MISSOURI Historical Review
The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI COVER DESCRIPTION: A former First Lady of Missouri, Mrs. Lloyd C. Stark of St. Louis, recently gave the Society some preliminary mural studies by artist Frank Nuderscher. The studies were executed by the artist for a mural in the Missouri Building at the 1938 San Fran cisco World's Fair. A detail from one of the
9i/2"x22i/2" studies featuring the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Senator Thomas Hart Benton and a St. Louis Fur Trade street scene has been reproduced on the front cover. Nuderscher (1880-1959) studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was noted for his murals, his paintings of St. Louis industries and his Missouri Ozarks scenes. The Society is pleased to have the Nuderscher studies to add to its fine arts collection. 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 2 for an individual life membership. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. JANUARY 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 DR. 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 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 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.
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State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 THE FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER HISTORY AWARD The State Historical Society of Missouri takes pleasure in announcing the eighth round of compe tition for the Floyd C. Shoemaker History Award. This $250.00 annual award was created by the late Mr. Shoemaker, the long-time secretary of the Society, for the advancement of Missouri history in the univer sities, colleges and high schools throughout the state. The annual award alternates every other year be tween junior class students in Missouri colleges and universities and senior high school students in Mis souri. The 1981 award of $250.00 will be presented for the best article written by a senior high school student. The award will be presented at the 1981 annual meet ing of the State Historical Society. Articles nominated for the award must relate to the history of Missouri, either to events or person alities. The maximum length of an article is 5,000 words and a bibliography must be included. Each high school must select a panel of judges to nominate its best article by a senior high student. Only one article may be submitted from each high school. Each article will be judged against other nomina tions by the Department of History of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Articles submitted for this award will become the property of the State His torical Society of Missouri. The prize-winning article will be considered for publication in the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVTEW. The final date for submission of articles is July 1, 1981. The articles must be sent to the State Historical Society of Missouri, Room 2, Elmer Ellis Library, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201. CONTENTS
GOTTFRIED DUDEN: A NINETEENTH-CENTURY MISSOURI PROMOTER. By James W. Goodrich 131
TRADER WILLIAM GILLISS AND DELAWARE MIGRATION IN SOUTHERN MISSOURI. By Lynn Morrow 147
THE KNIGHTS OF FATHER MATHEW: PARALLEL ETHNIC REFORM. By Martin G. Towey and Margaret LoPiccolo Sullivan 168
HISTORY OF MORRISON OBSERVATORY, 1875-1979. By Bartlett C Jones 184
BENNETT CHAMP CLARK AND THE 1936 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. By Thomas T. Spencer 197
HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS
Society Holds Annual Meeting 214
News in Brief 221
Local Historical Societies 223
Gifts 236
Missouri History in Newspapers 240
Missouri History in Magazines 246
Graduate Theses Relating to Missouri History 250
In Memoriam 251
Editorial Policy 253
BOOK REVIEW 254
BOOK NOTES 257 vi HIM
Gottfried Duden: A Nineteenth-Century Missouri Promoter
BY JAMES W. GOODRICH*
In 1860 Missouri's population estimate counted 1,182,012. Of this number, the foreign-born Germans totaled 88,487, ranking the state sixth in the number of transplanted Prussians in the United States. Promotional literature, which enticed the foreigners to settle in Missouri and other midwestern states, contributed significantly to this German influx. Gottfried Duden, a Remscheid-born German, became one of the major promotional writers. He produced a number of works,
*James W. Goodrich, associate director of The State Historical Society of Missouri and an associate editor of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, presented this address at the Society's Annual Meeting, October 25, 1980. Dr. Goodrich is the general editor of the first completely translated and annotated edition of Gottfried Duden's famous 1829 work, Report on a Journey to the Eastern States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri. The 1980 volume of Duden's Report is copublished by The State Historical Society of Missouri and the University of Missouri Press. It may be purchased for $22.00 from the University of Missouri Press, P. O. Box 1644, Columbia, Mis souri 65205. Missouri residents should include $1.02 for sales tax in the pay ment which must accompany the order. 131 132 Missouri Historical Review books, articles and pamphlets that could be considered promotional literature. His books concerning this subject were Europe and Germany as Viewed from North America (2 vol., 1833-1835); The North American Democracy and [Alexis] de Tocquevilles Work (1837) and his earlier Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (During the Years 1824, '25, '26, and 1827). This latter work, first published in 1829, revised in 1834, and specially published by the Swiss Emigration Society in 1832 and 1835, has been characterized by the eminent historian of emigration, Marcus L. Hansen, as the "most important piece of literature in the history of German emigration." Franz von Loher gave a specific example of Duden's importance. Between 1841 and 1846, he wrote, an average of 19,000 Germans had left Bremen, just Bremen, for the United States. The number appears impressive but so is another von Loher comment: "Most of them were drawn to Missouri by Duden." Historians of Missouri echo Hansen and von Loher's comments about Duden and his Report. David D. March in The History of Missouri wrote that: "The person who did the most to publicize the opportunities in Missouri throughout the German states and thereby to stimulate the migration of his countrymen . . . was Gottfried Duden . . . ." Paul C. Nagel, in his Missouri: A Bicen tennial History, stated that Duden's Report was: "Generally con sidered to be the book most influencing German migration to America." Perry McCandless writing a History of Missouri, 1820- 1860 gave Duden "an important place in the story of the German migration to Missouri .... The book, published in 1829, was widely read, and subsequently thousands of Germans 'followed' Duden" to the state. Duden, the writer of this "most important piece of literature," had been born in Remscheid, Duchy of Berg during 1785. His parents were members of that city's professional class. Gottfried's father, Leonhard Duden, operated the government-sanctioned apothecary business, while his mother, Maria Katherina's family had gained their wealth through an iron foundry business. The family's economic and social position allowed Gottfried and his brother Leonhard enviable status. Both of the Duden chil dren had the opportunity to live comfortable lives and to gain entry into a number of professions. Gottfried's brother, for exam ple, followed his father's profession and actually operated the family's apothecary business until 1846. Gottfried, on the other hand, declined to pursue that or related professions, and, instead, Gottfried Duden 133 embarked upon an education that would prepare him for govern ment service. He had pursued a typical classical education and his university studies also included the study of medicine. But his main courses at the university level pertained to the study of juris prudence. His higher educational pursuits found Gottfried first attending the university in Dusseldorf, then Heidelberg, and finally Gottingen, where in 1810 he received a degree in law. The next year Gottfried secured a royal appointment as an attorney in the Prussian civil service. He then served as an auditor for the courts of Dusseldorf until 1813 when he enlisted to fight in the Napoleonic War. Duden obtained a lieutenancy in the First Battalion of the Second Bergian Infantry (later known as the twenty-eighth Prussian Infantry Regiment). According to Fried- rich Schnacke: "During this campaign [against Napoleon] Duden gave evidence of extraordinary bravery." In 1814 he returned to civil service. He became a justice of the peace for Mulheim and Langenfeld for three years, then moved to Cologne where he served as a jurist. Despite his favorable upbringing, since his youth Duden had been concerned about the chaotic political, social and economic conditions that created Germany's discontented and disillusioned masses in the early nineteenth century. His responsibilities as a civil servant had brought him into even closer contact with the poverty-stricken. He had witnessed directly the disasterous effects of the Napoleonic Wars and the Napoleonic codes, Prussian rule and increased population growth; and he became acutely aware of the decreasing economic opportunities for the people of his homeland. The unfavorable political, social and economic conditions in those first years of the century had caused thousands of Germans to emigrate to other lands. Thousands more left their pitiful peasant hovels and sought refuge from the postwar depression and the crop failures of 1816-1817 in the towns and cities along the Rhine. German relief agencies staggered under the increased unemployed who lived their meager existences in overcrowded housing. Rob beries and crimes increased dramatically. To Duden, the major cause of these problems seemed fairly obvious. He had become "convinced that most of the evils from which the inhabitants of Europe, and particularly those of Germany suffer, are due to overpopulation. . . ." In this instance Duden defined overpopulation as the condition in which "the masses of people can be kept within the bounds of order only by force. . . ." 134 Missouri Historical Review
Because of a lack of concerted effort, or perhaps simply from their inability, most German states did not come to grips with these problems—at least not in Duden's thinking. The reactionary policies of his homeland caused him to delve into the relationship between the political German state and the individual. Duden began his research and his formulation of opinions on this subject in 1816. Six years later, in 1822, he published his theories and beliefs under the title, Concerning the Significant Differences of the States and the Ambitions of Human Nature. Duden stressed the people rather than the state in this book, which clearly placed him among the members of the liberal nationalist German writers. Changes, he wrote, that caused governments to react too quick ly or harshly, in turn, created ineffectual government. Severe politi cal or economic solutions, he stated, would force the people to react in one of three ways: blind obedience, or clear opposition to the laws, or emigration. Of the three he preferred emigration which he believed would allow the rejuvenation of spirit and personal improvement. And because he believed emigration to be the proper solution to his countrymen's problems, Diiden looked to America as their final destination. Available land and democracy prompted his decision. Duden had hoped to find sufficient information about the United States in the writing of the day. But the printed word did not give him all the information he believed desirable. To satisfy his needs, he realized that he must visit America.
Emigrants Embarking for America Gottfried Duden 135
Suffering from ill health but desirous of first-hand knowledge, Duden resigned from the civil service in 1823. Duden and a travel ing companion he seldom mentions in his letters, Ludwig Evers- mann, left Europe from Helvoetslius, June 8, 1824, aboard the ship Henry Clay. By August 13, the ship had anchored near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. Duden used friendly letters as part of the format for his Report. He wrote four letters before an August 14 missive, and in these exhibited the thoroughness, evident throughout his writings, with which he approached subjects. In his usual detailed fashion, Duden explored a myriad of ocean travel topics. He provided a wordy view of life aboard ship. Endless words, for instance, described seasickness and the best ways to offset its dreadful complications. Landing in Baltimore, Duden prepared for his overland journey to Missouri, a state that Duden believed possessed all the needs of the emigrant. Like his recounting of crossing the Atlantic, he copiously recorded this portion of his trip to Missouri. In these writings he began to stress the lack of lawlessness and destitution in the United States, particularly as compared to the crime and poverty witnessed in his homeland. He found no thieves or beggars during his travels, although he and Eversmann almost experienced a robbery on one occasion. Duden and Eversmann had stopped in Tarlton, Ohio, to get their wagon repaired, a problem that occurred more than once. The two Germans usually stayed overnight at inns which also served as mail stops since they believed such places served better food. This time they chose a small inn on the outskirts of the town. The hostess there had spoken to some questionable characters who asked if two Germans had taken lodging in her establishment. She told them "yes" and asked if they wished to see them. Duden recalled: They had stopped at the entrance of the lounge and peeping through the door, which was ajar, one of them had said softly to the other: "Nothing can be done here." Such behavior had seemed very strange to [the hostess] .... We had long been prepared for adventures with robbers; therefore, the matter did not disturb us. However, we took the precaution of loading our double-barrel guns and checking our baggage once more before going to sleep .... On the following morning ... we heard that these persons had been passengers in the mail coach that had arrived shortly after us, that they had spent the night in the post stage, and that they had slipped away before daybreak 136 Missouri Historical Review
with the ready cash and various effects of the other pas sengers. The breakdown of the wagon, as mentioned earlier, occurred more than once. On one occasion, forced to stop for repairs, Duden discovered the blacksmith rather inebriated. Fortunately, the black smith's helper knew enough to do the necessary work so that the Germans proceeded on their way before the smithy sobered up. After an overland journey of eight weeks, Duden and his traveling companion arrived in St. Louis. In his October 26, 1824 letter, Gottfried described the Missouri community of some 6,000 inhabitants. ". . . considering the splendid location [of St. Louis]," he wrote, it is surprising that the population does not grow more rapidly. It also strikes one as strange that the fertile soil near the city is not at all utilized and that food products are almost all procured from the east bank, from the state of Illinois. The inhabitants are mostly out-of-state mer chants who concern themselves with nothing except the quick sale of their wares. Few own property, and some of the married ones did not even bring their wives along because they consider their stay here so transient. From St. Louis Duden scouted both sides of the river for areas suitable for German settlement. The interior of Missouri appeared the most inviting, and, in actuality had been his original destination. The German traveling companions finally ended their journey in present-day Warren County. In a letter dated February 20, 1825, Duden wrote that he had settled about fifty miles above the mouth of the Missouri. There near the stream named Lake Creek above Gottfried Duden 137 the river Osage Woman, he found "very fertile, attractive areas that could be bought partly from the state and partly from private owners." Duden purchased about 270 acres; Eversmann, 180 acres. Government land cost $1.25 an acre; privately owned land proved somewhat more. Idyllic descriptions abounded in Duden's letters but some of his best, his most romantic, pertained to the area in which he settled. "I cannot," he wrote in the same letter, describe the impression that the days of wandering in this river valley have made upon me. One can travel hundreds of miles between gigantic tree trunks without a single ray of sunlight falling upon one's head. The soil is so black here from the plant mold that had been ac cumulating since primeval days that one seems to be walk ing on a coal bed. . . . Settling next to charming hills, near never-failing springs, on banks of small rivers near their junction with large rivers, all depends entirely on the settler without taking price into consideration. A little over a year later he reemphasized what an enjoyable place he had discovered: I wish that you could see my present location even if only for a few moments. The hills and valleys are all covered with forests, but in such groupings that it appears as if an artist had laid out a park .... From never-ending springs spread a most refreshing coolness over [my land] . . . one of them is so elevated that I could run 138 Missouri Historical Review
Emigrant's Dream
water into the house with considerable pressure. Even the water in Lake Creek on my property is as cold as well water during the greatest summer heat. This brook teems with fish and contains two kinds of turtles. . . . Bull frogs . . . are so large that they weigh about two to three pounds and hunt small chickens .... The French eat them with relish. Duden sincerely believed that the life of a Missouri farmer would be the ideal occupation for emigrating Germans. And he was prepared to picture the life that the newcomers from Prussia could expect. Missouri's location appeared excellent. Fertile, in expensive land awaited the taking. Fish filled rivers, streams and creeks. The forests provided homes for numerous types of wild life—turkey, deer and rabbit, to name a few. With wildlife so abundant, Duden seriously doubted that a farmer would need to kill more than an occasional hog to maintain his meat supply. Fruit trees growing wild provided tasty apples, pears and cherries. Did Missouri possess all the ingredients of a utopia? Perhaps not, but the newly formed state did not miss by far, at least to Duden. The agrarian life that could be experienced in the state, the life that Duden found so stimulating and almost perfect, did involve some labor. And his Report carefully portrayed the clear ing, fencing, cultivating and harvesting of land and crops. Was it as difficult to produce crops in Missouri as in Germany? Duden thought not. He wrote that: "Much less work is required here [in Missouri] in sowing wheat, oats and rye than in Europe." Corn planting also proved easier because the fertile soil required only one plowing to prepare the field. Gottfried Duden 139
Did Missouri farming families need as much money as their German counterparts? Duden's words on this provide the answer: After housekeeping has been organized and the first purchases have been paid for, the whole family lives a carefree and happy life without any cash. And this is the real reason small sums are less important here than in Europe. [In Europe] when the husband brings home a little ready money, the wife immediately needs something, and usually there is no peace and quiet in the home until it has all been spent in the nearest store, usually for tawdry finery. Duden's observations of American farmers in general, and Mis souri farmers in particular, revealed to him that they earnestly attempted to spend "no money for food or drink or clothes (with the exception of real finery)." Most farmers knew how to make shoes, for example, and their wives proved adept at making clothes for all members of the family. Duden, however, did not engage in the back-breaking farm work or in other activities associated with the Missouri farmers of the early 1820s. His own description of his less than strenuous existence appeared in a letter dated May 16, 1826: My daily routine is as follows: At sunrise I go out doors, usually with a fowling piece. I roam around for about an hour, shoot partridges, doves, or squirrels, and also turkey . . . and return to eat my breakfast [prepared by the housekeeper]. After breakfast I read the books that I had selected to include in my baggage .... I then occupy myself . . . with the sciences. Shortly before the noon meal I stop, walk in the garden, or go to the spring. After the meal I mount my horse either to visit my neigh bors or to enjoy the beauty of nature in the forests, on the hills, or in the valley. Duden certainly did not suffer from the grueling work of building his home or outbuildings, of girdling trees, or following the plow. He hired what he needed to be done. He exemplified the country gentleman more than the toiling farmer. As a gentleman farmer, he truly could enjoy his garden, even though he probably worked in it very little. He felt that in his garden grew beans, peas, cucumbers and melons "very well." And it produced "unusually large" watermelons. Their "juice is so sweet," he wrote "that perhaps they might be cultivated advantageously for their sugar content." Many of his garden plants were of the same types as those grown in the German states, a point Duden knew would further entice his countrymen. 140 Missouri Historical Review
Women and children appear safe on the Missouri frontier.
Another condition that Duden believed would attract Ger mans to America, and to Missouri in particular, related to theft: he maintained that none occurred there. And on Missouri's safety he remarked: In no region in Germany can one risk leaving women or children without the protection of men, especially in remote buildings in which there are articles of value. Here the master of the house can leave without any worries. In midst of dense forests his family and his possessions will be safer in an unlocked dwelling than in the strongest houses in European cities .... This is not due altogether to the lack of people, but only to the scarcity of thievish and predatory ones. Because of the spread of population far toward the west and because of a chain of small for tresses, the worries about Indians have completely vanished and will never recur here along the lower Missouri. Moreover, poverty which forced so many Germans to resort to robbery, did not exist. Duden found, for instance, that "a day laborer, with the heartiest appetite, can earn as much in twelve hours as he consumes in an entire week in the way of meat, bread, vegetables, butter, milk and brandy." Gottfried Duden 141
Duden's idyllic life-style did have its moments of inconveni ence. In Missouri, the law required anyone who owned property to assist in the upkeep of roads, or to find a substitute for the labor. Duden received a couple of notices to report for this work or send someone in his stead. He "always appeared in person" but perhaps because of poor health, he was not required to work or even locate a substitute, since the latter option proved difficult for him. While very laudatory about the abundant wildlife in the forest, he mentioned one animal that the settler must be very careful not to encounter. This animal, he wrote: . . . has black and white stripes and is about twice as large as a squirrel .... As soon as you meet it in the forest it assumes an offensive position and scratches the ground with its front paws as if in challenge. If you respond to this challenge and try to injure the animal it will take flight and while fleeing will direct a spray of liquid at you. If the liquid strikes you it will make the clothes unwear- able for a long time .... Dogs that have pursued [it] . . . often have such an unbearable odor that they have to be kept away from the dwelling for several days. It has hap pened twice this year that the air in my house was polluted by such an odor for half the night .... I could scarcely believe that it could be attributed to such a small creature. The odor is pungent and easily causes headaches. Such minor types of irritants aside, Duden's view of Missouri and its vast potential, in the main, added up to a glowing tribute, a beautiful promotional exercise. His recounting of American institutions, in general, appeared more subdued, more workmanlike, but nevertheless very positive. Stability, for instance, characterized American democracy. Endless economic opportunities created by the physical environment in sured this stability. Abundance in the country gave satisfaction to everyone's physical, emotional and ethical needs. The "innocent pleasures in rural surroundings" provided settlers a pleasant social environment, a buffer from "the spheres of vanity, ambition, and desires for power." Radical changes in the structure of American democracy, to Duden, would be unthinkable because the vast majority of the citizens earned their livelihood from farming. These farmers always would supply a consensus for the structure of national policies and legislation. Duden's philosophy and analysis of the stability of this democracy appeared in an appendix to the Report. 142 Missouri Historical Review
If the German lacked an intense degree of nationalism; if the German possessed sufficient funds to embark for America and Missouri, or some other state; if the German followed Duden's explicit instructions and advice, then he truly could experience a new, vigorous and fulfilling life, at least according to Duden. In meticulous fashion Duden approximated, or specifically stated, costs that might be incurred by the emigrating Germans. The equivalent of between $775-$990 in American money would be required for a family of five to travel to the United States, purchase 80 acres of land, some farm animals, a log cabin and essential home furnishings. Tools and other implements should be brought from the homeland so as not to have to buy them in America. Duden also provided readers of his Report with the best ways to reach the "promised land." He believed that those of his countrymen, who desired to take advantage of America's and Missouri's vast potential, should emigrate in groups (a less costly approach). These groups should establish farming communities where they could fully live in peace and harmony. Duden stayed in Missouri through March 11, 1827. He re turned to Germany (after a half-year stay in Paris) even more convinced of Missouri's suitability for settlement by his country men. In 1829 he published 1,500 copies of his Report. His account began with a series of letters, which the author stated were in their "original format . . . dedicated only to friendly correspondence."
Emigrant Encampment at Night Gottfried Duden 143
Starting For The United States
While Duden viewed these letters as "an informal preparation" for the main portion of his Report—his discussion of the nature of the United States—they proved to be of high promotional value because they pictured what he found to be the most appealing aspect of the nature of the United States. In other words, Missouri personified the good of the country. "Many times I have said to myself," he wrote in 1827, "people in Europe will not and cannot believe how easy and how pleasant it can be to live in this country. It sounds too strange, too fabulous. Believing in similar places on this earth has too long been consigned to the fairy-tale world." It proved "too strange, too fabulous" for many Germans, at least those Germans who suffered from the problems he wit nessed in his homeland—those being the poverty-stricken. The Germans he attracted to America had to have the wherewithal to make the trip. He really wrote for the educated and moneyed who might want to come across the water. His scheme held no place for the poor Germans who really experienced the economic, social and cultural problems of their homeland. Nevertheless my earlier comments concerning historical appraisals of the importance of Duden's Report in promoting thousands of Germans to emigrate to Missouri show, Duden had promoted the state well. But his overenthusiastic portrayal also received its share of criticism. His optimistic view made others in turn even more opti mistic on what would await them. Most of them would not live the life of the gentleman farmer that Duden had experienced. 144 Missouri Historical Review
They encountered, in reality, less than as ideal existence. Some of the German emigrants, frustrated by the hard work needed to exist or by the fickleness of nature, turned on the promoter and his Report. They called his book, "Duden's Eden"; his farm they labeled as a "castle in the sky." Words like "shallow, fantastic, exaggerated" appeared in writings about Duden's Report. Failures, experienced by some emigration societies, and negative reports, from those disenchanted who warned others not to emigrate, led to the assertion that Duden's views were unrealistic. Many blamed the Report for the misfortunes of German newcomers to the United States. At first, Duden considered the attacks on himself and his work as harmless, too petty to worry about. As the criticism in creased, and because of his intense commitment to German emi gration and colonization in America, he felt compelled to answer, to refute his critics. Therefore, from 1832 until the end of the decade, he zealously pursued his causes—the plight of the German people and German emigration. He answered his critics in an 1834 revision of his original report, in his discussion of de Tocqueville's work and in his two- volume study Europe and Germany. His 1834 revision of the Report contained a passionate defense of his beliefs and his writings, and also corrected and updated some of the original content. As to his detractors, he exclaimed: "How could I have hoped as a public defender of a national issue such as emigration and colonization to remain without opponents in a country where hunger, avarice and vanity have put so many wheels in motion!" He asked, "Is it supposed to be an extravagance when an officer of criminal jus tice gets tired of preventing people through torture from com mitting criminal acts while nothing is undertaken against the increasing incentive to it caused by poverty and destitution?" Here, again, Duden recounted the reasons why he traveled to America and Missouri in search of an area for German settlement, regard less of whether those most affected by the ills of German life could afford it or not. Additionally, he often pointed out that he could not be held responsible for emigrants who only glanced at his "sound" advice and concentrated more on his descriptive passages. As for himself, he had paid his own way, a point he mentioned in his preface to the second edition. Duden harshly criticized his detractors in the 1834 revision. Some he classified as "nincompoops"; others he referred to as "in sane", "without talent" or exhibiting "ridiculous insolence." One Gottfried Duden 145 statement in the prefare to his second edition graphically illustrates Duden's embittered feelings in the 1830s. I believe that I have at least the right to expect from the German public a reward for my efforts and that it may afford me protection against the calumnies and slanders and that those who sincerely praise my striving would express their disgust orally or in writing depend ing on the opportunity, especially against the scum whose venom is sent into the world under the captions of hu manity and the welfare of the people, who may do it because of low greed for money or because of ridiculous arrogance .... By the late 1830s, the disillusioned Duden had returned to Remscheid where he lived, probably off a parental inheritance which he characterized in 1834 as "sufficient for my modest needs." His advocacy of emigration ceased in the early 1840s, and Duden spent the remainder of his life studying jurisprudence. He died in Remscheid in 1855. While the merits of Duden's Report can be argued, there can be no question that he effectively promoted Missouri as a place of unlimited potential. Perhaps the statement from the 1834 diary of Herman Steines will sum up the importance of the man and his promotion. Steines wrote: . . . we finally went to the adjoining farm of Gott fried Duden . . . full of certain yearning and with beating hearts. The cause of this agitation is known to every one in the Duchy of Berg. Now we stood on this historic spot. We saw the hut in which he had lived, the half finished log house, the shade walk to the spring, Lake Creek, the courtyard, the field and finally the forest so fantastically described by Duden. Everything was now very much neg lected. The fence had decayed . . . the field was full of weeds, and there was no more garden. Many a German has been at that place in the last four to six years, in order to see where and how that one lived, who with magic powers had lured hordes of sons of Germany from their dearly beloved, but oppressed and mistreated fatherland, who with magic pen had clothed this wilderness with such a pleasing and attractive garment, and who had banished the fear of those who thought this to be a country of Indians and wild beasts. After we had tasted the water of the spring and of Lake Creek, we went into the hut and recited some passages from Duden's letters which we carried with us. Steines represented just one of many, of course, who read Duden's Report with romantic fervor. That it attracted thousands 146 Missouri Historical Review
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of Germans, there can be no doubt. Some of those who failed at farming in the state migrated to St. Louis to take advantage of economic opportunities. Others, however, persevered. Pockets of German settlement appeared. Hermann, for example, became known as "Little Germany." Indeed, Duden became the most influential person to promote mid-nineteenth-century German emigration to Missouri. His legacy rests securely in the day-to-day activities of those immigrants and their descendants who have assisted Missouri in attaining its eco nomic, social, cultural and political prominence. Mo. Valley Rm., K.C. Pub. Lib. A Purported Portrait of William Gilliss
Trader William Gilliss and Delaware Migration In Southern Missouri
BY LYNN MORROW*
A man of handsome athletic figure, romantic temperament and youthful ardor, it was not surprising that he found charms among the Indian maidens, and by all accounts his affections among them were of a roving and unceremonial isposi ion. Kansas City Star, 1907. The early nineteenth century was a time of increased migra tions of American Indians on the move west. In the Ozarks, the southern Indian migrations of the 1830s, especially those of the Cherokee, are most well known and often remembered in the
#Lynn Morrow is research historian for the Center for Ozarks Studies, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield. He has the B.S. degree in Education and the M.A. in History, both from Southwest Missouri State Uni versity. 147 148 Missouri Historical Review region's folklore. But less well known are the migrations and set tlements of eastern Indians who preceded the later numerically superior Cherokee. The Delaware, Shawnee, Illinois remnants and small numbers of southern tribes penetrated the Ozarks in increased numbers during the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth cen turies. The Indian immigrants and the Ozarks each became a part of each other's history as their passage left cultural traces in the region. Tribal bands settled in Cape Girardeau District; the watersheds of the Meramec, St. Francois, Black and Current River country; and groups spread into the White River region and beyond. The Ozarks became the staging area where Indians settled and lived before the Kansas reservations became home to their mid-nineteenth-century generations. The development and naming of the City of Kansas was largely in response to the reservations located west of the city. Indian migrations into the Ozarks introduced the most profit able trade of the time. Indians, as wards of the federal govern ment, received cash annuities which they spent for trade goods provided by a few white traders. Traders' receipts depended on their diplomacy and skill to monopolize the trade and grow wealthy. A cluster of men, as a result of the Missouri-Ozarks trade, became townsmen and developers in the state. These included the Lorimers, Menard-Valle interests, the Chouteaus and among others, William Gilliss, a pioneer-entrepreneur of Kanses City where he concentrated his fortune made in the Ozarks Indian trade. William Gilliss, from Somerset County, Maryland, was borne by a French mother and a Scottish father about 1788. At age fourteen he boarded a ship at Baltimore, and ran away to sea. During four years at sea he gained a reputation for physical strength and carpentry and maintained marginal literate skills by reading and writing letters. He entertained himself, and others, by reciting the poems of Robert Burns. In 1806, he left the sea at New Orleans bound for Cincinnati on a keelboat. Once there he began business as a carpenter and builder. Gilliss founded a friendship with William Henry Harrison, who established Gilliss in the construc tion business. In 1811, Gilliss enlisted in Harrison's command, and apparently spent much time at Ft. Meigs in Ohio. Following the War of 1812, Gilliss, accompanied by his mother and brother, moved to Kaskaskia, Illinois, where he immediately became a prominent citizen, purchasing land and building a hotel which was used during the first Illinois legislature meeting in 1818. Adopted the following year into the Delaware tribe, he reputedly Trader William Gilliss 149 became involved in hostilities with the Delawares against the Osages, Pawnees and others.1 By 1820, Gilliss had merchant friends in the Indian trade at Kaskaskia, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis. Indian movements through Kaskaskia and Ste. Genevieve had lured Gilliss into the lucrative mobile trading markets. The primary markets for Gilliss became the Delaware camps and villages. Associated migrant groups, namely, Shawnee, Peoria, Piankashaw, Weas, Creek and Kickapoo substantially augmented this trading business. The Shawnees, the most common neighbor of the Delawares, shared similar historic experiences in Missouri. Beginning in 1786 with the Shawnee allotment contiguous to the Wyandot and Dela ware reserve in Ohio, the Shawnee and Delaware began to have geographical proximity to one another by treaty and grant arrange ments.2 However, members of both tribes were familiar with the
i Newspaper articles concerning Gilliss have been published sporadically. They include columns found in the Kansas City Star, April 8, 1887; Kansas City Times, May 3, 1902; ibid., September 19, 1904; Kansas City Journal, April 12, 1909; Kansas City Star, October 12, 1912; Kansas City Times, August 22, 1916; Kansas City Star, November 1, 1925, and Kansas City Times, November 29, 1932. All above newspaper citations are located in the clipping file, Missouri Valley Room, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri. Other biographical information is available from depositions of witnesses in a law suit over settlement of the Gilliss estate. Transcriptions of the case, appealed to the Supreme Court of Missouri are in the Center for Ozarks Studies, South west Missouri University, Springfield. Hereafter the lawsuit is cited as Gilliss probate case. See also footnotes 17, 27 and 29. 2 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, History of the Indian Tribes of the United States . . . (Philadelphia, 1857) , VI, 328. The Louis Rogers "Shawnee Tradi tion" recorded in ibid., IV, 254-256, included a portion of Shawnee living on Delaware hunting grounds in Pennsylvania is the early 17th century.
