wanted that. Colum bia's efforts to have a plank road had failed, and her efforts to have a railroad had failed also. Columbia's transportation system was fixed where it had been fifty years previous, and there was no indication that it would be a bit different fifty years hence. In the fall of 1852, nearly a year and a half after the Glasgow road failure, the subject of plank roads was again brought up in the Statesman. Not the navigation of the river, but the navigation between Columbia and Providence, I regret to inform you, closed this day. The last hack has arrived and departed from this land ing until April or May next. ... A road, a road, my kingdom for a road. ... In the name then of the buried human and horse flesh along this route—broken vehicles—and broken 22Stevens, Missouri, I, 131. 23Statesman, February 14, 1851. 24Quoted in the Statesman, February 28, 1851. 60 Missouri Historical Review bones, broken necks, broken hearts and broken consciences, bestir yourselves aloud for the Columbia and Providence road. PLANK ROAD25 The following spring, the same writer, "Plank Road," wrote a series of letters to the Statesman in order to kindle interest in a plank road from Columbia to Providence, a village nine miles south on the Missouri River. In February, Colonel Switzler made his first editorial statement about plank roads since the Glasgow debacle almost two years before. "New interest is being manifested," he wrote, "This plank road ought to and can be built." If not the wild partisan of the spring of 1851, the Statesman editor is at least not hostile.26 In March, the Columbia and Missouri River Plank Road Com pany was formed. Founding was followed by foundering. On March 25, "Plank Road" appealed to Colonel Switzler. Will you take hold of this thing, Mr. Editor, and help it along, and will you also call upon your brother editor to do the same?27 "Mr. Editor" did not comment. The company had difficulty in raising the money, and in June the Court rejected the Company's appeal to subscribe $5,000 out of its (the Court's) Road and Canal Fund. The Court agreed, however, to issue $5,000 in County bonds if $15,000 were subscribed by the citizens. "This secures the road," commented Switzler, "for we learn that $12,000 have been taken in stock by the people."28 All was silent until early in 1854, when a letter, signed by "Columbia," appeared in the Statesman, and suggested that all had not been "secured." The plank road to Providence having entirely failed for want of means, and the requisite means to build it up, and the prospects of getting a railroad through our country being very doubtful, we should look at once for some other outlet. . . . Columbia29 The "Other outlet" which "Columbia" suggested was a plank road to Jefferson City. To raise the money for it he called for a meeting at the County Courthouse on February 1. The battle was on. In the next issue of the Statesman, a writer, signing his letter "Providence," fought back. "We do have money," ^Statesman, November 26, 1852. ™Ibid., February 18, 1853. "Ibid., March 25, 1853. **Ibid., May 13, 1853. ™Ibid., January 6, 1854. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 61 he retorted, and he also announced a meeting for the same Febru ary 1 for the purpose of letting out shares. He explained why the proposed road to Jefferson City was impractical, and suggested that if Columbia contributed $5,000, the plank road to Providence could be built.30 Rebutting in the next issue. "Columbia" tried to clarify. I repeat, if anybody wants the road to Providence let them build it, but let us not be deterred from trying to build other roads, far more important to us.31 In the same issue, a correspondent who identified himself as "Boone" sympathized with "Providence" claiming that a Jefferson City road would be extravagant. (As always, the cost of the road was emphasized.) He also pointed out the inconvenience of such a road. "For who would ship freight to Jefferson City on the railroad, ferry it down the river, and haul it thirty-five miles on a plank road to Columbia."32 In the following issue, "Providence" spoke a long last word, refuting all of "Columbia's" charges of the previous week. He made seven claims: 1. Columbia does have almost enough money; 2. Jefferson City proponents could never raise the $100,000 neces sary to build the road; 3. The Pacific Railroad would be neither quick nor inexpensive; 4. Boats unloaded at Providence during every month of the previous year; 5. It would be cheaper to trans port to Columbia from Providence in the mud than from Jefferson City on a plank road; 6. The lowlands outside of Jefferson City are often flooded; and 7. "Columbia's" suggestion that the money raised toward the Providence road be put toward a Jefferson City road is unthinkable.33 This sharp exchange of opinion in February of 1854 is note worthy for two reasons. First, all of it is contributed by corre spondents, with no editorial comment. In fact, Colonel Switzler did not even mention the outcome of the February 1 meetings which "Columbia" had called in order to investigate the chances of a plank road to Jefferson City, and which "Providence" had called for the Company to open its books to the public. In short, it can be argued that the Colonel was by this time not merely disinterested, he was uninterested. In three years, something had extinguished Colonel Switzler's enthusiasm for plank roads. ™Ibid., January 13, 1854. ^Ibid., January 20, 1854. vibid. wibid. 62 Missouri Historical Review A second point of interest in these letters is that they are not what they seem to be, a debate pro and con over the building of a plank road to Providence. In the exchange, the function of "Columbia" is to clarify issues and to ask questions. "Providence," who has the final word, answers the questions, and, in doing so, both defends the feasibility of the Providence Road and attacks the Jefferson City Road. "Boone's" letter supports "Providence's" weak flank by refuting Jefferson City's supposed double (rail and water) advantage. What is suggested here is that the letters form a unified piece of argumentation, defending, in their totality the practicality of the Providence Plank Road. A deducible, if not verifiable hypothesis is that "Boone," "Providence," and "Columbia" are all pseudonyms of the same person. Not only do the letters combine to form a single unified piece of argumentation supporting the "Providence" posi tion, but the writing is remarkably uniform. Almost certainly the author of the letters signed "Providence," and possibly the author of those signed "Boone" and "Columbia," is John Parker. Parker, a Maryland native, settled at Nashville, a Missouri River town, south of Providence, and there he prospered. At the age of 29, in 1830, he owned three slaves; ten years later he owned ten.34 In 1844, when Nashville was wiped away by a flood, Parker resettled on the opposite side of the river and founded a town, which — in consideration of God's blessings—he called Providence. Both Parker and Providence (Missouri) flourished. By 1850, he owned $10,000 worth of real estate, and his two sons were helping him in his businesses.35 Providence quickly became the main land ing for Columbia, and the shipping house of Parker and Prewitt was the most prominent business in town. In addition, Parker's sixteen room, Maryland-brick house served as a hotel. Within a few years of its founding, the population of Providence was 3,000 and it had outstripped Rocheport, the next largest river town near Columbia. Providence has been described as a charming southern community; picturesque walls and gardens, formal dances, fair women, and a large slave population. In addition to Parker's buildings, the largest of which were the hotel and a port house, Providence also contained four or five stores, another hotel, a blacksmith shop, a cooperage, two or three drug stores, and a saloon.36 The town, however, was '^United Stales Census, Missouri, Boone County, Cedar Township, 1830 and 1840. ^Ibid., 1850. ^Columbia Evening Missourian, November 21, 1922, December 20,1923, and August 21, 1924. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 63 linked to Columbia by a poor road, and hackmen who advertised their rates in the Statesman, found it necessary to caution that We will drive our team ourselves, and take all possible care to prevent accidents and losses, but will not be responsible should any occur.37 Such was Providence, and such was "Providence," John Parker. That "Providence" was John Parker there can be little doubt. He was Providence's most important citizen, the person most interested in a plank road. Why "Providence" was so interested in having the road built we will never know for certain. Perhaps his motive was altruistic; mud roads were deplorable, and any improve ment would benefit both communities. This is possible, but a more practical motive suggests itself. Parker's position in Providence is quite apparent. His success was a result of the favored position of his town; it was closer to Columbia than Rocheport and Jefferson City. Travel between Columbia and any of these points was unpleasant, but, solely because the distance was shorter, it was the least unpleasant between Columbia and Providence. Parker was certainly aware that his trade depended upon his keeping this negative advantage. In the spring of 1853 Parker's attempt to arouse interest in a plank road to Providence had failed. That summer, the Statesman had reprinted articles from the Jefferson City and Fulton papers, both of which recommended a Columbia to Jefferson City plank road to connect Columbia with both the river and the Pacific Railroad. Early in January, 1854, just before the "Columbia," "Providence," "Boone" debate, the Statesman had again reprinted a Jefferson City Examiner article, this one summarizing the advantages of a plank road from Columbia to the capital.38 Evidently, interest was rising concerning a plank road to Jefferson City. Is it not possible that Parker, knowing that such a road would deprive Providence of its hold on Columbia's trade, wrote a series of letters to the Statesman in February, 1854, using the pen-names "Columbia," "Providence," and "Boone"? By whoever's hand, the letters were successful. The funds were raised, and an advertisement in the June 9 issue of the Statesman called for bids. PLANK ROAD CONTRACTORS According to a notice to be found in our advertising columns, proposals will be received until the 15th of July next for the ^Statesman, March 17, 1854. ™Ibid., August 12, 1853, and January 9, 1854. 64 Missouri Historical Review constructing of about ten miles of plank road, running from the town of Columbia in Boone County, Mo., to the town of Providence on the Missouri River.39 The first signature in the advertisement for bids to build the road is: "John Parker (President, Columbia and Providence Plank Road Company)."40 Finally, Columbia was to have a plank road. On the fifteenth of July, the bid of Barcus and Leonard was accepted. The contractors took $2,000 of stock, and gave a bond of $3,000 as a guaranty of finishing the road within a year. The Statesman noted the event without enthusiasm. The matter is at last fixed that we are to have a plank road from Columbia in this county to Providence on the Missouri River: distance ten miles. The directors, pursuant to advertisement, met in this place on Saturday last to receive proposals for building the road. . . . Messrs. Barcus and Leonard have had great experience in building roads of this character, and are spoken of as gentlemen of enterprise and energy, eminently qualified for the work before them. They will commence operations as soon as the [sic] is an abatement of there [sic] hot weather.41 The summer heat of 1854 lasted far into fall. By the end of October, laborers were drifting into Columbia, but work had still not begun. Grading Providence Hill was the first task, and while the hill was being graded, a circular saw, set up half way between Columbia and Providence, was sawing enough wood for one mile of road per month. "The energy with which the proprietors of this road are pushing it forward is worthy of great praise," the Dollar Journal proudly reported.42 On March 1, the State Legislature passed an act giving addi tional powers to the Columbia and Missouri River Plank Road Company. This act stated that unpaid for stock could be called in, that any toll could be levied as long as the profit was not greater than eight per cent, that more subscriptions could be taken, and that the road could have the right of way along any street leading into Columbia. The nature of these provisions indicates that once again the Providence plank road was in trouble. According to the MI bid., June 9, 1854. *»Ibid. ilIbid., July 21, 1854. His enigmatic silence is unfortunate, because most of the details of the building of the road, and later, the operation of it, are not preserved. During 1854 Columbia had no other newspaper. In 1855 the Columbia Dollar Missouri Journal began publication, but its comments on the road are scanty also. i2Slatesman, October 27, 1854, and Columbia Dollar Missouri Journal, January 11, 1855. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 65 contract which Barcus and Leonard made with the Company, the road should have been finished by the summer of 1855. It was not.43 On September 15, a letter to the Statesman from "Plank Road," certainly President Parker, rebuked the editor for not reporting an important meeting, and begged the public for $7,000 to finish build ing the road. "The time has now come when more money must be raised, or the important enterprise be abandoned with all of it done, save a mile or two at each extremity." The plea of "Plank Road" was successful; an angel appeared. COLUMBIA AND PROVIDENCE PLANKROAD This road has been in difficulty, and at one time fears were entertained that work would stop, leaving the road unfinished. But the difficulties have been surmounted and the improvement will be completed with as little delay as possible. Mr. R. H. Smith, a responsible, energetic citizen has taken the contract, and means have been taken to finish the work. Mr. Smith is progressing with it in earnest, and will push it through. The skies are bright for the Columbia and Providence Plankroad.44 The plank road was finished sometime in the spring of 1856 at a total cost of $33,000, only $3,000 over original estimates.45 The fact that Mr. Smith, the "responsible and energetic citizen," contributed $7,000 indicates that Parker began the road in haste, aware that insufficient bonds had been sold to complete construction. The exact date of the opening of the road cannot be established. A prospectus of Columbia, published on March 20, 1856, states that "the advantage of a plank road to . . . the river will enable our merchants to compete even more even handedly."46 (author's italics) On May 2, a farm was advertised for sale "within two and a half miles of the Columbia Plank road."47 The catalogues for the University of Missouri offer slight aid in determining the completion date. For the year ending July 4, 1855, the catalogue reads, "At the landing in Providence carriages will always be in readiness to convey ^Statesman, April 6, 1855. Gentry, in "Plank Roads in Missouri," 283, makes a colorful picture of the opening day ceremony. "At a public celebration . . . when the road was opened in July, 1855, Colonel William F. Switzler, Major James S. Rollins, and Robert L. Todd made speeches, and Rev. Nathan H. Hall of the Presbyterian Church offered a prayer. The young people celebrated this event by having a dance on the bridge, whereupon the dignified minister put on his stove-pipe hat, picked up his cane and said it was time for him to leave, and he did leave." Gentry's date for the opening of the road is wrong, I am sure. First of all, Switzler never mentions any of these events, and he would have surely commented on his own speech or that of Major Rollins. Also, the Dollar Journal does not mention an opening. Further, a letter from Parker to Rollins on July 8, 1855, does not mention anything about the road. See Parker to Rollins letter, Rollins manuscripts in possession of Mrs. Ruth Rollins Westfall, Columbia, Missouri. Finally, it seems unlikely that the road would have been dedicated when its completion was in such jeopardy. "Statesman, September 14, and October 26, 1855. 45Edwin William Stephens, Boone County History (unpublished), written in 1869 and gathered from interviews with pioneers and from public records, n.p. Collection in the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia. ^Statesman, March 20, 1856. uibid., May 2, 1856. 66 Missouri Historical Review passengers to Columbia. To this point a plank road is in progress and is expected to be completed in a few months."48 The following year the statement reads, "To this point a plank road has been completed."49 On such tenuous bases as these, we can establish the opening of the plank road as sometime in the spring of 1856. The opening months of plank road operation seem to have been prosperous ones for Providence. A Dr. Tuttle moved his office there immediately.50 A stage line, running every day in the spring and fall and less frequently in the winter, was opened between the two towns.51 As many as thirty hacks traversed between the towns daily. Business along the road prospered. Hackmen Fergeson and Leonard even solicited for business in the Jefferson City newspaper. The undersigned assure the travelling public that they are now running a daily line of Two and Four horse hacks from Providence on the Missouri River to Columbia. There is a plank Road between these towns, and travelers may rely on accomodations at reasonable prices.52 Another hackman, Butler, warned the traveling public of the "Providence Opposition Hackman," in a Statesman advertisment.53 He was favored with an immediate reply. "As the person alluded to in that notice, I pronounce the whole charge an unmitigated lie, and the author of it an infamous liar and poltroon. If he desires anything further, I will publish his origin and pedigree."54 By 1858, Providence advertising warranted a separate column in the States man. Gabriel Parker of Providence titled a jubilant advertisement, "SETTLED FOR LIFE." It went on: "Yes, settled for life in the city of Providence, where I can be found thirty years hence at the same familiar corner."55 Yet amid this surface prosperity, signs of deeper trouble appear. John Parker's financial doings at this time are significant.56 \n the spring of 1856, when the road was being completed, he announced a sale at his store, and requested that all debts be paid. Also during this period, Parker relinquished his business interests to George B. Parker, possibly a brother, and to his sons. In November, 1856, ^Thirteenth Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the University of Missouri for the Year Ending July the Fourth, 1855 (Columbia, 1855), 16. •"Fourteenth Annual Catalogue, 15. ^Statesman, May 2, 1856. 