MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVI EWi CONTENTS Frontier Education in Spanish Louisiana Ernest R. Liljegren Fort Orleans of the Missoury Gilbert J. Garraghan, S. J. Major Alphonso Wetmore Kate L. Gregg The Southern Press in Missouri* 1861-1864 William F. Swindler Missouriana Historical Notes and Comments Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI VOL. XXXV APRIL 1941 No. 3 OFFICERS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, 1938-1941 ALLEN MCREYNOLDS, Carthage, President GEORGE A. ROZIER, Perryville, First Vice-President L. M. WHITE, Mexico, Second Vice-President MARION C. EARLY, St. Louis, Third Vice-President B. M. LITTLE, Lexington, Fourth Vice-President JOHN T. BARKER, Kansas City, Fifth Vice-President ROY H. MONIER, Carrollton, Sixth Vice-President R. B. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Secretary and Librarian TRUSTEES OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1941 BEN L. EMMONS, St. Charles ISIDOR LOEB, St. Louis STEPHEN B. HUNTER, Cape E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville Girardeau CHAS. H. WHITAKER, Clinton WALDO P. JOHNSON, Osceola ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville LANGDON R. JONES, Kennett Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1942 MORRIS ANDERSON, Hannibal WM. SOUTHERN, JR., Independence LUDWIG FUERBRINGER, St. Louis HENRY C. THOMPSON, Bonne Terre HENRY KRUG, JR., St. Joseph GEORGE H. WILLIAMS, St. Louis JUSTUS R. MOLL, Springfield CHARLES L. WOODS, Rolla JOHN F. RHODES, Kansas City Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1943 JESSE W. BARRETT, St. Louis H. S. STURGIS, Neosho ALBERT M. CLARK, Richmond JAMES TODD, Moberly HENRY J. HASKELL, Kansas City JONAS VILES, Columbia WM. R. PAINTER, Carrollton L. M. WHITE, Mexico JOSEPH PULITZER, St. Louis EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-six 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. THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW VOL. XXXV APRIL 1941 NO. 3 CONTENTS Page Frontier Education in Spanish Louisiana 345 ERNEST R. LILJEGREN Fort Orleans of the Missoury 373 GILBERT J. GARRAGHAN, S. J. Major Alphonso Wetmore 385 KATE L. GREGG The Southern Press in Missouri, 1861-1864 394 WILLIAM F. SWINDLER Missouriana 401 Historical Notes and Comments 444 Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks 494 FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Editor The Missouri Historical Review is published quarterly. It is sent free to all members of the State Historical Society of Missouri. Mem­ bership dues in the Society are $1.00 a year. All communications should be addressed to Floyd C. Shoemaker, The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by con­ tributors to the magazine. "Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Columbia, Missouri, under Act of Congress, October S, 1917, Sec. 422." CONTRIBUTORS LILJEGREN, ERNEST R., a native of California, is a teacher in the San Diego city school system. He received his A.B. degree from San Diego state college in 1936 and his M.A. degree in history from the University of Southern California in 1939. He published, as junior editor with Dr. Abraham P. Nasatir, "Materials Relating to the History of the Missis­ sippi Valley from the Minutes of the Spanish Supreme Councils of State, 1787-1797*. A Calendar Guide," in Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Vol. XX, No. 1, pp. 5-75. In addition, he published an article entitled "Jacobinism in Spanish Louisiana, 1792-1797," in Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXI, No. 1, pp. 47-97. GARRAGHAN, GILBERT J., is research professor of history at Loyola university, Chicago, Illinois. He received his A.B. degree from St. Ignatius college in 1889, his A.M. degree from St. Louis university in 1895, and his Ph.D. degree from the same university in 1919. He is author of numerous books and articles on western history, including Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City, Missouri (1920), St. Ferdinand de Florissant (1923), Chapters in Frontier History (1934), and The Jesuits of the Middle United States (3 vols., 1938). GREGG, KATE L., is a native of the state of Washington. She re­ ceived her Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington in 1916, and has been professor of English in Lindenwood college at St. Charles, Mis­ souri, since 1924. She is a frequent contributor to the Missouri Historical Review and is the editor of William Clark's Journal of 1808, published under the title, Westward With Dragoons. SWINDLER, WILLIAM F., a native of Missouri, is assistant professor of journalism at the University of Idaho. He received his A.B. and B.S.J, degrees from Washington university and his M.A. degree from the University of Missouri in 1936. He has contributed as a reporter and an editorial writer to the St. Louis Star-Times and as a special correspond­ ent to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He also served for a time as instructor in the school of