Early Lithograph of Kaskaskia, Illinois W$?i" 150 Missouri Historical Review trans-Mississippi before 1786. Pierre Laclede of St. Louis had traded with Shawnees as early as 1766,3 and Kaskaskia merchants had a well-established winter trade with Delawares near the mouth of the Ohio River during the 1770s.4 During the 1780s two significant events encouraged the immi gration of influencial numbers of Delaware and Shawnee across the Mississippi. Louis Lorimer, escaping revenge of the Americans for his support of the British in the Revolution, brought his Shawnee wife, Indian trading experience and a contingent of loyal and malcontent Shawnee and Delaware to Louisiana Territory. By 1787, Lorimer operated in Ste. Genevieve District on the Saline River but established himself in Cape Girardeau District, six years later. Lorimer received a Spanish grant, and some 1,200 Shawnee and 600 Delaware were awarded a Spanish grant of their own in the Apple Creek watershed. These and other important settle ments of historic Indians occurred in the Meramec and James River valleys, on major transportation routes.5 The Cape Girardeau Indian settlements traded with the Lorimers and Valles. George Morgan's colonial effort at New Madrid provided another incentive for eastern Indians to migrate into a frontier trading network. Although Morgan's scheme did not develop ac cording to his designs, it firmly established the New Madrid colony which became an important trading entrepot. Shawnees, Delawares and Creeks settled near New Madrid. Moving later into the interior, they established the Muscogee Town complex and trading networks for New Madrid, Little Prairie and Point Pleasant.6 These St. Francois River groups worked as stockmen, agriculturists and hunters, who furnished bear oil and pelts to the river trade. In general, the historic emigrant Delaware and Shawnee coupled with the immigration of Scotch-Irish, Germans
3 Testimony of Pre. Laclede & Shaw^nee Indians, April 18, 1766, in Ste. Genevieve Missouri Papers, 1759-1876, Vol. II, Indian Affairs #80, Joint Collection, University of Missouri Western Historical Manuscript Collection and State Historical Society of Missouri Manuscripts, Columbia. 4 Clarence Alvord, Kaskaskia Records 1778-1790 (Springfield, 111., 1909), 12-13. 5 In 1809 the first Missouri territorial road, financed by the respective administrative districts, was surveyed and improved. It followed the Shawnee Trail the "whole distance without any deviation from Cape Girardeau court house, through Byrd Settlement, Ramsey's hardland, Little Shawnee Town, and the main Indian Town." Survey notes, Col. Valley, Major Haden, and Silas Bent, March 21, 1809, in vertical files, Jackson Public Library, Jackson, Mis souri. See also June Cooper Stacy, Louis Lorimer (Cape Girardeau, Mo., 1978) . 6 See Lynn Morrow, "New Madrid and Its Hinterland: 1783-1826," Mis souri Historical Society Bulletin, XXXVI (July, 1980), 241-250. Trader William Gilliss 151 and English helped make the Missouri Ozarks region a safe place for new settlements.7 Indian removal of Delaware, Shawnee and others in what is typically called the trans-Mississippi proved to be, in reality, the Ozarks region. The sparse settlement, rough terrain and abundant natural resources made the Ozarks an ideal "dumping ground" for Indians east of the Mississippi River. Prior to the Osage Treaty of 1808, Meriwether Lewis, governor and superintendent of In dian affairs in Louisiana Territory, gave treaty negotiator Pierre Chouteau instructions that "the land was needed for white hunters and intimately friendly Indians."8 Over a generation Indians spread throughout the Ozarks followed by traders. Encouraging further movements across the Ozarks, President James Monroe instructed William Clark and Auguste Chouteau "to acquire lands on the west of the Mississippi in order to exchange with such of the Indians on this side as may choose to emigrate to the west."9 Indian removal policy created an "Ozarks domain" for traders which lasted until 1830. Eastern Indians and white immigrants, who came to the Ozarks during the first generation of the nineteenth century, were both new settlers. Later written accounts indicate good relationships among the two cultures. The Hancock family in Perry County remembered how their children played with the Indian children; the Russells in the Belleview Valley reminisced about the "friendly Indians"; Ste. Genevieve entertained the Apple Creek Indians at festivals; and Southwest Missourians enjoyed mutual participation in horse races.10 Only the rhetoric of the War of 1812 threatened this peaceful coexistence. Many whites and eastern Indians inter married during territorial and early statehood years which be queathed a deeply embedded Indian heritage in Ozarkians' gene pool and culture. After the War of 1812, the Delaware left their eastern Ozarks settlements and drifted westward. While a few accompanied some Shawnee into the Upper and Lower Gasconade Valley, most Dela-
7 As John Mathews in The Osages (Norman, Okla., 1961) , 349, pointed out, the "invasion" signalled the end of Osage hegemony in the region. 8 Annie Abel, The History of Events Resulting in Indian Consolidation West of the Mississippi in Annual Report of the American Historical Associa tion for the Year 1906 (Washington, D. C, 1908) , I, 286-287, footnote k. i> Paul Nagel, Missouri (Nashville, Tenn., 1976) , 87. 10 History of Southeast Missouri (Chicago, 1888), 1100, 1113; "Indians Roamed Apple Creek Valley," unidentified newspaper article in vertical files, Regional History Archives, Kent Library, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau; various ephemera have recorded the memory of horse-racing by whites and the Indians in Cape Girardeau District and Southwest Missouri. 152 Missouri Historical Review
DELAWARE OCCUPATION COURTOIS HILLS ca 1815-1822
wares moved to the Jack's Fork River valley, James River valley, northern Arkansas or Northeast Oklahoma. Gilliss, in partnership with Menard and Valle of Ste. Gene vieve, established the Delaware trading post on the Upper James River. The locale primarily was dictated by the fact that former Cape Girardeau Delawares had already moved there. The ne gotiation of the St. Mary's Treaty in 1818 did not specify a par ticular tract of land for exchange. Officials consulted Governors William Clark of Missouri, and James Miller of Arkansas, and agreed the James River valley would be a good interim reserve. In 1821-1822, Chief William Anderson and several hundred Delawares camped south of Jack's Fork River while on their way to join their brethren in the James River watershed. While there the Delaware fell prey to the usual horse-thieving whites.11 More importantly, one of Gilliss's first field expeditions to the Delaware visited the Anderson camp in present Shannon County. Trader William Marshall and Gilliss, both supplied by Menard and Valle, temporarily resided there. Meanwhile Louis Lorimer, Jr., had in-
ii William Clark Papers, Volume 11, Record of Claims, 1807-1830, National Archives and Records Service microfilm, in NARS Regional Center, Kansas City, Missouri. Trader William Gilliss 153 herited his fathers trading business and followed the Delaware into the White River country. Lorimer built a trading house in Southwest Missouri at the mouth of Swan River which Gilliss bought in 1822 after Anderson's band had removed to the James River. By 1824, Gilliss's Indian friends had begun hunting sea sonally on the Arkansas and Red rivers among some 2,000 Dela ware, Cherokee, [Piankashaw, Shawnee], French and American hunters.12 The Delaware became greatly alarmed at their new location, a "ridiculously small acreage given in exchange for all their valu able possessions in Indiana."13 Lack of game in the region further aggravated discontent and created continued conflict between im migrant Indians, the Osage and their allies to the west. However, Delawares continued to arrive in the James River valley, building villages above and below Gilliss's trading post. The Delaware Towns included the largest concentrated population in Southwest Missouri until the growth of Springfield at the outbreak of the Civil War. Bands, led by village chiefs, swelled the Delaware numbers in Southwest Missouri to some 2,500 by the mid-1820s.14 The Dela ware settlements in the James River valley, Northwest Arkansas and Northeast Oklahoma, were tribal gatherings not to be equalled after 1829. On the whole, eastern Indian immigrants moving into southern Missouri swelled the regional population to 8,000 by 1824.15 The immigrant groups, seeking old friends, neighbors and kin, founded new temporary settlements which attracted traders, whiskey-runners and squatters waiting to capitalize on Indian im provements once the Indians were removed again. Gilliss established his trading post on the west side of James River "up the hill," (Che-wa-y-wek) below the mouth of Wilson's Creek.16 Down river from the post a mile to a mile and a half stood a Captain Ketchum's village. Here lived many of the prin cipals who later gave testimony in the Gilliss probate case. Some
12 Mathews, The Osages, 502. 13 Abel, Indian Consolidation, 290-291. 14 Population figures for immigrant Delaware in the southwestern Ozarks during the 1820s are difficult to ascertain. See, Census of Missouri Territory, November 4, 1816, in Letters Received by the Office of the Secretary of War Relating to Indian Affairs, 1800-1823, National Archives Records Service, Micro film Roll 1, 1800-1816; Indians, Missouri Territory, Census 1817, in Joint Collection, University of Missouri Western Historical Manuscript Collection and State Historical Society of Missouri Manuscripts, Columbia; C. A. Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration (Wallingford, Pa., 1978), 211; Abel, Indian Consolidation, 290; Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, III, 585, 592; Mathews, The Osages, 515. 15 Abel, Indian Consolidation, 363. 16 Eliza Bullett deposition, Gilliss probate case. 154 Missouri Historical Review of the Delaware women that Gilliss lived with later resided at Ketchum's, as did John Sarcoxie, and John and Henry Conner. John Campbell lived at Chief William Anderson's village. He worked as subagent for Richard Graham, an agent for the office of the superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis. Patterson, Pipe, Beaver and Suwaunock each established village sites too. Not within any Indian village, Gilliss's post was situated between villages. A complex of buildings surrounded the trading post. Gilliss lived in the north room of a dogtrot cabin, while his black slaves, bought in St. Louis, lived in the south room. Other buildings included one where slaves Olive and Matilda made cheese; a cabin for Poquas, Gilliss's Delaware wife of 1822; a cabin for hired men; a storehouse for retailing; a large log building for the storage of bales and unbroken packages; and produce cribs and henhouses. Joseph Philibert, who came with Gilliss as a gunsmith, soon became his chief clerk, friend and confidant. Numerous other traders, teamsters, hunters, blacksmiths and interpreters occasional ly worked for Gilliss. Philibert proved crucial for Gilliss's trading success from 1822 until 1833 when Philibert returned from "Kansas" to James River to stay. Philibert transported goods west from Ste.
Gilliss Trading . Pos' «
CHRISTIAN CO. STONE CO.
DELAWARE SETTLEMENTS AND LAND CLAIMS 1820s Trader William Gilliss 155
Genevieve through Farmington, Caledonia, and the site of modern Steelville, to Massey's Iron Works. Then moving southwest along the "great interior highway" he stopped at Jimmy Harrison's by the Little Piney crossing, and west across Big Piney and the Roubi- doux at modern Waynesville. From there he traveled up the Gas conade to the mouth of Osage Fork, and on to Pleasant Prairie or modern Marshfield. Down James River valley and across Kicka- poo Prairie, the trail ended at the Delaware Towns.17 When St. Louis replaced Ste. Genevieve as the river entrepot, this "great interior highway," developed by the Indian trade, continued to be the most important Ozarks interior transportation route. Travel and Indian trade, which shifted to eastern Kansas, helped spell the decline of Ste. Genevieve, and St. Louis became the major river entrepot. Philibert made one to three trips annually for provisions. The Gilliss supply market extended to many river valleys includ ing the Pawnee Fork, Red, Arkansas, Elk, White, Black, St. Francois and Mingo Swamp. While Philibert ran the James River post, Gilliss and another trader, Boyer, hustled back east to trade with Indians, who had not yet moved across the Mississippi. Philibert and Gilliss marketed pelts and skins at least once in New Orleans, and regularly at Ste. Genevieve. They occasionally rendezvoused at Hick's Ferry on Current River and then follow the Natchitoches Trace into the Black and St. Francois River valleys. Here they traded with Illinois remnants and Muscogee Town villages of Shawnee, Delaware and Creek. Undoubtedly, Philibert and Gilliss took advantage of hospitality offered at a traditional stopover on the Natchitoches Trace, the Widow Harris Cabin, some six miles from Hick's Ferry.18 Administration at the Delaware Towns on James River did not prove an easy assignment for government agent John Campbell. His management problems taxed his patience and fortitude. Al though Campbell visited all the Delaware cabins in the area, he found it disagreeable to board with them. He wanted federally
17 Senator Emory Melton, Delaware Town and the Swan Trading Post, 1822-1831 (Cassville, Mo., n.d.), 11-13. The author is indebted to Marvin Tong, former director of the Ralph Foster Museum, The School of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri, for a copy of the Gilliss probate case transcript. Senator Melton located the depositions in Jefferson City, had them transcribed and used them as a basis for his pamphlet. 18 Dr. James and Cynthia Price, research archaeologists, Center for Archae ological Research, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, have per formed extensive historic archaeological investigation into this site documented by travelers from 1818 to 1834. Its notoriety no doubt stems in part as a stopover for men engaged in the Indian trade during these years. 156 Missouri Historical Review
subsidized buildings erected opposite Anderson's village, but the government refused any construction until the Delawares moved to their Kansas reservation. Campbell complained to his superiors about not being paid as interpreter for the Kickapoos, who visited him at Anderson's village. He ran out of pen, ink and paper, and when he requested more supplies, he longed for back issues of the St. Louis papers to be included with the next dispatch.19 The infiltration of traders and squatters all making their own deals with the Delawares alarmed Campbell. First, it appeared "bad policy" for traders to cultivate the Indian land and keep horses and cattle in village environs without paying rent to the Indians. Resident whites and traders cultivated corn on Indian land and sold it to the Indians at exorbitant prices, which reached $2 per bushel in 1824. Campbell decried this as a "grand imposi tion" by the traders who continued clearing more land to support their Indian families. Discouraged from raising corn or stock, the Indians realized their annuities would buy them whatever they wanted. Some Delawares, however, did raise corn, beans, pumpkins, hogs and more. Traders enticed the Indians to over spend by purchasing goods on credit against next year's annuity payment. Traders who cheated the Indians out of precious sup-
19 John Campbell to Major Richard Graham, May 19, 1825, and Septem ber 27, 1825, in Richard Graham Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Missouri. Trader William Gilliss 157 plies compounded credit-buying. Trader John Wilson20 cheated the Indians out of iron, creating shortages. On one occasion with the delay of government iron shipments, Valle released 300 pounds of bar iron from the Gilliss warehouse for blacksmithing and shoeing horses. Upon the arrival of annuities, political factions within the Delawares divided them. Some chiefs complained to Campbell of unequal shares. Circumstances finally forced Camp bell to require William Anderson's signature on all Delaware purchases except for "something to bury the dead" and items for the sick.21 Campbell dealt with the whites' thievery of horses from Indians. In turn the Indians stole hogs for food. However, the flagrant liquor sales appeared most vexing to Campbell. When the Dela wares settled on their interim land cession on James River, Chief Anderson permitted some white squatters to remain on their claims but expelled others. Apparently many of the remaining whites ran a lucrative whiskey and brandy business with the immigrant groups. In 1825, Campbell complained to his superior, Richard Graham, that the Delawares, Weas, and all the White River Indians would "be a lost people before two years." The illegal squatters and liquor traffic proved more than a match for Campbell, who asserted to be powerless without additional help. Campbell ordered two of the principal lawbreakers, a Mr. Denton and Soloman Yoacum, off Delaware land in July 1825, as soon as they harvested their crops and paid rent to the Indians. By the following October, Yoacum had settled just inside the Delaware line near the mouth of the Finley River, and had erected a peach brandy still on the opposite side of the line. Yoacum, and a number of "outlaw characters" who settled below him in the James River valley, con tinued to traffic in illicit spirits.22 Competition for the immense Indian wealth often led to charges and countercharges by traders and frontiersmen. During
20 Capt. Martin Hubble, Personal Reminiscences (Springfield, Mo., 1914) , 45-46, reported that John Wilson, who gave his name to Wilson's Creek, also induced voters to name Springfield in honor of his hometown, Springfield, Massachusetts. Concern over cultivation of Indian land by traders may be found in John Campbell to Major Richard Graham, December 9, 1826, Graham Papers. 21 See John Campbell to Major Richard Graham, July 25, 1825, and Sep tember 20, 1825, in ibid. 22 John Campbell to Richard Graham, October 1, 1825, in ibid. 158 Missouri Historical Review
Indian Trader
the fall of 1826, trader William Marshall,23 Gilliss's sometime part ner, sometime rival, issued a formal complaint against Gilliss for trading without a license. Gilliss had returned from Ste. Genevieve with Indian trade goods, loaded his pack horses and "went into the woods to trade." Campbell confronted Gilliss with the issue and replied to Graham that "you have no idea of the high ground this gentleman takes here. He is more than agent." Chief Anderson defended Gilliss, on whose friendship and business relations An derson had come to depend. Gilliss took his goods to Three Forks of White River, the seasonal Swan Creek trading post. Then, as later, Gilliss had his own way. Philibert retrieved a license for him at Ste. Genevieve the following year.24 Finally Campbell confronted agitators among the Indians. He wrote to Graham: "there is [sic~\ too many persons here acting
23 William Marshall also had traded with the Delaware in the Current River country. He, like Gilliss, followed the Delaware through Missouri, and to the Kaw Valley, but like Joseph Philibert, Marshall soon returned to live out his life in Southwest Missouri. James Wilson also began trading with the Delawares at Kaskaskia and followed the Delawares to Southwest Missouri, but apparently did not engage in any Kansas trade. 24 John Campbell to Richard Graham, December 9, 1826, Graham Papers. See also "License to trade at the Three Forks of White River" issued to Wil liam Gilliss, November 1, 1827, by Pierre Menard, in ibid. Trader William Gilliss 159 as agents and advisors."25 Traders especially promoted their own interests. Some exhorted the Delawares not to exchange their lands again without government promise to pay their debts to the traders; others wanted to be included on the forthcoming land reservations in Kansas; some wanted payment for their buildings; but most Indians promised to support the traders' requests, if the traders would continue to help them. With removal of the Delawares imminent in the fall of 1830, Chief Anderson appeared the only tribal leader willing to move. His son, Suwaunock, and others left on hunting trips to Mingo Swamp and the Arkansas River. Months later some Delaware groups joined Anderson in Kansas.26 As soon as the various Southwest Missouri Indians removed to Kansas during 1829-1831, Gilliss began buying land in Jackson County. He bought a thousand acres bordering the Missouri-Kansas line. For the next four decades Gilliss continued his free-wheeling business ventures among the Indians, while he engaged in several land and merchant ventures and in the development of Kansas City. Gilliss's death on July 18, 1869, proved a significant local event, and one which did not go unnoticed by Piankashaw de scendants of William Gilliss. The half-million dollar probate case of William Gilliss, con tested in litigation for three years, ended in Missouri's Supreme Court. Attorney Mobillon McGee, served the plaintiffs, Francis Boyer and James Charley, Jr. The defendants were Gilliss's niece, Mrs. Mary Troost, and administrator Michael Dively. The plaintiffs included half-brothers and sons of Nancy Gilliss, daughter of the Indian marriage between William Gilliss and Kahketoqua. Only Sophia and Mary, two daughters of Gilliss by Delaware women, received any provision in his wilj other than Mrs. Troost. The Jackson County Circuit Court established seven issues (which the Johnson County Circuit Court later continued)27 for the jury to deal with concerning the Gilliss estate: 1. Were William Gillis and Kahketoqua married ca. 1830; and did they live together as man and wife?
25 John Campbell to Major Richard Graham, December 9, 1826, in ibid. 26 Notes from William Clark Collection, 1830, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, in personal vertical file of Marvin Tong, Ralph Foster Museum, The School of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri. 27 The case began in the Jackson County Circuit Court in October 1869, and stalled until 1872. That year Mrs. Troost died, Michael Dively was appointed administrator of her estate and the plaintiffs asked for and received a change of venue to Johnson County. The Johnson County Circuit Court began the case in October 1872, and completed it in February 1873. 160 Missouri Historical Review
2. Did Gilliss and Kahketoqua have children? Was Nancy Gilliss a child, and only child? 3. Are Francis Boyer, and James Charley, Jr., the only descendants of Nancy Gilliss? 4. Had Kahketoqua and Nancy Gilliss died before commencement of this suit, on October 15, 1869? 5. Did Gilliss, before death, make his last will and testament? 6. Did Gilliss die omitting name and provision for Nancy Gilliss; and did Gilliss die, leaving Boyer and Charley, descendants, unprovided for? 7. Are Sophia Gilliss and Mary Gilliss children of William? Are they provided for in the will? Respite Gilliss's wishes to be remembered as a wealthy bachelor,28 and Kansas City's largest landowner and taxpayer, the jury found affirmative all seven issues. The court awarded Boyer and Charley one-third of the Gilliss estate. The majority of the testimony cen-
28 Norman and Robertson, comps., Synopsis of the litigation over the estate of William Gilliss (Kansas City, Mo., 1901) . References to Gilliss maintaining bachelorhood are many. For example, Kansas City postmaster, Frank Foster, claimed it was always understood with acquaintances of Gilliss that he was a bachelor and had never been married.
William Gilliss Ancestral Chart
Lehash, Piankashaw chief
Wa-Wau-tiqua (Delaware) = William Gilliss = Kahketoqua ca 1820 CQ..183Q
Sophia, inherited $10 Nancy Gilliss = Joseph Boyer (1831 - 1862) (Fr. half breed)
Poquas (Delaware) = Francis Boyer ca. 1822
Mary, inherited $10 plaintiffs^ = James Charley fVVeas)
James Charley Jr Trader William Gilliss 161
GILLISS TRADING POST
Kansas and Missouri Junction
AND MANSION JUL. tered on issue number one—were Gilliss and Kahketoqua legally married? Ordinarily, the answer to this question, and many others dealing with Indian trade in Southwest Missouri, would be lost to history. In this case, an extraordinary lawsuit, forty years after the facts, recorded a detailed answer. Much testimony in the case centered on companionship rela tions between the traders and Indians. The defense, by describing many examples of cohabitation, tried to discount the very possi bility that any legal marriage could have taken place between a trader and an Indian in the James River valley in the 1820s. The plaintiffs' attorney demonstrated, through depositions of contempo rary witnesses, the many details leading to the marriage negotia tion of Gilliss and Kahketoqua, and the maintenance of that mar riage relationship. The court heard testimony from Delawares who had lived in the Current River country, St. Francois River and Mingo Swamp region and the White River watershed. Traders, who had worked in southern Missouri and in the Kansas City area, testified, as well as one of Gilliss's daughters and one of his slaves. The witnesses firmly established Gilliss as a frontier- 162 Missouri Historical Review style sexual free-booter, who used the Indian women for his own gratification and as political pawns in the Indian trade.29 Only the testimony of Joseph Philibert continually contradicted the rest, and denied that Gilliss ever had any intimacy with Le- harsh's daughter, Kahketoqua. Philibert said: From the very beginning we (he and Gilliss) were intimate together. We were more like brothers than friends. I was acquainted with his private affairs if he told me the truth. I was acquainted with Gilliss' relations with the Indian women of the tribes with whom he traded.30 Philibert described domestic relations at the trading post and the trading ventures. He enumerated many women with whom Gilliss lived, and noted that the Delawares "were not as virtuous as the Piankashaw." He did not know of any Piankashaw having more than one wife while many Delaware men lived with more than one woman. Indicating the commonness of men and women living together on James River, Philibert cited Little Jack, a full-blood Delaware, who had a mother and daughter for wives; the war chief, Suwaunock, "had his own cousin, and a strange woman"; and McCullock had Suwaunock's niece and another woman. Above all, Philibert denied any knowledge of Baptiste Peoria's negotiations for Gilliss on Cow Skin River (Elk River) concerning Leharsh's daughter.31 Jack MacLean, a Chilicothie Shawnee, had lived on Crooked Creek in Northwest Arkansas with Piankashaw, Peoria and Weas. He had hunted with Black Bob's Shawnee band and knew Coon Skin McGee, a Shawnee trader and brother of the plaintiffs' at-
29 Testimony for this case was heard from traders and merchants: A. G. Boone, Peter Menard, John McCoy, William Myers, Joseph Philibert and Frank Valle. Indian testimony included Eliza Bullet, Mary Gilliss Rogers, John Sarcoxie, Charles Journeycake and others. Court testimony demonstrated in great detail how Gilliss kept a number of Indian women as consorts or "wives." Considering the anthropological basis for the lawsuit it is appro priate to indicate the extent of Gilliss's dealings with women. While in Kas kaskia, Gilliss bought a slave Matilda, and sired Pamelia and Antoine Gilliss; in the early 1820s he lived with a Delaware, Wa-Wau-tiqua; in 1822, a Dela ware, Poquas, lived with Gilliss on "Current River," and later on James River; spring, 1823, he brought Charlotte, a Delaware from the Arkansas River, to James River for several days; later in 1823 and 1824, Gilliss kept Black Squaw at camp Richwood near Black River Swamp; during 1827 or 1828, he lived with Captain Ketchum's daughter at James Fork trading post for four to six weeks; summer of 1828, he lived with trader James Wilson's half-breed Dela ware daughter on James River; and in 1829 Gilliss had Baptiste Peoria negotiate the marriage of Kah-ke-toqua, daughter of the Piankashaw chief, Leharsh. The Gilliss/Kah-ke-toqua marriage spawned a daughter, Nancy Gilliss. Her sons, by two marriages, Francis Boyer and James Charley, became plaintiffs in the Gilliss probate trials. 30 Joseph Philibert deposition, Gilliss probate case. 31 Ibid. Trader William Gilliss 163 torney. MacLean told how all the traders in Upper White River country sought Kahketoqua, and how Gilliss won her. Gilliss had been trading on the Cow Skin with pack horses and brought members of the Delaware, Peoria, Weas and Piankashaw tribe with him when he came for Kahketoqua. Trader A. G. Boon "pre sumed every Indian trader in the country knew he (Gilliss) had Leharsh's daughter for a wife." Boon, explaining Kahketoqua's attractiveness, described the Piankashaw as fairer skinned than other tribes, wearing more clothes and more acculturated to Ameri can life.32 The son of the famous Colonel Pierre Menard, Peter Menard, who had made his headquarters at the Gilliss trading post, con tradicted Philibert's testimony. Menard explained that Leharsh was "an excellent man, a kind of prophet, from a family of good moral people. Gilliss never could have gotten her (Kahketoqua) as a common strumpet." According to Menard, one or two horses ap peared a fair price for a virgin then, but "Gilliss was well off, and knew he would have to pay pretty well to get Kahketoqua."33 Baptiste Peoria had been employed by Gilliss as interpreter, part-time trader and procurer of horses. Later Peoria ran a store in Paola, Kansas, trading with reservation Indians for thirty years. Baptiste stated, there had been a "good many women at the James Fork trading post." He continued, it was customary for the white men to have more than one woman at a time. Peoria had had five or six, but never more than two at one time. The woman's family received one, two, five or ten dollars, "for a few days or awhile just the same as you (whites) do." Peoria had known Leharsh's family on Black River, Swan Creek and at Cow Skin. "Before we came to this country (White River country) Gilliss was after Kahketoqua." While the Piankashaw lived on Cow Skin, Gilliss had charged Baptiste Peoria to intercede with the old people to get Kahketoqua. The mother, who made the decision whether or not her daughter would marry, said she did not want Gilliss to have Kahketoqua because he would treat her as he did the Delaware women—have a child and then leave. Apparently other kinfolk persuaded the mother, Pah-kong-ke-qua, and she told Baptiste to "go and fetch Mr. Gilliss." On the return to Leharsh's family, Peoria interpreted for Gilliss. According to cus tom Gilliss gave presents for his bride—a horse, rifle, goods, blankets, calicoes, side saddle and bridles, and two cloths, one red, and
32 jack McLean and A. G. Boon depositions, Gilliss probate case. 33 Peter Menard deposition, in ibid. 164 Missouri Historical Review
one black. The new bride, her mother and brother accompanied Gilliss on the way back to James Fork Trading Post. Kahketoqua, her mother and Gilliss all stayed in Gilliss's house. They ate in the north room and the open entry of the dogtrot in pleasant weather. During all three meals, they ate at the same table. Thus the fact that Gilliss always ate with Kahketoqua and did not openly demean her proved to neighboring Indians that Gilliss considered Kahketoqua his wife.34 After removing the Delaware in the fall of 1830, Gilliss helped to distribute rations among the Piankashaw in December, "a time when they were talking about the approaching Christmas." Gilliss then left for Kaskaskia and Ste. Genevieve. He charged Peoria to take Kahketoqua, her mother and brother to Indian Creek, Kansas. Kahketoqua was pregnant, and gave birth to a daughter on Indian Creek. A year or two later Gilliss visited them. Peoria told Gilliss he named Kahketoqua's child, Nancy Gilliss, and he laughed. Gilliss said he would not forget Kahketoqua. In the following years, Peoria occasionally met William Gilliss in Kansas City. Gilliss made inquiry about Kahketoqua and their daughter, and sent textiles and money by Peoria to them. When Peoria told Gilliss, that his child Nancy had married James Charley,
34 Baptiste Peoria deposition, in ibid. Trader William Gilliss 165
Gilliss sent her a half dozen dresses from the Gilliss and Coates store.35 Peter Labadie, who lived among the Peoria Indians, had been in Kansas City during 1857, and witnessed conversation between Gilliss and Peoria. Labadie remembered Gilliss telling Peoria that "if Nancy needed any clothes or goods (from Peoria's store) to let her have them, and he would make it all right with him."36 Gilliss had given closer attention to his Delaware children, Sophia and Mary. Accompanied by Gilliss's slaves and their chil dren, they moved together from James River to Turkey Creek on the Missouri-Kansas line in 1831. Both daughters attended school at Westport and at the Baptist mission. While attending the mission, the children boarded at Isaac McCoy's house. John Mc Coy and Gilliss were partners in Kansas City. Gilliss's aunt, a Mrs. Janes, took care of the Delaware children, and kept Gilliss's house.37 Testimony, about the treatment afforded the Indians and his children, proves that Gilliss did not maintain constant personal relationships. The "acquisition" of Kahketoqua represented another Gilliss success in his desire to possess a status symbol which would gain him favor among Indians and whites. The defense presented testimony that traders did not con sider Indians as wives, and that prostitution and widespread abandonment of morals appeared the ordinary. Besides the women became convenient companions who further enriched the traders by sharing their portion of the annuities. Trader Peter Avery said "most all traders had Indian women, and paid for them in what they dealt in—dry goods, groceries, provisions, or horses."38 Wil liam Gilliss capitalized on occasions to enhance his commercial interests. At least eight white traders had resided at the Delaware Towns on James River, but William Gilliss prospered more than the rest. The Indian removal to Kansas cemented Gilliss's career in trade and Indian wardship. Once in Jackson County, Gilliss's business became much easier. With his market concentrated for a generation in a relatively small space, his fortunes multiplied in Westport and Kansas City investments. In 1832 Gilliss and Philibert attended the Castor Hill treaty negotiations at St. Louis. The Council Camp treaty on James Fork in September 1829, and the Castor Hill treaty, completed
3 5 Nancy's first husband, Joseph Boyer, had died. Baptiste Peoria deposition, in ibid. 36 Peter Labadie deposition, in ibid. 37 Mary Gilliss Rogers and John C. McCoy depositions, in ibid. 38 Peter Avery deposition, in ibid. 166 Missouri Historical Review the Delaware and Shawnee abrogation of all rights to improve ments and land in Missouri. The federal government awarded $12,000, to be applied to Delaware debts, payable to Menard and Valle of Ste. Genevieve for the benefit of William Gilliss and William Marshall.39 Gilliss returned to his border trading post, set on a hill above present Southwest Boulevard, overlooking the Kaw Valley, as his Delaware Town post had overlooked James River valley. By 1838 Gilliss, William Sublett, John McCoy and others formed a company for the establishment of a new town, which they called Kansas. The first great sale of lots took place in 1846. Buyers included farmers, tradesmen, professional men, laborers and "William Gilliss, a gentleman, defined as a man with no regular business who lived without labor."40 Partly in response to the California gold rush, Gilliss and Dr. Benoist Troost built the famous Gilliss House on * the levee in 1849-1850. Old Gilliss House registers recorded 27,000 guests dur ing 1857. The hotel became Kansas City's "first real hotel" and the center of Kansas City's social life until the Pacific opened in 1865. The Gilliss House served as the meeting place for proslavery and antislavery adherents during the violent Missouri-Kansas border trouble. William Gilliss continued to exert an influence in Kansas City development. In 1854, he helped establish the town's first
39 Charles Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs, Laws and Treatises (Washington, 1904), II, 371. 40 History of Jackson County, Missouri (Kansas City, 1881), 396-397, 409.