51 Missourian, December 20, 1933. 52Jefferson City Inquirer, April 4, 1857. ^Statesman, October 24, 1856. **lbid.t October 31, 1856. ~°»Ibid., January 22, 1858. 56The least significant is the most interesting. In the summer of 1855 John Parker was robbed of $42 and a pair of spectacles. Switzler commented, "I suppose the thief's eyesight was not good, and he took the spectacles to examine whether the bills were good." Quoted in Liberty Weekly Tribune, August 24, 1855. While this might be interpreted as an indication that Parker was less than reputable in his financial doings, I rather think it is an attempt to make the obvious joke. Super-subtlety is not a Switzler sin. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 67 an advertisement in the Statesman announced the sale by John Parker of a ninety acre farm, one half mile from the Providence Plank Road.57 We cannot conclude from this scattered evidence that John Parker was becoming bankrupt, or even that he was seriously in debt. In fact, his granddaughter, years later, recollected that at the time of the Civil War, the Parker family owned about sixty slaves.58 All we can say about this evidence is that at the time the plank road was being built, and shortly after its completion, John Parker was interested in acquiring cash quickly. It is quite possible that Parker, like some of the other stockholders, when the cost of operat ing the road had proven greater than anticipated and the receipts were less than anticipated, had loaned money to the plank road company. When the company could not pay the note and deed of trust to the stockholders, it was foreclosed, and in August, 1857, after less than a year and a half of operation, the road was sold to Milton S. Matthews for $8,700; it had just been built for $33,000.59 The condition of the road had deteriorated; it was rapidly becoming worthless. Six months before, the Statesman had noted, "The PLANK ROAD between Providence and Columbia has been con siderably injured by thaw and rain. The directors should use extra diligence in having the road repaired, for the opening of the river will cause considerable travel between this place and Providence."60 The new owners of the road, faced with competition from stages to Jefferson City and Centralia to meet the now-completed Pacific and North Missouri Railroads, reduced the toll, but could not keep the road in repair. "At times the hack went up and down like a ship riding the ocean waves," reported a survivor of a trip along the road in 1863. Later, in 1863, the dilapidated road was sold for $400 and when the new owners could not make it pay, they surrendered their interests at the Boone County Courthouse in March, 1866. The Providence Plank Road, despite an artificial growth imme diately after its opening, had never really been alive. Now it was legally dead.61 There is really no disagreement about why the plank road experiment in Missouri was a failure. The roads were business ventures, and unprofitable ones; in short, they were bad roads. ^Statesman, May 23, and November 7, 1856. Switzler's editorial says that this farm is being offered for sale by Gabriel Parker; the advertisement says John Parker. ^Missourian, December 20, 1923. 59Gentry, "Plank Roads in Missouri," 284. ^Statesman, February 20, 1857. eiGentry, "Plank Roads in Missouri," 285-286. 68 Missouri Historical Review Bad weather warped and twisted the planks, floods washed them away, and traffic quickly wore them down. Nonetheless, their existence has been rationalized. Colonel Switzler's comment, made in 1879 long after the end of the plank road era, is interesting and relevant, as his most immediate knowl edge of plank roads was of the plank road to Providence. Meanwhile, however, not being able, owing to their great cost, to construct any part of the numerous lines of railroads chartered, and intelligently alive to the value ... of improved methods of intercommunication, the people of many of the counties constructed rock, gravel, or plank roads. Indeed, the plank road mania in Missouri succeeded the railway mania, and largely proving a failure, intensified the feeling in favor of more enduring and more rapid means of com munication, although more costly.62 Gentry says that the plank road investors "are entitled to much of the credit for starting the good roads movement in Missouri."63 As far as Columbia's plank road experiment is concerned, both of these comments slide over the point. The proper question to ask is, why were these plank roads, especially the Columbia-Providence road, built at all? The first roads of course were experimental. Reports from New York State, which are difficult to believe in the face of Missouri plank road reality, never hinted at the problems in upkeep which a plank road company would face. Geddes quoted statistics showing that the upkeep of a gravel road was greater than that of a plank road.64 The early roads in Missouri, then, were built largely on faith. A letter in the Statesman in April, 1851, suggests this. They [plank roads] have not been long enough in use, how ever, to ascertain with any degree of exactness, the annual charges for repairs; it is believed by those who have embarked on them, that they will continue to make satisfactory returns on their capital investment.65 The Columbia-Providence plank road was the last one built in Missouri. Certainly, at the time of building, there were sufficient nearby indications that the plank road was not the paradise which Geddes and Gillespie had promised. Why, then, was this road built? Before this question can be answered the conditions which pre vailed at the time of the building of the road must be re-examined. In the 1850s in Columbia two significant conditions existed. One of 62Switzler's Illustrated History, 290. 63Gentry, "Plank Roads in Missouri," 287. fi4Geddes, Observations Upon Plank Roads, 10. ^Statesman, April 11, 1851. The Columbia-Providence Plank Road 69 these was constant and eternal, the other was temporary. The first condition which made possible the building of the road, the con stant one, was human nature. The plank road received popular support because it seemed to offer, not the best solution to Colum bia's transportation problems (that would have been well drained gravel roads supplemented by the railroad), but the solution which was quickest and cheapest. With humble hindsight we can see that the building of the Providence plank road was made possible by this eternal mark of man's nature, his willingness to be deceived, to accept appearance over reality. The second condition was the state of the Columbia press. Switzler's silence after the failure of the Glasgow-St. Louis road is mysterious; he obviously became more interested in the bringing of a railroad to Columbia, but he never criticized the inadequacies of the plank road. If he was unaware of them, he should not have been. The Louisiana and Middletown Plank or Macademized Road Company, to cite a single instance, was in operation before construc tion began on the Providence plank road. Minutes of the Louisiana Company reveal that expenses of the road, even in the first year, were much greater than anticipated.66 Editor A. Peabody, of the Dollar Missouri Journal also failed to inform the public about the actual working of plank roads in Missouri. On one occasion he stated that the Ste. Genevieve, Iron Mountain, and Pilot Knob plank road had been forced to double its rates, but he does not comment.67 The true cause of the building of the Providence plank road was John Parker. Fearing that the proposed road from Jefferson City to Columbia would ruin his town, he aroused interest in building the Providence-Columbia road through a newspaper publicity cam paign. To a public which was susceptible to the eternal human desire to get something for nothing, he supplied direction. To a public which lacked journalistic guidance, he supplied leadership. ^Louisiana and Middletown Plank or Macadamized Road Company Minutes, 1851-186S, Manuscript Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri. 67Columbia Dollar Missouri Journal, May 10, 1855. DLUMEIV. ' ST. I.OUIS. MISSOURI. FRIDAY MORNING. AUGUST'21, 1855. NUMBER 191. MISCKLUNBCHJa MLSCKLl.AN'KOl'S^ ^ MISCK.I.I.VNK) LKOAL M (TICKS. WSCKU,^N_K<>CS Bte»ken llovt & C#^ rrilnrklr* Thorny* jtfSLi. i. uu miiuu.^| GROCERTES, AMUM ii. siiii/rz Ij^—S^jravwrlS •MISSION JA1CHANTS, *IM^ mm, mt, n*c», *f. jfe-jr*--—"—•""•" *7r£r'.!r xxzr'.Tf cii» Swil/.er, I'laUA. Co., zzJ^^^rJ^^^ ^H»JKL OF HI WENT, BWSLAND^&CUDDY, •illrMi Ouinltni. Uu. Foundry. ^^IVKSKSE-' 5ame£ Jkbpatf), jftliateourt Correspondent BY JIM A. HART* James Redpath is best known to historians as an early editor of the North American Review and as founder of the Boston Lyceum Bureau, an organization that later bore his name. But he first came into national prominence as a "Special Correspondent" for the St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat. In July, 1855, the paper sent Redpath to the Kansas Territory to cover the Territorial Legisla ture which was then in session. His letters to the St. Louis news paper, which are not included in a book he wrote about some of his experiences in the Territory1 nor in his biography,2 are of particular interest to students of Missouri history because they contain graphic pictures of places, men, and events in Missouri during the bloody struggle on the Missouri-Kansas border that preceded the entry of Kansas into the United States. Before Redpath came to the Missouri Democrat, his career had not been especially distinguished. In 1852 when he was nineteen years old, Horace Greeley had given him a job on the New York Daily Tribune, where he had learned reporting. An energetic reformer even then, Redpath seethed with indignation over the mistreatment of slaves. He quit the Tribune early in 1855 to tour the South and see for himself the conditions there.3 When his funds *Jim A. Hart, Ph.D., is an associate professor of journalism at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. The author acknowledges a grant from the Ohio University Research Committee which partially made possible this article. 'James Redpath, The Roving Reporter: or Talks with Slaves in Southern States (New York 1859). 2Charles E. Horner, The Life of James Redpath and Development of the Modern Lxceum (New York, 1920). Wlvin F. Harlow, "James Redpath," Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1933), JvV, 443-444. James Redpath, Missouri Correspondent 71 were depleted, he walked from Mobile, Alabama, to St. Louis. Dirty, ragged, and hungry, he went immediately to the Missouri Democrat to seek employment because he knew that newspaper was an advocate of Free-Soilism.4 The publisher, William McKee, gave him a local news reporting job. Redpath proved such a good reporter that a few weeks later McKee sent him to the Kansas Territory.5 His letters to the Missouri Democrat, some twenty-five of them, were signed "J.R." They show his eye for detail and reflect the controversial opinions of the slavery question. Many were written from the American Llotel in Kansas City, Missouri; others were written from Westport, Missouri, and from Shawnee Mission, Kansas, where the Territorial Legislature was meeting. Westport, as Redpath explained in one of his letters, was only two miles from Shawnee Mission, one mile from the boundary line which separated "the Territory from the State," and only four miles from Kansas City. A stage ran regularly between Kansas City and Westport and occasionally went on to the Mission so that members of the Legislature, reporters, and visitors could visit Kansas City frequently. Another stage made three or four trips daily between Where Kansas Territorial Legislature Met Kansas State Historical Society ^Walter B. Stevens, St. Louis, The Fourth City (St. Louis, 1909), I, 222; Horner, ibid., 23, 53. *Ibid. 72 Missouri Historical Review ff TIJOh. H, BKIOT.Y. Mister. c. 1>. Hl.ussu.M, Cl-rk.. 7. , imiMil TUESHAY PASSEN'tfKB i'AURM\ FOR MISSOURI RIVER. 4 ^ The New, Elegant and Past Steamer 'I I BRIBRtY, MASTER, | V Will leave for St. Josepb, Weiton, Fort Uavenworta* PftrkvUle, Kansas * | Independence, Liberty^EicMeld, Sibley, Camden. Welling^ * « %. £exmgton, Beyer, Waverly, Carrollton, Miami, Brunswick! - VJ Glasgow, and all points below, I EVERY. OTHER TUESDAY, AT 4 £. B. Trail Collection the Mission and Westport, where about half the Legislators roomed and boarded. The one-way fare between Westport and the Mission was only twenty-five cents, and those who preferred dining 'very well" to dining "plainly" returned to Westport for their noon meals.6 Redpath described Westport as "a thriving, bustling," and often "muddy little city." With a population of about 800, it supported "a Methodist and a Union church, two large hotels, several bar rooms, (no booksellers stores) and a weekly newspaper, which became a daily at the commencement of the Legislative session." From the town's "usual appearance," the correspondent judged that "a brisk business" was "regularly transacted."7 Sometimes Redpath took trips to nearby places where there had been riots and lynchings evolving from high feelings about the slavery question. On his first Saturday in the Territory, when "the members of the Kansas House of Representatives had adjourned to hold private discussions," he rode to Kansas City and took the Polar Star, a river boat, to Parkville, Missouri, "celebrated alike for having extinguished its Luminary newspaper, and distinguished itself for its mobocratic proclivities."8 Parkville, Redpath reported, was "built, as nearly all towns on the Missouri above St. Louis" were, "on a bluff, or rather on a 6St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat, August 23 1855 Ubid. Hbid., July 28, 1855. James Redpath, Missouri Correspondent 73 group of hills." Walking there was "rather an exercise than an amusement." A person "unaccustomed to promenading on hill tops" could not "walk either up or across the street without puffing like a porpoise—or like the Republican's theatrical critic."9 The town contained "from 800 to 1,000 souls" and supported two churches. "What Mrs. Stowe modestly said of herself" was "exceed ingly applicable to the city of Parkville. It's 'not much to look at, nor ever was'." It boasted, however, "of a large stone-built hotel- built by Mr. [George S.] Park—of two very little stone houses—built by Mr. Park—a stone-built Presbyterian church—built chiefly by Mr. Park—and several tastefully constructed and painted wooden cottages surrounded by well-cultivated and pretty little gardens." Parkville had "good lands as well as political excitement." Redpath also visited the Parkville churchyard. It was ... a thoroughly democratic burying-place. No costly monuments or expensive grave-trappings remind one of the miserable social distinction which divide men, or the peerlike pride which characterizes so many of them. The headstones are all plain and simple. I saw no evidence of bad taste except the word "consort" for wife on a headstone, which I instantly turned my eyes away from in contempt.10 Apparently Redpath tried to be objective in his reporting of controversial affairs because he interviewed Parkville residents who were both for and against Mr. Park, for whom the town was named and who had been forced to leave Parkville because of his anti- slavery convictions. But Redpath's irony was so biting that there was little objectivity. His own anti-slavery convictions were too evident. From the pro-slavery elements in Parkville, Redpath learned that Park "was originally a highwayman! and a Negro thief; he was probably whipped in Texas; he made money by cheating the Indians and stealing their ponies; he was one of the meanest men, and he was a d d abolitionist!"11 One pro-slavery Parkville man told Redpath "that Mr. Park was one of Merrill's men!" Another said that "before the city was laid out, Mr. Park used to sell whisky to the Indians in contraven tion to the provisions of the United States laws on the subject, and that he was tried for the offense several times and escaped only 9The Republican was the St. Louis newspaper, the Missouri Republican, a pro-slavery paper and the Missouri Democrat's greatest rival. ^Missouri Democrat, July 28, 1855. "Ibid. 74 Missouri Historical Review by extraordinary exertions." It was also reported to Redpath that "Mr. Park and a brother-in- law of his once sunk a barrel of salt in the sand, on the opposite side of the river, and used to catch the Indian ponies and swim them across the Missouri whenever they came up to lick the salt."12 From the anti-slavery ele ments, Redpath learned that Park "was a self-made man; lie arose from poverty to wealth by his own exertions; he was the most industrious and public- spirited of citizens; he encour aged every public enterprize and Gtorgc S Park gave material aid to every public improvement; he intended to build and endow a college at his own expense, and would soon have commenced it, if he had not been banished." One old man told Redpath that Park believed, "as everyone did until the last six or eight years, that slavery was a curse to the State and that Missouri would go ahead faster if she was free-soil; but as for interfering with slavery, sir, or running