journalism in the University of Missouri. NOURSE, LOUIS M., a native of New York, is librarian of the Kansas City public library. He received his A.B. degree from the University of Rochester in New York in 1926 and his M.S. degree from the school of librarianship at Columbia university in New York in 1931. Prior to his coming to Missouri in 1939, he was engaged in county library work in California and also in public library administration in New York. He is an occasional contributor to professional periodicals. This issue of the Review includes in "Missouriana" his review of Josiah Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies. FRONTIER EDUCATION IN SPANISH LOUISIANA1 BY ERNEST R. LILJEGREN The development of education in Spanish colonial Lou­ isiana was in marked contrast with the evolution of demo­ cratic American frontier schools. This was a result, in a large measure, of basic differences in social and political philosophy. During the eighteenth century, immigration into the United States brought a mingling of arts, religions, and cul­ tures. Immigration inland from the Atlantic coast drew these varied elements into close contact, and the adversities of pioneer life bred tolerance and democracy. After the Revolutionary war, the American pioneers spilled over the Appalachian mountains and spread out through the greater part of the territory east of the Mississippi river. These hardy frontiersmen carried with them a bold democratic spirit. On the frontier, every man considered himself equal to any other. He believed, furthermore, that his children had the right of equal opportunity. Trekking into the wilderness, the settlers left behind the smugness of New England academies and the charity schools of the middle colonies. As individualists they were unwilling to wait for the church to provide a school for their children or for philanthropic easterners to present them with educa­ tional opportunities. In their characteristic manner, the backwoodsmen declared a holiday and built a log school- house—a rare social event which drew people from miles *On subjects relating to Spanish Louisiana, the real wealth of information is buried in the archives of Spain. The hitherto unpublished material presented in this study was gleaned from transcripts of French and Spanish manuscripts in Spanish archives, particularly the Archivo General de las Indias, Seccion Papeles Procedentes de la Isla de Cuba, Seville, Spain. (This depository will hereinafter be cited by the abbreviation A. G. I., P. de C, followed by the leg a jo number.) The author wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. Abraham P. Nasatir of San Diego state college for the use of his large private library of transcripts from the Spanish archives. All references to legajos in the Spanish archives are to transcripts in Dr. Nasatir's library. (345) 346 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW around. In time then, a day was set aside to build a church. The early American West was dotted with such buildings dedicated to democratic culture and learning among the pioneers. In some way or another, they found teachers and ministers. Often it was an itinerant Presbyterian preacher who served in both capacities. The religious revival of the latter part of the eighteenth century stimulated learning, but religion did not come to dominate the American backwoods schoolhouse. Rather, western democratic spirit dominated education. Not all gained the rudiments of learning and but few were well edu­ cated. However, these crude pioneer schools turned out people who could read the Bible and the Kentucky Gazette, take an intelligent part in the political activities of the United States, and occasionally trade with the Spaniards and the French on the other side of the Mississippi. When Spanish Louisiana came under American control, thousands of rough settlers crossed the river to new lands where they found older settlements populated by Frenchmen living under Spanish rule. The Americans, with their higher regard for learning, met a civilization where education was generally limited to a few of the officials and the wealthy. In the opinion of one observer, they encountered a people who were at least a century behind other civilized nations in the arts and sciences. Illiteracy was very high; one writer judged that not more than one-half of the population could read and write and probably not more than 200 could do so with facility. Even among those who had received instruc­ tion, reading and writing was usually the extent of their learning.2 Although Spanish Louisiana was not entirely lacking in culture, there were but few opportunities for intellectual advancement. The colony had no public libraries and few private collections of books. There was but one printing press. The one weekly newspaper was strictly censored by the government and had a paid circulation to only a few 2Stoddard, Amos, Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana, p. 320; American State Papers, Miscellaneous, Vol.