Kansas City Levee Showing Gilliss House Trader William Gilliss 167 permanent newspaper, the Kansas City Enterprise, later becoming the Journal; in 1857, he was involved in the incorporation of the Chamber of Commerce; and two years later Gilliss became a director of a branch bank of the Mechanics' Bank of St. Louis. Gilliss's niece, Mrs. Mary Troost, built the Gilliss Opera House, whose revenues went to support the Gilliss Orphan's Home, a modern survivor on Wornall Road in Kansas City. Near the end of his life, he performed one last symbolic act: as the oldest citizen of Kansas City, he drove the last spike in the rail of the Cameron Railroad, November 22, 1867.41 William Gilliss, as a capitalist in the Ozarks wilderness, founded a fortune in the Indian trade. During the 1820s in the Ozarks, Indians with cash money provided the major market in merchandis ing on an unsettled frontier. The trade proved a dependable risk as opposed to other speculation such as land, timber and mining. Gilliss, the pioneer, turned financier and helped develop a great midwestern city. A school teacher once recalled the image of Gilliss's mansion. She described it as "the great wonder of the town. The white walls gleaming through the trees seemed like marble to us. We could not imagine in those days how anything could be finer."42 Gilliss had aspired to own the finest house in the district, and he did. Indian chiefs—old friends of Gilliss—used to congregate with him in later years at Jim Walker's Indian Store. Blue Jacket of the Shawnees, Journeycake of the Delawares, Armstrong of the Wyandots and Baptiste Peoria of the Miami, recalled old times which brought humor, merriment and satisfaction to the old men and local onlookers. Gilliss, always seen summer and winter in a black Prince Albert coat, carried a hickory cane with a gold head and spent his later years "in dignified, refined opulence."43 Perhaps Henry Rowe Schoolcraft had the Gilliss-Delaware experi ence in mind when he stated that the result of U.S. Indian policy had been to "set vampires on the Indians, a set of gentlemen who live off the treasury of the United States."44 Nevertheless, Kansas City locals thought that William Gilliss had descended from the aristocracy of eighteenth-century Bourbon France.
41 Ibid., 418, 435-437, 487. 42 Kansas City Star, September 1, 1907. 43 Undated clipping from Kansas City Star, 1907, in Missouri Valley Room, Kansas City Public Library. 44 Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, V, 468. Father Theobold Mathew
The Knights of Father Mathew: Parallel Ethnic Reform
BY MARTIN G. TOWEY AND MARGARET LOPICCOLO SULLIVAN*
For years reformers and historians have considered immigrants and their children a major stumbling block in the perfection of society. Articulate middle-class progressives saw the slums and their foreign inhabitants as the bedrock of boss rule and corruption in urban politics. Prohibitionists viewed the same slum dwellers as both the chief opponents and major beneficiaries of dry legislation.
* Martin G. Towey is associate professor of History and American Studies at Saint Louis University, where he received a doctorate in History. He also serves as director of the Gasconade County Historic Survey Project for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the National Trust for His toric Preservation. Margaret LoPiccolo Sullivan is adjunct assistant professor of History at Saint Louis University and on the faculty of the Parkway School District. She holds a doctorate in History from Saint Louis University. 168 Knights of Father Mathew 169
More recently, historians have begun to recognize immigrant contributions to reform, particularly during the first half of the twentieth century. Joseph Huthmacher credits the urban poor and their political representatives for formulating much of the reform legislation during the progressive period and a contribution posi tively to the idealism of the New Deal. Thomas Brown stressed urban Irish support for Henry George in the late nineteenth cen tury; and Humbert Nelli finds Italian support for at least one Chicago reformer.1 Such works indicate an entrance into the mainstream of Ameri can politics, that immigrants contributed in some positive way to the reforms favored by the host society. However, in another kind of reform, called "parallel reform", ethnic group members drew heavily upon their own traditions in meeting the problems they found in America. In the Conservative Reformer, Philip Glea- son writes of the unique German-American Catholic response to the inequalities and evils in American society.2 The Knights of Father Mathew represent such a movement, a response by Irish- Americans to the problem of alcohol but one that came out of their own tradition and remained almost completely aloof from the Anglo-American prohibitionist crusade. The Knights of Father Mathew proved something more than a reform movement. It also provided a vehicle of upward mobility for second generation Irish-Americans grappling with the prob lems of acculturation, assimilation and the maintenance of an intergenerational ethnic tradition. While distinctly Irish in mem bership and ideology, the Knights of Father Mathew exhibited signs of structural assimilation supportive of Milton Gordon's triple melting pot thesis.3 The ideological impetus for the Knights of Father Mathew came from the mid-nineteenth-century Apostle of Irish temperance, Father Theobold Mathew. Born of a middle-class family in Thomas- town, County Tipperary, Ireland, he became a Capuchine monk and worked for some twenty years among the poor in the city of Cork. In 1838 he joined the Cork Total Abstinence Society by
i Joseph Huthmacher, "Urban Liberalism and the Age of Reform," Mis sissippi Valley Historical Review, XLIX (September, 1962), 231-241; Thomas N. Brown, Irish-American Nationalism, 1870-1890 (New York, 1966) ; and Humbert S. Nelli, "John Powers and the Italians: Politics in a Chicago Ward, 1896-1921," Journal of American History, LVII (June, 1970), 67-84. 2 Philip Gleason, Conservative Reformers: German American Catholics and the Social Order (South Bend, Ind., 1968) . 3 Milton M. Gordon, Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins (New York, 1964). 170 Missouri Historical Review
taking "the pledge" to ". . . abstain from all intoxicating drinks, except used medicinally and by order of a medical man, and to discountenance the cause and practice of intemperance." Buoyed by his leadership and charismatic personality, the faltering Irish temperance movement began attracting large numbers who "took the pledge" at Father Mathew's feet. By 1845 the movement peaked with five million Irishmen enrolled in its ranks.4 Father Mathew extended his mission to the United States, preaching his message of total abstinence as the only way to combat the "Irish curse" and enrolling hundreds of thousands. Between December 1849 and November 1851, he toured much of the eastern half of the nation. Beginning in New York, he made a swing through New England, particularly Boston with its large Irish population, returned to the middle-Atlantic states and then visited the South. He spent much of his tour in New Orleans feeling comfortable because of its cosmopolitan and Catholic atmosphere. His reception appeared very warm and enthusiastic with the exception of New England. There he found confronting him the fact that abstinence was associated with abolition. Wil liam Lloyd Garrison and his association expected Father Mathew
4 Sister Mary Francis Clare, The Life of Father Mathew (New York 1872).
Father Mathew Addressing a Temperance Meeting Knights of Father Mathew 171 to speak out against slavery as well as alcoholism, but he refused to do so. Father Mathew found St. Louis a fertile field for his endeavors. The major transshipment point for goods going north and south along the Mississippi and east and west along the Missouri and Ohio rivers, the booming river town had recently experienced a period of rapid growth. A village of little more than 2,000 in 1820, St. Louis had 5,852 inhabitants in 1830, 16,469 in 1840 and 77,860 in 1850. St. Louis's growth drew heavily on mid-nineteenth- century immigration. By 1850 almost half of the city's inhabitants were born outside the United States and by 1860, with nearly 60 percent of its residents coming from abroad, it had become the most heavily foreign-born city in the nation.5 Although Germans predominated in the mid-century migra tions, outnumbering the native-born Missourians 22,571 to 20,321 in 1850, the Irish had a long history in St. Louis. Shortly after 1800, when St. Louis was still a French speaking village, about one hundred Irish business and professional men settled in the enclave. They contributed the town's first sheriff, newspaper editor and millionaire as well as a goodly number of merchants and lawyers. Well educated, prosperous and often French speaking, this group fit well into the village's existing social, economic, re ligious and political life. The Irish who came at mid-century constituted a different lot. Refugees from famine, they settled in the poorest parts of the city, had few skills and strained the town's existing charitable resources. Numbering about 10,000, they were outnumbered by the German immigrants by three to one, a ratio that persisted throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. Compared to the largely middle-class mid-century Germans, the Irish had a strong upper class (the residue of the earlier migrants who had merged with the French) an extremely weak middle class and very large lower class.6 To this poverty-striken, poorly organized Irish community in St. Louis, Father Mathew came in 1850. Exhausted by his numer-
5 U.S. Department of Interior, Population of the United States in 1860 . . . (Washington, D.C, 1864), 300, 614. 6 Sister Mary Hayes, "Politics and Government in Colonial St. Louis: A Study on the Growth of Political Awareness" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Saint Louis University, 1972) ; Frederich Hodes, "The Urbanization of St. Louis: A Study in Urban Residential Patterns in the Nineteenth Century" (unpub lished Ph.D. dissertation, Saint Louis University, 1973) ; Sister Marie Felicite Hanratty, "A Study of Early Irish Contributions to the Growth of St. Louis, 1804-1840" (unpublished Master's thesis, Saint Louis University, 1933) . 172 Missouri Historical Review
ous speeches and suffering from severe laryngitis, he was unable to give any sermons or to speak in public. However, this made little difference, his fame proved so widespread and his audience so receptive that he administered the pledge to over nine thousand in one public appearance. In a letter to a friend in Ireland discuss ing his success in St. Louis, Father Mathew wrote: The success that has attended my exertions in the City of St. Louis has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. Nine thousand persons have taken the total abstinence pledge, and when you are informed that I have not been able to lecture in the temperance halls from infirmity, you must deem it a very considerable number.7 The seeds planted by Father Mathew led to the formation in St. Louis of the Catholic Young Men's Total Abstinence Society two decades later. This social and semimilitary organization quickly became known for its handsome uniforms, precision drills and participation in civic events, as well as its dedication to sobriety. Reorganized as the Knights of Father Mathew in 1881, it retained its total abstinence function, added insurance benefits and relegated its military activities to a subsidiary organization known as the Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Father Mathew. In that year, the Knights also joined the Catholic Total Abstinence Union, founded in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1870 as a federation of Irish-Catholic temperance organizations.8 The St. Louis based Knights grew to 3,000 members in 1898, declined to approximately 1,200 members in 1901 and rose to 2,500 members in 1903. In the same year the organization initiated a membership drive hoping to raise its membership to better than 3,000 before the Catholic Total Abstinence Union held its annual convention in St. Louis in October 1904. The results were astonishing. The Knights had over 5,000 members by mid-summer and over 6,000 members by October, making it the largest single member of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union.9 Who belonged to the Knights of Father Mathew in 1904? A majority, but not all the 6,000 members were St. Louisans.
7 Katharine Tynan, Father Mathew (Chicago, 1908) , 163. 8 For the history of temperance in St. Louis see Katherine Teasdale Condie, "The Temperance Movement in Missouri, 1869-1887" (unpublished Master's thesis, Washington University, St. Louis, 1937) ; Laura Louise Mar tin, "The Temperance Movement in Missouri 1846-1869" (unpublished Mas ter's thesis, Washington University, St. Louis, 1935) . There are no existing records of the Knights of Father Mathew or its councils in St. Louis. $ St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 9, 1902; St. Louis Western Watch man, February 4, May 26, August 4, 11, and September 1, 1904. The Western Watchman was the Catholic newspaper in St. Louis during this period. Knights of Father Mathew 173
I ^
The Father Mathew Temperance Medal, front and back, appears above left. Father Mathew speaks on temperance, above right.
Twenty-five of the organization's 37 parish councils were in St. Louis. By 1906, councils existed in Kansas City, St. Joseph, Mober ly, Hannibal, St. Charles, Lexington, Monett, Chillicothe, Sedalia, DeSoto and Springfield in Missouri; Alton, Rock Island, Joliet, Decatur, Chicago and East St. Louis in Illinois; DesMoines and Dubuque in Iowa; and Rosedale, Kansas. The Supreme Council, which met semiannually in St. Louis, reflected the city's dominance of the organization. Typically, in 1904 the Reverend James T. Coffey of St. Louis became Supreme Spiritual Director. Other officers included William H. O'Brien of St. Louis, Chief Sir Knight; Frank J. O'Loughlin of Kansas City, Supreme Deputy Sir Knight; Thomas S. Bowdern of St. Louis, Chief Recorder; Forlance J. Cur- ran of St. Louis, Chief Banker; and Dr. J. J. McLoughlin of Chi- 174 Missouri Historical Review cago, John Caples of Kansas City and Patrick Mulcahy of St. Louis, Supreme Trustees.10 Members also appeared relatively young and usually Irish. In September 1904, the Supreme Recorder announced that during the recent membership drive, the average age of Knights dropped from 35 to 28. In an era of a rapidly aging Irish-born population and its steady decline in both the percentage of general popula tion and Irish-American population, this also indicated a preponder ance of second generation members. All St. Louis councils were in English speaking parishes with large Irish-American congre gations. Eighteen parishes served the heavily Irish areas of the city, and two were located on its northern fringes with the other five scattered throughout South St. Louis. A sampling of 295 names taken at random from officers and committee members confirmed the preponderance of Irish-Americans, indicating 212, or 72 percent clearly of Irish derivation.11 Evidence also exists that the Knights of Father Mathew were upwardly mobile. This becomes obvious in comparing a random sample of Knights officers and active members, between 1900 and 1920, with a similar sample from the Ancient Order of Hiber nians, another large Irish-American fraternal organization in the city. Occupational figures for the Irish born and those of Irish parentage exist only for 1900 but provide some basis for a rough comparison. Only 8.6 percent of the Irish-American community in 1900 could be classified as business executives, including own ers of small firms, or professional men. Such occupations rep resented 15 percent of the active Hibernians and 49 percent of the Knights. The Hibernians included a greater preponderance of white collar workers, 47.5 percent (compared to 14.1 percent for the Irish-American community in 1900). They made up only 25 percent of the membership in the Knights. The remaining mem bers of both organizations fell almost unanimously into the ranks of skilled or supervisory labor.12 An offshoot of the Knights of Father Mathew, the Irish- American Society, sheds additional light on the character of the parent organization. This Society, founded in 1900 to celebrate
10 The parishes are listed in the St. Louis Western Watchman, December 1, 1904 and the officers in ibid., January 21, 1904. 11 The sample was taken from names appearing in the St. Louis Western Watchman, 1900-1920. See also Margaret LoPiccolo Sullivan, "St. Louis' Ethnic Neighborhoods, An Overview," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, XXXIV (January, 1977), 64-76. 12 Samples were compiled from notices in St. Louis newspapers and checked in Gould's, St. Louis Directories, 1900-1920, and U.S. 12th Census. Knights of Father Mathew 175
St. Patrick's Day in a befitting, nonalcoholic manner, was the first in the city specifically founded for the American-born. It rivalled the old line Knights of St. Patrick, founded in 1870, by the city's Irish-American elite.13 The Knights of Father Mathew, although largely second gen eration and upwardly mobile, retained a distinctly Irish approach to the problems of alcohol. It remained philosophically true to Father Theobold Mathew. The personal approach of total absti nence remained the bedrock of the organization. "Taking the pledge" appeared an important event in the life of a Knight and the central focus of the initiating of new members. The ceremony evidently had a tremendous impact on new members. One former member interviewed some fifty-two years after his initiation still recalled the specific questions asked during the religious exami nation portion of the initiation. He claimed that he drank only slightly because the pledge still had some influence on his con science.14 During the membership drive of 1904, one thousand new Knights swore to personal abstinence in what the Western Watchman called the greatest temperance demonstration the city had ever seen.15 Their Spiritual Director, Father Coffey, exhorted members to show Protestants that Catholics had a high sense of civic morality by fighting the liquor interests. Nevertheless, the Knights generally eschewed the Anglo-American approach of reforming society through legislation. In fact, between 1900 and 1920, they entered the public arena only twice. Once, they worked with the Redemptorist Fathers to stop the issuance of a liquor license to a saloon at Grand and Finney, across the street from St. Alphonsus (Rock) Church. In the other instance, they joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Home Protective Association in protesting the sale of liquor at the Cottage, a food and beverage concession in Forest Park. On the whole, they fol lowed the advice of St. Louis's archbishop to avoid the fanaticism of other groups who exalted abstinence as the indispensable virtue to be foisted upon all society.16 Drawing on their Irish heritage and the needs of an ethnic
13 St. Louis Republic, March 5, 18, 1900; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 17, 1907. 14 Interview with Thomas Finan, former member of the Knights of Father Mathew, on April 22, 1979, on file at St. Louis University Archives and Oral History Center. 15 St. Louis Western Watchman, August 11, 1904. 16 St. Louis Times, October 12, 1908; St. Louis Western Watchman, March 3, August 18, February 18, April 21, 1904. 176 Missouri Historical Review
Rev. James T. Coffey, Supreme Spiritual Director
group in American society, the Knights also differed from native American temperance organizations in creating a complete social atmosphere for members and their families. Within its ranks, the Knights provided not only a solution for the liquor problem, but insurance benefits and a social life catering to a variety of life styles and interests. In responding to the needs of its members, the Knights spawned a number of subsidiary organizations whose diversified functions strengthened the parent organization. Insurance, both death and sick benefits, continued to be a vital function of the Knights of Father Mathew. During the 1904 recruiting drive, the Knights advertised that they not only stood for sobriety but had "the cheapest insurance to be had" in amounts ranging from $250 to $2,000. By 1910, officers claimed that the Knights had paid over $1,000,000 to widows and orphans and had maintained their own insurance program without the benefit of state supervision or aid of outside companies.17 The Junior Knights of Father Mathew provided an initial link in the chain of Knights' organization welding the family together. It attracted boys before they turned to alcohol and provided ac tivities for members' sons. In 1900, this division included 1,200
17 Ibid., March 10, 1910, March 31, 1904, November 30, 1911, and Octo ber 22, 1914. Knights of Father Mathew 177 boys between the ages of 10 and 20 in six parishes; later the mini mum age rose to 16 and then lowered again in 1913 to 12 years of age.18 The organization provided the Junior Knights with an extensive range of athletic and social activities, including tennis, basketball and soccer. One highlight of the social activities was the dances held monthly in the large hall of the Knights' build ing at Cook and Sarah avenues.19 The Knights organized a Ladies Auxiliary in 1902, "because only a mother could deliver her sons to the Knights at such an early age and convince their daughters to shun young men who drank." Like the male organization, it had parish councils, a Su preme Council and an Auxiliary of the Uniformed Rank. Much of the ladies leadership, that is most of the officers, came from Kansas City, with Miss Katherine Kelly of that city acting as its perennial president. In 1914, the Knights voted to admit women on the same basis and with the same privileges as male members. It changed the organization's name to the Knights and Ladies of Father Mathew on January 1, 1915. Thus when the Knights gave a grand rally and open meeting in late December 1914, they advised their members that it would be the last stag Knights' func tion they could attend.20
izibid., July 10, 1913; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 16, 1901. 19 Finan interview. 20 St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 17, 1914; St. Louis Western Watch man, October 22, 1914, and November 17, 1904.
Uniformed Rank on Parade, 1890s Archives & Oral History Center St. Louis Univ. 178 Missouri Historical Review
The Uniformed Rank maintained an independent and highly visible existence throughout the period. It drew members from the Knights ranks and consequently appealed for financial as sistance to pay for its elaborate uniforms and equestrian mounts from the parent organization. The Knights supported the Uni formed Rank because of its historic ties to the organization and the links it provided to the greater community. The Uniformed Rank took part in such civic events as a 1900 parade honoring Admiral George Dewey's visit to St. Louis and the 1904 dedica tion of the World's Fairgrounds.21 The already mentioned Irish-American Society continued to cater to the more affluent and ambitious Knights. Its sumptuous St. Patrick's Day banquets at the city's finest hotels provided an annual event for its approximately three hundred members. In 1907, a splinter group organized the more exclusive American Sons of Erin, which restricted membership to one hundred busi ness and professional men. By 1915, the split was healed and the renamed Irish-American Sons of Erin boasted a membership of nearly one thousand. Perhaps due to the stresses of the oncom ing war and the problems of neutrality, the American Sons of Erin strayed from the Knights fold in 1916 and began serving alcoholic beverages.22 The St. Louis Officer's Association of the Knights of Father Mathew, composed of representatives of the city's parish councils, met monthly to direct and coordinate local events. It supervised various recruiting drives, organized mass initiations and gave a yearly grand picnic with speeches, dancing and a host of athletic competitions. It also sponsored an annual communion breakfast, usually held simultaneously at a north and a south side church.28 The Officer's Association took temporary charge of another activity—sports—and created an additional organization to perma nently direct efforts in that area. Interest in sporting competitions was hardly new with the Knights. Over the years various parish councils had fielded baseball and basketball teams and formed semiofficial leagues. In 1911, the Officer's Association established
21 St. Louis Times, January 4, 1908; St. Louis Western Watchman, Oc tober 25, January 18, 1906, September 7, 1911, and December 1, 1904. 22 SJ. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 18, 1904, January 20, 1916; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 3, 1902, December 8, 1907, November 8, 9, 1911, March 15. 1914; St. Louis Times, March 18, 1908; St. Louis Western Watchman, January 21, 1909, and December 3, 1908. 23 Ibid., April 30, 1914, August 18, 1910, August 3, 1911, and August 10, Knights of Father Mathew 179 an Athletic Association. As an independent organization recruited from individual Knights' councils, the Athletic Association, not only purposed to provide athletic competition but also to secure a gymnasium and other athletic facilities. Within a short time, the Knights' Supreme Council purchased a building at Cook and Sarah avenues to serve as a meeting hall for various Knights' groups, an athletic facility for the five hundred members of the Athletic Association and a library. Three years later, however, the Knights and Ladies Auxiliary were still raising money for a mod ern gymnasium, a swimming pool, bowling alleys and tennis courts.24 The Officer's Association became only one of the coterie of Knights' organizations to offer entertainments. The Uniformed Rank held an annual ball with admission by invitation only. They also sponsored an annual festive day-long railroad excursion and held Memorial Day services at Calvary and Saints Peter and Paul cemeteries. Local councils and ladies auxiliaries gave a plethora of events, an endless array of dances, card parties, plays, debates, lectures, musical programs and picnics to suit every taste and interest. Council entertainments ranged from grand lawn parties at Sportsman Park, St. Louis's baseball stadium, to a lecture by Brother Thomas J. Moynihan "On plumbing from a sanitary and scientific standpoint."25 Presumably, a young man could join the Knights at the age of 12, gain a small measure of financial security, engage in athletic competitions, attend its dances and entertain ments and meet suitable young ladies all within the organization's sheltering ranks and without the threat of alcohol. While the Knights of Father Mathew appeared undoubtedly Irish in origin, ideology and membership, it moved away from a strictly Irish identity and showed definite signs of structural assimilation. Catholicity, not Irish ancestry, became a prime con dition of membership. The trappings of Irish ethnicity often were present—flags, shamrocks, hornpipes and jigs, and Irish melodies. But one thing proved conspicuously absent. The Knights were the only Irish-American organization in the city that did not take any political stands during these volatile years in Irish politics. In fact, they did not even take a public stand for Irish freedom as did the city's Irish-American nationalistic organiza-
24 For examples of activities, see ibid., May 12, 1904, April 7, 1910, and August 10, 1911. 25 ibid., November 17 and July 12, 1904. 180 Missouri Historical Review
Records in both St. Louis Parishes, St. Bridget, left, and St. Teresa, above, contain many Irish surnames.
tions, cultural organizations, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Western Watchman, several prominent pastors and the archbishop.26 Perhaps the Knights partially avoided pronouncements on Ire land to attract and hold non-Irish members. While the Knights never made any inroads into foreign language parishes, the English speaking parishes became increasingly multi-ethnic. Although the
26 Margaret LoPiccolo Sullivan, "Constitution, Revolution and Culture, Irish-American Nationalism in St. Louis, 1902-1914," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, XXVIII (July, 1972), 234-245, and "Fighting for Irish Freedom: St. Louis Irish-Americans, 1918-1922," MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, LXV (lan- uary, 1971), 184-206. Knights of Father Mathew 181 first generation Germans and others might cling to the foreign language parishes, the second generation moved out of the old neighborhood and into English-speaking parishes. A study of bap tismal records in five parishes in 1900, 1910 and 1920 indicates a growing multiethnicity as the Irish moved westward. In 1900, Irish surnames ranged from 48 percent at St. Bridget in downtown St. Louis to 61 percent at St. Teresa Parish on Grand Boulevard in the central city, and less than 50 percent at St. Mathew and St. Mark parishes in the west end. By 1920 the study reveals only 23 percent of such names at St. Bridget, 46 percent at St. Teresa, and still slightly under 50 percent at Sts. Mathew and Mark. Not surprisingly, by 1910 the names of Council Recorders included Benjamin Savignac, George Klosterman and R. L. Odenwalder.27 The 1904 recruiting drive became a high point in the history of the Knights of Father Mathew. Other recruiting drives in 1911 and 1914 did not match the success of the 1904 effort. At the beginning of the century's second decade, the Western Watchman consistently noted representatives of twenty parish councils at tending the St. Louis Officer's Association meetings. Additional notices in the newspaper leave no doubt that these twenty councils remained very active, at least socially. In 1920, the organization sold its property at Cook and Sarah avenues and purchased even more lavish quarters at 4053 Lindell Boulevard, remodeling it with the necessary athletic equipment and game rooms.28 In the early 1920s, however, notices of Knights' activities began to decline. Although the Knights remained a viable organi zation throughout the early part of the decade, membership de clined drastically as the 1930s approached. In 1931, the Knights sold their property on Lindell and distributed the proceeds to all members of record at the time of the sale, effectively disbanding the society. Thereafter, a handful of older members met weekly to play cards until their deaths in the 1950s.29 As to the causes of the Knights' decline, a number of interest ing options present themselves. Prohibition, the seeming success of the Anglo-American approach to the liquor problem, undoubted ly made further struggles in the battle for total abstinence seem
27 Based on Baptismal Records, 1900, 1910 and 1920 and Marriage Records, 1900-1901, 1910-1911 and 1920-1921 at St. Bridget, St. Leo, St. Teresa, St. Mark and St. Mathew Catholic Churches, St. Louis, Missouri. 28 St. Louis Western Watchman, October 26, 1911, and January 22, 1914. 29 Based on notices of club events in ibid., 1920-1930 and City of St. Louis, Recorder of Deeds, Deed Book, Number 5167 (September 25, 1931) , 517. See also Finan interview. 182 Missouri Historical Review unnecessary. Then, with rapid disregard for the legislation in St. Louis, as in most major cities, the whole prohibition movement seemed a dismal, silly failure, hardly an encouraging atmosphere for the Knights' total abstinence crusade. One former member thought that prohibition subverted the total abstinence movement. Irishmen, willing to accept total abstinence when it appeared voluntary, refused to accept the same prohibition against alcohol when forced upon them.30 Another problem centered around the Knights' insurance pro gram. According to the rate structure, premiums increased as the individual aged. As a result, the premium costs tended to drive older members out of the organization and discourage younger men and women from joining their society. One individual recalled his father paying $36.52 per month for a $2,000 life insurance policy.31 Thirdly, in the 1920s when all ethnic organizations seemed to decline, the rise of mass entertainment undoubtedly weakened the Knights' social function. During this period, ethnic organiza tions that sponsored amateur entertainment met formidable com petition from the phonograph and the radio. The spread of motion picture theaters into residential neighborhoods as well as downtown and mid-town added even more opportunities for amusement. Young men and women in search of entertainment surely would have found Rudolph Valentino and Theta Bara more appealing than amateur plays and Brother Moynihan's paper on plumbing. To further the decline, another organization coopted the up wardly mobile, Catholic middle-class position. As news of the Knights of Father Mathew dwindled in the columns of the Western Watchman, notices of Knights of Columbus meetings rapidly in creased. Founded in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882, for Catholics "regardless of race", the organization grew rapidly in early twen tieth-century St. Louis. With thirteen local councils by 1905, it had an impressive new headquarters on Olive Boulevard, just west of Grand, three years later. A sample indicated that about half of all officers and active members had Irish surnames and a clearly middle-class orientation, with 46 percent business or pro fessional men and 49 percent white collar workers. The Knights
30 Ibid. 3i Ibid. Knights of Father Mathew 183 of Columbus obviously appealed to the same group as did the Knights of Father Mathew.32 Whatever the causes of its decline, the Knights of Father Mathew served its purpose of successfully providing second gen eration Irish-Americans with a link between the ethnic past and the present. Starting as an Irish total abstinence society, it also provided some financial and social security. It forged a position midway between Irish-American and Catholic-Americanism aiding and abetting both acculturation and assimilation.