Negroes away, he was as far from that as any human being." Another citizen told the correspondent that Park "was a strong Benton man; he interfered too much with Davy x^tchison's schemes; it was necessary to ruin him if Davy was to succeed, and Davy soon found a pretext for ruining him."13 David R. Atchison, a Missouri Senator, was involved in the border troubles of the times. The Missouri Democrat had been printing derogatory editorials about him for more than a year, and Redpath frequently mentioned him. In his July 24 letter, Redpath reported that Davy had "raised a storm" that would "shatter his hopes, I trust." In fact, so vengeful was Atchison "in Platte County that some citizens who wish to subscribe to the Democrat are afraid to take it, least they be marked by his regulators!" It was Redpath's opinion that Atchison was "the root of all anarchy ™Ibid. ™Ibid. James Redpath, Missouri Correspondent 75 and evil" that had "characterized the border counties during the recent excitement."14 Another well-known Missourian whom Redpath discussed was the Reverend James Shannon, president of the University of Mis souri, who had also been under attack by the Missouri Democrat. Redpath covered a speech that Shannon made at Westport. He reported: . . . Mr. President Shannon with his rich Irish brogue, and Mr. Davy Atchison, with his usual skinful of whisky have appeared in propria personae before the inhabitants of Westport. The political priest delivered a long and dreary rehash of the long and thousand times adduced arguments which were originally intended to prove that slavery is a divine, profitable and advantageous institution. . . . There was nothing original in it except perhaps one idea contained in the introductory portion of his discourse, the idea of saving a lost world by stumping Missouri in Davy Archison's interest. That's decidedly and highly original. Hope he'll succeed. Let his rally cry be—"Atchison, whisky, ebony and the heathen! Erin go Bragh!lb At the end of the meeting, "a call to Atchison! Atchison! Atchison! (meaning Drunken Davy) was heard from various parts of the crowd;" but when Atchison said he was not prepared to address the group, "the meeting fizzled out."16 Redpath frequently commented on the "excited state of feelings along the border." In one letter he reported that these feelings were such that "men, otherwise clearsighted, believed ridiculous stories;"17 in another he wrote that politics ran so high that they rushed "into a man's mind in looking at a pretty a girl." To substantiate the latter statement, Redpath related this tea- table incident: ... I was sitting at supper in the American Hotel in Kansas City, talking with a Missouri politician—a first-rate fellow— on the absorbing question of the day. He was defending what I thought the absurd practice of going to hotels whose landlords agree with you on political subjects, even if a member of the opposing party kept a better house and charged less for his accommodations. "Well, I do believe in it," he said, —"touch a Yankee's purse, you touch his conscience; it's the only way we can stop their d . He suddenly stopped and I saw that his eyes were riveted on the pretty young English waitress. After about two "Ibid. v*Ibid., August 15, 1855. wibid. "Ibid.. July 28, 1855. 76 Missouri Historical Revieiv minutes silence he resumed. "Well," said he with the slightest bit of a sigh, "that's a d d pretty girl — WHETHER SHE'S PROSLAVERY OR NOT!"18 On August 27, Redpath wrote that Kansas City was "in a state of considerable excitement" the night before. "It was rumored, and even proved that the Kansas City Enterprise had boldly come out in favor of free-soil, anti-Atchison, anti-invasion, and against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise." People "asked for, hunted for, read and reread, folded up" and read the paper again. "There was an article on the second page distinctly printed, vigorously written, the production evidently of an earnest and accomplished person." Among other things, it spoke of "border ruffians," and denounced "Atchison and his invading horde." The editor was questioned and threatened. The "political orthodoxy of the proprietors from Ohio who had purchased the paper only ten days before" was questioned. The editor finally explained that "the noxious article was clipped by mistake from the New York Tribune." His explanation probably "saved the paper from the same treatment given the Parkville Luminary—a drink of the Missouri River."19 In the climate of those disturbed times, duels and rumors of duels were not infrequent. Redpath mentioned two, one of which involved a correspondent from another St. Louis newspaper. On August 13, he wrote that H.C.P., a telegraphic reporter for the Missouri Republican, had challenged Mr. Brown, House member from Pawnee. But the next day, Redpath reported that he had been in error because H.C.P. "merely desired an explanation." He did not know at that time whether H.C.P. had been satisfied. A week later, though, he reported that "the member from Pawnee appeared determined to allow the 'personal affair' between H.C.P. and himself to drop." The members of the House and Council were "greatly surprised" at Mr. Brown's conduct; and the people of West- port spoke of it "in emphatic, but not complimentary terms."20 Redpath himself was not interested in fighting duels, as the following paragraph from one of his earlier letters indicates. By the bye, the next time you send me on a reportorial tour, I wish you would look over your correspondence from the section 1 am traveling in before you publish it. 1 went to the post office Saturday in the company of Mr. Starns [editor of the Parkville Northern Democrat] and got a copy of the Missouri Democrat. The first article he saw was an attack on ™Ibid. ™Ibid., September 4, 1855. ™Ibid., August 15, 24, 1855. James Redpath, Missouri Correspondent 77 himself! As he was an editor, of course he was not offended; but supposing he had only been a man, what a fix 1 would have been in! I should have been obliged to fight him at least. Now, as fighting is a great bore, and as I have already done as much of it as I care about, I hope you will be more considerate the next time I leave, or give me a certificate declaratory of your willingness to fight at all times with all parties.21 Redpath's letters, which were often concluded with such phrases as "Piously yours," "Variously yours," and "In haste," proved so popular with the readers of the Missouri Democrat that the editor, as early as August 8, promised that the newspaper would carry the letters of its Kansas Correspondent in advance of the mails. If, however, the editor did make special arrangements for rushing Redpath's letters to St. Louis, regular mail from Kansas City must have come at a snail's pace because Redpath's letters were printed from six to ten days after they were written. There was, nevertheless, other evidence of the influence and impact that Redpath's letters were having. On August 24, Redpath wrote that he had been offered a lot "which three disinterested judges should estimate was worth $100 at least" if he would give "the city of Lecompton favorable notices in the Missouri Democrat."22 Then on September 4, Redpath's letters were moved from the editorial page of the Missouri Democrat to the front page with the editorial comment that the "admirable sketches of men and things in Kansas by the paper's Kansas correspondent were being copied by the press throughout the country." This statement may have been a slight exaggeration; but the New York Daily Tribune, even though it had its own correspondent in the Territory, reprinted from the Missouri Democrat several "J.R." letters. On August 30, the New York paper carried part of a Redpath letter written August 18 and printed in the Democrat August 25. The September 5 and September 8 issues of the Tribune also carried reprints of "J.R." letters. Later, Charles Robinson was to write: "It is doubtful if Kansas could have been saved from the grasp of the invaders but for the hot shot poured into Atchison, Stringfellow and Co." by the Mis souri Democrat. "James Redpath was its regular correspondent."23 After the close of the Kansas Territorial Legislature, Redpath resigned to further his efforts against Slavery in other ways. In nibid., July 28, 1855. vibid., August 31, 1855. 23Charles Robinson, The Kansas Conflict (New York, 1892), 487. 78 Missouri Historical Review February, 1856, he covered the first convention of the Republican Party in Pittsburgh for several newspapers and sent special dis patches to the Missouri Democrat, the only newspaper in Missouri to have a representative at this meeting.24 But it was his earlier writings for the St. Louis newspaper that brought him into national prominence and prepared the way for his later appointment as Commissioner of Emigration for the Haitian Republic and as Haitian Consul in Philadelphia, and for securing such clients for his lyceum bureau as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Julia Ward Howe, Mark Twain, and Petroleum V. Nasby.25 24Jefferson City Examiner, March 8, 1850. 25Harlow, ibid. OLD HOME REMEDIES From Granny Gore s Ozark Folk Medicine, by Sherman Lee Pompey " Fer complextion troubles we have several cures. One is to take half a cup of buttermilk and a tablespoon of bakin soda, mix it up and plaster it on youens face. Sort of like mud packs. Shore looks bad a-walkin around, but supposed to do some good. Some folks used to use "mare water" to cure up warts an face pimples. "Fer a cough there was also another good remedy, an one the men folks always liked. A tablespoon of sulphur, four or five tablespoons of sorghum, and a pint of peach brandy. Mix and take a tablespoon full fer cough. Dont take too much or you 11 git drunk. " Fer risin s and boils, Td use a flax seed poultice. Bile your flax seed and make it into a real thick mush, put it on a square cloth and fold it. Put another bandage over that. OF fashioned yellow soap was also good fer drawing boils. The old wood ash lye soap. You scrape the boil, wet the soap, an let her go. The Auditorium THE SAINTS BUILD A TEMPLE BY ROGER YARRINGTON* It is unusual for a building to be historic by the time its construc tion is completed, but such is the case with the Auditorium, world headquarters for The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Independence, Missouri. Although a site for the church had been selected and sanctified by the founder and pioneer leaders of the church as early as 1831, it was not until April 1, 1962, over 130 years later, that Latter Day Saints celebrated the comple tion of the Auditorium in special dedicatory ceremonies. Pioneers of the church came to Independence when it was a frontier village, a beginning place for the famous trails west. In August, 1831, a little over a year after the church was organized in Fayette, New York, Joseph Smith, Jr., founder and prophet of the new church, indicated that henceforth Independence would be the center of church activities and that a temple should be built there. The site for the temple was selected and dedicated, with Joseph himself and seven other church leaders participating. *Roger Yarrington is editor of the Saints' Hearld, official publication of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with headquarters in the Auditorium, Independence, Missouri. 80 Missouri Historical Review At the time this section of land was dedicated for use by the church the members owned no ground in Independence. However, in months following, church members from eastern congregations began moving into Independence and gradually acquired their own land. This was accomplished through the use of their own funds and through Presiding Bishop Edward Partridge, chief financial officer of the church, who used church offerings to buy property. Lands purchased with church funds were to be "inheritances" for Latter Day Saints who immigrated to "the land of Zion." On December 10, 1831, Partridge purchased from Jones H. Flourney and his wife for $130 a tract of land which included the spot dedicated for the temple. The land was spoken of from that time on as "the Temple Lot." It is now bounded on the north and west by the curve of Lexington street, on the south by the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks, and on the east by Union Street. It is roughly four blocks long, north and south, and three blocks wide, east and west. Today the Auditorium, which has a frontage of 250 feet and is 270 feet deep, is located almost in the center of the land purchased. The initial influx of "Mormons," as they were called, into Jackson County was peaceful enough in the beginning, but soon there were incidents which indicated the dislike of the new arrivals by the other residents. Roofs were torn from their houses at night, and men of the church were openly beaten. The cause of the hostility was both political and sociological. The Latter Day Saints migrating into Independence were composed primarily of New Englanders and thus had different accents and customs from their new neighbors. They called themselves Saints and refused to drink or to gamble, which set them apart from most frontiersmen and made them seem strange. They spoke of being a "chosen people" and let it be known that they believed God would give them the land as an "inheritance." Perhaps these things would have resulted in no great conflict, but there was another factor. The majority of the Saints were from the northeastern states and were therefore influ enced by the attitudes of the non-slave holding North. Alexander W. Doniphan, a prominent Missourian of the time who distinguished himself as a soldier and political leader and who was intimately involved in the situation as a friend and legal coun selor to the church, stated that slavery was the chief issue that brought about the persecution of the Saints. "I think the real objections to the Mormons," Doniphan said, "were their denuncia tion of slavery, and the objections slaveholders had to having so The Saints Build a Temple 81 Auditorium Art Gallery large a settlement of anti-slavery people in their midst, and also to their acquiring such a large amount of land, which then belonged to the Government and subject to the pre-emption."1 An editorial, "Free People of Color," published July 20, 1833, in the Evening and Morning Star, fanned the flames of persecution. The paper, begun by the Saints in Independence in June, 1832, was published by W. W. Phelps. On the day the editorial was printed, his home and printing plant were invaded by a mob and his wife and sick daughter were thrown into the street along with family posses sions, papers, and type from the plant. The press was thrown into the Missouri river.2 Actually the editorial was conciliatory. However, to the people of Jackson County in 1833 it indicated the church was not with them on the slavery question and so, they reasoned, the Saints must be against them. They saw in the gathering of Saints a growing number of votes which they assumed would be cast as a bloc in favor of anti-slavery candidates and issues.3 Many Latter Day Saint merchants had their goods scattered in the street on the day the editorial appeared, and two church men, Bishop Partridge and Charles Allen, were tarred and feathered by a xKansas City Journal, June 5, 1881. 2The press was later salvaged and ultimately transported to Denver, Colorado, where it was used by Captain John L. Merrick in 1859 to publish the first paper in the state. See Minnie Organ, "History of the County Press," Missouri Historical Review, IV (January, 1910), 122-123. 3Heman C Smith, "Mormon Troubles in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, IV (July, 1910), 238-241. 82 Missouri Historical Review mob. The lawless attacks upon the Saints continued until it was unsafe for church members to be in Jackson County. Harassing the Saints became a popular sport for certain elements in Independence. Doniphan believed these outrages were committed by the "more ignorant portions of the community."4 As a result of these incidents, tempers grew shorter until, on at least one occasion, shots were exchanged and men were killed on both sides. On November 4, 1833, a group of Jackson County men and a group of Saints from the Colesville Branch engaged in a bloody exchange near Independence in a corn field belonging to Christian Whitmer. Two Jackson County men, Thomas Lin ville and Hugh L. Brazaele, were killed, and Andrew Barker of the Saints was fatally wounded and died the next day.5 On July 23, 1833, a treaty was signed by a committee of sixteen men who said they represented the citizens of Jackson County and six Latter Day Saint leaders. The treaty, signed under pressure, committed the Saints to leave Jackson County. Half were to depart before the first of the year. The rest were to leave before the next April.6 A letter appealing to Missouri Governor Daniel Dunklin brought some encouragement when the Governor indicated he desired that the Saints receive fair treatment as legal property owners in the state. Orson Hyde and W. W. Phelps, two church leaders, went to see the Governor to lay their case before him. After seeing them, Dunklin wrote a letter dated October 19, 1833, urging citizens to maintain law and order. The letter was printed in the Even ing and Morning Star, but the Gover nor's desires were not fulfilled. Law and order were not enforced, and in early November, 1833, the Saints were herded onto the Temple Lot by horsemen and then to the Missouri Frederick M. Smith, At the Audi river where they were forced to cross torium Construction Site, 1926 over to Clay County, leaving behind 4Kansas City Journal, June 5, 1881 Quoted in Inez Smith Davis, Story of the Church (Inde pendence, 1959), 176. 