Missouri Historical Review
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COVER DESCRIPTION: "Different kinds of moonlight change the shape of the river." Steamboat pilots had to know the shape of the river better than the shape of their front hall at home. Thomas Hart Benton provided this 7"x4i/2" gouache painting for Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. An article regarding Benton's illustrations for three of Mark Twain's classics appears in this issue of the REVIEW. Many works by Benton will be exhibited, beginning August 1, in the State Historical Society Art Gallery, open Monday through Friday from 8:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., excepting legal holidays. MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI RICHARD S. BROWNLEE EDITOR MARY K. DAINS ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAMES W. GOODRICH ASSOCIATE EDITOR Copyright © 1981 by the State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201 The MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW (ISSN 0026-6582) is owned by the State Historical Society of Missouri and is published quarterly at 201 South Eighth, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Send communications, business and editorial correspondence and change of address to the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO. 65201. Second class postage is paid at Columbia, Missouri. Current REVIEWS are sent to all members of The State VOLUME LXXV Historical Society of Missouri during their term of member ship. Membership dues in the Society are $2.00 a year or $40 NUMBER 4 for an individual life membership. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. JULY 1981 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of the State, shall be the trustee of this State-Laws of Missouri, 1899, R. S. of Mo., 1969, chapter 183, as revised 1973. OFFICERS 1980-1983 LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia, President MRS. AVIS TUCKER, Warrensburg, First Vice President REVEREND JOHN F. BANNON, St. Louis, Second Vice President SHERIDAN A. LOGAN, St. Joseph, Third Vice President MRS. VIRGINIA YOUNG, Columbia, Fourth Vice President NOBLE E. CUNNINGHAM, Columbia, Fifth Vice President R. KENNETH ELLIOTT, Kansas City, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer RICHARD S. BROWNLEE, Columbia, Director, Secretary and Librarian TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City ELMER ELLIS, Columbia LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1981 FRANCIS M. BARNES III, St. Louis W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence ROBERT S. DALE, Carthage RONALD L. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis JOSEPH WEBBER, St. Louis ROBERT M. WHITE, Mexico Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1982 JAMES W. BROWN, Harrisonville J. J. GRAF, Hermann RICHARD J. CHAMIER, Moberly JOHN K. HULSTON, Springfield ILUS W. DAVIS, Kansas City MRS. MARY BANKS PARRY, Columbia ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis ARVARH H. STRICKLAND, Columbia Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1983 CHARLES BLANTON III, Sikeston VICTOR A. GIERKE, Louisiana SAMUEL A. BURK, Kirksville MRS. JEAN TYREE HAMILTON, Marshall R. I. COLBORN, Paris W. ROGERS HEWITT, Shelbyville W. W. DALTON, St. Louis DOYLE PATTERSON, Kansas City EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-seven Trustees, the President and the Secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, President of the University of Missouri and Chancellor of the University of Missouri-Columbia constitute the Executive Committee. FINANCE COMMITTEE Five members of the Executive Committee appointed by the President, who by virtue of his office constitutes the sixth member, compose the Finance Committee. WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington, Chairman LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia ELMER ELLIS, Columbia WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville ii NEW SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS The State Historical Society of Missouri is always interested in obtaining new members. For more than seventy years thousands of Missourians who have be longed to the Society have been responsible primarily for building its great research collections and libraries. They have given it the support which makes it the largest organization of its type in the United States. The quest for interested new members goes on continually, and your help is solicited in obtaining them. In every family, and in every community, there are individuals who are sincerely interested in the collection, preservation and dissemination of the his tory of Missouri. Why not nominate these people for membership? Annual dues are only $2.00, Life Memberships $40.00. Richard S. Brownlee Director and Secretary State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 in AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE The editorial staff