32 Sample based on 250 names of officials and active members taken from the St. Louis Western Watchman. Also ibid., October 8, 1914; John J. Glennon Council, Golden Jubilee Booklet (St. Louis, 1953) , and Knights of Columbus, National Convention Souvenir Program (St. Louis, 1908) .
Always Some Drawback
Kansas City Post, January 12, 1909. At a banquet recently . . . Andrew Carnegie told the following: . . . "Golfing one day in the autumn on the St. Andrews links, I said to my caddie: " 'Angus, man, the leaves are falling, the green is turning red and brown, winter will soon be upon us. And do you get much caddying to do in the winter, Angus?' "Angus frowned gloomily. " 'Na, na,' said he, blowing his nose. 'There's nae muckle caddyin' in winter. If it's no snaw it's frost; if it's no frost it's snaw; if it's neither frost nor snow, it's rain, and if it's fine it's sure to be the Sawbath.'" History of Morrison Observatory 1875-1979
BY BARTLETT C. JONES*
Carr Waller Pritchett (1823-1910), who founded Morrison Ob servatory and directed it for thirty years, always made the most of his opportunities. After migrating from Virginia in 1835, Pritchett resided in rural Missouri for most of his life. Yet he witnessed several historically memorable events.1 His father provided him only a meager grammar-school education. Pritchett, however, profited from his mother's instruction and independent study. He attended St. Charles College in St. Charles, Missouri, in 1843-1844, and
#Bartlett C. Jones is assistant professor of History and Political Science at Central Methodist College, Fayette. He holds a BA. degree from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, and a J.D. from the University of Florida, Gainesville. i He attended Lincoln's second inaugural address, escorted the murdered president's corpse from the White House to the Capitol, and joined a delega tion which called upon President Andrew Johnson. Later in Cambridge, Mas sachusetts, July 3, 1875, he heard James Russell Lowell deliver his famous memorial ode, "Under the Old Elm," which saluted George Washington and the Continental Army. See Betty H. Pritchett, ed., Memorabilia of Carr Waller Pritchett, 1904, With Personal Remembrances of Her Grandfather (Chatta nooga, 1952), 16, 23, 25. 184 Morrison Observatory 185
studied astronomy at Harvard in 1858-1859.2 His career as village school master and professor at Central College, in Fayette, Mis souri, was interrupted by the Civil War. When bushwhackers at tacked Fayette, he fled to Washington, D.C, fearing that his pro- Union sentiment made his life unsafe in Missouri. In 1866, he accepted an offer to head a new school in Glasgow, thirteen miles from Fayette. Reverend James Oswald Swinney, heir to a large Glasgow commercial fortune, donated $20,000 in endowment and property to found the school which he named in Pritchett's honor. Legally named Pritchett School Institute, it became Pritchett College in 1897. The institute adopted a charter and established a board of trustees in 1867. It catered to local citizens, proclaimed itself Christian but nondenominational, and welcomed students of both sexes. In direct competition with Glasgow's Lewis College, founded in 1866, and hampered by its narrow constituency, struggling Pritchett Institute depended on local contributors.3 Despite sev eral failures, Pritchett persistently sought to establish an astro nomical observatory at the institute. His opportunity came in 1874 when he hosted a 17-year-old heiress, Berenice Morrison. Her father, William M. Morrison, heir to a St. Louis mercantile house, had married Sarah Katherine (Kate) Swinney of Glasgow in 1854. Kate's father, William D. Swinney, one of Glasgow's founders, had operated steamships on the Missouri River until his death in 1863. One of his steamboats, the Kate Swinney sank on the Upper Missouri in 1855, and Indians murdered the crew.4 William Swinney also accumulated a con siderable fortune from tobacco factories which sold chewing to bacco to the British navy. This estate passed to Kate and her brother, James Oswald Swinney. With both parents deceased, Berenice's uncle, James Oswald Swinney, founder of Pritchett Institute, served as her guardian and approved her financial trans actions until she reached majority. As Pritchett and Berenice sat on his porch in the early evening, they watched Ceggia's Comet, "that strangely beautiful object . . .
2 Ibid., 2-3, 8-9, 15-16. Also Betty H. Pritchett, "C. W. Pritchett, Early Missouri Teacher," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, XVI (April, 1960) , 223-229. 3 T. Berry Smith, "Pritchett College," MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, XXVI (April, 1932), 223-226. 4 Kenneth Westhues, The Dream of Thirteen Men: Glasgow (Glasgow, 1966) , 15. For the Morrison and Swinney families, see Berenice Morrison- Fuller, "A Family Chronicle," unpublished (1943?) manuscript in author's possession, to be filed in Central Methodist College Library, Fayette. 186 Missouri Historical Review at the zenith of its splendor."5 Pritchett remarked that he would prefer to watch the comet through instruments. Miss Morrison expressed a willingness to donate funds for the project.6 Matters rested briefly while Miss Morrison traveled to Europe where she remained for five years. Her companion and future mother-in-law, Mrs. J. P. Fuller, an old family friend, was the daughter of Dr. William A. Smith, president of Central College 1868-1870, and the widow of a Confederate colonel.7 Mrs. Fuller, who had served as principal of Fayette's Howard Payne College for women, influenced Berenice profoundly. "As far as my education is concerned," Berenice wrote "I owe every thing to her, her deep progressive thought, her sense of justice and her profound ethical and religious convictions."8 Because of her influence, Berenice became a feminist and women's suffrage reformer. Her memoir denounced sex-role stereotyping, condemned inferior educational opportunities for women and ridiculed the decision forbidding Lucy Stone to read her prize-winning essay at the Oberlin College commencement because public speaking was "unfeminine."9 With James O. Swinney's approval, Pritchett wrote to Miss Morrison in Europe and requested funds for an observatory. Miss Morrison promised to contribute funds in an October 1874 letter.10 Pritchett made ambitious plans for constructing and equipping an observatory to be named for the donor, but the bequest proved disappointing. Miss Morrison conveyed funds to the trustees of Pritchett Institute—not to the Pritchett Institute corporation. When staffing the observatory, the young feminist provided that the trustees must, all other things equal, "appoint competent women . . . for said positions in preference to men."11 She gave $50,000 for the observatory, and another $50,000 for the school's permanent en dowment. Of the latter, $30,000 was not paid till 1881. This second $50,000 would become part of the observatory's endowment if Pritchett Institute failed.
5 Pritchett, Memorabilia, 28. 6 Ibid. 7 Morrison-Fuller, "A Family Chronicle," 88-89. Berenice married Mrs. Fuller's son in 1886 and became Berenice Morrison-Fuller. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid., 55-56. 10 Carr W. Pritchett, Publications of the Morrison Observatory, Glasgow, Missouri, No. 1, 1885 (Lynn, Mass., 1887) , 2. ii Berenice Morrison, Declaration of Trust, May 18, 1881, Deed Record, Volume 50, April 22, 1898, 444, in Circuit Court and Recorder's Office, Howard County Courthouse, Fayette, Missouri. Morrison Observatory 187
Berenice Morrison-Fuller, Above, and Carr W. Pritchett, Sr., Right
Morrison Obsv.
The trustees spent $23,482.35 for real estate, an observatory building and astronomical instruments. This left $26,517.65 for observatory endowment.12 James Oswald Swinney probably per suaded Miss Morrison to donate the second sum to the school he had founded, which had 160 students in 1875-1876. Pritchett Institute offered Latin, Greek, Modern Languages, Philosophy, History, Chemistry and Physics, Natural History and Geology, English Language and Literature, Mathematics, Astronomy and
12 These sums were accepted by a circuit court in 1927. Decree, State of Missouri Ex Rel. Curators of Central College v. Pritchett College, Deed Record, Volume 131, September 14, 1927, 11, in Howard County Circuit Court and Recorder's Office. 188 Missouri Historical Review
Art.13 With 50 graduates in its first 10 years, Pritchett Institute clearly needed Miss Morrison's $50,000 for endowment. In any case, Pritchett became director of an underfunded operation. Investing the observatory's endowment at 6 percent annual interest would barely pay the director's salary, supposedly a minimum of $1,600 annually. As Pritchett described the problem, Of the $50,000 given by Miss Berenice Morrison to the Observatory, there remains unexpended the sum of $27,000, which is bearing interest. The interest accruing from this endowment is . . . the sole resource for meeting current expenses and supporting an Astronomer. . . . For the benefit of any who may feel disposed to criticise the instrumental equipment, as out of all reasonable proportion to the endowment, it is necessary to make this brief expla nation. This result was brought about by unfortunate mis understanding. . . . The original plan of the Observatory contemplated an Astronomer in charge, an Assistant, and provision for running expenses. Though the work of this Observatory has been much crippled, and still is crippled, through lack of means, yet the privation is borne by those who planned it, in patient expectation of a better day.14 Despite this disappointment, Pritchett produced remarkable results. The trustees located the observatory on a two-and-one-half acre lot in Glasgow. Albert Stevens, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, architect, designed the building; Professor Joseph Winlock, the director of the Harvard Observatory, inspected and approved the plans. The 65 x 24 feet structure, with a telescope tower 24 feet square, was completed substantially in 1875. The dome and shut ters, identical in size and mode of operation to those at Harvard Observatory, were designed and built in Massachusetts. The dome measured 21 feet, 10 inches in diameter. For $6,000 in gold, Alvan Clark & Sons, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, built an equatorial, refracting telescope with a 12/4-inch aperture and a 17-foot focal length. Other original equipment included a meridian circle and a sidereal clock purchased from England. Thus began the first permanent observatory west of Chicago, which received publica tions from major observatories and conducted significant research for the next 31 years.15
13 Smith, "Pritchett College," 230-231. 14 Pritchett, Publications, 15. 15 Besides Pritchett, Memorabilia, and Publications, the history of Morri son Observatory is reported in: Robert R. Fleet, "The Morrison Observatory," MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, XXXVII (October, 1942) , 19-28; "Morrison Observatory," in History of Howard and Cooper Counties (St. Louis, 1883) , 226-228; Smith, "Pritchett College," 223-235; T. Berry Smith and P. S. Gehrig, History of Chariton and Howard Counties (Topeka, 1923) , 156-159; and Frank C. Tucker, Central Methodist College (Nashville, 1967), 114-115. Morrison Observatory 189
By 1885, Carr W. Pritchett and his son, Henry, had published fifty articles and papers and a book reporting observatory ac tivities.16 The elder Pritchett conducted diverse meteorological studies and claimed an original explanation for intersecting rain bows. The observatory sent time signals for the Chicago and Alton Railroad during the 1880s, and electronically dropped balls from tall buildings in Kansas City and St. Louis at specified times each day to mark correct time. The most detailed and important astro nomical work, however, concerned double stars and the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.17 Historians of science do not agree which astronomer dis covered the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. In 1885, Carr W. Pritchett claimed only that "the first observation of this most striking mark ing obtained in the northern hemisphere was made at the MOR RISON OBSERVATORY, July 9, 1878," and that he had published the first account of it.18 Astronomers now consider the Great Red Spot a vital clue to Jupiter's interior. Clark R. Chapman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology noted that modern sight ings date back to 1831, but an astronomer had observed it in the 1660s; he acknowledged, however, that the naming and systematic surveillance of the Great Red Spot date from Pritchett's 1878 work.19 Pritchett's 1885 claims appear to be valid. During the research era at Morrison Observatory, Pritchett sometimes worked with two of his sons. Carr W. Pritchett, Jr., became a mining engineer. Henry S. Pritchett later worked with Washington University, in St. Louis, and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. He became president of M.I.T. and presi dent of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach ing, 1907-1930. After the elder Pritchett retired in 1905, Dr. Henry R. Morgan served as director of the observatory for about two years. Later appointed to the United States Naval Observatory, Morgan pub-
16 Pritchett, Publications, 109-110. 17 ibid., 38-49, 78-83. Henry S. Pritchett, "Results of Double Star Ob servations Made with the Equatorial of the Morrison Observatory," Trans actions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis (April 22, 1897) , and "The Red Spot of Jupiter: Observations Upon its Physical Character; its Magni tude and the Determination of the Rotation Period of the Planet," paper presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Au gust 1880. 18 Pritchett, Publications, 79, 109. For the first published account of the Red Spot see Carr W. Pritchett, "Markings on Jupiter," Observatory, II (Jan uary 1, 1879), 307-309. 19 Clark R. Chapman, "The Discovery of Jupiter's Red Spot," Sky and Telescope, XXXV (May, 1968) , 276. 190 Missouri Historical Review lished a 1906 report on his Glasgow observations of comets, as teroids and double stars.20 After Morgan's resignation, the direc torship remained vacant for twenty years. Floundering Pritchett College could not afford a new director for the observatory. In 1917, the college tried to solve its chronic financial difficulties by dropping the junior and senior years of instruction and aligning itself with the state university's junior college system. It closed, however, in 1922 for financial reasons.21 The trustees of Pritchett College thereafter used the interest on the observatory's endowment to finance the Glasgow public schools and continued to neglect the observatory. Amateurs abused its equipment, weeds grew high around the observatory and juveniles perpetrated offensive acts of vandalism upon the build ing. Central College administrators proposed moving the observa tory to Fayette, but Dr. Elizabeth Jeffreys, the last president of Pritchett College, "opposed violently moving the observatory to Fayette, decrying it an injustice to give the prize of a Glasgow
20 Herbert R. Morgan, Report of the Director of the Morrison Observa tory, Glasgow, Missouri, From October, 1905 to December, 1906 (Washington, D.C, 1907?). 21 Smith, "Pritchett College," 234-235.
Henry Smith Pritchett, Left Pritchett College, Glasgow, Below Morrison Observatory 191
citizen to a city not the least bit interested in Glasgow's cultural well-being."22 Berenice Morrison's 1881 declaration of trust had provided for moving the observatory to other sites in Missouri with court approval; however, the trustees of defunct Pritchett College had to initiate the relocation. The observatory's original endowment, supplemented by gifts, amounted to $28,000. Under the terms of the Morrison bequest, an additional $50,000 reverted to the ob servatory when Pritchett College failed. There appeared little prospect that the trustees of Pritchett College would initiate a relocation plan because they used the interest on the observatory's endowment to finance public education in Glasgow. Under these circumstances, Dr. Henry S. Pritchett and Mrs. Berenice Morrison-Fuller encouraged the curators of Central Col lege to sue for the observatory's assets and endowment.23 The case, brought in Howard County in 1926, temporarily was ad journed to Saline County. When the case returned to Howard Coun ty in 1927, the state of Missouri intervened on behalf of Central College to protect the Morrison trust from failure. In March 1927, the Circuit Court of Howard County awarded to Central College the observatory and its $78,000 endowment, plus Pritchett College's remaining real property. The Methodist college made an unusual pledge, however, perhaps because Pritch ett College had been nondenominational, the idealistic Mrs. Mor rison-Fuller requested it, or the state of Missouri made it a con dition for its intervention. The court order provided that "no
22Westhues, Glasgow, 60. 23 Pritchett, Memorabilia, 4.
Central College Campus, Fayette, Early 1900s 192 Missouri Historical Review religious test shall ever be required of any trustee, curator, teacher or officer of Central College" beyond good moral character and Christian belief. The Pritchett College trustees and the city of Glasgow, which had intervened in the case, did not appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.24 Two months later, however, the Circuit Court of Howard County modified its order and trans ferred Pritchett College's real property, excepting the observa tory, to the Glasgow school district rather than to Central Col lege.25 From 1927 to 1935, Central College operated the observatory in Glasgow. Observatory staff and Central College students found the trip to Glasgow very inconvenient and the condition of the facilities and equipment unsatisfactory. Again, Henry S. Pritchett acted to revitalize the observatory. He secured a $17,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and raised $8,000 in private con tributions, to relocate the observatory in Fayette. The court ap proved removal of the following items to Fayette: the dome, all original observatory equipment, the keystone bearing the legend "Ad Astra. A.D. 1875," and wrought iron balconies. The new building was completed in 1935 and dedicated, June 1, 1936. Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard Ob servatory, delivered an illustrated lecture on "Exploring Outer Darkness." Unfortunately, the guests of honor, Mrs. Berenice Mor rison-Fuller and Dr. Pritchett, missed the dedication.26 The new observatory building, with an attached residence for a director, appears today, much as it did at the time of the dedication. About one mile from the Central College campus, it stands on a seven-acre site overlooking the city park. The symetrical two-story structure, with a basement, measures approximately 88 x 55 feet. Major teaching areas on the first floor include a 20 x 36 feet lecture room and a 35 x 16 feet instrument room hous ing the meridian circle, collimating telescopes, sidereal clock and Clark chronograph. The second-floor observation room, housing the large telescope, is circular with a diameter of 22 feet set inside walls 24 feet square.27 The telescope stands on a reinforced con-
24 State of Missouri Ex Rel. Curators of Central College v. Pritchett Col lege, Circuit Court Record, Volume 34, March and May, 1927, 11-17, 56, in Howard County Circuit Court and Recorder's Office. 25 ibid., 79-80. 26 Robert R. Fleet, "Dedication of the Morrison Astronomical Observa tory," Popular Astronomy, XLIV (November, 1936) , 476-480. 27 All dimensions are based on blueprints, college files, Central Methodist College. Morrison Observatory 193 crete pier, with a 14-inch base, extending 10 feet below ground level. The repaired dome rests upon a circular concrete beam rather than upon the walls. It is motor-driven, and modified by a revolving shutter. In this virtually fireproof brick and concrete structure, Morrison Observatory should be well-housed for the immediate future. Central College, which offered no astronomy in 1926, acted promptly to make the most of the newly acquired observatory. Officials appointed Dr. Arthur S. Fairley, a trained astronomer from Princeton University, to direct the Morrison Observatory. Central's 1927-1928 Catalogue listed the following courses, closely coordinated with the observatory: Introduction to Descriptive As tronomy, Descriptive Astronomy, Practical Astronomy, The Analysis of Observations, Spectroscopy and Stellar Photography. Dr. Robert R. Fleet, who supervised the observatory's reloca tion to Fayette, sustained the high-level instruction and directed the observatory from 1928 to 1944. For the next twenty years after Fleet's departure, college mathematicians, with master's degrees and questionable astronomical training, administered the observa tory. These two decades nonetheless saw high public involvement in observatory activities, building renovation and equipment mainte nance. The Central Missouri Amateur Astronomers held monthly meetings at the observatory and donated such equipment as the Harry E. Brown 12-inch reflector. Central College students attended observing sessions, but primarily the observatory provided enrich ment for such groups as school children, scouts and Sunday School classes. From September 1960 to June 1961, over 900 visitors registered at the observatory. In September 1962, Dr. William T. Hughes, an astronomer at the University of Missouri, Columbia, requested use of the telescope for research in photometry. A month later, the university repaired some equipment toward that end. Other special uses of the observatory included students view ing the Seki-Lines comet and scientists from McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and St. Louis University, photographing an eclipse of the moon. For its space research program, McDonnell recorded the red glow which occurs during stages of an eclipse. During June 16-18, 1961, an astronomical convention met at the observatory. Bill Schoening, the student observatory assistant, 1960-1964, kept the building open till 2:00 or 3:00 A.M. each day for viewings during the convention. After hearing papers on stellar 194 Missouri Historical Review evolution and meteors, and receiving invitations to visit several observatories, Schoening recorded, "The Convention was a won derful success and they want to come back next year."28 Schoening also described the new building and renovation of the observatory, which began in June 1961. On July 19, work men poured new walls and had nearly completed the roof by May, the following year. They made further roof repairs in August. The construction and renovation clearly hampered normal observa tory functions and equipment maintenance. On April 21, 1962, Schoening reported that he might never complete his work on the meridian circle, that water leaks had "damaged almost all of the work I have done on it so far."29 During his four years of work, Schoening performed excep tional services for a student assistant. He repaired and serviced the chronometer, sidereal clock, dome motor, meridian circle, col limator and large telescope. He frequently took equipment for repair to his father in St. Louis, where it might remain for months. He reported missing, stolen or broken equipment.30 In March 1961, he contacted a professional optician about cleaning the lenses of the large telescope, and prepared a report on this project for the observatory director. After approval by the college president, Schoening and two professional opticians removed the lenses, blew off most of the grime with a bulb syringe and washed the lenses with Dreft and distilled water. A milky film, impractical to remove, marred one lens.31 When the college appointed Dr. John E. Merrill of Princeton University as professor of Astronomy and head of the Mathematics Department in January 1964, Schoe ning rejoiced: "It is my hope that now something will be done with the Observatory."32 Although the observatory staff did not conduct significant research between 1964 and 1979, it directed a varied program of instruction and popular activities. Dr. Merrill (1964-1969) repaired the telescope, and a student assistant, R. Wayne Arenz, worked on the meridian circle. In 1975, the observatory's centennial year,
28 Bill Schoening, "Record of Repairs and Astronomical Work Done at the Morrison Observatory [1960-1964]," manuscript journal, college files, Cen tral Methodist College. The sources for this paragraph are Schoening and undated reports in a folder on Morrison Observatory in Central Methodist College Library. 29 Schoening, "Record." 30 Ibid. 31 Robert E. Cox, "Cleaning the Lens of a 12i/2-Inch Refractor," Sky and Telescope, XXII (August, 1961) , 106. 32 Schoening, "Record." Morrison Observatory 195
Moi rmon Observatory, Fayette
Central Meth. Coll., Fayette
Students Viewing Telescope 196 Missouri Historical Review
the college purchased equipment to outfit the telescope for pho tography, and hosted the 25th annual meeting of the Mid-States Region of the Astronomical League.33 Since December 1978, how ever, Central Methodist College has not had a director for Mor rison Observatory. Besides providing insights into the history of science and Mis souri private education, the story of Morrison Observatory involves significant social history. College officials found it difficult to maintain an underfunded observatory in a remote village when talented people sought the greater challenges of urban centers. Missouri's court system demonstrated sufficient flexibility in order ing both a new controlling body and relocation of the observatory. Miss Morrison's 1881 declaration of trust and the 1927 circuit court order reveal the presence of feminism and religious liberal ism in the rigidly conservative "Little Dixie" section of mid-Missouri.
33 For recent observatory history, see David R. Brown, "The Story of Mor rison Observatory, 100 Years (1875-1975) ," leaflet, Central Methodist College (1975) .
A Lawsuit Averted Mississippi Valley Democrat and Journal of Agriculture, August 24, 1899. Colonel N. O. Borders, the genial claim agent of the Burlington in Mis souri, once paid a claim for a "death loss" without investigation of the facts. . . . An old plug of a mule belonging to one Jones got on the right-of-way over in Linn County one day, and the obsequies occurred soon after the west-bound train came along. Jones filed a statement, reciting his bereavement, which he broadly hinted was susceptible to amelioration by a pecuniary considera tion. No terms were offered by the company, and he put the matter in the hands of W. H. Brownlee, a prominent attorney of Brookfield. Brownlee wrote the claim agent several letters—fifteen or twenty—each one getting hotter and more peremptory, until the last one fairly sizzled. Still no answer. Judge Brown lee has a great reputation as an orator, and some as a literary man and poet. He resorted to strategy before choosing the "last resort." He grabbed his quill and ground this out: "Our donkey stood on the railroad side, Your train came whizzing by— The driver pulled 'er open wide And knocked our mule sky-high! No bell was sounded o'er the hill Nor friendly warning toot, And if you fail to pay your bill- By George, we'll enter suit." Jones' check for full amount came on return mail. Bennett Champ Clark and The 1936 Presidential Campaign
BY THOMAS T. SPENCER*
Bennett Champ Clark is an important figure in Missouri's political history. Elected to the U. S. Senate in 1932 and reelected in 1938, he served the state during both depression and war. He established a reputation as a hardworking and loyal Democrat, astute politician, gifted orator, frequent New Deal critic and potential presidential candidate. Later, he became a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia. Although Clark became an important figure in the Senate during the New Deal years, his career has been overlooked by historians and other
*Thomas T. Spencer is an assistant archivist at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. He has the B.A. degree from St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, New York, and the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. 197 198 Missouri Historical Review scholars.1 This neglect can be attributed in part to the time period in which he served. Historians have studied the careers of other Missouri figures who achieved greater notoriety at the time. No tably, Tom Pendergast became a colorful and powerful leader of the Democratic machine in Kansas City during the 1930s, and Harry Truman, elected to the Senate in 1934, later ascended to the presidency. Despite such neglect, Clark's contributions, especially his political contributions, are worthy of attention. As a politician he proved to be an effective speaker, skillful campaigner and a well-respected member of the Democratic party. His political talents commanded such respect that in 1936 party leaders chose him to play a major role in the presidential campaign to reelect Franklin Roosevelt. Clark's participation in this campaign reveals much about his political skills, his relationship with the Roosevelt ad ministration, and the methods used by the Democrats in the 1936 campaign to keep Roosevelt in office. Clark emerged on the political scene in 1932 with a limited background in politics. After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1912 and George Washington University Law School in 1914, Clark volunteered for army officers training school. Be ginning as a captain, he rose to the rank of colonel in just two years. Following his return to civilian life after the war, he began practicing law, a profession he pursued until his election to the Senate. A major factor aiding Clark's political ambitions was his father, Champ Clark, former representative from Missouri, Speak er of the U. S. House of Representatives, and renowned Demo cratic leader.2 In 1932 Clark, upon the suggestion of Senator James Reed, decided to run in the Missouri Democratic primary for senator, although he never had held an elective office. Few took seriously his candidacy since his opponent Charles Howell had received the backing of powerful Democratic boss Thomas Pendergast of Kansas City. Missourians generally considered Pendergast's sup-
i There are virtually no published studies on Clark. For treatment of Clark's career, readers must consult more general studies that briefly mention Clark in relation to other people and events, such as: Lyle Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine (New York, 1968) ; William M. Reddig, Tom's Town: Kansas City and the Pendergast Legend (Philadelphia, 1947) ; and Gene Schmidtlein, "Truman's First Senatorial Election," MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, LVII (January, 1963), 128-155; or in contemporary accounts like Jack Alex ander, "Missouri Dark Mule," Saturday Evening Post, CCXI (October 8, 1938) , 5f; and Samuel W. Tait, Jr., "Champ Clark's Boy," American Mercury, XXVIII (January, 1933), 70-77. 2 Alexander, "Missouri Dark Mule," 36. Rennett Champ Clark 199 port enough to put any candidate in office. Undaunted by such opposition, Clark waged a vigorous campaign and did much elec tioneering in the rural, nonurban areas. On primary day his hard work paid off as he pulled a stunning upset, defeating Howell. He then went on to win easily in the general election.3 The victory established Clark as a potent force in Missouri politics and convinced the young novice that he did not need Pendergast's support to succeed in the state. This belief, however, proved incorrect. Just two years later, in 1934, Missouri's other Senate seat came up for election and Pendergast and Clark sup ported opposing candidates. Clark backed Jacob Milligan, while Pendergast threw his support behind Harry Truman. Pendergast launched a major effort on Truman's behalf to assure that Clark would not embarrass him a second time. Truman defeated Milligan in the four-way race, although Milligan did well in the nonurban areas, considered Clark territory. The defeat marked the beginning of a "better understanding" between Clark and Pendergast. Clark realized that cooperation with Pendergast would be better than
3 Ibid., 36-38.
Thomas J. Pendergast Kansas Cxty Star 200 Missouri Historical Review
Harry S. Truman
opposing him. Especially since he would face reelection in 1938, Clark would benefit from Pendergast's support. Clark joined Harry Truman in recommending Mathew Murray, a loyal member of the Pendergast machine, as director of federal public works in Missouri. Clark became noticeably silent when Ewing Mitchell, assistant secretary of commerce, charged Pendergast with corrup tion and attempted to break the machine's power in the state. These incidents indicated that Clark now cooperated with, rather than opposed, the Democratic boss.4 Undoubtedly happy with the new relationship, Pendergast must have seen in Clark a valuable vote- getter and ally. The same independent tendencies that made Clark a prob lem for Pendergast in Missouri also made him a thorn in the side of President-elect Roosevelt. A partisan Democrat and a Roosevelt supporter, Clark did not hesitate to vote against New Deal legis lation that he opposed on principle or considered unconstitutional.