5Smith, "Morman Troubles in Missouri 246. Hbid. The Saints Build a Temple S3 their lands and many possessions. It was cold, and snow was in the air. The company of Saints contained women in the last stages of pregnancy, newborn babies, and sick and elderly people, as well as the strong. Before "The Return," to Independence, as it is spoken of, the church and its members passed through worse turmoil and suffered even greater tragedy. Joseph Smith, Jr., was assassinated in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844, and various factions developed, some of them migrating to Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Utah, where they practiced strange doctrines, among them the worship of Adam as God and polygamy. Those who claimed to be true to the teachings of the original church were "reorganized" at a conference in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1852. At Amboy, Illinois, on April 6, 1860, they accepted as their president Joseph Smith III who, they main tained, had been designated by his father to be his successor.7 In 1877 "Young Joseph" visited Independence and wrote in the Saints' Herald: "of course our stay was short, we saw but little and can judge by what we saw. The city is handsomely situated and sits not like Rome on seven hills, but on hundreds of hills, surrounded by hundreds more. A constant succession of vale, hill, farm valley, villa, dell, grove, plain, meadow, spring, wood, reaches in every way from this Jerusalem of modern Israel. . . ." Saints from the Reorganization had begun the return movement to Independence as early as 1867. The first branch was organized in July, 1873, in the Jackson County courthouse. Nine years later the first General Conference of the Reorganization took place in Independence. The cornerstone of the Stone Church, the first major house of worship built by the Latter Day Saints in Independ ence, was laid in 1888.8 The Reorganized Church succeeded in establishing ownership of the Temple Lot which had been purchased in 1831 by Bishop Partridge. In March, 1894, the United States Circuit Court in Kansas City heard extensive testimony from members of the Church of Christ (Hedrickites), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Utah Mormon), and the Reorganized Church in an attempt to determine the lawful successor of the church as it was constituted when the land was purchased originally. Judge John F. Philips, speaking for the court, declared in his decision that the Reorganized Church was the true continuation of the early church on the basis of its faithfulness to early doctrines. Only a small ?Davis, Story of the Church, 288, 355, 385-386, 442-443. sThe building still houses the church's largest congregation in the city. »***> • Excavation Begins on the Temple Lot portion of the original Temple Lot was lost to the Reorganized Church. It was awarded to the Church of Christ by an appeal court on the technical issue of laches, or delay in filing suit.9 Little was done in the next two decades to build on the Temple Lot, and it was not until 1920 that Independence was declared the headquarters of the church. In 1917, however, the president of the church, Frederick M. Smith, the son and successor of Joseph Smith III, began to urge the Saints to build a great headquarters building in Independence. In his conference address of 1917 at Lamoni, Iowa, he called attention to the need for a large building for general conferences and for other uses, both religious and administrative, which would keep such a structure in "constant use." He proposed such a building again in an address before the 1920 Conference meeting in Independence: "If I were to say to you today that the needs of this, the Center Place, should be an audi torium the capacity of which is not one less than seven thousand, you would think the figures were large, but I will venture to guess that if an auditorium is erected here within even two years that will seat seven thousand, you will see it jammed to the doors inside of the first year after its erection. . . . This building program therefore should include not only such things as general office building and assembly mass, but it ought to include a well-defined building plan such as perhaps exists in a most beautiful form of imagery in the mind of our splendid young architect—a plan of a system of build ings which will meet every social need for us as an organization." The young architect Frederick Smith referred to was Henry C. Smith (no relation) who grew up in Independence, attended Grace- land College in Lamoni, Iowa, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was graduated in 1914 with a bachelor's degree in architecture. At the 1920 Conference he was appointed church architect. The same conference approved the Auditorium building project, and pledges were taken for $38,000 before the meeting was orn "FSri1.ociTST0Ssio,the original sllit anfl appeals see 00 Federal 937, 70 Federal 179, 71 Federal ^50, and 163 U. S. 681. The Saints Build a Temple 85 over. It was six years later, however, before ground was broken. By then the pledges had reached $850,000. A ground breaking ceremony on February 1, 1926, marked the beginning of construction on the Auditorium, and when the first concrete was poured on May 23, a copper box containing church literature describing the doctrine and program of the church along with local newspapers recording the event was placed in the south wall. The basement was enclosed on November 6, 1926, and the following year the first World Conference met there. On that occasion President Frederick Smith expressed confidence in the building program and urged the church members to continue in their determination to complete the construction. To encourage those who were pessimistic he remarked, Perhaps some may be saying 'It is unnecessary. It will not be finished.' But I submit, my fellow Latter Day Saints, that our record of achievement and our experiences of the past justify us in looking forward with confidence to seeing the Auditorium well and duly finished, and that its capacity, large as it may look now, ultimately taxed to its limit. The Auditorium must be finished! It is needed! It is opportune, and it will be finished! To believe otherwise is to overlook the spirit and the determination of a people with a record of eventually accomplishing its tasks. By 1928 payments on pledges, plus interest, reached a new high of $494,081.58. To finance the completion of the building the Bishopric was authorized to issue first mortgage 5% gold bonds totaling $355,000. In September, 1928, construction of the building was sufficiently completed to allow the church officers and departments to move into their new quarters. The Auditorium became the hub of the Concrete Enclosing the Auditorium Basement 86 Missouri Historical Review church which was rapidly ex panding the number of its world missions and increasing its acti vities in the domestic field. The conference of 1930 saw the Auditorium chamber filled with 11,000 Saints at the com munion service, thus fulfilling President Smith's prediction. At the same conference the multiple purposes of the building were demonstrated. In addition to religious services and business meetings, the huge conference chamber was the scene of an oratorio performance and a W. Wallace Smith giant pageant. Unfortunately the Great Depression visibly affected the church. The conference appropriations committee recommended that no further expenditures be made on the building until the funds already spent were replaced. Construction stopped in January, 1931, and policies of retrenchment were initiated. Church funds were strictly segregated. No money could be allocated for Auditorium construction except that specifically donated or appro priated for that purpose. Saints caught in the difficulties of depres sion economy found they had to pay off a debt of $1,876,000 which had been incurred in more prosperous days. The response of the Saints in paying off the Auditorium debt was one of the brightest chapters of the church's history in Independence. Many felt the church would be unable to fulfill its financial obligations and would ultimately collapse. However, when the deadline for the final payment to retire the Auditorium bonds arrived on January 10, 1941, sufficient funds had been obtained to reduce the total debt to $540,000, and appropriations were made to complete payment within three years. That the church was able to persevere in this crisis earned it a reputation for integrity and bolstered the confidence of its members. Because the church had become wary of doing business on credit, work on the Auditorium proceeded on a cash-on-hand basis. In 1946 Israel A. Smith succeeded his brother, Frederick Smith, as president following the later's death on March 20. The man The Saints Build a Temple 87 who visualized and championed the Auditorium project was not to see it fully realized. Construction continued however, and members were called upon to "help finish the job." In 1954 the main foyer was completed, becoming the first finished portion of the building visualizing its real beauty. Four years later the general conference chamber was finished and was the scene of the ordainment of W. Wallace Smith, a grandson of founder Joseph Smith, Jr., as president of the church.10 The conference chamber is a massive and imposing room, measuring 210 by 175 feet and seating 5,754, with its dome rising 92 feet from the floor and 114 feet from the street level. The cham ber houses the Auditorium organ, dedicated at the 1960 conference, which contains two consoles, 6,298 pipes and 110 ranks with 94 stops and 76 voices. The completed building, because it has been so long in construc tion and because various architects have modernized the design of certain areas, differs somewhat from its original conception by Henry C. Smith, but the basic design is his and it is timeless in its Auditorium Conference Chamber ' / / i • l0He succeeded I. A. Smith who had been killed in a highway accident on June 14, 1958. SS Missouri Historical Review beauty and function. Architect Smith died on November 13, 1961, and thus joins Frederick Smith as one who visualized the monu mental building but was unable to see it completed. On April 1, 1962, when the $4 million structure was dedicated in an afternoon service, the building was designated as officially completed. The ceremonies mark the end of a long episode of church history in Independence and the beginning of a new era for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. OLD HOME REMEDIES From Granny Gore's Ozark Folk Medicine, by Sherman Lee Pompey uTo thin your blood in the Spring of the year, a good dose of sassafras tea is good. Sorghum molasses, and sulphur will help to clear yer blood out. Coal oil and sugar in the right porportions will help croup. "Sweat out the flu by usin' a tablespoon full of whisky, a quarter of a spoon full of sugar, the juice of a lemon, and biling hot water to make a glass full. I 'A nother cure fer pneumonia is a hot whisky bath sponged from the waist up. That's why a lot of the ol' circuit ridin preachers carried whisky with them. Medicinal purposes on their calls. If you use white mule, add a little water, or the kick will be too much. II If youens has a horse with the colic, bile native tobacker and get the horse to swaller it. For children with the colic, bile an onion in water until it gets mushy, then take the pulp out. This biled onion tea has been known to cure cases of colic that have been goin on fer six months. HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS THOSE ACTIVE IN INCREASING THE SOCIETY'S MEMBERSHIP During the three months of May, June and July, 1962, the membership of the Society was increased as indicated: SEVEN NEW MEMBERS Golterman, Melge W., Wentzville FOUR NEW MEMBERS Dew, Samuel A., Kansas City Williams, Mrs. Helen Taylor, Bowling Janney, Mrs. Andrew J., Carthage Green Tindel, John C, Columbia THREE NEW MEMBERS Barrow, R. Wilson, Macon Gibbs, Mrs. J. Barnard, Rocheport Bland, Hugh F., Kansas City Walters, Harold W., Indianapolis, Ind. Dennis, D. A., Shreveport/La. TWO NEW MEMBERS Campbell, Robert, Cape Girardeau Porter, L. V., Independence Carr, Nanon L., Kansas City Russell, H. E., Columbia Elliston, Mrs. Elizabeth, Montrose Siegismund, W. H., Rockville Esther, Aura C, Linn Creek Somerville, George W., Chillicothe Gilleland, Mrs. Howard, New Cambria Stapel, John C, Columbia Hammon, John W., Springfield Tallman, Francis J., Kansas City Moore, Hunt C, Kansas City Williams, James A., Carrollton Pharis, Donald, Liberty ONE NEW MEMBER Allen, Mrs. William H., Asbury Park, Daniel, Frances, Oklahoma City, N.J. Okla. Ashley, Adah, Lebanon Dankers, Lloyd A., Oregon Barron, Mrs. Nora, Breckenridge Davis, Joseph H., St. Louis Biggs, Mrs. Mary, Columbia Davis, True, St. Joseph Black, Mrs. Mary E., Farmington Dietrich, Benjamin E., Cape Girardeau Blackburn, John L., University, Ala. Dodge, Russell H., Kansas City Boone, George E., Liberty Donaldson, L. W., Kansas City Bradford, Mrs. Wesley H., Kansas Dougherty, James A., Rock Hill City Ellis, Loyd R., Aurora Branch, Harold F., Kansas City Faust, Martin L., Columbia Bricken, Mrs. R. W., Waverly Felker, J. Kay, Kirkwood Bumgarner, Mrs. Elizabeth, Warrens Fenton, John S., Kansas City burg Finks, Mrs. R. T., Jefferson City Brown, Carroll G., Alamo, Tex. Fulkerson, William M., Kirksville Campbell, Edna, Kirksville Fulton, Clyde G., Springfield Capen, Mrs. James, Columbia Fultz, C. N., Cape Girardeau Carter, Mrs. Ernest E., Columbia Garlick, Mrs. Dean F., Rockford, 111. Dalton, S. P., Jefferson City Gillihan, Donald E., Farmington 89 90 Missouri Historical Review Gruner, Raymond, Baldwin Park, Noel, Mrs. Dora B., Madison Calif. Olhausen, Marie, Weston Hall, Gene, Hannibal Pinkerton, Hugh M., Kansas City Hart, Mrs. Leon, Columbia Poague, H. A., Clinton Helm, Maud, New Haven Price, Mrs. E. O., Knob Noster Herron, Mrs. A. R., Sioux City, Iowa Richardson, Mrs. Kenneth, Brunswick Hill, Kara Sue, Montgomery City Roark, Mrs. W. J., Anderson Hilton, Glenn, Kansas City Roberts, Mrs. M. G., St. Joseph Hoover, H. L., Springfield Salmon, John W., Kansas City Hungate, H. Lynn, St. Louis Schmid, Mrs. Julian, Springfield Hyman, L. C, Los Angeles, Calif. Sheets, Mrs. Evelyn, Trenton Jenkins, Mrs. E. T. C, Claremont, Shockley, J. M., Vienna Calif. Short, Mrs. G. D., Slater Kaucher, Edith, Wilmette, 111. Simpson, Lewis A. W., Kansas City Kennedy, Mrs. D. T., Hannibal Sinclair, Debby & Becky, Columbia Lavender, F. M., St. Louis Singleton, Thomas E., Jefferson City Lehr, Ralph E., Kirksville Smith, Elwood H., West Plains Longstreth, W. E., Montgomery City Smith, Mrs. Katherine C, St. Louis McCloskey, Mrs. John J., Springfield Soper, Allen B., Jr., Slater McDermott, Willard, Kansas City Stewart, Mrs. Inez, Columbia McNutt, Mrs. W. C, Pevely Taylor, Mrs. Leon Rice, Richmond Martin, E. W., Jr., Hawthorne, N. J. Thompson, Henry, Lemay Martin, Edwin W., Belmont, Mass. Trippe, H. C, Kansas City Maupin, Mr. & Mrs. Harris, Jr., Tucker, William C, Warrensburg Mexico Walker, Jean, Springfield Mason, William S., Brownsville, Tex. Weier, Mrs. Amelia C, Pevely Miller, Ray E., Osage Beach Welsh, Jerome K., Sr., Kansas City Neuner, Gerard J., Lea wood, Kans. White, L. M., Belle Nichols, T. S., Arnold Yates, Georgia M., St. Louis NEW MEMBERS IN THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Two hundred and twenty-five applications for membership were received by the Society during the three months of May, June and July, 1962. The total annual and life memberships as of August 1, 1962, was 12,896. The new members are: Adamson, Steve, University City Bash, Lawrence W., Lea wood, Kans. Allison, Helen & Kathleen, Kansas City Beam, Lucille, Lone Jack Allonby, Charles, Neosho Betz, Annette, Kansas City Alpers, John Jr., Cabool Bingham, Mrs. Loretta B., Battle Ambrose, Mrs. Anne C, Lafayette, La. Creek, Mich. Anders, R. Leslie, Warrensburg LIF'E Black, James E., Belleview Anderson, Mrs. Henry, Albuquerque, Blackwell, Ernest, Springfield N. Mex., LIFE Blaine, Maxine, St. Louis Atchley, Earsel V., Kansas City Bland, Erwin S., Independence At wood, Ted., Columbia Bland, Lloyd L., Independence Aubuchon, Mr. & Mrs. K. G., Berkeley, Bland, Theodoric C, Kansas City Calif. Boethel, Paul, Halletsville, Tex. Ayres, Mrs. A. V., Jasper Booker, Ann, Jefferson City Historical Notes and Comments 91 Branch, Cary G., Los Angeles, Calif. Esther, Paula Beth, Lebanon Bremser, William J., St. Louis Esther R-3 School, Esther Brock, John M., Neosho Evich, Mr. & Mrs. V., San Pedro, Brouk, Robert, High Ridge Calif. Brown, Bruce, Montgomery City Fairview Sr. High School, Jennings Brown, G. P., Shreveport, La. Faust, David A., Raytown Brownsberger, Joe H., Appleton City Felker, Jean H., West Orange, N. J. Buckingham, Frank, Downey, Calif. Fogg, Lucy Martha, High Ridge LIFE Buer, Edward, Carmel, Ind. Francis, Mrs. B. K., Liberty Bumgarner, Cecil, Stockton, Calif. Fuson, Mrs. Albert, Kansas City Buntz, Victor, Oregon Gamble, Mrs. Eugene E., Osage Beach Bush, Hilary A., Kansas City Garland, Mrs. Leonard, Turlock, Calif. Calico, Forrest, Lancaster, Ky. Gentry, Dale R., Carrollton Campbell, Cecil S., St. Louis Gerard, Jules B., Columbia LIFE Campbell, Forrest C, St. Joseph Gillihan, Michael D., Van Nuys, Calif. Campbell, Mrs. W. W., San Antonio, Glenn, H. V., Stuttgart, Ark. Tex. Godfrey, Mrs. Wheeler, Kansas City Caples, Joseph T., Ft. Leavenworth, Golden, Mrs. William K., Canton Kans. LIFE Goldman, Mrs. Edward, St. Charles Carpenter, H. R., Blue Springs Graves, Mrs. J. E., Jr., Columbia Carter, E. Henry, Indianapolis, Ind. Gregg, Joseph P., Chicago, 111. Cartwright, H. R., Cabool Griffiths, CM., Mexico Chafjfin, Mary, Breckenridge Gullic, Tedd, West Plains Chapline, Myrtle, Natchez, Miss. Haddock, Linda L., St. Louis Chisholm, Donald H., Kansas City Hanks, Mrs. Stanley, St. Louis Chrane, Mrs. Frank J., Liberty Harbison, Mrs. Willard M., Union Clark, James Boyd, Eldon Harkless, Mrs. James H., Jr., Kansas Clauss, John S., Turlock, Calif. City Cleveland, R. M., Belmont, Mass. Harper, E. R., Santa Ana, Calif. Cline, Harold, Claremore, Okla. Harrington, Burch, Memphis Cooper, Paul M., Eldon Hart, Mrs. Leon, Columbia Corson, Louis D., Washington, D. C. Heath, Mrs. Clyde E., St. Louis Covert, Maurice W., Houston Heath, Vilas, Callao Creighton, James H., Jr., Boonville Heitmann, Mrs. Albert, Park Forest, Crowe, Harry, Charleston 111. Curtis, Ronnie A., Tulsa, Okla. Hichs, A. R., Jefferson City Curtis, William J., Independence Hill, Mr. & Mrs. Roy F., Liberty Dalton, Mr. & Mrs. James P., Jefferson Hilton, Carol A., Warrensburg City Hoffman, Mrs. Margaret B.. Santa Darragh, Mr. & Mrs. R. A., Haw Barbara, Calif. thorne, N. J. Hope, Mrs. Milton, Golden City Davis, Mrs. Erva Fish, Chaptico, Md. Hornersville School Dist. 3-C, Horners- Derrenberger, H. E., Chicago, 111. ville (2 Memberships) Dorr, Ray, Bevier Hughey, George K., Springfield Dunklin, Ruth, Winslow, Ariz. Humphrey, W. W., Jr., Kansas City Ebert, Mrs. E. F., Columbia Hunt, Mrs. Birdie B., Chicago, 111. Eberwein, Mrs. L. R., Topeka, Kans. Hunt, Dolores A., Chicago, 111. Engel, Mary, Kirkwood LIFE Hunt, James E., Chicago, 111. Erichsen, Mrs. R. H., Prairie Village, Hyman, Edwin A., Kansas City Kans. Ihrig, R. S., Oak Lawn, 111. 