of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW asks that members of the State Historical So ciety of Missouri, who are moving or have moved to a new location, please inform the Society of changes of address, as soon as possible. To remail a returned issue of the REVIEW under new postal rates is very expensive. In addition to elim inating this costly procedure, the immediate notifica tion of a change of address will enable the member to receive the REVIEW at an earlier date. Changes of address should be sent to: State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 IV SOCIETY TO PRESENT AWARDS At the Annual Meeting in October the Society will confer three awards. An engraved citation and a me dallion will be awarded to a member who has given distinguished service to the Society and to the State of Missouri in the promotion and dissemination of knowl edge concerning the history of our region. A second engraved citation and a one-hundred-dollar cash award will be given for the REVIEW article during the calendar year which has contributed most in depth in a scholarly and popular sense to the history of our State. The two-hundred-fifty-dollar Floyd C. Shoe maker History Award will be presented to a junior class student in a Missouri college or university who has written the best historical article that relates to Missouri events or personalities. The distinguished member will be selected by a three-member committee appointed by the Society president. One member of the selection committee will serve for two years and two members for one year. No active officers or trustees of the Society, with the ex ception of past presidents, may be nominated for the Distinguished Service Award. Nominations should be made in writing to Richard S. Brownlee, director of the Society, any time during the calendar year. The prize-winning article will be selected by three his torians appointed by the editor of the REVIEW. The selection committee will be changed each year with the exception of one member who will be replaced after two years. Articles submitted for the Floyd C. Shoemaker History Award will be judged by the De partment of History of the University of Missouri- Columbia. CONTENTS THOMAS HART BENTON'S ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS FOR MARK TWAIN CLASSICS 385 THE BELLE FONTAINE INDIAN FACTORY, 1805-1808. By Russell M. Magnaghi . .396 OF SUGAR AND SALT AND THINGS IN THE CELLAR AND SUN: FOOD PRESERVATION IN JACKSON COUNTY IN THE 1850S. By Janet Bruce . 417 RHETORIC OF A SMALL MIDWESTERN TOWN. By Alice Donaldson 448 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS News in Brief 464 Local Historical Societies 467 Gifts 483 Missouri History in Newspapers 488 Missouri History in Magazines 492 In Memoriam 497 BOOK REVIEWS 500 INDEX TO VOLUME LXXV 503 vi Thomas Hart Benton's Original Illustrations For Mark Twain Classics August 1 will mark the beginning of a new exhibit in the State Historical Society of Missouri's Art Gallery. Along with selected works by George Caleb Bingham, which are on permanent display, the Art Gallery will feature a number of watercolors, temperas, and pen, brush, and ink drawings executed by Thomas Hart Benton for the Mark Twain classics, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi. These Twain volumes were published by The Limited Edition Club of New York City in 1939, 1942 and 1944, respec tively. Besides the works included in this exhibit, which are taken from the 203 items given to the State Historical Society by the Neosho-born artist, Benton donated the paintings Negro Soldier and Embarkation (Prelude to Death). Other Benton paint ings owned by the State Historical Society are his "Year of Perir series, a gift of Abbott Laboratories. Born on April 15, 1889, Benton spent his early life in South west Missouri and Washington, D. C, where his father was a 385 member of the United States Congress. While the family resided in the Washington, D. C. area, Tom Benton studied at the Cor coran Gallery of Art. His official artistic career began in 1906 when he worked as a cartoonist for the Joplin American. In 1907 he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. The next year Benton traveled to Paris where he lived through 1911. While there he studied at the Academie Julian and the Academie Collarossi. Dur ing World War I, Benton served as a naval draftsman and at that time forsook the abstract theories of art he had studied and turned to depicting, in realistic terms, the American scene. His marriage to a former student, Rita Piacenza, provided the atmosphere for Benton to embark upon a successful artistic career. He is con sidered Missouri's most important twentieth-century artist and America's foremost muralist during his lifetime. Missourians have an opportunity to view four of Benton's most important murals at the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence; Harzfeld's, Kansas City; the Municipal Building, Joplin; and the House of Repre sentatives Lounge in the State Capitol, Jefferson City.