4 Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine, 111-112. For analysis of the Mitchell- Pendergast dispute see, J. Christopher Schnell, "New Deal Scandals: E. Y. Mitchell and F.D.R.'s Commerce Department," MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, LXIX (July, 1975), 366-371. Rennett Champ Clark 201
During Roosevelt's first term, Clark voted against the economy bill, the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act.5 This seemed a rather bold course for a fresh man Democratic senator. Given such a voting record, it is some what surprising that the Roosevelt forces chose him to play such a prominent role in the 1936 presidential campaign. Despite his inconsistent support of administration programs, Clark was chosen for several reasons. Democrats believed Mis souri held an important place in their campaign strategy. In 1932 Missouri went overwhelmingly for Roosevelt, as the new president elect captured 63.7 percent of the vote and the state's fifteen electoral votes.6 Instrumental in swinging the state for Roosevelt, boss Tom Pendergast's machine had helped turn out the vote. Roosevelt, grateful for such support, rewarded Pendergast with numerous favors during his first administration. In 1936 strategy dictated that Missouri be given some role in the campaign. This action would both recognize Pendergast's contribution and loyalty and assure that Missouri stayed in the Democratic column. This appeared especially important, since the Republi cans nominated Governor Alfred Landon of Kansas as their presi dential candidate. Democratic leaders in Missouri held almost unanimous opinions that Landon's candidacy would create some problem because of the close proximity of Kansas and Missouri.7 Clark, well known and experienced in Missouri politics and the senior senator, appeared a solid choice to participate in the cam paign and counteract the influence of Landon in Missouri. The most pragmatic reason for choosing Clark was his reputa tion as an "old fashioned voter getter" and "polished orator" who could speak at length on any subject.8 The Democrats antici pated a stiff fight from the Republicans in 1936. Clark appeared exactly the type of man they wanted to conduct a vigorous campaign to counter anti-New Deal propaganda from such organi-
5 James T. Patterson, Congressional Conservatism and the Nezu Deal (Lexington, 1967) , 113; Alexander, "Missouri Dark Mule," 32. 6 Philip A. Grant, Jr., "The Presidential Election of 1932 in Missouri," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, XXXV (April, 1979) , 164. 7 See for example, Bernard F. Dickmann to James A. Farley, July 22, 1936, Harry S. Truman to James A. Farley, July 9, [1936], and Bennett Champ Clark to James A. Farley, August 7, 1936, Correspondence of James A. Farley- 1936, Missouri, Box 1096, Democratic National Committee Records, F.D.R. Library, Hyde Park, New York. The only dissent to this belief came from Guy B. Park who felt Missouri's proximity to Kansas would have little influ ence on the outcome in the state. See Guy B. Park to James A. Farley, Sep tember 8, 1936, in ibid. 8 Alexander, "Missouri Dark Mule," 38; Kansas City Missouri Democrat, June 5, 1936. 202 Missouri Historical Review zations as the American Liberty League, an anti-New Deal propa ganda organization consisting of many wealthy individuals, and the Jeffersonian Democrats, an anti-administration group composed of ex-Democrats whose headquarters were in St. Louis.9 Most im portantly, Clark had been outspoken in his loyalty to Roosevelt, in spite of his opposition to several New Deal measures. Speaking before the Missouri state convention in early May 1936, Clark praised Roosevelt's courage in taking the lead in solving the problems of the country. He extolled the president as the "only exponent of liberalism" who had a chance of being elected presi dent. Clark continued to support Roosevelt during the campaign both in his correspondence with the president and on the floor of the Senate.10 Involving Clark in the campaign also might make
9 For an analysis of the activities of the American Liberty League, see George Wolfskill, The Revolt of the Conservatives: A History of the American Liberty League, 1934-1940 (Boston, 1962) . On the activities of the Jeffersonian Democrats, see New York Times, August 7, 8, 9, September 4, 1936, and Donald R. McCoy, Angry Voices: Left-of-Center Politics in the New Deal Era (Lawrence. 1958), 145-146. 10 Bennett Champ Clark to President, October 26, 1936, President's Per sonal File 4658, F.D.R. Library; Congressional Record, LXXX, Pt. 10, U.S. 74th Cong., 2nd Sess. (June 19, 1936) , 10168-10170; Kansas Citv Missouri Demo crat, June 19, 1936. President Franklin D. Roosevelt Painting by Frank O. Salisbury, Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Lib. Rennett Champ Clark 203 the senator more favorable to future New Deal legislation by bringing him closer to the administration. Clark's participation in the 1936 campaign began in early May when the party named him chairman of the rules committee for the Democratic National Convention. The principal issue facing the committee and the entire party at the convention was the abrogation of the two-thirds rule for nominating a presidential candidate.11 This controversial matter had contributed a major deadlock at the 1924 convention, and had nearly cost Roosevelt the Democratic nomination in 1932. The Roosevelt forces attempted to change the rule in 1932 and failed, but Democrats agreed the issue would be brought before the convention four years later. By 1936, strong sentiment favored such a move within the party. Clark's selection to head the committee had special significance, for many believed the two-thirds rule had cost his father the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912. The party considered Clark a conservative Democrat, an important consideration be cause much of the opposition to the rule repeal came from con servative southern Democrats who feared loss of influence within the party.12 Although Clark vigorously pursued his task, he found opposi tion to the repeal minimal by convention time, due in part to Roosevelt's efforts and popularity. The anticipated struggle to pass the repeal did not materialize. Nonetheless, Clark played the role of party harmonizer and tried to soothe over hard feelings of southern delegates. Addressing the convention before the repeal vote he reasserted the Jeffersonian principle of "rule of majority" and its rightful place in the Democratic convention. He stated there could be no sectional issue since no section of the United States could be injured by being subjected to the will of the Democratic National Convention. He praised the Democratic party for being, not a sectional party, but "a great national party."13 Clark faced little trouble in his role as chairman of the rules committee, but his task as campaigner and speaker offered greater
a Ibid., May 8, 1936. 12 Official Report of the Proceedings of the Democratic National Con vention, 1936 (Washington, D.C, 1936), 190; Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roose velt: The Triumph (Boston, 1956), 293-300; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Upheaval (Boston, 1960), 580-581. 13 Ibid., 581; Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, 191; Clark headed the Missouri delegation at the convention and was invited to all conferences of Democratic leaders. See [James A. Farley] to F.D.R., no date, Subject File, DNC-1936, Box 35, James A. Farley Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 204 Missouri Historical Review
Dickmann Coll., SHS Bennett Champ Clark Campaigning challenges. In early May 1936, he became chairman of the newly formed Committee of One, a Democratic auxiliary group, organized to solicit support from individuals outside of the regular party structure. Roosevelt's Jackson Day address in Washington, D.C, on January 8, 1936, generated the idea for such a committee. He called upon all citizens to constitute themselves a "committee of one" to join the battle to turn popular government in the United States against those bent on destroying it. After an enthusiastic response to the speech, plans were drawn up to establish an organization that would enlist all friends of the administration in selling the New Deal to others.14 Clark's principal duties in the organization included lending his name to the committee and overseeing whatever difficulties might arise. The committee handled most of its work by mail. Letters, with Clark's signature, went to people from all classes
14 Kansas City Missouri Democrat, June 5, 1936; Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Address at the Jackson Day Dinner," January 8, 1936, in Samuel Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York, 1938) , V, 42; New York Times, January 9, 1936; James A. Farley, Jim Farley's Story (New York, 1948), 59. Rennett Champ Clark 205 urging them to assist in fulfilling goals of the Roosevelt adminis tration by joining the committee. This involved no dues or obliga tions. Those who joined were asked to secure five friends for mem bership and these five people then received similar letters.15 Members also received voluminous amounts of literature for dis tribution, including colored leaflets, pictures of Roosevelt and campaign labels. Special instruction sheets outlined steps mem bers should take to answer the opposition and promote the benefits of the Neal Deal.16 As chairman, Clark benefited the committee primarily in fund raising. A well-known senator and popular Democrat, Clark's name could be expected to attract some response. Clark sent letters to county chairmen throughout the country requesting their finan cial support. He also mailed letters requesting contributions from the Roosevelt Nominators, a group of people who had contributed $1.00 each to the Democratic campaign fund.17 The letters proved successful, for over $33,000 of the committee's $66,080.29, came from individual contributions solicited by the committee.18 Clark's role in the committee extended beyond the mere sign ing of form letters. In late August, the committee came under attack from New York Republican Congressman Robert Bacon. He called the organization an agency of intimidation to force support from persons who easily could be swayed. Bacon charged that the committee coerced workers through their mailing cam paign; in addition, he claimed the committee's efforts lacked decency, hit an all time low for stupidity and was born out of the fear of defeat.19 In reply to Bacon's charges, Clark's hard hitting statement illustrated why Democrats held him in high regard as a political campaigner. He called Bacon a prominent Wall Street banker who could not understand the political philosophy of the party
15 See Bennett Champ Clark to Friend, May 22, 1936, and Bennett Champ Clark to Fellow Member, August 20, 1936, Publications folder, Committee of One Records, Emil Hurja Papers, F.D.R. Library. 16 James A. Farley to Western Newspaper Union, October 5, 1936, General Political Correspondence folder, and Committee of One Publications, Publi cations folder, Committee of One Records, Hurja Papers, F.D.R. Library. 17 Bennett Champ Clark to William Murphy, July 21, 1936, and Bennett Champ Clark to Roosevelt Nominators, August 4, 1936, Publications folder, Committee of One Records, Hurja Papers, F.D.R. Library. 18 Investigation of Campaign Expenditures in 1936, U.S. 75th Cong., 1st Sess., Senate Report 151 (1937) , 26; Committee of One Receipts and Disburse ments, June 1, 1936, to December 31, 1936, Democratic National Committee Receipts and Disbursements, Committee of One Records, Hurja Papers, F.D.R. Library. 19 New York Herald Tribune, August 31, 1936. 206 Missouri Historical Review
Alfred Landon
Kan. State Hist. Soc, Topeka to win elections by a direct appeal to the people. He labeled Bacon's charges against the committee "the most preposterous and absurd emanations to appear in print since Gutenberg first invented movable type," and thanked the congressman for sup plying the high light of comedy to an extremely drab Republican campaign.20 The Committee of One, and Clark's efforts on its behalf, were successful. By the end of the campaign the committee had enrolled over 500,000 members. States with the highest enroll ments included Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Clark's home state of Missouri.21 The committee organ ized volunteer workers from all voting groups and areas of the country and, in this way, enabled the Democrats to reach even more of the voting electorate. Because the Committee of One
20 St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 2, 1936. 21 Memorandum for James A. Farley from the Committee of One, No vember 1, 1936, Correspondence, and Committee of One Membership List, no date, Lists and Tabulations folder, Committee of One Records, Hurja Records, F.D.R. Library. Rennett Champ Clark 207 attracted many different groups to the president, it became an important asset for the Democratic campaign. Clark undoubtedly contributed to this success. Clark's most challenging part in the campaign, however, was his role as a speaker for Roosevelt. In early June, the party an nounced that he had been selected to give a series of speeches on the president's behalf throughout the country. As a demonstra tion of respect for its orator, the party announced that Clark would be permitted to select the subjects upon which he would speaik.22 Much of the publicity by the Democratic National Commit tee during the 1936 campaign portrayed the Republicans as a party supported by big business and reactionaries. These groups vehemently opposed the New Deal legislative program designed to help working and middle-class Americans. Clark's speeches focused on this theme. Three of his most hard-hitting addresses, in which he demonstrated his reputation as a skillful orator, oc curred in Missouri. Speaking in Cameron before a nonpolftical picnic attended by both Republicans and Democrats, Clark ad dressed the farm situation. He criticized the Republican farm pro posals as a "rain of promises and a drought of fulfillment." He defended the administration's program and singled out leaders of the American Liberty League and prominent Republicans. He facetiously stated that nothing appeared more heart rendering than the agonies of such great farmers as Jouett Shouse, Ogden Mills and Irenee DuPont over the slaughter of little pigs, or the lamentations of J. P. Morgan, John J. Raskob and Herbert Hoover over plowed under wheat.23 In early September, Clark delivered the keynote address at the Missouri State Democratic Platform convention. Again, he castigated Roosevelt's opponents for their "desire to drive him from power because he has proven he cannot be controlled.'* He associated Republican presidential candidate Alfred Landon with William Randolph Hearst and the American Liberty League. The Republican's farm policy, he further labeled, as a weak "me too" policy similar to what the president and Congress already had enacted. He added that the Democratic party would stand on its record of accomplishments.24 Clark attained immense popularity at the convention. Following its conclusion, Missouri State Chair man James Alyward and others considered him a bona fide presi-
22 Kansas City Missouri Democrat, June 5, 1936. 23 ibid., July 24, 1936. 24 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 8, 1936. 208 Missouri Historical Review
dential candidate for 1940, a fact confirmed two years later by the Gallup public opinion poll.25 Clark delivered yet another major campaign address in St. Louis in late October. Some 1,500 people attended to hear the speech, a reply to a talk the previous evening by James Reed, head of the Jeffersonian Democrats and former Missouri senator. Former political allies, Clark considered Reed "an old and intimate friend," but during the campaign he criticized his former coworker. Clark answered Reed's charges that Roosevelt had betrayed the party and surrounded himself with radical elements and revolu tionaries. In addition, Clark claimed that Reed had raised a smoke screen to cloud the real issues of the campaign. He defended Roose velt's support of liberal Senator George Norris. Reed had labeled Rexford Tugwell's economic ideas as radical. Clark asserted they were infinitely less dangerous to the well being of "the country than the forces of privilege. He concluded by stating that Roose velt and the Democratic party should be judged, not by selected items of a great legislative program, but by the effects of the ad ministration's three and a half years. In short, "the proof of the pudding was in the eating," and he urged people to compare con ditions now and in March 1933, when Roosevelt took office.26 Clark also delivered party speeches in the East and South. In late August 1936, he initiated the Democratic campaign in eastern Maryland by attacking the Republicans and their sources of sup port. He criticized Landon for his failure to show where he stood on the issues and labeled Andrew Mellon and Ogden Mills as the "hardest boiled of all the reactionary associates of Harding, Cool idge, and Hoover." He called the Republican campaign a "hybrid campaign of villification" that represented an "ardent and deter mined desire of reaction and privilege" to regain control of gov ernment for their own advantage.27 Clark made Landon his target in a statement issued through the Democratic National Committee in September. He attacked Landon's speech on taxes and called it filled with "inconsistencies" and "muddled in thought and confused in statement." Referring to the wealthy individuals supporting Landon, he again stated
25 Kansas City Missouri Democrat, September 11, 1936; Bernard Donahoe, Private Plans and Public Dangers (Notre Dame, 1965) , 85. 26 S*. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 20, 21, 1936; Bennett Champ Clark to James A. Farley, August 7, 1936, Corres. of James A. Farley-1936, Box 1096, DNCR, F.D.R. Library. 27 Kansas City Missouri Democrat, August 28, 1936. Bennett Champ Clark 209
James A. Reed
that Landon obeyed William Randolph Hearst in his proposal to repeal the 1936 tax bill.28 Contributing further to the presidential campaign, Clark pro vided information on political conditions in Missouri and offered his advice on party problems. During the course of the campaign he met several times with the president when Roosevelt cam paigned in the state, and in Washington where he discussed, among other topics, "a little Missouri politics." He also met with Demo cratic National Chairman James A. Farley and answered his re quests for information on the political situation in Missouri. In letters to Farley, he noted the opposition of business and pro fessional men in the state to Roosevelt. In addition, he pointed out the dissension created within the party by the hard-fought gubernatorial primary campaign between Lloyd Stark and William Hirth. Hirth waged a strong campaign, but lost to Stark and threat ened to bolt the party. This, along with the defection of Democrat James Reed, worried Clark. The politically disastrous effects caused when Missouri was left out of new Public Works Administration
28 ibid., September 11, 1936. 210 Missouri Historical Review projects also concerned Clark. Republican propaganda claimed the Social Security Act would eliminate private pension plans, and nearly all the major newspapers in the state opposed it.29 Because of his concerns, Clark felt uneasy about leaving the state for more than a few days at a time. He worked hard within the state for all Democratic candidates, and during October he spent two weeks touring the state on their behalf. By late October, he optimistically predicted an easy victory for Roosevelt in Mis souri.30 On November 3, U.S. voters went to the polls and reelected Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency by the largest electoral man date to date. Roosevelt received 523 electoral votes to Alf Landon's 8. In the popular vote, the president overwhelmed his opponent by a margin of slightly more than eleven million. In both houses of Congress, the Democrats increased their already heavy ma-
29 Harry S. Truman to James A. Farley, September 5, 1936, General Corre spondence, September, 1936 folder, Box 4, James A. Farley Papers, Library of Congress; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 13, 14, 1936; Kansas City Missouri Democrat, July 17, September 4, 1936; Bennett Champ Clark to James A. Farley, August 7, 1936, Corres. of James A. Farley-1936, Box 1096, DNCR, F.D.R. Library; Bennett Champ Clark to James A. Parley, October 28, 1936, Corres., Election of 1936, Box 452, Frank C. Walker Papers, University of Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame, Indiana. 30 Kansas City Missouri Democrat, October 16, 19, 1936; Clark to Farley, October 28, 1936, Box 452, Walker Papers, UNDA.
James A. Farley, Left, and Bennett Champ Clark, Right, in St. Louis Dickmann Coll., SHS Rennett Champ Clark 211 jorities.31 Roosevelt easily carried Missouri by a margin of over 400,000 votes.32 Because of the enormity of Roosevelt's landslide victory, the impact of Bennett Champ Clark's role in the campaign is hard to evaluate. Democratic strategists had overestimated the strength and importance of New Deal opponents and the Republicans. Roosevelt achieved the support of many different voter groups, and it is almost impossible to assess the impact of any one in dividual on the outcome. Clark played a minor role too, in recruiting key voter blocks, a vital part of the Roosevelt coalition in 1936. Clark was not involved in the recruitment of labor and blacks, two important groups. The efforts of labor organizers in Washington collated the Missouri labor vote. In addition, newly employed workers, espe cially in the St. Louis brewing industry, believed the New Deal responsible for their employment.33 The solicitation of the black vote came through the efforts of the Democratic National Com mittee, a Democratic auxiliary organization called the Good Neigh bor League Colored Committee, and the grass roots organizational activities of black Americans from all classes.34 Regarded as a somewhat conservative, partisan Democrat, Clark had limited appeal to these voters. Therefore, other groups and individuals sought to attract blacks and labor. Still, Clark's contribution to the presidential campaign cannot be denied. Despite his opposition to New Deal legislation, he proved to be an ardent, loyal and outspoken supporter of Roose velt. Accepting the tasks of Rules Committee chairman at the National Democratic Convention, chairman of the Committee of One and spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, he performed them ably and effectively. Although his roles as chair man of the Committee of One and Rules Committee required minimum effort, his name and presence lent important prestige to both committees. His loyalty to Roosevelt and his ability as
31 James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (New York, 1956), 284. 32 Edgar Eugene Robinson, They Voted for Roosevelt: The Presidential Vote, 1932-1944 (Stanford, 1947), 116. MNew York Times, October 8, 1936. 34 On the recruitment of black voters in the campaign see, Thomas T. Spencer, "The Good Neighbor League Colored Committee and the 1936 Demo cratic Presidential Campaign," Journal of Negro History, LXIII (Fall, 1978) , 307-316. Activity among black voters in St. Louis is covered in Earl Brown, "Democrats Out to Snare Negro Vote in St. Louis," New York Herald Tribune, August 8, 1936. 212 Missouri Historical Review a campaigner and vote getter, made him an ideal choice to head both committees. As a campaign speaker, Clark proved even more an asset as he used his speaking abilities to hammer away at New Deal critics and Republican supporters. His speeches followed the Democratic strategy to portray Republicans and their supporters as the party of wealth and big business, opposed to New Deal policies designed to help the average American. An effective, hard hitting speaker, Clark helped counteract anti-New Deal propa ganda. Clark confined his role as speaker to defending the New Deal and attacking the Republicans. He made no attempt to raise the level of the campaign by talking on important domestic or foreign policy issues or matters of local importance in Missouri. For example, he seemed unconcerned about charges of voter registry fraud in Kansas City and St. Louis and he made no effort to address the issue. This was due in large part to his close associa tion with the Pendergast machine, whom many blamed for the frauds.35 The Democratic leadership recruited Clark to play the part of an aggressive Republican critic. He limited himself to this role and performed it well.
35 On corruption in the state see, Reddig, Tom's Town, 284-294; Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine, 121-122; New York Times, October 8, 1936.
Rally for Senator Bennett Champ Clark, 1938 Dickmann Coll., SHS Rennett Champ Clark 213
Clark's role in the 1936 campaign demonstrated his loyalty to the president. It did not stop him, however, from voting against New Deal programs or being a source of frustration for the president during Roosevelt's second administration.36 Despite Clark's continued independent course, Roosevelt did not campaign against him in the 1938 primaries as he did several other con servative Democratic senators and congressmen who had voted against his legislation.37 The president displayed an obvious testa ment to Clark's popularity. Bennett Champ Clark's role in the 1936 campaign reveals only a small segment of a noteworthy political career. His role in the campaign illustrated the talents and abilities upon which he built his political success. In 1936 he used these talents in Franklin Roosevelt's behalf, and they proved well suited to the task of reelecting the president.
36 Patterson, Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal, 113-114; F.D.R. to Bennett Champ Clark, June 30, 1939, PPF 4658, F.D.R. Library. 37 Patterson, Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal, 271.
Reversible Sentences Mississippi Valley Democrat and Journal of Agriculture, May 5, 1898. The . . . "puzzle editor" of London Truth . . . offered a prize for "sen tences making sense whether backward or forward." Here are several sent in: Scandalous society and life make gossips frantic. This reads backward: Frantic gossips make life and society scandalous. She sits lamenting sadly, often too much alone. Man is noble and generous often, but sometimes vain and cowardly. Boiled eggs are good and palatable.
Washout on the Line Mississippi Valley Democrat and Journal of Agriculture, June 23, 1898. Tom Reed was once to make a speech in Vermont, but was unable to do so because the heavy rains had destroyed parts of the little railroad. Accordingly, he sent this telegram: "Cannot come; washout on the line." In a few hours the reply came: "Never mind; come anyway. Borrow a shirt." HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS
Mr. William R. Denslow, president of the State Historical Society, presided over the October 25 Annual Meeting.
Society Holds Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society of Missouri was held October 25, 1980, at the Memorial Union of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Mr. William R. Denslow, president of the Society, presided. Dr. Lewis E. Atherton, professor emeritus of the University of Missouri-Columbia, was elected by the Executive Committee to a three-year term as president of the Society. Dr. Atherton has been a member and friend of the Society for many years, and recently he donated some 700 books from his library to the Society. Elected as trustees for a term ending at the 1983 Annual Meeting were: Mr. Charles Blanton III, Sikeston; Mr. Samuel A. Burk, Kirksville; Mr. R. I. Colborn, Paris; Mr. W. W. Dalton, St. Louis; Mr. Victor A. Gierke, Louisiana; Mrs. Jean Tyree Hamilton, Mar shall; Mr. W. Rogers Hewitt, Shelbyville; and Mr. Doyle Patterson, Kansas City. Mr. J. J. Graf, Hermann, was elected as a trustee for a term ending at the 1982 Annual Meeting. Mr. Graf replaces Mr. Denslow, who becomes a permanent trustee as a former presi dent of the Society.
214 Historical Notes and Comments 215
Dr. Richard S. Brownlee, director and secretary of the Society, presented a reading and disposition of the minutes of the previous Annual Meeting, held October 6, 1979. The treasurer of the So ciety, Mr. A. M. Price, presented the financial report on the Society's annual balance sheet. Dr. Noble Cunningham presented a statement on behalf of the Audit Committee and Dr. Brownlee gave a financial report on behalf of the finance and executive committees. Dr. Brownlee then presented his annual report to the Society. He stated that the Society's programs have been maintained at current levels only through increased personnel activity. Inflation, he remarked, had created severe problems in the field of library maintenance. In five years the costs of books, serials and related library supplies have increased from fifty to ninety percent in cost. The increases have been nearly triple the amount appropriated to meet such costs. Confronted by these problems, the Society still managed to increase its services. Dr. Brownlee noted that the staff of the Society had assisted more patrons than in any previous year. In the past year the staff of the reference library assisted over 13,400 people with research, answered more than 2,500 pieces of correspondence and some 1,100 telephone requests. The staff of the newspaper library helped over 12,200 patrons with research projects, processed over 6,200 research letters and cards and answered 1,100 telephone inquiries. In each of these libraries are four staff people. In addition to preparing the quarterly issues of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, the editorial staff produced the annual Direc tory of Local Historical Societies, which contains 176 historical and museum agencies, plus their officers and programs. Institutions and organizations assisted by the staff included the Missouri De partment of Natural Resources, Missouri Committee for the Hu manities, Missouri State Highway Department, Missouri Supreme Court, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Smithsonian In stitution, American Society of Agricultural Engineers, National Portrait Gallery, and the universities and colleges in Missouri's higher educational system. Assistance and advice were offered to four new historical societies: the Bonne Terre Historical Society; the Caldwell County Historical Society; the Fort Osage Historical Society; and the Miller County Historical Society. Dr. Brownlee also announced that the Society's manuscript library, which maintains a joint collection with the University of Missouri's Western Historical Manuscript Collection, had been 216 Missouri Historical Review
Mrs. Virginia Botts (left), accompanied by her husband Mr. Tom Botts, received the So ciety's Distinguished Service Award and Medal lion. President Denslow (above) presented the Floyd C. Shoemaker History Award to Mr. Richard Shank. staffed and opened on the campuses of Rolla and Kansas City during the past year. Additions to the joint collection included the papers of Congressmen Richard Ichord and Jerry Litton, Kansas City businessmen Dutton Brookfield and Lou Holland, and the internationally famous St. Louisan, Dr. Tom Dooley. The joint collection also inaugurated a conservation program to preserve for posterity fragile and valuable original documents. In total, the reference, newspaper and manuscript libraries, the editorial, catalogue, acquisitions, membership and business offices assisted over 28,000 patrons, conducted more than 15,300 pieces of correspondence and answered almost 4,200 telephone calls pertaining to research information. Dr. Brownlee stated, "that the workloads of our departments have been conducted by a staff of only twenty-three individuals .... Increased services have been provided each year only by greater staff productivity and time and money saving research and library techniques." The Society received some important additions to its news paper and fine arts collections. Several backfiles of Missouri news papers were borrowed and filmed—the Mountain Grove Mountain Prospect, December 1882-December 1894 and the Mountain Ad vertiser, 1900-1902. The weekly Newtonia Newton County News, August 1890-July 1901, also was filmed. This addition makes the Society's holding of this newspaper virtually complete. Inter estingly, the Newton County News had been operated entirely by Historical Notes and Comments 217
President Denslow presented the Society's MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW article award to coauthors Dr. Gary R. Kremer (left) and Dr. Thomas E. Gage (right).
two sisters, Fidelia and Eva Mize, at a time when such enterprises by women were infrequent. Art works donated to the Society included a watercolor land scape by Missouri artist John Ankeney; an ink drawing by Colum bia artist Frank Stack; watercolors by Fred Geary; and mural studies by artist Frank Nuderscher. These gifts were presented to the Society by Mrs. Harold Biggs, Columbia; Frank Stack, Columbia; Mr. Joseph P. Tonnar, Carrollton; and Mrs. Lloyd C. Stark, St. Louis, respectively. Following the annual business meeting, over 400 members and guests attended a luncheon in the Memorial Student Union of the University of Missouri-Columbia. President Denslow con ferred three Society awards during the luncheon. Mrs. Virginia Botts, Columbia, received the Society's Distinguished Service Award. The gold medallion and framed certificate were presented to Mrs. Botts for her many years of service to the Society, par ticularly in the area of acquisitions. Professors Gary R. Kremer and Thomas E. Gage received citations and cash awards for coauthor- ing the best scholarly and popular article to appear in the 1979- 1980 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. The article entitled "The Prison Against the Town: Jefferson City and the Penitentiary in the 19th Century" was published in the July 1980 issue of the REVIEW. Mr. Richard Shank, a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, received the Floyd C. Shoemaker History Award. This year's award was presented for the best article written by a junior in standing in the state's universities and colleges. The cash award was given to Mr. Shank for his paper entitled "The Lexington March: Re sistance of the New Order."