92 Missouri Historical Review Jackson, Mrs. Clair, Carthage Mitchell, William K., Ferguson James, Mrs. George, Brunswick Moore, Mrs. Will, Oregon Jenkins, Elmer C, Honolulu, Hawaii Mosser, Robert S., Independence Johns, Mary E., Arlington, Tex. Nankee, Mrs. Shirley E., Lakewood, Johnson, Delbert C, Springfield Calif. Jolly, James M., St. Charles LIFE Napier, Milton F., St. Louis LIFE Jones, Mack M., Columbia Naumann, Mrs. George C, St. Louis Jones, Mrs. Ted C, Platte City Newman, Vic, Kansas City Kaucher, Mrs. Edith D., Wilmette, 111. Oberdorfer, Mrs. Ivan G., Louisville, Kennedy, Mrs. D. T., Hannibal Ky. Kennedy, Elizabeth L., Columbia Olive Kettering Library, Yellow Kennedy, Mr. & Mrs. F. T., Columbia Springs, O. Kennedy, Mr. & Mrs. John P., Peck, Mr. & Mrs. D. M., Alexandria, Columbia Va. Kennish, Mrs. Violet C, Montrose Peer, Bob, St. Louis King, Leeory B., Berkeley Penney, Penick F., Casper, Wyo. Krans, H. R., Hannibal Peterson, Mrs. William E., Webster Kreiling, William, Leawood, Kans. Groves Landis, Verna Lee, Cape Girardeau Pickering, W. R., Tarpon Springs, Fla. Landreth, Mr. & Mrs. James P., Pierce, Mrs. Ruth W., Appleton City Liberty Pohlmann, William S., Webster Groves Langley, Mrs. Lee, Anderson LIFE Lay, Mrs. Josephine C, Joplin LIFE Racine, Mrs. Frank W., Chillicothe LeBaron, Mrs. W. F., Alberta, Canada Ragan, Mrs. Nellie, Vienna Lemon, Mr. & Mrs. R. E., St. Paul, Ragland, Mary V., Madison Minn. Rathbone, Mrs. L. M., Austin, Tex. Leonard, Mrs. Doris P., Princeton, 111. Ready, Mrs. John T., Kansas City Levy, Ralph, University City Reuther, O. M., Brownsville, Tex. Lockridge, Grace, Columbia Reynolds, Earl D., St. Joseph Lockwood, Mrs. L. Bruce, Blue Springs Rose, Mrs. Edwin, Greensboro, N. C. Loker, Mrs. David C, New Orleans, Rowland, Mr. & Mrs. L. S., Festus La. Russell, Mrs. A. C, Jefferson City Longstreth, Mrs. W. E., Montgomery Scheitlin, Mrs. Helen H., Chicago, 111. City Schemmer, Arlie, Foristell Luckingham, Brad, Blythe, Calif. Schlittler, Charles, Webster Groves McCluney, Samuel C, St. Louis Schneider, Arthur J., Salisbury McCormick, Bud, Berkeley Schneller, Rudy F., O'Fallon McGilley, James, Kansas City Schnocke, Mrs. F. Dean, Dayton, O. McGilley, James, Jr., North Kansas Sipek, George S., Cicero, III. City Skinner, Robert D., Chillicothe McKee, Mrs. Kemple, Excelsior Smith Mrs. Arthur D., Sterling, 111. Springs Smith, Mrs. Ruth, Columbia McMachen, Helen, St. Joseph vSpring, Mrs. Dorothy, Joplin Maher, Mrs. Lillian, St. Louis Sproat, Mrs. Howard E., Cape Mallette, Mrs. Marsh, Festus Girardeau Martin, Charles W., Omaha, Nebr. Stenson, Mrs. Edith, Shawnee Mission, Means, Walker, Kansas City Kans. Mehlville Sr. High School, St. Louis Stimson, C. W., Shreveport, La. Miller, Mrs. Dallas O., Cape Girardeau Sutton, Katie, Potosi Mitchell, Franklin, Columbia Taylor, Mrs. A. J., Rock Port Historical Notes and Comments 93 Taylor, Jack, Winston Walters, Harold W., Indianapolis, Ind. Temple, Charles L., Denver, Colo. Walters, Leslie A., Lafayette, Ind. Terry, J. C, Macon Wasson, Mrs. Charles D., Leawood, Thompson, Edwin, Yuma, Ariz. Kans. Tindel, John C, Columbia Wasson, Mrs. Kermit, West Plains Tippin, George, Independence Weber, Phillip A., Poplar Bluff University of Redlands, Redlands, Welch, Leslie A., Kansas City Calif. West, Mrs. William S., Memphis, Vandament, Mrs. Ruth C, Cincinnati, Tenn. O. Whitworth, Mrs. H. E., St. Louis Van Landingham, Mrs. Frances, Kan- Williams, Jacob C, Brunswick sas City Williams, John C, Norfolk, Va. Voelker, Charles & Ruth Ann, Bertrand Wilson, W. O., Green City Wahrenbock, Roy R., Alma Wing, Mrs. Margery K., Magna, Utah Wakefield, Mrs. H. V., Jr., St. Louis Woodson, L. D., Story, Wyo. Walker, Kirk A., Shreveport, La. Yates, W. E., Macon CIVIL WAR IN MISSOURI DESCRIBED IN BOOKLET The Civil War in Missouri, 1861-1865, a 16-page, well-illustrated booklet, published and distributed by the Missouri Civil War Centennial Commission, is currently available without charge at the State Historical Society in Columbia. The attractive 3-color booklet includes two Missouri maps, one showing strategically important railroads and rivers, and areas where battles occurred. The other map traces the route of Confederate General Sterling Price on his ill-starred invasion of the state in 1864. Three major divisions of the booklet are entitled "A Divided State in a Divided Nation," "The Guerrilla Years: A War of Re venge," and "The Dying, Desperate Gamble That Lost." Illustrat ing the first article is a picture of a Union home guard regiment being assalted by a pro-Southern crowd at Fifth and Walnut Streets in St. Louis, leading to the first bloodshed in Missouri. Other pictures are those of Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, secessionist leader of the state during the early months of the War; Francis P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis, who led the fight to keep Missouri in the Union; Major General Sterling Price; Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon; and General Samuel R. Curtis. Three battle scenes are depicted — the Battle at Wilson's Creek near Springfield on August 10, 1861, the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 7-8, 1862, and the Battle of Lexington, September 18-20, 1861. Missouri's notorious guerrilla leader, William C. Quantrill, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and Frank and Jesse James are pictured in the section that describes the guerrilla years. Other illustrations depict a cavalry charge at the Battle of Westport and the tragedy caused by Union General Thomas Ewing's radical Order No. 11. 94 Missouri Historical Review A chronological list of the major Civil War battles and events in Missouri, and a list of books concerning the War in the state con clude the presentation. Material for the booklet was supplied by Dr. Richard S. Brownlee, director of the State Historical Society of Missouri, David Brown of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the Missouri Historical Society and the Missouri State Park Board. Members of the Civil War Centennial Commission of Missouri responsible for the publication are Dr. Bert E. Maybee, chairman, Kansas City; Dr. Richard S. Brownlee, Columbia; Howard Adams, Blue Springs; Henry B. Warren, Jr., Springfield; John K. Hulston, Springfield; Robert E. Young, Carthage; Thomas Hooper, Mary ville; Clemence L. Hein, St. Louis; Joseph Jaeger, Jr., Jefferson City; James Fuchs, Independence; Norman Hall, St. Louis; W. C. Hewitt, Shelbyville; Clinton Kanaga, Jr., Kansas City; and Shelley B. Hughes, Clinton. ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST RAILWAY POSTAL CAR OBSERVED IN HANNIBAL One hundred years ago, on July 28, 1862, a unique car left the Hannibal shops of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. Coupled to a fast, wood-burning locomotive, it sped northward to Cameron Junction, thence to St. Joseph on a trip that was to make history. The car was the first railway mail car ever built and operated in the United States. Designed to speed sorting of overland mails then hauled west from St. Joseph by stage coaches, it proved to be a resounding success, slashing overland mail transit time by 14 hours. More importantly, it marked the beginning of today's widespread Railway Mail Service, which carries the bulk of United States mails. Replica of First Railway Postal Car in the United States, Built in 1871 Historical Notes and Comments 95 The sorting of mail while en route on a train was proposed and put into practice in the United States by William A. Davis, assistant postmaster at St. Joseph, although the idea had been tried first in England and Canada. Davis had been postmaster at St. Joseph prior to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Though friends urged him not to accept the credentials of the new post master appointed by the "Yan kee President," Davis was a long-time career postal employee and unhesitatingly co-operated with the new appointee. Out of William A. Davis gratitude, and recognizing the dedication of Davis, the new postmaster, J. L. Bittinger, appointed him assistant postmaster. Mail was being transported in large quantities to St. Joseph, an embarkation point for the entire west. From there it was carried to the Pacific coast and intermediate points on overland stages. During the Civil War harassment of trains of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad (now part of the Burlington system) and damage to track and bridges by Confederate guerrillas and partisans often delayed the mails and resulted in several days' shipments arriving at St. Joseph simultaneously. The local post office staff often was unable to sort mail quickly enough for transit aboard the next overland stage. Davis proposed a solution to the problem. He suggested that mail be sorted while en route from Quincy to St. Joseph. Postmaster Bittinger thought so highly of the idea that he wrote directly to General Francis P. Blair, a close friend and congressman from Missouri. General Blair was a brother of Post master General Montgomery Blair, and he promptly forwarded the letter to his brother. Montgomery Blair, in turn, speedily author ized a trial run for a railway postal car on July 7, 1862. Special Agent A. B. Waller negotiated with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad for suitable postal cars. The railroad agreed to furnish two specially-constructed, 30-foot postal cars for use from Quincy on July 28. When Davis arrived at Quincy he learned that the railroad 96 Missouri Historical Review Artist's Conception of First Railway Postal Car Being Loaded at West Quincy had been unable to complete the cars. Proceeding to Hannibal, location of the Hannibal & St. Joseph general shops, Davis made arrangements with H. C. Whiting, a master carbuilder, for hasty installation of sorting tables and shelving in a baggage car. The car started from Hannibal, was loaded with mail at Palmyra, the junction with the Quincy line, and proceeded west, pulled by the locomotive Hannibal No. 1. The crew included George A. Chapin, engineer; I. N. Wilber, fireman; and mail clerks John C. Patton and Fred Harvey. Harvey later gained fame and prospered as founder of the famous restaurant chain. Davis was aboard, too. He had been appointed temporary superintendent of overland mail dis tribution at a salary of $100 per month. Postmaster Bittinger was represented by Guy C. Barton. Historical Notes and Comments 97 The tracks of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad left much to be desired so far as standards of construction and maintenance were concerned, and the damag ing raids of Confederate guer rillas did nothing to enhance safety. The mail car derailed at least once on its initial run to St. Joseph, but the experiment was considered a resounding success. The next day, with the famous engineer Addison Clark piloting the locomotive Missouri, the Interior of Railway Postal Car first mail car was hauled east (C1875) ward on a return trip. Clark later described the trip: "The track . . . was very rough and the cars, being short, got off the tracks quite often. Mr. H. W. Farley, the master mechanic, put two iron rods along the top of the car for the postal clerks to hang onto while the car was off the track, and it proved to be an excellent safety appliance." Map of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy and Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroads, July 28, 1862 loop H.flc ST.J.R. R. CO. *-W "V I I I I I I I 4-4-4-M-l I I I I I I I 1^ IMItlOIB N \< JWIjgjSOQBI 98 Missouri Historical Review Davis was permanently appointed superintendent of overland mail distribution in December, 1862. He died while still employed by the department on January 15, 1875, after 50 years of service. The postal cars continued in use between West Quincy and St. Joseph until the course and distribution of the overland mail was changed because of the approaching completion of the Union Pacific Railroad. Special ceremonies were held at Hannibal on July 28 com memorating the 100th anniversary run of the first railway post office, and honoring William A. Davis, the assistant postmaster at St. Joseph who conceived the idea of the mail car; John L. Bittinger the postmaster at St. Joseph whose support of Davis' idea made it possible; and the men of the U. S. Postal Service and Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. The ceremonies, sponsored by the Marion County Historical Society, the Hannibal Chamber of Commerce and the Burlington Railroad, featured a dedication program which included an address by Missouri Governor John M. Dalton and the presentation of a bronze plaque marking the 100th anniversary of the historic event. The plaque, which will be placed on a replica of the first mail car, is inscribed, "Commemorating the 100th Anniversary Run of the First Railway Post Office, July 28, 1862, on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad now part of the Burlington Lines. Car built at Hannibal, Mo., shops. Presented by the Marion County Historical Society, Hannibal, Mo., July 28, 1962." A display featured an old funnel-stacked, steam locomotive, a replica of the first mail car, a modern radio-equipped diesel loco motive, a present-day caboose or "way car," and other railroadiana including old railway posters, time tables, photographs, tickets, lanterns, and scale model trains. Steam engines pulled excursion trains between Hannibal and Quincy, and the Julie N. Dubuque took visitors on Mississippi river cruises. The Postoffice Department authorized a special cancella tion dye to be used on mail leaving Hannibal on July 28, 1962, commemorating the first trip of the mail car. Cacheted postal covers were made available to collectors by the Hannibal Chamber of Commerce. FORMER GOVERNOR JAMES T. BLAIR AND WIFE DIE Former Governor and Mrs. James T. Blair, Jr., were found dead in their home west of Jefferson City on July 13, the victims of carbon monoxide fumes. The fumes from an automobile left running in Historical Notes and Comments 99 an attached garage were pulled into the house by a central air conditioner located in the garage. Governor Blair's death ended a long and distinguished career of public serv ice. Born on March 15, 1902, in Mays ville, De Kalb County, the first son of James T. and Grace E. (Ray) Blair, Sr., Mr. Blair was introduced early to politics and public service. His father was a state representative from De Kalb County before young James Blair was born, served as an assistant attorney James T. Blair, Jr. general before the son was in his teens, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri when James Blair, Jr., was twelve. Governor Blair attended the Jefferson City Public schools, Staunton Military Academy, Staunton, Virginia, Southwest Mis souri State College, Springfield, University of Missouri, Columbia, and obtained his LL.B. degree from his father's alma mater, Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. He began the practice of law in 1924 in Jefferson City and the following year was elected city attorney. In 1928 he was elected Cole County Representative to the State General Assembly and re-elected in 1930. He served as president of the Missouri Bar Association in 1930, and during the 1931 session of the General Assembly gained the post of majority floor leader, the youngest man to hold either position. Always an outspoken and steadfast member of the Democratic Party, Mr. Blair was a delegate to the Democratic National Conven tion in Philadelphia in 1936, and served eight years as chairman of the Jefferson City Democratic Committee and as chairman of the Cole County Democratic Committee. In addition to his political activities he was a member of the Jefferson City Board of Education for eight years, serving two terms as president of the board. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, the Elks, the Masonic Order including the Shrine, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Amvets. Lie was also a member of the State Historical Society of Missouri, the Cole County Historical Society and the Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Blair entered the armed forces in May, 1942, serving most of his active duty in the European Theatre. He was released in 100 Missouri Historical Review November, 1945, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His decora tions included the Air Medal, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Presi dential Unit Citation, eleven battle stars, and Arrow Head insignia. He held a colonel's commission in the Missouri Air National Guard and was that organization's legal officer—senior state judge advo cate general. After World War II, Mr. Blair returned to his law practice in Jefferson City, and in 1947 won the city's mayoralty. He resigned in 1948 after being elected lieutenant-governor. He hoped to run for governor in 1952 but stepped aside in favor of Governor Phil M. Donnelly, and instead again ran successfully for lieutenant- governor. Elected governor in 1956, he acted quickly after his inauguration to put state governmental finances on a sound basis and set up Missouri's first effective budget review and control office. Under his administration the state's idle funds were invested so as to produce additional income, a system for capital improve ments was introduced whereby interest and other costs attendant to bond-issue financing were avoided, the Division of Procurement for all state agencies was revitalized, and a Planning and Construc tion Unit was added to the Budget Division to facilitate coordina tion and greater economy. In an effort to make Missouri's highways safer, Governor Blair secured the establishment of a motor vehicle speed limit, increased the strength of the State Highway Patrol by increasing the number of men and extending its powers of search and seizure. He sponsored a progressive program of improvements, including proposals to strengthen the state penal and mental health programs and to provide adequate regulation of nursing homes. A Council on Higher Education was created to cope with mounting problems regarding enrollment, finance, capital construction, curriculum and services, faced by the state's colleges and university. During the final year of his administration, Governor Blair established the Academy of Missouri Squires "to provide recogni tion and honor to Missourians who have made lasting contributions to their communities, the state, or the nation." The Governor and Mrs. Blair, the former Miss Emilie C. Chorn of Kansas City, were married in 1926. Surviving are a daughter Mary Margaret Cook, and a son, Jim Tom Blair, III, both of St. Louis; the Governor's mother, Mrs. James T. Blair, Sr., two brothers, Circuit Judge Sam C. Blair, and William C. Blair, all of Jefferson City; and two sisters, Mrs. Lynn M. Ewing, Nevada, and Mrs. Chapman Turner, Atlanta, Georgia. Historical Notes and Comments 101 GRADUATE THESES RELATING TO MISSOURI NORTHEAST MISSOURI STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE THESIS, 1961 The master's thesis accepted by Northeast Missouri State Teachers College during 1961 which is of interest to the Missouri historian is: Christenson, Lawrence O., "Agricultural Legislation in the 80th Congress" SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY GRADUATE THESES, 1961 The master's theses accepted by Saint Louis University during 1961 which are of interest to the Missouri historian include: Murphy, Marilyn Teresa, "The Metropolitan Saint Louis Sewer District: A Case- Study of the Operation of a Metropolitan Special District Government" Baluyut, Fernando de Lara, "Anheuser-Busch—A Study in Firm Growth" UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI GRADUATE THESES, 1961 The master's theses accepted by the University of Missouri during 1961 which are of interest to the Missouri historian are: Long, Leon Dupre, "A Comparative Analysis of the Weekly Offset and Letter press Newspaper Based on the Salisbury (Missouri) Press-Spectator" Rader, Howard Allen, "Newspaper History of Callaway County, Missouri, From 1839 to 1960" Secrest, Luther Clark, "The History of Radio Station KSD, St. Louis, Missouri: With Pertinent and Simultaneous References to the History of Broadcasting in America" Turner, Duane, "Congressional Redistricting in Missouri: A Study of Redisrict ing from the Initial Districts of 1845 to those Drawn by the General Assembly in 1961" The doctoral dissertations for the same period are: Galloway, John Albert, "John Barber White: Lumberman" Norris, James Donald, "The Maramec Iron Works, 1826-1876: The History of a Pioneer Iron Works in Missouri" Scroggins, Albert Taylor, Jr., "Nathaniel Patten, Jr., and the Missouri Intelli gencer and Boon's Lick Advertiser'1 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY GRADUATE THESIS, 1961 The master's thesis accepted by Washington University during 1961 which is of interest to the Missouri historian is: Weil, Oscar A. Jr., "Origin and Establishment of McKendree College, 1828-1841" 102 Missouri Historical Review LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES The Friends of Arrow Rock, meeting at Arrow Rock Tavern on July 22, made plans for the dedication of the old courthouse at Arrow Rock. Reports on the progress of the courthouse restoration were presented. Mrs. Lucia Argubright, Arrow Rock, chairman of the furnishings committee, told of recent acquisitions and listed a number of primitive articles still needed, among them a judge's bench for the courtroom. Mrs. David F. Eads, Columbia, president of the organization, extended a special tribute to Mrs. William H. Miller, Arrow Rock, for her work as general chairman of the annual auction, a fund raising project which has realized a net profit of $5,414.80 for the three years it has been held. The Boonslick Historical Society paid tribute to its past presi dents in observance of the 25th anniversary of the society's founding at a meeting in Glasgow on July 8. Featured speakers at the meeting were Mrs. Dorothy Caldwell, director of research at the State Llistorical Society, who presented an illustrated lecture of people of Missouri and the state's historic sites, and Daniel H. Spies, editorial assistant at the State Historical Society, who spoke on local history as an avocation. Photographs of historic Howard County homes were also displayed. After the meeting adjourned members were guests at a reception at the home of Miss Anna Mae Birch, president of the Boonslick Society. The Kingdom of Callaway Llistorical Society heard Dr. R. L. D. Davidson, president of Westminster College, discuss "Postage Stamps and Covers of the Civil War Period," at its May 21 meeting. On June 18 Clyde M. Evans, retired superintendent of mining for the Harbison-Walker Company, addressed the society on the subject ''Early History of the Fire Clay and Refractory Industry of Callaway County." Albert M. Spradling, Jr., Cape Girardeau lawyer and business man and president pro tern of the Missouri Senate, was elected president of the Cape Girardeau County Llistorical Society at a meeting on June 30 at the Public Library in Jackson. Other new officers are: first vice president James B. Hunt, Jr., formerly an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and now a lawyer in Cape Girardeau; second vice president Hope E. Morton, Jackson, county recorder; recording secretary Mrs. Ray E. Springer, Jackson; Historical Notes and Comments 103 corresponding secretary Mrs. W. F. Oehler, Cape Girardeau; treasurer John K. Hale, officer of the Cape State Bank; and librarian Mrs. Howard Cooke, Jackson, who was re-elected. The retiring president, Mrs. Arthur Thilenius, Cape Girardeau, received a standing vote of appreciation when Allen L. Oliver, Cape Girardeau, presented a resolution expressing appreciation for the fine work and outstanding accomplishments of the organization during her two year term of office. The Cape Girardeau Historical Society was organized in 1926, but like many similar organizations, it led a rather quiet existence in its formative years. Its initial success was marked by the gathering of manuscripts and documents related to the history of the district and forming them into a usable collection. Two years ago, benefiting from the enthusiasm and vigor of Mrs. Thilenius, the society began a period of dynamic growth. Aware that Cape Girardeau, founded by Don Louis Lorimier before 1793, Jackson and the entire county played an important part in the early development of Missouri, and lamenting the recent destruction of a great number of the structures significant to that early history, the society embarked upon an active program to preserve the remaining historic sites and to create an awareness of the historical importance of the area. Both funds and community interest were augmented by a con certed effort that increased membership from less than 100 to more than 500. Twenty-two persons have taken advantage of a recently initiated perpetual membership program by contributing $25 each. The program, conceived by Miss Frances Selle of Cape Girardeau, accords a life membership to the subscriber with the automatic inclusion of his name on a permanent memorial roll upon his death. Each participant receives a perpetual membership certificate designed by Jake Wells of the Southeast Missouri State College in Cape Girardeau, which depicts numerous historic personages and places associated with the county. Another source of funds to finance the society's many activities, also devised by Miss Selle, is the selling of regular and giant size postcards of historic scenes in the area. One of the factors contributing to a revival of interest was an extended series of local history articles in the newspaper. Many of them centered around the Civil War period in accordance with the centennial observance, and all of them concerned Cape Girardeau County and Southeast Missouri. 104 Missouri Historical Review The society has engaged in a variety of activities during the past two years which have not only stimulated interest in the society but have also contributed greatly to the preservation, and sometimes the active utilization of significant historic sites and objects in the area. Like most communities Cape Girardeau had a need for a permanent depository for items of historical interest. In co-operation with the county court and city officials the society succeeded in establishing on May 28, 1961, a small historical museum in the Cape Girardeau Common Pleas Courthouse. Residents have given and lent their historical items to build up the display. Already the visitors list represents nearly every state in the Union and several foreign countries. There were no takers when the C. A. Vandivort family offered the historic Bollinger stone mill powered by a waterwheel, a mill dam and pond, the Burfordville covered bridge across the pond and 24 surrounding acres to some public agency that would agree to maintain it as a park. Mrs. Thilenius suggested that the county historical society accept the offer. To accomplish this it was neces sary to incorporate as a non-profit institution the Cape Girardeau County Historical Realty Corporation. Spradling handled the legal aspects of the incorporation, and the transfer of the land and its improvements was completed. In co-operation with the State Historical Society the county society erected a large metal marker on nearby State Highway 34 calling attention to the significance and features of this historic and scenic spot. The mill area has been dedicated to public use and is being developed as a park and picnic grounds. Bollinger mill is being restored to its original state and there are many who look forward to eating cornbread made from meal ground by the water-powered burrs. One of the most historic spots in Cape Girardeau County is the Old Lorimier Cemetery on a hill overlooking the Mississippi River, burial place of Don Louis Lorimier, his Indian wife, and many other prominent early-day citizens. The society successfully spearheaded a fund drive to renovate and restore the markers damaged by time and vandals. The society was largely instrumental in having the memorial fountain in Courthouse park restored and rededicated with the co-operation of city officials and interested citizens. This monument commemorates the sacrifices of the area's Civil War soldiers. The nearby bandstand, site of many political rallies and other public gatherings, was also refurbished. Historical Notes and Comments 105 The society demonstrated much interest in the external restora tion of the Old Opera House by the owner. It was erected in Cape Girardeau in 1868 by the German Turnverein and recently barely escaped destruction to provide space for parking. Current society projects call for the restoration of a typical, old-time blacksmith shop in Pocahontas in the north part of the county, and the establishment of a roadside park to serve both local residents and travelers. The featured speaker at the September 25 meeting of the Civil War Round Table of Kansas City was Dr. Frederick Tilberg of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who was for many years the distin guished historian for the Gettysburg National Military Park. He is currently working on a three-volume definitive history of the Gettysburg Campaign. The Clay County Museum Association elected officers at its June 22 meeting at the farm home of Donald Pharis near Liberty. Officers for 1962-63 are: President, Donald Pharis; vice president, John J. Riodan, North Kansas City; and secretary-treasurer, Mrs. Stuart Holm, Kansas City, North. The retiring president and vice president, William Eldridge, and John Davis, were elected to the board of directors as was Russell Stocksdale. Board members remaining in office include Mrs. George Harrison, George Wymore, R. Kenneth Elliot, H. I. Hester, and Walter Pope Binns. At an August 16 meeting in the National Commercial Bank, Liberty, society members reviewed old books on Clay County history. Jack Wymore lead the discussion and displayed his collec tion of books. Members are considering the acquisition of a two- story, log house, reported to have been built in 1837, as a permanent home for the society's museum. Members of the Cole County Historical Society were guests of Governor and Mrs. John Dalton at an August 27 meeting on the Executive Mansion lawn in Jefferson City. Governor Dalton wel comed members and commended them on the work done at the society's museum. Mrs. Gerald Gray announced that 1,412 visitors have visited the museum since January. Mrs. John W. Hobbs reported the acquisition of additional manikins to be used in com pleting the display of inaugural ball gowns worn by the first ladies of Missouri. Mrs. Dalton's inaugural gown will be on display soon. 106 Missouri Historical Review Judge John H. Bradley, Kennett, president of the Dunklin County Historical Society, has recently presented to the State Historical Society two copies of the 726-page Dunklin County Historical Society, volume II, compiled by the society and printed by the Whitney Thrower Printing Company, Kennett. Reproduced in this volume is the History of Dunklin County, Mo., 1845-1895, by Mary F. Smith-Davis, which was first published in 1896. Also included are chapters on the history of Maiden, place names of Dunklin County, the history of the First Southern Baptist Church, and the Beechwell General Baptist Church, and the history of a number of Dunklin County families. Judge Bradley is the author of a section devoted to the Bench and Bar in Dunklin County contain ing the biographies of thirteen circuit court judges and 127 county lawyers. The Florissant Valley Historical Society held its annual dinner meeting July 19 at the Florissant Valley Country Club. Gerhardt Kramer, a St. Louis architect and immediate past president of Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc., presented the feature address, reviewing the past accomplishments and future plans of the four year-old Landmarks Association. The Association won a recent battle to save from destruction the historic Captain Bissel Mansion in North St. Louis. It is currently engaged in a struggle to preserve the Old St. Louis Post Office, the DeMenil House, and the Henry T. Blow Library. Dedicated to the preservation of his toric landmarks in St. Louis, the Association is equally concerned with the cultural and environmental aspects of building and devel opment programs throughout the city. The Gentry County Historical Society heard L. N. Bowman, editor and publisher of the King City Tri-Co. News, review the history of the King City Presbyterian church at its July 1 meeting in King City. The Greene County Historical Society held its second annual dinner meeting June 21 at the Holiday Inn in Springfield. Members heard Reverend J. Robert Ashcroft, president of Evangel College and Central Bible Institute, speak on "A Church and a College— Another Experiment." Members of the Jackson County Historical Society chartered a bus on June 3 and embarked on a tour of historical points in Historical Notes and Comments 107 Platte and Buchanan Counties. Sites linked with travel by pony express and Missouri river boats of the 19th century were visited. Members toured old homes in Weston, the St. Joseph historical museum, and the Pony Express museum in St. Joseph where a buffet supper was served. Fairgrounds Park in Higginsville was the scene of the Lafayette County Historical Society's annual picnic on July 12. President of the society, Leslie H. Bell, Lexington, presided at the meeting and introduced the speakers who discussed incidents regarding the county's history. Mrs. Lutie Gordon Jordan, Waverly, described how Confederate General Joseph O. Shelby successfully used a wooden cannon to intercept a Federal supply boat at Waverly during the Civil War. Collins Ewing, Odessa, explained that Odessa was named for the Russian city because of the similarity of terrain. Harry Voigt, Concordia, read a Civil War letter relating the experiences of some of Concordia's residents in the 1860s. Reverend A. C. MacKinney, Higginsville, discussed the early history of Higginsville and the Higgins family. Hubert Bates, Jefferson City, told of some amusing incidents that occurred during the years that he has campaigned for public office. The society is currently engaged in an extensive program of placing markers at the county's historic sites. Chairman of the marker program, John R. Wallace, Lexington, reported that each marker will cost about $160 and will be financed by voluntary contributions. The Lawrence County Historical Society met on July 16, in the Pierce City Park to view photographic slides of historical markers in Lawrence County. The Historical Society of Maries County met July 19 at the Methodist Parish Hall in Vienna to make further plans to publish "A History of Maries County" compiled by the late Everett M. King. The proposed publisher, Felix E. Snider, librarian at Kent Library, Southeast Missouri State College and owner of the Ramfre Press, Cape Girardeau, spoke to the society. The Missouri Historical Society of St. Louis has recently acquired the services of George R. Brooks, a native of St. Louis, who succeeds Charles van Ravenswaay as director. Brooks gradu ated from Williams College and received a master's degree at 108 Missouri Historical Review Washington University, St. Louis. He has done graduate work at Harvard University and was employed at