220 Missouri Historical Review
Dr. James W. Goodrich, associate director of the Society, was the featured speaker at the Annual Meeting luncheon.
Dr. James W. Goodrich, associate director of the Society and an associate editor of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, was the featured speaker at the luncheon. His address was entitled "Gott fried Duden: A Nineteenth-Century Missouri Promoter." Dr. Good rich is the general editor of Duden's 1829 Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years along the Missouri. The publication of Duden's Report is the first completely translated and annotated edition of the famous work. The State Historical Society of Missouri and the University of Missouri Press copublished the volume. Portions of Dr. Goodrich's remarks regarding Duden and his Report appear elsewhere in this issue of the REVIEW. Before the luncheon meeting adjourned, Dr. Brownlee invited the members and guests to an open house in the Society's quarters. Displays were prepared in the reference and newspaper libraries. The George Caleb Bingham exhibit was featured in the Art Gallery. Fifteen portraits, two genre paintings, numerous pencil sketches, four engravings and two lithographs were on display. The Society owns the largest number of Bingham canvasses of any public agency in the world. On exhibit in the Corridor Gallery were political cartoons from the Society's editorial cartoon collection. Among the editorial cartoonists featured in the exhibition were Daniel R. Fitzpatrick, Tom Engelhardt, Ed Valtman, S. J. Ray and Franklin Morse. Historical Notes and Comments 221
NEWS IN BRIEF
The St. Louis Community Develop tion of Columbia's Black Community ment Agency has issued a series of Thematic Resources, all in Boone booklets entitled History of St. Louis County; the Jesse James House and Neighborhoods. Each booklet provides the Issac Miller House, both in Bu the locality history for one or two of chanan County; John Augustus Hock the city's 27 distinctive neighborhoods. aday House, Callaway County; Oli- Subjects include the topography, land ver-Leming House, Cape Girardeau development and changing use, resi County; the Central Methodist Col dents, streets, transit, commerce and lege Campus Historic District and the industry. Histories of each neighbor Harris-Chilton-Ruble House, both in hood's churches, schools, parks and Howard County; Chicago Apartments, institutions also are related. Illustra Jackson County; Grace Episcopal tions, a map and a bibliography com Church and Building, Livingston plement the text written by historian, County; Eighth and Carter Streets Norbury L. Wayman. Booklets in the Baptist Church, Marion County; limited edition series are available to Iberia Academy and Junior College, the public, free of charge, if picked Miller County; the Callaway Manes up at the office of the Community Homestead, Pulaski County; Theodore Development Agency. The address is Link Historic Buildings, St. Louis Suite 1201 Locust Building, 1015 Lo County; First Christian Church, Saline cust Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63101. County; and Lewis Place Historic Dis trict, Page Boulevard Police Station and St. Mary of Victories Church, all On September 6, during its annual in the city of St. Louis. meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, the American Association for State and Local History named Bittersweet, Inc., a recipient of an Award of Merit. A On October 6-11, Mary K. Dains, national awards committee selected associate editor of the MISSOURI HIS Bittersweet, a special English class of TORICAL REVIEW, attended a Seminar on Publications, sponsored by the students grades ten through twelve American Association for State and at Lebanon High School, for publish Local History. The Country Music ing a magazine of Ozark history, folk Foundation hosted the event, held in lore, culture and crafts. The State Nashville, Tennessee. With the sup Historical Society extends its congratu port of the National Endowment for lations to the staff of Bittersweet maga the Humanities, fellowships were zine upon receipt of this prestigious awarded to the thirty participants, award. selected from throughout the United States. The seminar focused on the The Historic Preservation Program, role of publications in the interpre Missouri Department of Natural Re tation of history to the public. Out sources reported sites that recently standing speakers discussed the objec have been entered on the National tives of historical agency publications Register of Historic Places. The sites programs, the art of writing for a include: Andrew County Courthouse, general audience without sacrificing Andrew County; Missouri State Teach scholarly integrity, techniques of edit ers Association, the Missouri United ing and problems of illustration, de Methodist Church and Social Institu sign, topography, marketing and copy- 222 Missouri Historical Review right. The various sessions included professor of English and Comparative lectures, slide presentations, group Literature, Columbia University; and discussions, publication displays and Dr. Norman Graebner, Stettinius Pro field trips. fessor of History, University of Vir ginia. A variety of research sessions The Missouri Committee for the on this theme and on many other his Humanities, Inc., has moved its office torical subjects will be organized. to Suite 204, Loberg Building, 11425 Proposals for papers are welcome but Dorsett Road, Maryland Heights, Mis must be received no later than Jan souri 63043. The new telephone num uary 31, 1981. ber is 314/739-7368. In addition, the conference will coincide writh the second annual Mis The twenty-third annual Missouri souri History Day contest, featuring Conference on History will be held papers, dramatic presentations and at the Hearnes Building, University projects submitted by junior high and of Missouri-Columbia, on Friday and senior high school students in cciu- Saturday, April 10-11, 1981. The gen petion for entry to the National His eral conference theme will be "Amer tory Contest. The general contest ica and the World." Keynote speakers theme is "Work and Leisure in His will deal w7ith aspects of diplomatic, tory." Both the contest and the con economic and cultural interrelations ference sessions will be open to the between the history of the United public. States and the history of other na To receive the printed program or tions. A tentative list of speakers to propose a research paper, write: Pro includes Dr. Cyril E. Black, direc fessor Charles G. Nauert, Jr., Depart tor, Center for International Studies, ment of History, University of Mis Princeton University; Dr. Ann Douglas, souri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211.
Columbia's Huck Finn Club Columbia Missouri Herald, July 11, 1902. There has recently been organized ... a club known as the "Huck Finn Club." The members of the club must be acquainted with and be able to quote when necessary the sparkling passages of Mark Twain's famous story and must also understand the art of enjoying themselves in the woods.
A Loss of Trade Cameron Daily Vindicator, June 20, 1882. Now that the average American is so opposed to having his son learn a trade, for fear he will plebianize the young man, a great many more trades are being learned in State Prisons than formerly. In fact, were it not for the State Prisons it is more than probable that within a few years from now no man would have a trade. Historical Notes and Comments 223
LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
Adair County Historical Society trict and now a judge in the U.S. The Society met on September 22 District Court, addressed the group. in the First National Bank of Kirks He recalled outstanding individuals in ville. Mrs. Elizabeth Evans, assistant the Missouri delegations to the House professor of Education at Northeast of Represestatives from 1966 to 1978. Missouri State University, Kirksville, presented the program on the develop Barnard Community ment of lighting devices in early Amer Historical Society ica. She displayed some 40 items from On July 24, a group of 50 interested her collection of lamps and candle- persons attended an organizational holders. meeting and formed the Barnard Com munity Historical Society. The desire Affton Historical Society to acquire and restore the former The Society celebrated its sixth Burlington and Northern depot, situ birthday on October 23 at the Affton ated near the 102 River in Barnard, Presbyterian Church. A "taster's cook led to the organization. A drive for book supper" featured dishes from funds initiated at the organizational recipes in the Society's recently pub meeting achieved donations and lished cookbook. Mrs. Marlene Schaet- pledges sufficient to cover the $1,000 zel demonstrated how to make a choco cost of the depot and its lot. Two late mousse cake which was given as planned workdays at the depot re an attendance prize. sulted in completion of a new roof, Officers elected were Andrew Nie- a major repair necessary before win meier, president; Tony Dill, vice presi ter. Women served a country-style din dent; Ralph Bertel, treasurer; Mildred ner for the volunteers who donated Posek, secretary; and Connie Boehlau, labor. Plans call for the creation of corresponding secretary. a museum after restoration of the depot. The Society's annual member Andrew County Historical Society ship dues are $1.00 per person. Mrs. Leola Nicholas served as co Officers of the new Society are Mrs. ordinator for the volunteers who James O'Connell, president; Robert staffed the Society's museum during Nielson, vice president; John Turner, the summer. The museum, located at treasurer; Mary Tompkins, secretary; the Clasbey Community Center in and Mrs. Walter Short, reporter. Savannah, closed for the winter on November 1. Belton Historical Society The Society reported progress on On October 19, the Society met the restoration of the log cabin which for its quarterly meeting at the Belton has been moved to its permanent loca United Methodist Church. A display tion in Duncan Park, Savannah. The featured a quilt, made of blocks Harry F. Duncan Foundation, of Wash pieced, signed and quilted by mem ington, D.C, contributed $1,000 to the bers of the Society. project. Officers elected for 1980-1981 were Audrain County Historical Society Paul Wyatt, president; Ruth Graham, Some 65 members attended the So vice president; Vince MacFarland, sec ciety's annual banquet, October 16, ond vice president; Pauline Stein- in the Mexico Country Club. William brueck, recording secretary; Reed L. Hungate, former representative in Harris, treasurer; and Mrs. Dolores Congress from the Missouri 9th Dis Crockett, corresponding secretary. 224 Missouri Historical Review
An open house was held November 2 meeting on October 13 in the court in the museum, located in the old house, Marble Hill. Nick Elfrink, the city hall which has been restored by artist who designed the cover of the the Society. The museum will house volume, displayed some of his work Dale Carnegie and Carry Nation mem and autographed copies of the publi orabilia. cation. Officers elected for the coming year Bethel German Communal Colony were Alma Collins, president; Carl The Colony celebrated Harvest Fest Hurst, vice president; Norma Elfrink, 1980 on October 4-5, at Bethel. The recording secretary; and Mary L. Hahn, event featured displays and exhibits corresponding secretary. of crafts, quilts, primitives, steam and gas engines, an operating grist mill Boonslick Historical Society and a baker making cinnamon rolls Over 65 members attended the Oc and other yeast breads. Other attrac tober 23 meeting in the Eyrie Banquet tions included a country store, flea Hall at Central Methodist College in market, tours of homes and a museum, Fayette. Gary Chilcote, president of and several types of old-fashioned en the Pony Express Historical Associa tertainment. tion, St. Joseph, presented the program on Jesse James. Officers elected were Blue Springs Historical Society Lloyd E. Geiger, Sr., president; Robert Members met July 1, at the museum, Bray, vice president; Mary Ellen Mc- 15th and Main, Blue Springs. Richard Vicker, secretary; and Tom Stock, Rivas, a Blue Springs artist, presented treasurer. Following the meeting, mem some of his art work, and gave tips bers viewed the Society's Bingham on painting and silk screening. painting in the Stephens Museum of Ray Vasquez, of the Blue Springs the college. On loan to the museum, Police Department, spoke on crime the painting recently had been re prevention at the August 5 meeting. stored by Sidney Larson. The Society cooperated in the city's centennial celebration, September 5-7. Brush and Palette Club The museum opened to the public on On October 4 and 5, the Club held September 6 and several hundred peo its 24th annual art fair and bazaar ple toured the home. The Society re at the Hermann City Park. Proceeds ported nearing completion of renova from the event support a scholarship tion of the turn-of-the-century home for a local college student majoring and placement of most of the furnish in art and the Club's project of re ings. cording folklife of the Hermann area. Bollinger County Historical Society Caldwell County Historical Society The Society announced publication Members held their September 14 of the third volume of Echo which meeting at the courthouse in Kingston. features numerous articles about the Guest speaker, Ron Fuenfhausen, of people, places, history and folklore Liberty, talked about the importance of the county. The 188-page softcover of a museum. The Society plans to publication, illustrated with over 80 publish a history of towns, past and pictures, may be purchased from the present, in the county. Bollinger County Historical Society, Box 183, Marble Hill, Missouri 63764, Cape Girardeau County for $9.00 each, postpaid. Historical Society Distribution of the third volume of The Society met at the Jackson Echo highlighted the Society's annual Public Library on September 27. Mrs. Historical Notes and Comments 225
Arthur Thilenius received a plaque in Cedar County Historical Society recognition for her many years of Members held their annual meet service to the Society. Dr. Duncan C. ing and potluck supper, July 29, in Wilke, assistant professor of Anthro the Community Hall in Jerico Springs. pology at Southeast Missouri State Guest speaker, Kerry Montgomery, an University, Cape Girardeau, presented attorney from Springfield, spoke on the program. His talk, illustrated with George Armstrong Custer, the Indian slides, related how methods in anthro fighter. The following officers were pological archaeology can be used to installed: James Landreth, president; verify historical events. Cleo Brown, vice president; Marguerite Brandom, secretary; and Viola Robison, Carondelet Historical Society treasurer. On September 21, the Society placed Fred Crawford presented the pro historic markers on two buildings in gram at the August 25 meeting in Carondelet. Robert Voorhees served as the Christian Church, El Dorado master of ceremonies for the event at Springs. He showed slides of a trip the Stone Row Houses, Pennsylvania to Europe which featured the passion Avenue and Stein Street, and St. Boni play at Oberammergau, Bavaria. face Catholic Church, 7600 Michigan The September 29 meeting at the Avenue. Stockton Methodist Church featured The Society held its October 19 gen a program by Warren Cook of Re eral membership meeting at the South public. He showed slides of paintings ern Commercial Bank, St. Louis. Mrs. by his late wife, Daisy Cook. Edward Villar gave a slide presenta tion on Carondelet. Members also Centralia Historical Society heard an update of Society activities A china show, which featured a long and viewed slides of the September table prepared for a Thanksgiving marker ceremonies. feast, opened at the museum, 319 East Sneed, Centralia, on November 10. Cass County Historical Society The Society participated in the sixth Chariton County Historical Society Log Cabin Festival, October 3-5, in The Society met on October 19 Harrisonville. More than 2,500 persons for the annual meeting and a dinner from 22 states and 2 foreign countries at the Dulany Library in Salisbury. visited the Society's log cabin. Over Rev. Bill Widmer gave a talk on the 90 members of the Society served as Catholic Church in Chariton County. hosts and hostesses during the event. On October 25, the Society held its Civil War Round Table annual dinner meeting at Bowiler's of Kansas City Restaurant, Harrisonville. Members Members held their September 23 heard annual reports and brought meeting at Twin Oaks Restaurant, items pertaining to Cass County his Kansas City. Robert K. Krick, chief tory for a "show and tell" program. historian of the Fredericksburg and The Society has received a grant Spotsylvania National Military Park, from the Missouri Committee for the Virginia, presented the program. He Humanities to develop a brochure spoke on "Amazing Exploits of E. entitled, "A Self-guided Walking Tour Porter Alexander." of the Courthouse and Square Dis On October 28, the program fea trict of Harrisonville, Missouri: A tured "Lincoln versus McClellan: The Study in Victorian Architecture and Struggle for America's Soul." Dr. Les History of a County Seat Town." lie Anders, author and professor of 220 Missouri Historical Review
History at Central Missouri State Uni Clay County Museum Association versity, Warrensburg, gave the presen The Association held its Septem tation. ber 25 meeting at the museum in Liberty. Becky Laurenzana, from Wil Civil War Round Table liam Jewell College, Liberty, presented of the Ozarks a program on wool carding and spin On August 9, the group hosted a ning. joint meeting with round tables from Northwest Arkansas and Kansas City. Cole Camp Area Historical Society The agenda included lunch at Drury Mrs. Ruth Kersey hosted the Au Lodge, a bus trip to the encampment gust 11 meeting of the Society at her at Wilson's Creek Battlefield, near home in Cole Camp. She presented Springfield, and refreshments and din the program about the Hummel pot ner at Drury Lodge, Springfield. Pro tery which had been located near fessor B. B. Lightfoot spoke on the Florence, Missouri. Mrs. Kersey also Battle of Springfield and Jim Joplin told about her great-grandfather, J. M. gave a slide presentation on Civil War Hummel, who owned and operated photography. the factory. James F. O'Brien, past president of The Society met on October 13 at the Round Table, presented the pro the Benton County R-l School Library. gram at the September 10 meeting at Roy W. Donnell gave a program on the 89er Restaurant, Springfield. He Cole Camp's founder, Ezekiel Williams. illustrated his talk on "Civil War Members discussed plans for selecting Quotes and Anecdotes" with slides of and marking historic sites in Cole some of the authors and subjects. Camp and the surrounding area. The October 8 meeting featured a Officers of the Society are Roy W. talk by Jack Randall on "Gen. J. E. B. Donnell, president; John W. Ragland, Stuart: Last of the Cavaliers." Known vice president; Darlyne Fajen, secre as "the eyes of Lee," General Stuart tary; and Delia Mae Grabau, treasurer. graduated from West Point and be Cole County Historical Society came one of the most valued and Members viewed the refurbished mu respected cavalry leaders of the Civil seum, 109 Madison Street, before at War. tending the annual dinner meeting at Civil War Round Table the Governor Hotel, Jefferson City, of St. Louis on November 2. Robert Krick, author of Lee's Colo Creve Coeur Chesterfield nels, was the guest speaker at the Historical Society meeting, September 24, at the Heritage On September 16, the Society held House Restaurant in Sunset Hills. He an ice cream social and meeting at the discussed Confederate General E. Por Old Bonhomme Presbyterian Church ter Alexander's activities. in Chesterfield. The program at the October 22 The Society sponsored history tours meeting featured a talk on U. S. by bus of the Creve Coeur and Chester Grant's Memoirs by Dr. John Simon. field areas on October 12 and 19.
Clark County Historical Society Dade County Historical Society The Society met on October 28 at The Society met October 7 in the Sever Library in Kahoka. Thelma Greenfield Retirement Homes Recrea Wells presented a program on the tion Center. Hugh Russell presented first legal hanging in Clark County. a program on "The Corry Mines," Historical Notes and Comments 227 formerly the source of both lead and On October 25, members held a zinc in the county. Mrs. Aileen John workday at the school. son and a group of assistants gave a Officers for 1981 are Paul Palmer, program on "Greenfield's Old Opera president; Renick Motley, vice presi House." dent; and Nellie Fern Palmer, secre tary-treasurer. Dallas County Historical Society Don Owensby, an attorney of Buf Ferguson Historical Society falo, presented the program at the The Society met at the First Presby September 5 meeting in the courthouse, terian Church, Ferguson, on Novem Buffalo. His presentation featured an ber 6. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Volz gave old ball and chain used to restrain a slide presentation on Alaska. prisoners in the early days of the Foundation for Restoration county's history. of Ste. Genevieve Over 30 members and friends at Members held their October 22 din tended the October 3 meeting in the ner meeting at Freda's Restaurant. Dr. Prairie Grove Christian Church. In Carl J. Ekberg, associate professor of honor of the Rev. Earl T. Sechler's History, Illinois State University, Nor 90th birthday, Vest Davis arranged a mal, and Dr. Melburn D. Thurman, "This is Your Life" program. executive director, Old Missouri Re search Institute, Ste. Genevieve, pre Daughters of Old Westport sented the program on "The Roots of The organization celebrated the 68th Ste. Genevieve." They reported on anniversary of its founding with a the latest historical and archeological luncheon for members and guests, research in the origins of old Ste. September 16, at the Loose Park Gar Genevieve. den Center, Kansas City. Members Foundation officers for 1980-1981 are descendants of early pioneers of are Ron Armbruster, president; Janey Old Westport. Rev. Roger Coleman, Scott, first vice president; Virginia director of the Westport Cooperative Grobe, second vice president; Janet Mission of Kansas City, spoke on Abts, secretary; and Fran Ballinger, Allen School. treasurer.
DeKalb County Historical Society Friends of Historic Boonville The August 17 meeting of the So In October, the Friends acquired ciety was held in the Garden Prairie the Cooper County Jail and have been School on C Highway. Former teachers, converting it for immediate use as Tina Lewis and Georgia Walker, re office, archival and general storage viewed the history of the school. Those space. Future plans include the estab in attendance also recalled former lishment of a museum and use of school days. Displays featured school several rooms in the residential sec material and registers from the Gar tion for small exhibitions. Until aban den Prairie School. doned several years ago by court order, the jail, built 1847-1848, had been the Eastern Jasper County oldest still in use in Missouri. Historical Sites Society The Society held its annual meeting Friends of Missouri Town-1855 at the Cave Springs Schoolhouse on On October 11 and 12, the Friends October 5. Members discussed needed sponsored a "Harvest Homecoming" at repairs and clean-up of the building Missouri Town-1855, near Blue Springs. and grounds. Featured speakers included descend- 228 Missouri Historical Review ants of the original builders of struc State University Archaeological Cen tures now located at the living history ter, Springfield. He spoke on "Israel— museum, and town planners and others A Matter of Life and Death." instrumental in establishing the vil Rick Hatcher gave the program on lage. Dr. Adolf Schroeder, of the Uni "The Life of the Common Soldier in versity of Missouri-Columbia, presented the Civil War" at the October 23 meet a preview of the slide program, "The ing. Mr. Hatcher is on the staff at Dream: Founders and Settlers," a Wilson's Creek Battlefield Park. tribute to early French and German settlers. A balloon ascension which Grand River Historical Society emphasized early balloon adventures The Society reported that a local in Missouri concluded the event. garden club began planting trees and shrubbery on the museum grounds Friends of Old St. Ferdinand in Chillicothe. After October the mu The Friends meet on the second seum was not open except for groups Monday, each month, in the Red by appointment. School Building adjacent to St. Ferdi Grundy County Historical Society nand's Shrine in Florissant. The Shrine Beginning on September 20 and con is open for tours on Sunday from tinuing each weekend through Oc 1 to 4 P.M. tober, the Society's museum in Tren Gasconade County Historical Society ton featured arts and crafts exhibits Various local musical groups pro and demonstrations. The events at vided entertainment at the Society's tracted many visitors to the museum annual picnic, August 17, at St. Paul during open hours from 2 to 5 P.M. Church near Bay. An auction featured on weekends. The museum closed for a painting of a scene on the Bourbeuse the winter the last of October. River by Hermann artist, Anna Hesse. Harrison County Historical Society On September 6-7, the Society held The Society held its October 14 its annual "this 'n' that" sale in Drake. meeting at the First National Bank Members met for a dinner meeting, in Bethany. The building committee October 26, at St. James United Church gave a report on several possibilities of Christ, Charlotte. Anna Hesse gave for a permanent home site. Ernie a slide presentation on points of in Lewis presented the program on his terest in Gasconade County. hobby of making old-time mountain dulcimers. He displayed a recently Greene County Historical Society finished hourglass dulcimer and played On August 10, the Society held the several mountain melodies. The So annual pilgrimage to Wilson's Creek ciety has 113 members. Battlefield, near Springfield, to cele- Officers elected for 1981 were Orville bate the 119th anniversary of that Civil Kellim, president; Floyd Eckard, first War battle. Some 275 persons attended vice president; Lewis Israel, second the ceremonies on the lawn of the Ray vice president; Erdene Logsdon, sec House. John K. Hulston, distinguished retary; Maudine Bennum, assistant lawyer and author, gave the address secretary; and Maxine Taraba, treas entitled "Six Unsung Contributors to urer. Wilson's Creek Battlefield." The Society's September 25 meeting Phoebe Apperson Hearst at Calvert's Restaurant, Springfield, Historical Society featured a program by Dr. Robert The Society sponsored the annual Cooley, of the Southwest Missouri historical tour on October 5. Partici- Historical Notes and Comments 229 pants met at the museum near St. Clair the Missouri Valley Chapter, Society for orientation and then visited some of Architectural Historians, served as old mines and cemeteries in the Mera tour guide. mec River area. Historical Association Henry County Historical Society of Greater Cape Girardeau At the September 29 meeting at the The September 8 meeting in the museum in Clinton, H. Louis Freund, Glenn House, Cape Girardeau, fea an artist and native of Clinton, gave tured a slide presentation, "The Peo the program. He spoke on "People ple's Mansion ... A Picture Tour of and Places Along the Way." Missouri's Historic Executive Man On October 23, the program featured sion." Mrs. MacDonald B. Logie, St. a slide presentation on "The Prairie" Louis, an area chairman for the state by Steve Clubine, a private land prairie wide speakers' bureau of Missouri biologist with the Missouri Conserva Mansion Preservation, Inc., provided tion Department. the program. The annual Heritage Ball on No Heritage Seekers vember 1 at the Arena Building in The group sponsored a hobby and Cape Girardeau featured the theme, antique show on September 14 at the "Gateway to the Golden West." The Gardner House and the nearby fire band of Terry Thomas with vocalist, station in Palmyra. The event fea Vickie Boren, provided musical en tured over 30 exhibits including In tertainment. dian relics, cut glass, hand tools and primitives, antique toys, dolls and Officers of the Association are Mrs. many other items. A sawmill powered Mary Helen Flentge, president; Dr. by a steam engine demonstrated the Tom H. Gerhardt, first vice president; sawing of logs. Musical entertainment Roy Ludwig, second vice president; consisted of old-time songs played on Ken Ostendorf, recording secretary; an organ and an accordion. The Gard Mrs. M. E. Hall, corresponding secre ner House, a partially restored stage tary; and Dr. Harold O. Grauel, treas coach inn, is a project of the Seekers. urer.
Historic Hermann Historical Association Members held their 8th annual din of Greater St. Louis ner meeting, November 20, at the VFW The Association held its October 17 Hall, Hermann. Professor J. A. Hart meeting in the Griesedieck Building man, of the University of Missouri- at St. Louis University. Father William Columbia, presented the program Faherty and Dr. Kenneth Luke gave which included a discussion of the the program on the story of the Mor Amish people and the film, The mons in Illinois and Missouri. Amish, A People Of Preservation. Historical Society of Polk County Historic Kansas City Foundation Ralph Sidebottom, of Springfield, On October 25, the Foundation spon presented the program at the Society's sored a bus tour which traced the August 24 meeting at the Methodist development of modern architecture Church in Morrisville. He gave a talk in Kansas City. The tour featured on the early history of the town of houses designed by Kenneth R. Boyle, Wishart. Dr. Mark C. Stauter spoke Bruce Goff, Clarence E. Shepard, James briefly on the work of the Joint Col F. Terney and Frank Lloyd Wright. lection, University of Missouri Western E. Eugene Young, president-elect of Historical Manuscript Collection and 230 Missouri Historical Review
State Historical Society of Missouri Iron County Historical Society Manuscripts. He is the collection's The Society met on October 13 at associate director at the University of the Education Fellowship Building, Missouri-Rolla. First Baptist Church, in Ironton. James Officers of the Society are Oby Denny, a historian with the Missouri Jester, president; Bob Blum, vice Department of Natural Resources, gave president; Clarcie Dechow, secretary; a slide presentation on "Federalist and Harlene Johnson, treasurer. Architecture in Missouri." A local ex ample, the Alexander Russell Home Historical Society of University City in Belleview, received special emphasis. Some 75 members attended the an nual meeting, September 28, in the Johnson County Historical Society University City Library. Al Goldman, The Society held its September 28 director of Planning and Development, meeting at the Old Courthouse in gave a lecture entitled "A History of Warrensburg. Dr. Roy Stubbs, curator, Planning in University City." Yolanda reported that approximately 1,300 per Wanek spoke briefly on "Jubilee- sons had visited the Old Courthouse Blooming City." and Museum through September. The Officers of the Society for 1981 are Society requested old recipes for com Julius E. Giebler, president; Mrs. Con pilation of a cookbook. Following the stance Lennahan, vice president; Jack business meeting, members viewed the Wiegers, treasurer; and F. Howard film, Johnson County; Seedtime and Rose, secretary. Harvest.
Holt County Historical Society Joplin Historical Society New displays added to the Society's The Society and the Dorothea B. Holt County School Museum in For- Hoover Museum Guild held a meet tescue during 1980 include a pioneer ing at the museum in Schifferdecker country store, doctor's office and farm Park, Joplin, on October 7. Charles S. implements. Osborn spoke on traditional furniture. On September 20-21, a flea market and black powder shoot on the mu Kansas City Posse of Westerners seum grounds attracted many visitors. The Posse met on September 9 at the Homestead Country Club in Huntsville Historical Society Prairie Village, Kansas. Thomas W. The Society held its August 19 meet Carneal, professor of History at North ing at the museum in Huntsville. west Missouri State University, Mary Adele Stanturf presented the program ville, was the guest speaker. His slide on letters from Ben Poison. presentation featured "Platte Purchase The September 16 meeting featured Architecture: The First Twenty Years, the program, "In Loving Memory," 1837-1857." by Helen Boswell. Officers elected were Payson W. A quilt sampler program by Ruth Lowell, sheriff; Robert W. Patrick, John highlighted the October 21 meet chief deputy sheriff; Lawrence Larsen, ing. deputy sheriff; Chuck Law, chip keep Officers of the Society for 1980-1981 er; Fred L. Lee, tallyman; and Ed are Margaret Block, president; Thelma Shutt, range writer. Bryan, first vice president; Fannie Lou The October 14 meeting at the Wilhite, second vice president; Nellie Radisson-Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas Miller, secretary; and Adele Stanturf, City included a program on "Charles treasurer. M. Russell: Missouri's Forgotten Art- Historical Notes and Comments 231
ist." Bob Priddy, director of the news Grange, gave a review of films of the division of Missourinet in Jefferson early 1920s. City, gave the talk and showed slides. Some 300 members of the interna Lexington Library tional organization attended a special and Historical Association Westerner breakfast on October 18 at The Association reported that its the Radisson-Muehlebach Hotel. The museum, located in a brick building Kansas City Posse, with assistance from constructed in 1846 by the Cumberland the Neihardt Corral in Columbia and Presbyterians in Lexington, has at the Kansas Corral of Abilene, hosted tracted increasing numbers of visitors. A recently added audio-visual presen the event held in conjunction with tation on the history of Lexington the Western History Conference. Jo has proven popular with tour groups. seph W. Snell, executive director of the Kansas State Historical Society, Macon County Historical Society Topeka, spoke on "Who Says Pic On September 14, the Society held tures Never Lie?" a regular quarterly meeting and carry- in dinner at the Floral Hall in Macon Kimmswick Historical Society County Park. Dr. Marian Ohman, of The Society sponsored an apple but the University of Missouri-Columbia, ter festival in Kimmswick on Oc spoke on the history of Missouri and tober 25 and 26. The event included its capitol buildings. The present apple butter making, craft demon building is regarded as one of the strations, a Civil War encampment, most beautiful state capitols in the living history demonstrations and United States. house tours.
Kirkwood Historical Society Marion County Historical Society The September 9 meeting featured Members held their annual meeting a reception for members at History and a carry-in supper on October 8 House in Kirkwood. The house is open at Camp Oko-Tipi. Hurley Hagood on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to presented the program on "Pioneer 4 P.M. Routes from Virginia and Kentucky to Missouri." Lawrence County Historical Society The Society held its October 19 Miller County Historical Society meeting at the Jones Memorial Chapel James Denny, of the Historic Preser in Mt. Vernon. Mrs. Mary Scott Hair, vation Program, Missouri Department noted Ozark folklorist and historian of Natural Resources, provided the of Hurley, was the guest speaker. She program at the October 12 meeting related her experiences as "Country in the courthouse annex, Tuscumbia. Correspondent." Officers elected for He gave a slide presentation about 1981 were Fred Mieswinkel, president; Missouri vernacular architecture and Mrs. Eva Ruckert, first vice president; examples of stylistic architecture in Bill Mayhew, second vice president; the state. Mrs. Charles Stark, secretary; and Mrs. Joy Brown, corresponding secretary. Monroe County Historical Society Members and friends of the Society Lewis County Historical Society observed September 28 as the opening Canton Chapter date for the museum room at the Thirty members and guests attended Monroe County Courthouse in Paris. the September 2 meeting at the Canton Monetary contributions from various Public Library. Melvin Ilia, of La- institutions and individuals and volun- 232 Missouri Historical Review
teer labor made this project of the making and folk medicine. An exhibit Society possible. featured native trees and grasses. A grant from the Missouri Committee Montgomery County for the Humanities funded the event. Historical Society On October 5, more than 400 per O'Fallon Historical Society sons attended the second annual tour The Society met at the O'Fallon of historic homes in Wellsville. Spon Civic Center on September 8. Mem sored by the Society, the tour included bers finalized plans for the joint meet seven homes. The event also featured ing with the St. Charles County His a collection of old pictures of Wells torical Society on October 23. ville and a display of fifty old quilts. Officers of the Society are Janet Wies, president; Mary Ann Davis, vice John G. Neihardt president; Ann Schulte, secretary; Lynn Corral of Westerners Orf, treasurer; Joan Pieper, archivist; The Corral held its September 11 and Rose Moorhead, historian. meeting at the Flaming Pit in Colum bia. Bob Priddy, news director of Old Mines Area Historical Society Missourinet in Jefferson City, pre On October 18, members and friends sented the program on "Charles Rus of the Society met to "mud daub" a sell, Native Missourian." small cabin on the Society's grounds The October 9 meeting featured in Fertile. A portion of the cabin a talk by Walter Gerard of Columbia wall had been set aside for teaching on "Old Wheels." interested persons how to daub as in Organized in November 1978, the former days. Other activities included Corral now has more than 60 members. demonstrations of making shake shin gles from white oak and games and Newton County Historical Society contests. Area fiddlers provided musi The Society met on September 21 cal entertainment. Proceeds from the at the George Washington Carver event were added to the Society's Museum near Diamond. The program building fund for the archive build featured an audio-visual presentation ing under construction. about the museum. Old Trails Historical Society Nodaway County Historical Society During September the Society spon Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Mutz pre sored several events at its Bacon Log sented the program at the Septem Cabin in Manchester. An open house ber 30 meeting in the Society's mu on September 21 featured a display seum home in Maryville. They gave of antique fiddles and fiddle music a slide lecture on their trip to China by Harvey Smith. Members held a and the culture of the Chinese people. wine and cheese party on September 26 Over 1,000 persons attended the and the 11th annual antique sale two Heritage Exposition of Northwest Mis days later. souri, October 17-19, at the Society's Ettus Hiat presented the program museum home. Area craftsmen de for the October 15 meeting at the picted the economic elements common Grand Glaise Library in Manchester. in Northwest Missouri from 1850 to She showed slides of her recent trip 1880. Demonstrations included fur and to China. skin processing, lightning rod manufac turing, broom making, wool spinning, Pemiscot County Historical Society apple butter making, bread making, The Society met on August 22 at folk music, butter churning, quilt the Colonial Federal Savings and Loan Historical Notes and Comments 233
Building in Caruthersville. Ray Klemp, Church, Raytown. The special program a local attorney, discussed the reform featured Mrs. Grace McAdams Harris administration of Governor Daniel who told about her memories of fly Dunklin. ing and the former Ong Field. Officers Erma Richardson showed slides and elected were Stan Novak, president; told about her trip to Europe at the Joan Cesar, first vice president; George September 26 meeting. Crews, second vice president; Carol The October 24 meeting featured the Pitts, recording secretary; Katherine experiences of a USO worker in World Whitehouse, corresponding secretary; War II as related by Rachel Dawson. and John Spotts, treasurer. Members discussed the recent gene alogy workshop sponsored by the So St. Charles County ciety. Historical Society The Society met for the October 23 Pleasant Hill Historical Society quarterly meeting in the O'Fallon Caralee Riggs Dodson presented the Civic Park Hall. Members of the program at the October 26 meeting O'Fallon Historical Society hosted the at the museum in Pleasant Hill. She meeting and opened their log cabin spoke on the Heistand family, one in the park for visitors. The program of Pleasant Hill's oldest families. featured the film, Legacy of a Mill. Pony Express Historical Association Produced by Archie Scott, the movie The Association honored its museum gave a historical survey of the mills volunteers at a party on September 7 on Blanchette Stream and the im at Patee House Museum in St. Joseph. portance they played in St. Charles On September 25-27, the St. Joseph and the westward movement. Community Theater presented the St. Francois County comedy, Here Lies Jeremy Troy, by Historical Society Jack Sharkey, in dinner theater pro Officers of the Society for 1981 are ductions at Patee House. Proceeds from Betty L. Rigsbee, president; Fred P. the show benefited the Association. Womack, first vice president; George Mrs. Ethel Blomfield, an Association Bohs, second vice president; Cecelia member, produced and directed the Gentges, secretary; Mrs. George Bohs, show. treasurer; and Ruth Womack, corre In October the Association reported sponding secretary. a membership total of 364. Schuyler County Historical Society Ray County Historical Society The Society held its 8th annual Members held their annual picnic meeting on October 12 in the court at Eagleton Civic Center in Richmond house, Lancaster. Members approved on August 9. Elmer Minnick, project an amendment to the bylaws which coordinator, reported on the historic increased annual membership dues site survey of the county. Local volun from $1.00 to $2.00. Mrs. Ann Bunch teers, Merle Bright, Pauline Brown, presented the program on genealogical Jane Williams and Mary Lamb, told research. She gave practical suggestions about their experiences while working about the type of records needed and on the survey. Information on 315 where to obtain record forms and in sites in Ray County has been recorded formation. Officers elected for the in the two-phase project. coming year were Nelle V. George, Raytown Historical Society president; Carol Ann Western, first Members held their October 22 vice president; Flora Redman, second meeting at St. Matthews Episcopal vice president; Edna L. York, record- 234 Missouri Historical Review ing secretary; Martha Gehrke, corre Officers for 1981 are Judge Glen sponding secretary; and Beulah Tall- Ray Simmons, president; Mrs. Martin man, treasurer. Moran, vice president; Mrs. James Crumpacker, secretary; and Mrs. Frank Smoky Hill Railway Cowgill, treasurer. and Historical Society The annual dining car exposition, Webster Groves Historical Society August 30 and 31, became the final The Society, the Kirkwood Histori event held at the 3rd and Broadway cal Society and Webster College spon location for the Society's Kansas City sored a series of seminars on local Railroad Museum. The museum then communities in Winifred Moore Audi closed and the Society plans to reopen torium, Webster College campus, Web it at another area location. ster Groves. The series began on Oc tober 1 with an overview of the his Stone County Historical Society tory of Webster Groves and Kirkwood. Some 30 members attended a picnic John Lindenbusch discussed architec lunch, September 7, at Homestead Park tural styles and surveys on October 8. in Hurley. Following lunch, the group The October 15 seminar featured re went to the Methodist Church for the searching the history of a building by business meeting and program. Presi Ann Morris. Wilda Swift spoke on dent Bill Butler reported that a display oral history on October 22. The series case had been installed in the Stone concluded, October 29, with a presen County Courthouse and requested tation by Conal Fury on collecting, items of historical interest for short reading and writing local history. A time loan. The Society thanked Robert grant from the Missouri Committee Griffin, of Kimberling City, for donat for the Humanities funded the semi ing the walnut wood and making the nars. case. Dorothy Leake introduced her son, Dr. John Benjamin Leake, who Wellington Historical presented the program. He showed Preservation Association slides and told about his experiences Members of the Association met at during nine months he spent in Thai the Wellington American Legion Hall land. on October 26. Ed Ellis, of Lexington, talked about his collection of political Sullivan County Historical Society buttons. The Society met on July 7 in the Citizens Savings Building in Milan. Wentzville Missouri Community Mrs. Inez King presented the slide Historical Society The Society sponsored a bus tour program which featured churches in to historic sites in north St. Louis Sullivan County. Members of the County on September 13. The tour women's extension clubs had prepared featured stops at the General Bissell the slides and accompanying explana Home, Taille de Noyer, the Meyer tory material. Home, the Archambault House and Members held their October 6 meet St. Stanislaus Museum. ing at the Presbyterian Church in Mi lan. Gary Beahan, state archivist from Officers of the Society are John I. Denny, president; Ruby Menscher, vice Jefferson City, gave a talk about ma president; Freda B. Cook, secretary; terial recently found in the Capitol and Erna Brakensiek, treasurer. which provided detailed information concerning construction of the present Weston Historical Society building. He also showed pictures The Museum sponsored the sixth taken during the building project. Old Homes Tour and Heritage Festival Historical Notes and Comments 235 in Weston on October 11 and 12. The sas City. Guided tours of the church event, held every four years, featured preceded the buffet dinner and pro nine homes open for viewing. Other gram, which featured a short play, attractions included displays by area written by Wayne Harris. The play artists of crafts and handiwork, an told the history of Calvary Baptist antique doll and quilt show, country Church and Westport. The program stores and Doc Holladay's Traveling also included short histories of the Medicine Show. Westport United Presbyterian Church, the Westport Methodist Church, the Westphalia Historical Society Hyde Park Christian Church and The August 19 meeting at the West Union Church. phalia Inn featured a slide-tape pro The Society and the Civil War gram entitled "Because It is There." Round Table of Kansas City spon Produced by Missouri Heritage Trust, sored the 4th annual Battle of West- Inc., the presentation related historic port tour, October 18-19. Local his preservation efforts, both successes and torians introduced the events of the failures, in Missouri. battle at the Harris-Kearney House Dr. and Mrs. Ray Wilbers, of Mex and a display included guns and arti ico, Missouri, were special guests of facts from the battlefield. The 3-hour the Society at its September 18 meet guided tour featured 25 sites where ing. Dr. Wilbers showed his film of the battle took place in October 1864. the Father Helias centennial celebra A visit to an authentic Civil War tion in Westphalia on June 2, 1974. camp and a reenactment by uniformed He then presented the film to the soldiers of a major engagement of the Society. battle highlighted the event. On October 21, members viewed a slide program on "Saint Louis and White River Valley Missouri History." The program had Historical Society been prepared and loaned by the Mu The September 14 meeting in the seum Education Office of Jefferson Good Memorial College Center at The National Expansion Memorial in St. School of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Louis. featured a "show and tell" program Over 20 members displayed and told Westport Historical Society about memorabilia such as old photo The Society held its August 22 meet graphs, Civil War items, antique ing at Calvary Baptist Church in Kan jewelry and service citations.
Fruit Stones Are Useful Mississippi Valley Democrat and Journal of Agriculture, July 6, 1899. A good deal of the odor of fruit is concentrated in the stones or pits. These are now used in a novel way in Winter. They are saved and dried after the fruits have been eaten, and then put in a large jar. In the Winter time they are thrown on the log or grate fire to give a perfume to the room. They burn brightly for a time and gradually fill the room with a delicate nutty aroma that is very pleasing to the senses. They are far better and more health ful than the cheap Chinese incense that so many burn. 236 Missouri Historical Review
GIFTS
James F. Atkisson, Osage Beach, donor: 18 photographs of the Lake of the Ozarks area. E*
Belle High School Journalism Class 1979-80, donor, through Doris Dare, Belle: Cooper's Hill: A Lingering Look, by donor. R
Mrs. Amelia B. Benson, Columbia, donor: A History of the Bronaugh Family in America, by donor. R
Rev. Maury Whipple Bishop, Seal Beach, California, donor: Two photographs of Colonel William Bishop, treasurer of Missouri, 1864- 1869, and one of his wife, Mary Ann (Lapsley) Bishop. E
Mrs. Virginia Botts, Columbia, donor: Materials relating to Columbia and Westminster College, Fulton, R; two photographs of Carl R. Gentry and photograph of Perry reunion, 1957, E; copy of William Jewell will, 1854, and descendant's deed transferring Jewell property, 1884. M
Trenton Boyd, Columbia, donor: Photographs of store windows publicizing St. Joseph horse show and of St. Joe Construction Co. paving with concrete, loaned for copying. E
James T. Brockman, Lee's Summit, donor: Moberly High School yearbooks, Salutar, 1910-1913, and Kirksville High School Announcement, 1913-1914, R; photograph of Omar Bradley in 1915 and photograph and postcard of M.E. Church, South, Festus, Mo. E
Mrs. Robin B. Brown, Louisiana, donor: History of Centenary United Methodist Church 1830-1980, Louisiana, Mo. R
Mrs. Hilary A. Bush, Kansas City, donor: "The Bush Family in America"; "The Grantham Family in America"; and "The Ridgell Family in America," all by Hilary A. Bush and Frances S. Bush. R
Kathryn H. Campbell, Dallas, Texas, donor: John Biggs The Welshman and Descendants and Early Bibles and Grave yard Records (Pike, Ralls, Monroe and Marion counties, Mo.) Volume IV, both by donor. R
Cannon Reservoir Human Ecology Project, donor, through Nellie Swift, Perry: An Analysis of Historical Structures in the Cannon Reservoir Area, North east Missouri. R
•These letters indicate where the gift materials are filed at Society head quarters: E, refers to Editorial Office; R, Reference Library; M, Manu scripts Collection; N, Newspaper Library; A, Art Room; and B, Bay Room. Historical Notes and Comments 237
Karen Chamberlin, Hughesville, donor: Typescript concerning a resettlement project in the Hughesville, Longwood and Houstonia communities under the New Deal, by donor. R
Mrs. Walter L. Clore, Harlingen, Texas, donor: Xerox copy of The Humphreys Star, February 28, 1918. N
Mrs. Maurice Cooper, Columbia, donor: Various material relating to Columbia. R
A. Maxim Coppage, Concord, California, donor: Letter to donor from Virginia (Taylor) Hugley, with information about the history of Hale, Missouri. R
John Croll, Columbia, donor: Five photographs relating to railroads, loaned for copying, E; "Steam Locomotive Roster and Corporate History of the Wabash Railway Com pany," loaned for copying. R
L. L. Descombes, Warrensburg, donor, through Dr. Susan L. Pentlin, Warrensburg: Photograph of John A. Gallaher, state geologist of Missouri, 1897-1900, E; material on Mr. Gallaher and the Gallaher family. R
Marie C. Evans, Columbia, donor: King's Daughters Home, Mexico, Missouri, Records. M
First Christian Church, Poplar Bluff, donor: Material concerning Freeman family gift of land to the church. R
Graham Historical Society, Graham, donor, through Mrs. Floyd K. Miller, Barnard: Cemetery Inscriptions: Nodaway County, Hughes Township, Graham, Mo. R
Marilyn Haggard Gross, Jefferson City, donor: Haggard Family Notes, by donor. R
Mrs. Nina Guffey, Unionville, donor: "Records of Pherigo Cemetery, Unionville, Missouri." R
Helen Harr, St. Joseph, donor: "Bushwhacker's Annual: A Missouri History Calendar 1981." R
Mrs. Frank G. Harris, Jr., Columbia, donor: Framed items, vote Democratic poster, 1940, reproduction of "Representa tive ftjlen of Boone County," photographs of Boone County officials, 1909, and University of Missouri Law Class, 1934; books concerning Missouri history. R
Mrs. Marie Hoffman, Anaheim, California, donor: Two photographs of engineers' St. Patrick's Day ceremonies, 1904, Univer sity of Missouri. E Mrs. Arthur A. Johnson, Salt Lake City, Utah, donor: Copy of Inventory of Terrill Cemetery, Philadelphia (Marion County), Mo. R 238 Missouri Historical Review
Clarence Keathley, Ironton, donor: Salt and Pepper Talk, by donor. R
Beverly Ann Kennedy, Warrensburg, donor: Raymore Bee, July 1, 1909. N
Beverly Lancaster, West Bloomfield, Michigan, donor: Genealogical information of the Lee family of Missouri, compiled by James E. Lancaster. R
Beverly M. Lancaster, Orchard Lake, Michigan, donor: Transcription from grave markers in Smith Cemetery, Linn Township, Osage County. R
Edna Hazel McCullough Lowery, Falls Church, Virginia, donor: McCullough genealogy. R
Charlotte A. Metzger, St. Louis, donor: In Search of Kate, by donor. R
Arthur Paul Moser, Springfield, donor: Directories of towns, villages and hamlets past and present of Atchison and Worth counties, Missouri, compiled by donor. R
Anita Nance, Bishop, California, donor: Photograph of school children, ca. 1898, Speedwell Township, St. Clair County. E Order of King's Daughters and Sons, Missouri Branch, donor, through Edna Ballew, Columbia: King's Daughters and Sons, Missouri Branch, Records, 1931-1978. M
Eleanora G. Park, donor, through Henrietta Park Krause, Columbia: Missouri Mansion Preservation, Inc., script for slide presentation, "Missouri First Ladies ... A Personal Perspective." M
Philip C. Parker, Marshall, donor: "Marshall State School and Hospital: Its History and Development," thesis by donor. R
Greg Pierceall, Covina, California, donor: "The Pierceall Family of Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri," compiled by donor. R
Lela W. Prewitt, Fairfield, Iowa, donor: Genealogical material on the Prewitt family collected by Lester D. Pre witt. R
Riley County Historical Society and Museum, donor, through Jean C. Dallas, Manhattan, Kansas: Group photograph of State Convention, 26th District, Lions International, May 5-7, 1929, at Kentwood Arms, Springfield, Missouri. E
Eugene L. Rodgers, St. Louis, donor: Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri, Aeolian-Skinner Organ, Papers, 1962-1965. M Historical Notes and Comments 239
Mary Elizabeth Riepma Ross, iVeit; York, New York, donor: My Ancestry, Life and Ministry, 1878-1977, by Rev. Sears F. Riepma. R
St. Columban's Church, donor, through Mrs. Vincent A. Culling, Chilli cothe: Saint Columban's Church, Chillicothe, Missouri, 1879-1979, Centennial Edi tion. R
Walter A. Schroeder, Columbia, donor: Xerox copies of two maps showing the early prairies of St. Louis City and County, compiled by donor. R
Charline Pennell Shockley, Santa Cruz, California, donor: Letters of the William Doyle Pennell Family 1838-1885, compiled by donor. R
William J. Sims, St. Louis, donor: Three pen and ink drawings by donor. A
Alberta Fryer Smith, Columbia, donor: Imel-Moler-Mladek-Krejci Genealogy, by Opal K. Morgan. R
Neal Roy Stockham, Shelbyville, donor: "A Historical Narrative of the Old Bethel Colony," by J. Fred Burck- hardt. R
Sharon Tanner, Kansas City, donor: Xerox copy of "History of the Wisker Family," by Aubrey Lee Wisker. R
Althea Copeland Taylor and Eula Venita Copeland Guess, Temple, Texas, donors: Genealogy of the Families of Cop eland-Morris Baker-Barnes and Related Families, by donors. R Washington Savings and Loan Association, donor, through Tom P. Todd and Stanley H. Wilke, Washington: Yesterday in Franklin County, by Stanley Wilke. R
Kathleen Wilham, Shelbyville, donor: Bower Brothers Store, Bethel, Missouri, Records, 1855-56, 1890-1901, loaned for copying. M
Mrs. David H. Wolter, St. Charles, donor: Poese Family History, by Cleo Wolter. R
Back To The People Jefferson City Tribune, July 29, 1884. After being in session at Poplar Bluff five days and taking four hundred and seventy-six ballots without nominating a candidate, the Fourteenth district congressional convention adjourned sine die on Saturday night, thus referring the matter back to the people and making necessary the calling of another convention. 240 Missouri Historical Review
MISSOURI HISTORY IN NEWSPAPERS
Blue Springs Examiner September 18, 1980—This Centennial Issue featured numerous articles on the town's history.
Boonville Daily News August 13, September 17, 24, October 1, 8, 15, 29, 1980—''Survey notes from the Friends of Historic Boonville," a series by James Higbie, featured historic sites and events of the area.
Braymer Bee October 2, i9S0-"Black Oak [United Methodist] Church to Celebrate 135th Year."
Brookfield News-Bulletin August 7, 1980—"Bits of Past [of Linneus]," by Frances Turner.
Brunswick Brunswicker September 25, 1980—Old area photograph.
Buffalo Reflex & Republic September 25, 1980—Old area photograph.
Butler Bates County News Headliner October 9, 1980—"Wixes a pioneer family." This and the article below-, by Reva Stubblefield. October 16—"Holt family spotlighted."
Canton Press News-Journal September 11, 18, 25, October 9, 23, 1980—"Yesteryear's Picture," a series, featured old area views. September 25—"Faded signs of past historical reminders [of former busi nesses]," by Dan Steinbeck.
Carrollton Daily Democrat August 25, 1980—"Times may be rough now, but we've seen worse [in 1934 and 1936], historian says," by Harold Calvert.
Cassville Democrat September 3, 1980—"History Of Roaring River Baptist Church," by Edith Ball.
Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune October 9, 1980—Old area photograph.
Clinton Eye August 14, 1980—"A List of 'Famous' From This Area Was Drawn Up for Big '36 Celebration."
El Dorado Springs Sun August 7-October 30, 1980—"A Peek At The Past," a weekly series on the history of the area, by Virginia Strain. Historical Notes and Comments 241
Eureka-Pacific Tri-County Journal October 22, 1980—"Catawissa 'Rock Church' [St. Patrick's Catholic at Armagh] Is A Bit Of Missouri-Irish History," by Danette Fertig Thompson, photos by Connie Bachmann.
Fayette Democrat-Leader August 16, 1980—Final article in a series on Howard County and the Civil War crisis, by Hobart L. Morris. September 6—"Old Stones [of gutter] Uncovered," by Martha Eikermann.
Festus Democrat-Pilot October 16, 1980—" 'The reason Hillsboro was settled' Historic spring fights for life," by Peggy Bess.
Fredericktown Democrat-News October 9, i9S0-"Battle of Pilot Knob Recalled."
Fulton Kingdom Daily News October 26, 1980—"At home with Mary and James Humphreys [in Harris House, 815 Court Street]," by Kathy Felsted.
Fulton Sun-Gazette August 11, 1980—"Fulton, Mo., Honors [Winston] Churchill," by Tom Weil, reprinted from the New York Times.
Gainesville Ozark County Times August 7-October 30, 1980—"Ozark Reader Fireside Stories of the Early Days in the Ozarks," a series, by Silas C. Turnbo.
Gerald Star September 3, 1980—"The Fitzgerald's of Gerald," by Mildred Bingaman.
Hamilton Advocate-Hamiltonian September 3, 1980—"History of the Hamilton Methodist Church," by Mrs. Leonard McNarie.
Hannibal Courier-Post August 14, 1980—"Campaign seeks to preserve Robinson building," by Joanne Hollister. September 20—"[Mark] Twain's mother [Jane Lampton Clemens] fond of fun and good times," by Mary Lou Montgomery. October 8—"Old post office review expected," by Gene Hoenes. October 10—"Historic listing recommended for Robinson building," by Joanne Hollister. October 31— "Local house [built by Eugene Napoleon Bonfils] has a his torical heritage," by Esley Hamilton.
Houston Herald & Republican August 28, 1980—"Couple [Mr. and Mrs. George Newby] Celebrates 65th Anniversary; Recalls Early Life In Logging Camp," by Jo Woodward.
Iberia New Iberian August 6, 1980—"The Barnabas Reed Homestead [in Miller County]," by Peggy Smith Warman. 242 Missouri Historical Review
Independence Examiner September 24, 1980—Old area photographs.
Jackson Cash-Book Journal October 29, 1980—"[Wilson] Cramer sought patent for Indian Hills gate," by Carroll Knox.
Joplin Globe October 26, 1980—"Frisco Building Renovation Considered," by Susan Roudy- bush.
Kahoka Media September 17, 1980—"Early Recollections," by Frank Brookhart.
Kansas City Star September 14, 1980—Special centennial sections contained the history of the Kansas City Star and Kansas City in honor of the newspaper's 100th anni versary. September 14—"Angry [Harry S.] Truman letter to Roy A. Roberts [in 1950] 'set record straight'," by William D. Tammeus. September 28—"The Resurrection of Jesse James," by Rick Atkinson.
Kansas City Times September 12, October 3, 10, 24, 1980—Postcards from the collection of Mrs. Sam Ray featured respectively: president's home, William Jewell College, Lib erty; Fire Headquarters, 1020 Central; Gladstone Boulevard; and Convention Hall, all in Kansas City. October 11—"Weston's homes, open for tours, endured changes," by Wes Cook. October 22—"Harry Truman's old farmhouse [in Grandview] to be bought in preservation effort," by Charles R. T. Crumpley.
Kennett Daily Dunklin Democrat August 21, 1980—"Area History Alive and Well in Pemiscot [Riverview] Museum [in Caruthersville]," by Tony Brown.
Kirksville Express & News October 13, 1980—"Bethel Harvest Fest Reflects On Early German Communal Settlement."
Lancaster Excelsior October 16, 1980—"Lancaster landmark [Palmer House] to be razed in Spring," by Drew Mendelson.
La Plata Macon County Home Press October 1, 1980—"Former Students Remember Rock Creek School History."
Lebanon Daily Record September 10, 1980—"Bank Of Hazelgreen Recalled," by Kirk Pearce.
Lexington News September 18, 1980—"Gilead Rupe's Relative Visits Lexington." September 19—"Anderson House Has Troubled History," by Lynn Ford. October 3, 10, 20—"Lexington Landmarks." Historical Notes and Comments 243
Liberal News August 21, 1980—A special edition, "1880 Liberal Centennial 1980," featured numerous historical articles.
Liberty Tribune September 24, 1980-"The 'other' [Clay] county farm [of George Clay- brooke family]," by Angie Borgedalen.
Linn Vnterrified Democrat September 24, 1980—"A History of St. Louis Parish [at Bonnots Mill]/' by Father Herbert George Kramer, S.M. October 8, 15—"A history of the Folk church St. Anthony's [Catholic Church] to celebrate 75th anniversary," a two-part article by Peggy Henkins.