the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1959-1960 he served as curator of the Missouri Historical Society. At the society's annual meeting on May 1 at the Jefferson Memorial in St. Louis, Mr. I. A. Long was elected president. Long is president of the Southwest Bank, Chairman of the St. Louis Housing Authority, former president of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners and is active in charitable and civic organi zations. Mrs. C. Alvin Tolin, Jr., is the new president of the women's association of the society, succeeding Mrs. Frank E. Pel ton, Jr. In an atmosphere suggestive of his topic, William Baggerman addressed the St. Charles County Historical Society on "The Early History of Wine Making in St. Charles County," at the society's quarterly meeting July 28 held in the cellars of the old Mount Pleasant Wine Company in Augusta. On August 7 the society purchased a building at 515 South Main Street, St. Charles, to be used as a local history museum. The building is the site of the old Eckert's Tavern which was a thriving inn when the first state capitol was located in St. Charles (1821-1826). Mrs. Edna M. Olson, the society's archivist, reports that Echert's Tavern was the site where George C. Sibley, Benjamin Reeves and Thomas Mathor prepared final reports on their survey of a trade route to Santa Fe which had been authorized by Congress during President James Monroe's administration in 1824. The St. Joseph Historical Society met at the St. Joseph Museum, August 13. The society observed the thirteenth anniversary of its first meeting held in the Corby Building, and paid tribute to the late judge Galius L. Zwick, the society's founder. Dr. Richard S. Brownlee, director of the State Historical Society, addressed the annual meeting of the White River Valley Historical Society at Shadow Rock Park in Forsyth on June 24. Dr. Brownlee told of Confederate General Sterling Price's 1864 raid into South east Missouri and the bloody encounter with Union General Thomas Ewing's forces at Pilot Knob. Officers elected for the coming year are: President, Dr. R. M. Good, president emeritus of the School of the Ozarks, Point Look out; 1st vice president, Robert L. Gideon, Forsyth; 2nd vice presi- Historical Notes and Comments 109 dent, Arch Mayden, Branson; secretary, Elmo Ingenthron, Forsyth; and treasurer, Dorothy Sandlee, Llollister. "Living Architecture," a comment on the architecture about us, illustrated with color slides, by architect Marilyn McCarron, was the featured presentation at the July 20 meeting of the Missouri "Show Me" Club in Los Angeles. An added treat was a musical program by Grace Speece. At the club's August 17 meeting, Dolly Lee Butler, attorney and student of astrology, presented an address entitled "Can Astrology Give Us a Glimpse of a Better Future?" ANNIVERSARIES North Kansas City celebrated its Golden Anniversary with a week of festivities beginning June 24. The drama of the growth of the area was presented nightly, June 25-30, in a pageant entitled "Gateway North." Featuring a cast of 450 persons, the pageant portrayed the history of Clay County beginning with the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803. Highlights were wagon train scenes, Civil War skirmishes, Jesse James' daylight bank robbery in Liberty, the opening of the Armour-Swift-Burlington bridge across the Missouri River, and the evacuation from the 1951 flood. A number of articles in the Kansas City Star, June 24, tell of the city's development and the anniversary celebration. The 100th anniversary of the Civil War Battle of Lone Jack, fought on August 16, 1862, was observed August 19 at Lone Jack. Members of the Wesport Historical Society, the Jackson County Historical Society and other interested individuals participated in the ceremony which was viewed as a commemoration rather than a celebration. Todd George, 84-year-old Lee's Summit resident whose loyalty is with the South, pointed out "there was nothing to celebrate—a victory for no one. The battle resulted only in broken hearts and broken families." B. J. George, Sr., Kansas City, mas ter of ceremonies, introduced the featured speaker, Ralph A. Powell, Lee's Summit, who told the story of the battle. At the pre-ceremony planning meeting, July 29, at the Lone Jack Baptist Church, Floyd Snyder, Sr., judge of the eastern district of Jackson County, revealed the county court's plan to open bids August 27 on a museum building to be constructed at the battle site. HO Missouri Historical Review MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS PRINCESS OTAHKI MONUMENT DEDICATED AT TRAIL OF TEARS STATE PARK Irwin, Missouri Stale Turk System Princess Otahki Monument The Princess Otahki monument at the Trail of Tear State Park in Cape Girardeau County was formally dedicated in a ceremony sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club on May 28. About 500 persons attended the ceremony and saw Charles W. Boutin, former member of the state park board, become an honorary mem ber of the Cherokee Indian Nation and ambassador of good will for the tribe. Boutin was honored because of his successful efforts to create the park and monument. Conferring the honor was Napoleon Bonaparte Johnson who represented the Cherokees and who is a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Rush H. Limbaugh, permanent trustee and past president of the State Historical Society, presented the major address. He described the history of the park's creation and told how it received its name, recalling that a great number of Cherokee Indians perished during a forced exodus from their homes in Georgia and Tennessee to new lands in Indian Territory between 1837-1839. A portion of the emigrants reached the Mississippi River in January, 1839, and crossed at Green's Ferry. They landed at Wizard's Landing, now called Moccasin Springs and a part of the park, and followed the Green's Ferry Road to Jackson. From there they crossed Missouri, working their way southward through Springfield and Cassville, Historical Notes and Comments 111 crossing the Arkansas boundary in Barry County. About 4,000 Indians perished when a severe winter caused unusual hardships during the journey. Many died at the Moccasin Springs crossing, including Princess Otahki. The journey was truly, as the Cherokees call it, a "Trail of Tears." NOTES The American Association for State and Local History is beginning to gather information for its 1963 Directory of Historical Societies and Agencies in the United States and Canada. The 1961 edition of this directory has proved to be useful to those interested in the work of state and local historical societies and agencies in this country and Canada. It has been in demand by libraries, book deal ers, publishing houses and colleges. Historical societies in Missouri are encouraged to complete and return information forms sent to them by the assocation. Those societies which were not listed in the 1961 directory or organized since that time are requested to contact the association at 151 East Gorham Street, Madison 3, Wisconsin. James D. Attebury of Osceola has given the Society a number of original land deeds recorded in St. Clair County dating from 1844 to 1895. Mrs. Thomas W. Botts of Columbia has given the Society a number of items relating to Princeton, Mercer County, and the University of Missouri. Mary Paxton Keeley, Columbia, has given the Society a copy of A Sketch of the University of the State of Missouri, by Thomas Jefferson Lowry, published in 1890, along with other materials pertaining to the University of Missouri. Dr. Clair V. Mann, Rolla, has presented to the Society the Proceedings of the Phelps County Historical Society bound in three volumes, including the years 1938, when the Society was consti tuted, to 1943. Miss Frances Selle of Cape Girardeau has given the Society two historical photographs pertaining to Cape Girardeau. Mr. S. W. Skelton, Rock Port, has given the Society a typescript entitled "A Brief History of Lincoln Township—Harrison County, 112 Missouri Historical Review Missouri." Mr. Skelton, a resident of the township for more than 69 years, has compiled the history from township records, his own memory, and personal interviews. The location, description, and names of past and present owners of homes and buildings in the small village of Hatfield, founded 1878, and names of past and present Lincoln Township landowners are included. "North Kansas City in the Neighborhood of Clay," by William E. Eldridge appearing in the North Kansas City, Missouri, Golden Anniversary, 1912-1962 official program relates the early history of North Kansas City and Clay County beginning in 1886. Some early highlights in the county history are also recorded in Eldridge's article in the Kansas City Star, June 24, entitled "Clay County Development Goes Back to 1822." The Wonder City, a 55-page illustrated booklet by Paul IT. Kemp, Sr., records the history of the El Dorado wSprings Park from 1869 to the present. A brief history of Everton, Dade County, which describes the founding of the first post office at Rock Prairie in 1843 and subse quent highlights, appears in Everton's 73rd annual picnic souvenir program, July 11, 12, 13, and 14. Also included in the 48-page program are thumbnail sketches of the Everton Picnic, Dade County's first courthouse and the Everton park. A History of Peace Church Cemetery (104 years) and Sherwood Cemetery (100 years), Galena township, Jasper County, has been published by Mrs. Lillie Johnson Geer of Carl Junction. Included in the 64-page, illustrated booklet are articles by Letha A. Moss-Fly, Dolph Shaner, and Lillie Johnson Geer. "Centuries of History in a Scenic, 1-Day Cruise of the Osage River," by Ray Heady in the Kansas City Star, June 10, recalls the early history of the Osage river valley in St. Clair County. "Grave and Comic Civil War Memories," by Ethylene Ballard Thurston in the Kansas City Star, August 18, relates reminiscences of the Civil War Battles of Lone Jack and White Oak creek in east ern Jackson County. "Unelected Governor Led Missouri Through War," by Robert Pearman in the Kansas City Times, July 24, describes Provisional Historical Notes and Comments 113 Governor Hamilton R. Gamble's efforts to guide Missouri through the chaotic years of the Civil War. "Shoemaker Cites Missouri's Role in Settling Oregon," by Lancaster Pollard in the St. Joseph News-Press, July 5, records the remarks of Floyd C. Shoemaker, secretary emeritus of the State Historical Society, during his summer visit to Oregon and the 1962 World's Fair. "119th Camp Meeting Opens Today," in the Sedalia Democrat, August 5, recalls early camp meetings at Lake Creek in southeastern Pettis County. "The Conspiracy of the Baked-In Rope," by Lucile Morris Upton in the Springfield News and Leader, August 5, tells of the intriguing and successful plot of two young women to rescue Con federate prisoners from the old Greene County courthouse in August, 1862. OBITUARIES BLACKMAR, CHARLES M., Kansas City: November 25, 1885- April 9, 1962.* CARUTHERS, B. E., Farmington: October 10, 1887-December 27,1961.* COVERT, CHARLES E. Houston: November 24, 1868-March 30, 1962.* DALLMEYER, MRS. MARGARET, Jefferson City: June 6, 1905- August 11, 1962.* DECK, FRANK S., Kansas City: August 5, 1931-May 28, 1962.* DIEKROEGER, HARVEY, Wentzville: March 25, 1909-July 16, 1961.* GILL, FORREST M., Chillicothe: October 16, 1883-September 12, 1961.* GREGG, STANLEY E., Independence: June 20, 1886-July 27, 1961.* GRUNER, ROY, Farmington: January 7, 1885-December 30, 1961.* HANLY, W. C, Webster Groves: November 17, 1891-February 18, 1962.* 114 Missouri Historical Review H'DOUBLER, Dr. FRANCIS T., Springfield: April 22, 1887- June 16, 1962.* HOCK, W. C, Fort Worth, Texas: November 27, 1874-June 1, 1962.* LANGSDALE, MRS. GEORGE, Charleston: January 16, 1872- May 1, 1962.* LEFFLER, OTTO F., St. Louis: January 20, 1885-June 3, 1962.* MCGUIRE, MRS. F. H., Mountain Grove: October 22, 1889- February 5, 1961.* MITCHELL, MRS. WILMA, Fayette: April 17, 1875-January 19, 1962.* MURRAY, D. L., SR., Kansas City: February 9, 1878-January 23, 1962.* RANDOLPH, REVEREND J. D., Fulton: August 21, 1883-May 21, 1962.* REDDISH, RICHARD T., Kansas City: 1895-December 8, 1961.* RIDGEWAY, WILLIAM J., Columbia: December 22, 1883-March 28, 1962. Descendant of pioneer founders of Fort Kincaid and Old Franklin, and Boone County; retired businessman; Boone County Court Judge, and Judge of Boone County Probate Court, 1936- 1950; Deputy Sheriff, Boone County, 1952-1961.* SHEPARD, PAUL HOWTE, Mountain Grove: September 27, 1890- August 28, 1961.* SIMPSON, DR. GUY, St. Louis: January 2, 1888-July 1, 1962.* SITZES, ROBERT J., Sikeston: March 19, 1919-September 5, I960.* SMITH, CARTER, Tulsa, Oklahoma: December 7, 1882-March 14, I960.* STINE, DR. DAN G., Columbia: August 24, 1883-May 28, 1962.* STOUFFER, L. T., Napton: July 10, 1874-November 9, 1961.* YOUNG, MRS. F. L., Herculaneum: May 24, 1868-April 23, 1962.* *A member of the Society. Historical Notes and Comments 115 HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS Time Enough, Essays in Autobiography. By Frank Luther Mott. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1962. 248 pp. Not indexed. $6.00.) In this series of fifteen genial, humorous and often intimate autobiographical essays, Frank Luther Mott expresses his philos ophy that "although we are all a part of the clock-and-calandar system on which the world must be run, we occasionally have to stand up and say, each for himself, 'I have time enough—enough and to spare for what I really wish most to do.' " Dr. Mott now lives in Columbia, Missouri, and is dean emeritus of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The greatest part of his life has been dedicated to an active participation in the profession of journalism, a profession which "suffers more than most occupations under the tyranny of the clock." The hours are marked by the deadlines to be met. Through the years, as an editor of a daily newspaper and teacher of journalism, Dean Mott has become convinced that the recurrent emphasis in our lives on points of time that have no real significance has a tendency to distort our concept of time in general. In this volume he points out that this emphasis extends beyond newspaper work into all kinds of hectic and over strained activity, whether it be the business of livelihood or life in general. Here he vividly recounts the ways of life that were familiar to an America not marked by jet propelled transportation, telstar communication or the seemingly pressing demands of urban life. These essays—"Quaker Boy," "Country Town," "The Old Printing Office," "Chautauqua," "The Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Speakers," and the rest—record an active, well ordered life full of notable accomplishments. They portray a mode of living that has almost disappeared but they also testify to the building of one man's dynamic philosophy—a philosophy of Time Enough, which distinguishes between time as a continuum and time as experience, recognizing that life is a continual compromise between them and that time has meaning according to the experience with which we fill it. Dean Mott was born on a farm in Keokuk County in southeast ern Iowa just across the Missouri border. After attending Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, and earning a Ph.B. at the University of Chicago in 1907, he joined his father as co-editor of the Marengo (Iowa) Republican. In 1914 he struck out on his own as editor and publisher of the Grand Junction (Iowa) Globe. Forsaking the role 116 Missouri Historical Review of country editor in 1917 for a teaching career,he taught in Brooklyn, New York, earned his master's degree from Columbia University in 1919 and then taught English at Simpson College until 1921 when he moved to the State University of Iowa as assistant professor of English. In 1927 he accepted an appointment as Director of the School of Journalism at the University of Iowa. A year later he received a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University, writing his dissertation on a subject that would later win a Pulitzer Prize for him. He left Iowa in 1942 to assume the duties of dean at the Uni versity of Missouri School of Journalism where his work heightened his international reputation as a journalist and took him to Biarritz American University in France to participate in the United States Army's experiment in educating its personnel stationed abroad, and to Japan as a War Department expert on the press and publications. He became dean emeritus in 1951 and continued a reduced teaching schedule until he retired in 1956. A number of honors have been awarded Dean Mott including the Pulitzer Prize in history (1939) for the second and third volumes of his A History of American Magazines and the Bancroft Prize for the fourth volume. Other works include Golden Multitudes (1947) and American Journalism: A History, first published in 1941 with a second edition in 1950. A chapter on the development of journal ism in the 1950s has been added to the third edition issued in the spring of 1962. Mark Twain: Life As I Find It. Edited by Charles Neider. (Garden City, N. Y.: Hanover House, 1961. 411 pp. Indexed. $4.95.) Charles Neider is a well-known authority on Mark Twain. Besides being the editor and compiler of The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, "now collected for the first time," and The Auto biography of Mark Twain, "including chapters now published for the first time," he is editor of The Complete Humorous Sketches and Tales of Mark Twain and The Travels of Mark Twain. Now he has issued Mark Twain: Life As I Find It, "essays, sketches, tales, and other material, the majority of which is now published in book form for the first time." One wonders where Neider might next turn unless it be to something on the order of "Early Sketches Tales, Anecdotes, Essays, and Other Pieces Contributed to the Hannibal Journal," by young Sam Clemens, alias A Dog-Be-Deviled Citizen, alias W. Historical Notes and Comments 117 Epaminondas Adrastus Blab, alais Mark Twain, all, of course, published for the first time in book form. Like Albert Bigelow Paine, a Mark Twain biographer of half a century ago, Neider has proceeded to rescue little-known Twain contributions to periodicals which flourished in the last half of the nineteenth century. Many of these deserve reading, but others do not warrent the saving, and Twain preferred to see some lost to anonymity. If what the editor says is true, that these sketches "contain his [Twain's] brand of humor in what is perhaps its purest form" and that "here more than elsewhere he indulged in fun for its own sake," then those who prefer the humor as well as the technician's skill represented in such works as "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" will be sorely disappointed. By way of justifying the publication of this collection Neider points out that the thirty-seven volume Definitive Edition of The Works of Mark Twain, published in 1922-25, contains only one of the items he includes. The items are arranged chronologically and divided into two categories. Those which fit the description of essays, sketches, and tales compose Part I. Part II is devoted to interviews, including one by Rudyard Kipling, which come from New York newspapers—the Hear Id, World, American Journal, Times, American and Sun—most of which are dated between 1900-07. The title of the book, "Life As I Find It," comes from a brief sketch included in the work, and is as appropriate as any title attempting to cover the sundry selections represented here. The temper and tone of the sketch and its cynicism, however, cannot be applied to all of the items, for they reveal Mark Twain in varying moods of light and dark, contentiousness and ambivalence. With the notable invective that was one side of his broad genius there are excursions in social criticism, in humor, in gentle comments on neighbors, and in autobiography. Regardless of the quality of any of the particular selections, Neider has done a service to those who appreciate the literary efforts of Mark Twain whatever his mood. Many of the items collected were available previously to only the most persistant scholars. A helpful list of sources indicates when and where each of the selections first appeared in print. The collection is a natural supplement and good companion volume to The Com plete Short Stories of Mark Twain. 118 Missouri Historical Review Tales About Joplin . . . Short and Tall. By Evelyn Milligan Jones. Illustrated by Betty Nolan. (Joplin, Missouri: Harrigan House, 1962. 178 pp. Not indexed.) This volume is appropriately titled. The tales Evelyn Milligan Jones spins about Joplin are short, rarely over 800 words, and most of them are "tall." What Mrs. Jones has recorded here in her delightful style are the amusing yarns that have passed by word of mouth from one person to another in the manner of folklore. While much factual material is included many of the incidents, through numerous tellings, have been romanticized. A total of forty tales varying in subject matter from the unbe lievable "Man Horse" to the fossilized skeleton of an Elaphas Americanus are included in the book. "Country of the Six Bulls" and "Halfway to the End of the World" tell of the first settlers in the area. Other tales deal with the Sarcoxie Indian War, the Rever end Harris G. Joplin for whom the town was named, and founding fathers John C. Cox and Patrick Murphy. Some tell of incidents pertinent to the cultural life of early Joplin — the first red brick schoolhouse and the custom of turning the stick, the early brush arbor religious meetings, the "bran dances," the corn-husking and quilting bees. The title of one sketch, "Joplin Grew From a Hole in the Ground," catches the spirit of a number of yarns about the discovery of lead, the opening of the many mines, and the miners themselves with their foibles, their mules and their maids. Two tales concern the names of mines, sometimes relevant but always colorful. Mines were labeled Goodenough, Hello Dad, Get There, and Grass hopper Diggings. Sometimes a pattern was followed — Bird Dog, Bull Dog, White Dog, Red Dog, Yellow Dog, and even the imagina tive Green Dog. The nature of mines bearing such designations as Little Hope, What Cheer, Jack Pot, Great Scott and Holy Moses is evident, while Ino, Uno, Damfino and Damfuno suggest rhyme but little reason. Episodes in the lives of a number of Joplin's renowned residents are also recorded. Mrs. Jones writes of 15-year-old Percy Wenrich, who was to compose "On Moonlight Bay," "When You Wore A Tulip," and "Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet," as well as "Oh, Flow I Love The Nineteenth Hole When The Eighteenth Hole Is Over," and how he sneaked into the famous House of Lords tavern to listen enraptured to Scott Joplin as he beat out his "Maple Leaf Rag." She also tells the familiar story about young Thomas Hart Benton who embarked rather abruptly on a painting career when he Historical Notes and Comments 119 blushingly asserted that he was an artist to avoid being kidded about staring at a painting of a nude hanging behind the bar at the House of Lords. Thirty-seven photographs of people and places in early Joplin and a number of appropriate and charming illustrations by Betty Nolan add sparkle to a tale well told. Great Westerner, The Story of Kit Carson. By Bernice Black- welder. (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1962. 373 pp. Not indexed. $6.00.) Relying heavily on secondary sources and using that material fit for making heros, Mrs. Blackwelder has written an exciting and eulogistic biography of Kit Carson. Brought west from Kentucky to the settlement of Franklin in Missouri territory when he was two years old, Christopher Houston Carson grew up with the West. He was apprenticed to a saddler at 14 only to run away two years later to join a wagon train carrying freight to Santa Fe. Thereafter he took an active part in the exploration of the West, journeying with Ewing Young's expedition to the Pacific coast, trapping with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and as a free agent, guiding Lieutenant John C. Fremont's party on two surveying trips and the abortive conquest of California, and accompanying General Stephen W. Kearny's Army of the West in its ill-starred attempt to secure California for the United States. In addition to gaining fame as a trapper, explorer, scout and Indian fighter, Carson also became a successful rancher, served for a decade as Indian agent, and fought with the Union in the Civil War, earning the rank of brigadier general. Mrs. Blackwelder, a native of Kansas educated at Fort Hays Kansas State College who was professor of voice at Central College, Fayette, Missouri, from 1926-29, has written a simple and spirited account of one of the West's most colorful figures. Only the incom plete footnote references, which will frustrate and often discourage the reader who wishes to trace sources, mar her admirable account of a great westerner. MISSOURI HISTORY NOT FOUND IN TEXTBOOKS ON THE STAGE From The La Grange Democrat, May 20, 1880. The La Grange Troubadors [sic] were out upon a moonlight seranade Monday night, and in the rounds honored the Democrat with a calf. The young men are making marked improvement, and will soon do to travel. "THE BEST LAID SCHEMES o' MICE AND MEN GANG AFT A-GLEY . . ." From the Fulton Telegraph, March 14, 1889. An Atchison, Kas., woman with a family of girls reared them up with the fixed determination that not one of them should ever marry a Missourian, a Democrat, or a man named John, and the very first one to go married all three. SUITS DON'T SUIT From the Kansas City Daily Journal, July 7, 1883. Paper suits are said to be the latest wrinkle in summer wear. We have heard of paper car wheels, paper barrels and paper buckets, but paper suits are really a novelty. Perhaps they mean libel suits for newspapers. If so we don't care much for them. We had two of them last winter, and they wore out in a week or two. YOU GOT TROUBLE, RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY From the Eminence Current Wave, February 23, 1893. Rev. Bone on Sunday night last touched up the small boys in and around town for marble playing on the Sabbath days. He also paid his respects to the larger boys for encouraging such practices and he did right when he did it. It is a lamentable fact that few, if any, of the children are made to observe the Sabbath. They play marbles, ball or most anything else they choose out on the public streets, and Sunday is their chief day to indulge in such sports. The grown-up people should not set such examples and parents should see that their boys are made to abandon such habits. TREPIDATION From the Lexington Register, July 6, 1876. An old countryman, afflicted with palsy, and excited to the highest pitch, laboriously climbed the stairs leading to our office the other day, and in a tremul ously voice inquired: "Mr. Lesueur, w-h-i-c-h received the no-min-ation, Tilten or Beecher?" and the old gentleman sank into a chair from sheer exhaustion. We kindly told him he was evidently in the wrong office, and the look of dismay he gave us was truly pitiful. He never expected to emerge from the office door alive, and when he arose to go we treated him with great civility, cordially inviting him to call again. He said he had never before beheld the interior of a radical printing office and was astonished at the kind treatment he had received. As he 120 Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks 121 departed the precocious little devil called to him saying, "Theodore Tilton got the place, old man," and the old paralytic shuffled "Dixie" with his brogans as he descended the long flight of stairs. OLE OLEORESIN From the St. Louis Missouri Republican, August 21, 1886. A bartender in the back-room of a country store, says the Arkansas Traveller, in mixing a drink for a customer, accidently poured in about two tablespoonfuls of turpentine. He discovered the mistake, but saying nothing about it, he filled the glass with whiskey. The man drank the mixture, smacked his lips and walked away. Pretty soon he returned and said: "Bill, haven't I alius been er good customer uv yourn?" "Yes." "An' alius tuck what you sot afore me without say in' a word:" "Yes." "Always dun the best I could for yer, Bill?" "Uv Co'se, Andy; whut's the matter with you?" "Wall, it's jist this. Why haven't you been givin' me that good liker all the time? Been er drinkin' here ever sense you started, an' jes' now is the furst time you've ever give up your best liker. Hand me out another drink like the one you give me just now an' we'll call it square." FOR THE GENEALOGIST From the La Grange Weekly Indicator, December 8, 1898. Here is a family muddle that not even the Columbia Herald can untangle: Oliver Clement of Poplar Bluff, aged 18 years, was married last week to Mrs. Hannah McGinnis, aged 50. She was his stepmothers stepmother. This is the strange story leading to the marriage: Andrew McGinnis of Cole County, in his sixty years, was married five times, and is now living with his fifth wife. He had five children, four girls, and one boy—three by his first wife, and one by his second. McGinnis killed his second wife. He was sentenced to fifteen years in the peni tentiary for this and served seven years receiving a pardon. In Butler county he married his forth wife, now Mrs. Clements. He was divorced from her and has since remarried. His oldest daughter married John Clement, a widower and father of the present groom. Clement died and the boys lived with their grandmother until she died. Then Oliver married the fourth wife of his stepgrandfather Andrew McGinnis. Now the question, who is who's what? MISSOURI HISTORICAL DATA IN MAGAZINES Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society, July, 1962: "A Missouri Merchant Recalls the Civil War: Reminiscences of Thomas B. Bullene of Kansas City," by William H. Wilson; "Unknown Kenrick Gardens," by the Rev. Peter J. Rahill; "Dr. George M. Willing: The Extraordinary Physician," by Hugh P. Williamson; "A Portrait of Benjamin Gratz Brown," by Edwin J. Bean. Civil War Times, July, 1962: "The Blue, the Gray, and the Red—Indians in the War," by Fairfax Downey; "Halleck—the Despised 'Old Brains,' " by Stephen E. Ambrose. 122 Missouri Historical Review Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, July, 1962: "The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod Reacts to United States Anti-Germanism During World War I," By Frederick Nohl. Kirkwood llistorical Review, June, 1962: "The Journals of Ella Cecil Bodley," [1857-1858], Part I. The Mark Twain Journal, Summer, 1962: Ernest Hemingway Memorial Number, "Two Rivers: Mark Twain and Hemingway," by Carlos Baker. Mid-America, April, 1962: "Edward Bates and the Decision of 1860," by Marvin R. Cain. Midcoritinent American Studies Journal, Spring, 1962: "Sam Clemens' Hannibal, 1836-1838," by Donald H. Welsh. Missouri Farmer, August, 1962: "Toby: The Last Leaf," by Max Baird [decline of tent shows in Missouri]. Missouri Press News, March, 1962: "The Missing Link Could Be Found in Meadville and Wheeling, Missouri, in the 1890s," by William H. Taft. Museum Graphic, Spring, 1962: " Robidoux and the Fur Trade," and "The Vast Empire of the Robidoux," by Bartlett Boder. Museum News, May, 1962: "The Story of Watkins Mill," by W. Howard Adams The Ozarks Mountaineer, March, 1962: "Civil War Guerrillas," by W. J. Lemke. , May, 1962: " Military Action Declines After Pea Ridge," by W. J. Lemke. Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, September- December, 1960: "Growth of the Lorettines in Missouri, 1841-1874, Part II," by Sister M. Lilliana Owens. Tradition, February, 1962: "I Sounded The Trumpet," [William Keil and The Bethel Commune, Missouri], by Ruth Louise Johnson. The Westerners, New York Posse Brand Book, Volume 9, No. 2, 1962: "Kansas City's First Forty Years," by John Edward Hicks. White River Valley Historical Quarterly, Winter, 1961-62: "The Branson Story," by Edith McCall; "Pioneer Life," by Joseph M. Branson; "White River Valley Historical Society Dedicates Its First Historical Marker at Rock bridge," by Ruby Matson Robins; "U. S. Census Report for Taney County, Missouri, (1840)." , Spring, 1962: "The Civil War in the Upper White River Valley," by Elmo Ingenthron; "I Bequeath One Slave," by Gene Geer; "Civil War Adventures of Captain John McCoy," by Walter F. Lackey (reprinted from History of Newton County, Arkansas); "William Jeptha Johnson," by Faun J. Hill; "The Alsups of Douglas County," by Claude Hibbard; "Silas Shruggs Stacey—Involuntary Pioneer," by Dorothy Cummings. 8 Fred Geary Woodcut ifflembergijtp tn tlje ^tate Historical g>octetp of Jfltstfouri mill ifflafee a ©Honberful #tft Wbix Cfjrtetmag ;•• JS/his Christmas you may give a membership in the (!) State Historical Society of Missouri. Richly rewarding (I) is a knowledge of our State's past and of the famous and III infamous Missourians who have shaped our Nation's g history. Ill Jflembership is $1.00 per year, which entitles the new g member to four editions of the nationally famous Mis- jp souri Historical Review and participation in the affairs [p of the Society. Ill i§>end names and addresses of those you recommend for g membership to: THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF || MISSOURI, HITT AND LOWRY STREETS, COLUMBIA, II; MISSOURI. Enclose a check for the total amount made |jj payable to the Society; $1.00 for each year, for as many (ij years as you desire. Life memberships are $20.00. Ill 2:5 Justification will be sent to the new member along with III a Christmas greeting bearing your name. Please state {Is that you recommend the new membership as a Christmas III present. 5« m m m ;:«:iwj&&:U:J&S:J^^ FAMOUS PERSONAGES OF THE CIVIL WAR IN MISSOURI John Sappington Marmadukc John S. Marmaduke was probably the best trained pro-southern military man in Missouri when the Civil War erupted. He left Saline County at 17 to spent two years at Yale, and in 1353 accepted an appointment to West Point. After graduation he served with Colonel A. S. Johnston in the Morman campaign in Utah, and gained valuable experience in frontier warfare in New Mexico. When the war came Marmaduke returned to Missouri to consult with his father who had served the state as its ninth governor. Although his father supported the Union, Marmaduke resigned his commission, joined the Missouri State Guard and was appointed colonel by secessionist Governor C. F. Jackson. As Union troops moved up the Missouri river, Jackson ordered Marmaduke to give battle at Boonville. Marmaduke surveyed his 600 raw recruits, half the number of the experienced Federal force, and advised against such action. Overruled, he fought and lost. Realizing that politicians could not effectively conduct military matters, he resigned in disgust and went to Richmond to join the Confederate Army. He fought bravely at Shiloh, was wounded, and elevated to brigadier general. In northwest Arkansas he assumed command of General Tom Hindman's cavalry, including fighting Jo Shelby's Iron Brigade. When hopes of Confederate success seemed darkest, Marmaduke sprang to the offensive. He led a series of raids into Federally con trolled Missouri, using cavalry for the first time in the Trans- Mississippi as an independent striking force to carry the war to the heart of the enemy. First he attacked Springfield in January, 1863, drawing the Union army out of Arkansas to protect its supply base. His second raid, directed against Cape Girardeau in April, failed strategically and almost ended in disaster, but it emphasized the vulnerability of Missouri. It was not until August, 1864, that Marmaduke again led his cavalry into Missouri, this time joining General Sterling Price on the ill-starred raid that ended in retreat and crushing defeat for the southern army and capture for Marmaduke. Released from prison at the war's end, Marmaduke spent six months in Europe. In 1866 he returned to St. Louis, where he engaged in numerous business activities. Elected governor on the Democratic ticket in 1885 he served until his death, December 28, 1887.