Mansfield Mirror September 4, 1980-"History of Pleasant Hill [Free Will Baptist] Church [in Wright County]," by Ruth Hickman.
Maysville Record Herald August 13, 1980—"Newspapers [in DeKalb County] record history."
Monroe City News August 7, 1980—"Union Covered Bridge in Monroe County is one of a kind," by Roger Helms.
Nixa Enterprise August 28, 1980—"Henry Rowe Schoolcraft [traveled through Christian County in 1819-1820]," by Paul W. Johns.
North Kansas City Press Dispatch October 29, 1980—A special section, "65 and Going Strong: anniversary edition," featured numerous historical articles.
Odessa Odessan August 28, 1980—"Odessa, landmark McKinley home burns."
Potosi Independent-Journal August 28, 1980-"Renewed Interest in Early Mo. Writer [Harold Bell Wright]." September 11, 25, October 2—Old area photographs.
Richmond News August 7, 1980—"[Whitmer-Rippy] House on the hill coming down," by Mary Ann Lowary. August 8, October 3—Old area photographs. September 2, 15, 22—"Ray's [County] Historic Sites."
Rolla Daily News October 9, 1980—"Dixon Man [J. W. Matthews] Found War Is Hell in 1863," by Margaret Menamin.
Ste, Genevieve Herald August 7, 1980—"Re-opening of Academy To Highlight Jour de Fete," by Gregory M. Franzwa. 244 Missouri Historical Review
St. James Leader-Journal September 24, October 1, 8, 15, 1980—A four-part series on E. W. James, first elected mayor of St. James, by Earl Strebeck.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch August 8, 1980—"An [Ste. Genevieve] Art Colony Remembered," by Robert W. Duffy, photos by Scott Dine.
St. Marys Weekly Review September 18, 1980—"[Ste. Genevieve Catholic] Church Celebrating 100th Year." Salem News September 26, 1980—A special section, "Sligo 1880-1980 A Legacy c.f Man and Iron," by Doug Whitaker, featured several historical articles. October 22—"Spencer Sawmill [near Montauk] Passed Through Four Gen erations," by Kathy Love.
Sedalia Democrat October 5, 1980—"Railroad celebrating 75th anniversary People went wild when MoPac [Missouri-Pacific] chose Sedalia [for shops]," by Ron Jennings. October 5—"Sedalia's past ... in pictures."
Shelbyville Shelby County Herald August 13, 1980—A special section, "Old Settlers Edition," featured numer ous articles on the reunion through the years.
Sikeston Daily Standard October 5, 1980—"The restoration of a two-story 1860's [Hunter-Dawson] home in New Madrid is not only preserving a beautiful building but also Bringing history to life," by Jill Bock.
Slater News-Rustler August 14, 1980—"Tribute to the Model T Ford," by Viacent Hoener.
Smithville Democrat Herald September 18, 1980—"Gosneyville [International Order of Odd Fellows] Lodge fades into history with Paradise-Smithville consolidation," by Francis Williams. Springfield Daily News September 15, 1980—"Old [Missouri] newspaper names read like signs of the times," by Joe Clayton. Stockton Cedar County Republican September 11, 1980—"Stockton's old opera house waits . . . with memories hanging heavy from its aged walls," by Diane Pittenger, photos by Jeff Jasper. October 9, 16—A two-part feature on the village of Filley.
Tarkio Avalanche August 28, 1980—"Before Atchison Was a County," by Marilyn Nixon. August 28—"[Tarkio] 'Was Just a Big Cornfield'."
Troy Free Press August 15, 1980—"A Special Childhood Memory [of Lincoln County Fair]," by Jay Holmes. Historical Notes and Comments 245
Vienna Gazette-Adviser August 27, 1980—"Vienna 125 Years Celebrates Birthday."
Warsaw Benton County Enterprise August 28, 1980—"Only Remnants And Memories Of One-Room Country Schools." September 4—"Post Office Trip Once Triggered By Train Whistle." October 9—"Late Alex Bristow Watched Union Troops Burn Warsaw [in 1861]," reprinted.
Washington Missourian August 20, October 1, 1980—"Cracker Barrel News," by Bill Schiermeier featured respectively: the Nahms and Augusta wine; and the Hackmann family. October 2—"Century Farm in Clover Bottom Home Has Sheltered Six Gen erations [of Brockmann family]," by Jill Francis.
Waverly Times September 19, 1980—"Diary [of Confederate surgeon, Dr. Caleb Dorsey Baer] Read at Betty Shelby Chapter Meeting."
Waynesville Daily Fort Gateway Guide October 8, 1980—"Early Pulaski County Court Records," by Paul J. Hamil ton.
Waynesville Pulaski County Democrat August 7-October 30, 1980—"Early History Of Pioneer Pulaski County Families By Mrs. [Emma Page] Hicks."
Webb City Sentinel August 14, 1980—"Buried alive 65 years ago [Roy] Woodmansee recalls Neck City mine cave in."
Wellsville Optic-News September 17, 1980—"Recalling the Blackwell Sisters and Their Antique Collection," by Frances Deiter.
Wentzville Union September 3, 1980—" [Kessler Store in] New Melle Revisited," by Gerry Matlock.
Edison's View of God Mississippi Valley Democrat and Journal of Agriculture, July 27, 1899. Edison, the wizard of invention, says chemistry undoubtedly proves the existence of a Supreme Intelligence; but he doubts the efficacy of prayer, "It is an insult to the wisdom of the engineer," he says, "to ask him to do this or that, as though you knew better how to run things than he. He is big enough to need no advice from us little babies." . . . "The world is run just like a great railroad—only better." 246 Missouri Historical Review
MISSOURI HISTORY IN MAGAZINES
American History Illustrated, October, 1980: "Along The Santa Fe Trail," by Dee Brown.
Bulletin, Johnson County Historical Society, Inc., September, 1980: "Citizens Mutual Phone Goes Under As Area Services Continues Expansion," by Dr. S. Hull Sisson; "Warrensburg [Medical] Clinic Grew in 1930s to Serve the County and New Air Base," by Dr. R. Lee Cooper; "Dudley [family and house on Dudley's Knob] Story Began in 1850s," by Ruth Barber Dudley.
Bulletin, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, July, 1980: " 'Dear Hook;' Letters from Bennet Riley, Alphonso Wetmore, and Reuben Holmes, 1822-1833," edited by James S. Hutchins; "Sara Teasdale's Quiet Rebellion Against the Midwest," by William Drake; "Meriwether Lewis: The Logistical Imagina tion," by Mrs. Rochonne Abrams; "New Madrid and Its Hinterland: 1783- 1826," by Lynn Morrow; "The Young American—A Magazine [published in St. Louis by William Ridge Schuyler]," by Jean Tyree Hamilton; "Woman's Place in Medicine: The Career of Dr. Mary Hancock McLean," by Marion Hunt; "Alexian Brothers' Hospital's Unique [St. Louis] Herit age," by Elizabeth Gentry Sayad.
Carondelet Historical Society Newsletter, September, 1980: "Markers to be Placed on Two Carondelet Buildings German Stone Row Houses [Pennsylvania Ave. and Stein St.], St. Boniface Catholic Church [7600 Michigan Ave.]"; "Clang—Clang—Clang Went the [Bellefontaine] Trolley," by Edward W. Deppe.
Chariton County Historical Society Newsletter, October, 1980: "Early History of Chariton County," by Melisa Plattner.
Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, September, 1980: "Dat ing of St. Louis Planes II. Hardware Merchants," by George E. Murphy, M.D.
Clay County Museum Association Newsletter, August, 1980: "The Baldwin Family," a series by Evelyn Petty.
Discipliana, Fall, 1980: "Tom Sawyer, Barton Stone's Grandson [Will Bowen]," by Donald S. Tingle.
Farm & Home Go-Getter, August, September and October, 1980: "The Legends of Farm & Home [Savings and Loan Association]," a series.
Gateway Heritage, Fall, 1980: "Hooverville: St. Louis had the largest [during the Depression]," by Martin G. Towey; "Search for a Lost Eden [forma tion of the Missouri Conservation Commission]," by Dan Saults; "Destruc tion of a [Indian-French fur trading] Culture [in the Upper Mississippi Valley in the early 1800s]," by Thomas Auge.
Heritage, September, 1980: "St. Luke's United Church of Christ [in Welling ton]"; "Wellington Baptist Church"; "Washington Chapel A.M.E."; "[Well ington] United Methodist Church." Historical Notes and Comments 247
Historic Kansas City News, October-November, 1980: "Early Kansas City Archi tect: Ernest O. Brostrom," by Sherry Piland. Interim, September, 1980: "St. Peter's [Episcopal Church], Bonne Terre, is determined to grow," by Pauline Kohler. -, October, 1980: "St. Matthew's [Episcopal Church, Warson Woods] celebrates birthday in November," by Rita Burnside. Kirkwood Historical Review, June, 1980: "A Crash on the Houseman Air Line [the St. Louis and Kirkwood Electric Railway]," by Francis M. Barnes III. Lawrence County Historical Society Bulletin, October, 1980: "Some History of Miller," by Miss Nolan Gunter. Maramec Miner, Vol. Ill, No. 4: "Maramec History," a series. Missouri Life, September-October, 1980: "Happy Birthday, GD KC Star, Happy 100th Birthday to You," by William Tammeus; "A Capitol, and How it Grew," by Bob Priddy. Missouri Municipal Review, September, 1980: "St. Joseph—A Brilliant Future Built on a Colorful Past," by Rick O. Curneal. Missouri Press News, October, 1980: "When [Norman] Rockwell Visited Paris, Mo. [and the Monroe County Appeal]." Newton County Saga, July, 1980: "The John D. Mitchell Family in Newton County," by Guss Buzzard; "The Mailes Family," by Laveta Higginbotham; "Recollections [of the Missouri & North Arkansas Raihvay]," by Thelma Slankard. Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, Fall, 1980: "Experience, Personality and Memory: Jesse Applegate and John Minto Recall Pioneer Days," by Abner S. Baker III. Our Heritage, San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society, October, 1980: "Moses Austin," by Dr. David B. Gracy II. Ozarker, August, 1980: "Ozark Folklore, The Hunters, The Settlers," by Eunice Pennington; "Ozark, Pioneers The Logging Era," by David Lewis. Ozarks Mountaineer, September-October, 1980: "In McDonald County, Mo.— The Old Morgan Cemetery," by Doris C. Leak. Platte County Historical Society & Genealogical Bulletin, Summer, 1980: "Barry Presbyterian Church," by Mary B. Aker; "Camden Point Military Academy/ Institute," by Lewis C. Gabbert. ,^_^_____^______, Fall, 1980: "The Confederate Monument at Cam den Point," reprinted; "The Social Target and Hunting Club at Beverly Lake," by Sarah Lillian Bush; "Our First Trip [in 1910] to Mud [Beverly] Lake," by Mrs. Lex Mc Daniel. Ray County Mirror, September 26, 1980: "Ray Townships Undergoing Change"; "Henrietta Once 'Farmville'," by Jewell Mayes; "Rhodes Chronicles Depict Old Fishing River [neighborhood]," by Elmer L. Pigg and Jewell Mayes; "Ray County's Historic Sites"; "1910-14 High School Years at Orrick Re called," by Kim Burnham. 248 Missouri Historical Review
Rural Missouri, September, 1980: "The Frisco [St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company] story," by Carole Bills.
Saddle & Bridle, September, 1980: "Famous Horses Of The Past Easter Serenade," by Lynn Weatherman.
St. Joseph Monthly, August, 1980: "The bad ol' days [before formation of the St. Joseph Police Department]," by Mildred Grenier.
St. Louis, September, 1980: "Ecumenism in Early St. Louis," by John Linden busch; "Missouri Wineries," by Mari-Anne Messmann Straatmann.
, October 1980: "Seeing Red: The General Strike of 1877," by John Lindenbusch; "The Secret of the Spinks [family and the Sporting News]," by Joe Popper; "Looping the [Delmar] Loop [in Uni versity City]," by M. M. Costantin.
St. Louis Bar Journal, Summer, 1980: "A Peck Of Trouble [for Judge James H. Peck and Luke E. Lawless]," by Keltner Locke.
Saint Louis Commerce, September, 1980: "St. Louis' last bit of nineteenth cen tury riverfront. . . . Laclede's Landing is very much alive," by Harry N. D. Fisher; "hometown honor for cowboy-artist Charley Russell"; "two great sports trophies [Davis Cup in tennis and Walker Cup in golf]. . . . from St. Louis, with love," by Rose Ann Collins; "Another of the city's distinc tive neighborhoods. . . . Downtown," by Norbury Wayman.
, October, 1980: "moving down the merger track Mo-Pac [Missouri Pacific] and Frisco [St. Louis-San Francisco], last major railroads headquartered here, are heading toward couplings with new rail systems," by Wayne Leeman; "Two more of city's distinctive neighbor hoods. . . . Baden and Riverview," by Norbury Wayman. Springfield! Magazine, September, 1980: "Paul Harris: A Man of North Spring field," by Ann Fair Dodson; "Doug Landers: His Lumber Wealth Bought Landmarks," by Frank Chambers; "Virginia Craig: She Shaped the Destiny of SMSU [Southwest Missouri State University]," by Anna Cox; "The Second [Greene County] Courthouse (1837-1861)," by John K. Hulston; "Glendale High School," by Dick Grosenbaugh.
, October, 1980: "The Third [Greene County] Court house (1861-1912)," by John K. Hulston; "Kickapoo High School," by Dick Grosenbaugh. Today and Tomorrow, St. Luke's Hospitals, St. Louis, July-August, 1980: "St. Luke's Employee Prizes [Christman] Family Sports Legacy."
Today's Farmer, August, 1980: "Mt. Zion Church [in Gentry County] reflects history of local support."
September, 1980: "[Plymouth United] Methodist church [near Braymer] works through troubled times," by Phil Mills, Jr.
., October, 1980: "[St. James United] Church [of Christ in Stony Hill, Gasconade County] to celebrate its 90th anniversary," by Stephen Bragg. Historical Notes and Comments 249
Waterways Journal, August 9, 1980: "LaMothes Have Long History on the Rivers," by James V. Swift.
, September 20, 1980: "The Chouteau Was Notable for 'Firsts' and Record," by James V. Swift. Webster County Historical Society Journal, August, 1980: "Moving to Missouri in the 1830s," by Eliza J. Hosmer; "The first Justices of the Peace of Webster County," by C. E. Boulson; "Anyone know anything about Zenor?" by Eula Mae Stratton and Pearl Galloway; "Genealogical study of the descendants of George William Dugan, 1810-1885," by Lucille Dugan.
Webster Groves Historical Newsletter, September, 1980: "The Bach Motor Company," by Biby Lenhart Bach.
Westport, August, 1980: " 'Sunny Slope' Subdivision Was Once Westport Pas- tureland," by Fred Lee. , September, 1980: "Memorial [at 40th and Main, Kansas City] Honors World War I Hero [Major Murray Davis]," by Fred Lee.
, October, 1980: " 'Mountain Charlie' and the Battle of Westport," by Fred Lee; "The Ill-Fated Annexation of Westport to Kansas City] of 1889," by Lyle Kennedy.
Westporter, August, 1980: "Calvary Baptist Church [in Kansas City] Has a Rich History," by John Grotz. White River Valley Historical Society Quarterly, Summer, 1980: "Lone Star Church [in Taney County]," by Alton Gimlin; "Two Johnson Families of Taney County, Missouri," by Vera Wood; "The Layton [family] Story- Part III," by Viola Hartman.
A Boom To The Hardware Business Jefferson City Tribune, July 8, 1884. These moonlight nights are giving a boom to the hardware business. The average young lady and her dear one can demolish at least two pair of gate hinges per week.
A Printers' Holiday
Jefferson City Tribune, July 4, 1884. To-day being a national holiday, there will be no paper issued from this office. Printers are mortals, and patriotic ones at that, and delight just as much as anybody else in celebrating the Fourth. 250 Missouri Historical Review GRADUATE THESES RELATING TO MISSOURI HISTORY
CENTRAL MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY, 1980 MASTER'S THESES Parker, Philip C, "Marshall State School and Hospital: Its History and Develop ment." Sale, Sara L., "Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and His Role in the Secession Movement in Missouri, 1861."
NORTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY, 1980 MASTER'S THESES Billings, Judy Faye, "Samuel Clemens' Development into Mark Twain." Gwinn, Margaret Merri-Martin, "Lester Dent: The Man, His Craft, and His Market." Schultz, Robert George, "Postal Service in Territorial Missouri 1804-1821."
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA, 1980 MASTERS THESES Denman, David Douglas, "French Peasant Society in Flux and Stress: The Reintegration of Traditional Village Communal Activity in Ste. Genevieve, 1703-1830." Housley, Donna J., "Missourians' Response to Soviet Russia, 1917-1933."
DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS Gibbs, Christopher Cochran, "Patriots and Slackers: The Impact of World War I on Missouri." Green, Barbara Layenette, "The Slavery Debate in Missouri, 1831-1855."
Apron And Necktie Party Cameron Daily Vindicator, June 20, 1882. Invitations are out to the Novelty Society Apron and Necktie party, to be given at Musser's Hall. . . . Invitations are sent out only to gentlemen, and they will then secure their ladies in time for them to make their apron and necktie. . . . Each lady will wear a calico apron, making a necktie of the same material, which will be placed in an envelope upon which her name is written. . . . On arriving at the hall each lady will deposit her envelope containing the necktie. . . . Just before supper the gentlemen will each draw an envelope, and they will take to supper the lady whose name appears upon the outside. . . . The admission price, including supper at Schleter's, has been reduced from $1.00 to 75 cents per couple. Historical Notes and Comments 251
IN MEMORIAM
FRANK R. BIRKHEAD EUBANK, DR. L. A., Columbia: Oc Frank R. Birkhead, a prominent tober 6, 1895-August 12, 1979. Carthage attorney, died June 26, 1980, at his home. Born January 18, 1892, GREEF, CHARLES H., Amarillo, Texas: May 25, 1905-September 23, 1979. at Winfield, Missouri, he graduated from Carthage High School and Wil GREEN, ARTHUR W., Webster Groves: liam Jewell College in Liberty and August 4, 1891-July 3, 1980. received his law degree from Washing ton University in St. Louis. Admitted GREENE, FRIEND B., Eminence: Au to the bar in 1916, Mr. Birkhead served gust 8, 1891-August 19, 1980. as prosecuting attorney of Jasper Coun GREENWOOD, RALPH, Tabor, Iowa: ty and as Carthage city attorney and November 16, 1893-May 29, 1980. police judge. A veteran of World War I, he was a member of the Jasper HALEY, FRANK C, III, Louisiana: County, state and national bar associa May 30, 1904-July 8, 1979. tions, the Gideon Society, the Ameri can Legion and the State Historical HALL, DR. THOMAS B., JR., Lee's Society of Missouri. Mr. Birkhead also Summit: August 30, 1898-June 5, 1980. had served on the Carthage Board INGLISH, HUGH J., California: June 1, of Education and McCune-Brooks Hos 1905-October 2, 1980. pital Board of Trustees and as a deacon of the First Baptist Church, JAMISON, E. VERL, Springfield: Carthage. April 1, 1911-September 16, 1980. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. KERR, R. H., Rolla: January 12, 1907- Bess (Green) Birkhead of Carthage; March 18, 1980. two daughters, Mrs. Robert Cullers, Trenton, and Mrs. Preston Jones, Dal LANDAU, MORRIS B., St. Louis: las, Texas; and a son, Frank R. Birk March 15, 1905-August 20, 1979. head, Jr., McAllen, Texas. LATIMER, CHESTER, Livonia: May 13, ATTEBERY, JAMES D., Lowry City: 1911-June 26, 1980. November 18, 1900-September 10, 1980. MESLOH, HERBERT G., Richmond BAKER, HAROLD B., JR., Jefferson Heights: January 16, 1895-July 1, 1980.
City: March 15, 1922-November 26, MUELLER, DR. H. LANCASTER, Urbana, 1979. Illinois: April 15, 1915-June 19, 1980. BARKSHIRE, MRS. C. E., Columbia: NEET, KENNETH J., Bigelow: March February 17, 1894-August 18, 1980. 25, 1923-December 25, 1979.
BIRCH, ANNA MAE, Glasgow: Decem NUDELMAN, MRS. IRVIN, Steelville: ber 10, 1907-July 8, 1980. September 18, 1911-June 21, 1980.
BREHE, HOWARD, Washington: July OUZTS, MRS. W. H., St. Louis: 18, 1919-July 17, 1980. April 20, 1894-February 27, 1980.
COLE, M. C, Bethany: December 24, PERSHING, F. W., New York, New 1894-December 16, 1979. York: June 24, 1909-June 9, 1980.
DEMUTH, DAVID O., Benton, Arkan POLSON, MRS. RUBY, Macon: March sas: November 7, 1932-April 12, 1979. 13, 1906-June 29, 1980. 252 Missouri Historical Review
RILEY, MRS. LEON, Breckenridge: STONE, ROLF, St. Louis: March 1, October 5, 1897-November 9, 1979. 1897-July 14, 1980.
ROWDEN, MRS. THELMA, La Junta, STUHLMAN, GEORGE, Robertsville: Au Colorado: June 4, 1902-April 10, 1980. gust 11, 1890-November 24, 1979.
SELOVER, A. O., Kansas City: Feb WARDEN, KIAH E., Shawnee Mission, ruary 4, 1890-April 9, 1980. Kansas: March 18, 1907-March 14, 1980.
SLATTERY, BARTH C, St. Louis: Oc WILLIAMS, MRS. HELEN Ross, Fulton: tober 10, 1891-September 23, 1980. December 4, 1914-April 28, 1979.
STARLIPER, AARON G., Rolla: April 15, WISBY, P. V., Kansas City: July 3, 1905-September 2, 1979. 1897-December 30, 1979. Historical Notes and Comments 253
EDITORIAL POLICY
The MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW is always inter ested in articles and documents relating to the history of Missouri. Articles pertaining to surrounding states and other sections are considered for publication when they involve events or personalities having a significant bearing on the history of Missouri or the West. Any aspect of Mis souri history is considered suitable for publication in the REVIEW. Genealogical studies are not accepted because of limited general reader interest. In submitting articles for the REVIEW, the authors should examine back issues for the proper form in foot noting. Originality of subject, general interest of the article, sources used in research, interpretation and the style in which it is written, are criteria for acceptance for publica tion. The original and a carbon copy of the article should be submitted. It is suggested that the author retain a car bon of the article. The copy should be double-spaced and footnotes typed consecutively on separate pages at the end of the article. The maximum length for an article is 7,500 words. All articles accepted for publication in the REVIEW become the property of the State Historical Society and may not be published elsewhere without permission. Only in special circumstances will an article previously pub lished in another magazine or journal, be accepted for the REVIEW. Because of the backlog of accepted articles, publica tion may be delayed for a period of time. Articles submitted for the REVIEW should be ad dressed to:
Dr. Richard S. Brownlee, Editor MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW The State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 254 Missouri Historical Review
BOOK REVIEW
Missouri: The Heart of the Nation. By William E. Parrish, Charles T. Jones, Jr., and Lawrence O. Christensen (St. Louis, Missouri: Forum Press, 1980). 398 pp. Illustrated. Indexed. Appendix. $16.00, hardback, or $11.95, paperback.
Missouri's rich and varied heritage and the role of her people in the nation's history is portrayed in this new volume, Missouri: The Heart of the Nation. The writers' intended to present Mis souri's story in a clear and concise manner, showing the interaction of political, economic and social activity as Missourians reacted to changing times and environment. The narrative proceeds in the usual chronological sequence, beginning with the geography of the state, the early Indian in habitants, explorations by French and Spanish, early settlement, the arrival of Americans and their struggle for statehood. Explorers and fur traders opened the American West and developed trails for western settlement. The history recalls the political involve ments during the "Age of Thomas Hart Benton," the slavery and political turmoil leading up to the Civil War and expansion of Missouri in the 1830s-1860s in regard to population, immigration, town growth and transportation. Three chapters explore the Civil War, Radical rule in the postwar era and maturing economy from 1860 through the 1890s. Farmers' discontent, urban reformers and Missouri's cultural development highlighted by individual contribu tions, all lead up to World War I. Politics and economics dominate the 1920s, the Pendergast Era and the great depression years. World War II, the state's 1945 Constitution and postwar politics are included in the 1940-1960 period. Historical Notes and Comments 255
The last two chapters of the book are entitled, "Urbanizing Missouri" and "Modern Missouri." The former concerns the post war economic development, population growth and the shift from rural Missouri to urban areas, agricultural production, mining, manufacturing and tourism. The final chapter relates the educa tional and cultural developments, school consolidation, financing and higher education, historic preservation, cultural resources and the U.S. Bicentennial celebration. In all the coverage, politics and economics seem to outweigh the social history and the role of individuals, particularly women. Who were the leaders of the women's suffrage movements in the late 1860s and the early 1900s? One of the first women of the nation to receive an official appointment as postmistress is named only the widow of Colonel Richard Gentry, (p. 99). However, to present the state's history in less than 400 pages would appear an impossible task. The authors' overview, of necessity, eliminated numerous details. The deletion of some well-known stories perhaps will disappoint a few readers. For instance, Mormon historians may regret that the volume does not mention Alexander W. Doni phan's refusal to carry out Governor Lilburn W. Bogg's famous extermination order of 1833. (pp. 97-98). A little closer editing might have eliminated a few awkward sentences or phrases, such as the "Kansas City Journal and Post- Dispatch, two city newspapers." (p. 224). State Historical Society of Missouri members may note at least one error. The Missouri Press Association founded the State Historical Society in 1898, not 1906, the year the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW began publica tion, (p. 337). Serious historians and students will question the omission of footnotes, but the authors have provided for those desirous of further study with "Suggestions for Reading" at the end of each chapter. An appendix lists the governors of Louisiana and Mis souri Territories (1805-1820), Missouri Governors (1820-1980), and U.S. Senators from Missouri (1821-1980). The authors of this volume are well known Missouri history scholars and writers. William E. Parrish is professor of History and head of the Department of History at Mississippi State Univer sity, and formerly Truman Professor of History at Westminster College, Fulton; Charles T. Jones, Jr., is professor of History at William Woods College, Fulton; and Lawrence O. Christensen is associate professor of History at the University of Missouri-Rolla. 256 Missouri Historical Review
Despite a few shortcomings, the work provides a good history of Missouri in one compact volume. The choice of hardback and paperback editions should make the work available and appealing to a wide reading public.
State Historical Society of Missouri Mary K. Dains
Dr. Boyle's Oration
Glasgow Weekly Times, July 7, 1853. . . . Dr. Boyle is none of your stand-still philosophers, who, fearing to advocate an opinion lest it be in advance of the age, spend their time in lamentations over the departed glories of by gone days. He is none of these; but, launched upon the sea of philosophy, with reason for his chart and lightning for his motive power, he lets drive the noble mental ship, fearless of the shoals and quicksands upon which the timorous are sure to strand. . . . All who heard him felt proud that they lived in the present age, among the wonderful productions of which there are few greater than the Doctor himself.
The Candidate Cameron Daily Vindicator, June 29, 1882. The candidate cometh where he listeth, but when he cometh or whether he goeth, we know not, neither doth any man understand. He denyeth being a candidate, but setteth up the cigars and shaketh hands continually. He feeleth that the country hath great need of him and cannot long exist without him. He promiseth to serve the people faithfully and not to steal their substance as his predecessor hath done. He feeleth that he would be making a great sacrifice, but these are perilous times and the country needeth great men. As God gaveth his only begotten son as a ransom for the sins of the world, so likewise he would make himself a living sacrifice on the political alter for his own good. He taketh a little wine for his stomach's sake and looketh sanctimonious when with God's people. He hath no opinion of his own, save that of whom he is with, and them will he contradict not. He knoweth the hour draweth nigh when the people selecteth their rules and he trembleth in his boots lest he be not the coming man. He layeth awake night after night thinking of the w-onderful deeds he will perform for oppressed people. He fain would gather as a hen gathereth her brood under her wing and weepeth for fear they will not. He hath labored long and ardently and rewarded not, and he feeleth that unless he is now successful, he will soon pine away and die. Selah! Historical Notes and Comments 257
BOOK NOTES
Historical and Architectural Landmarks of Nodaway County. Sponsored by the Nodaway Arts Council (Maryville, Missouri, n.d.). 44 pp. Illustrated. Maps. Not indexed. $2.00, plus 50 cents mailing and handling.
This paperback, pocket-sized brochure is presented by the Nodaway Arts Council to enhance the significance of designated architectural and historical landmarks of Nodaway County, en courage an appreciation of their heritage and preserve contribu tions of the past. A majority of the sites and structures were sur veyed in 1977 by the Nodaway County Historical Society. The brochure is arranged for a suggested driving tour to begin in the center of Maryville and conclude in the northeast corner of the county. The 40 illustrated sites include public buildings, homes, schools, businesses, cemeteries, churches, a band stand, stables, a horse barn and a horse fountain. Completing this handy brochure are brief historical sketches of Maryville and the county and fold- out maps pinpointing each site. Historical and Architectural Landmarks of Nodaway County may be ordered from Richard Fulton, 322 S. Fillmore, Maryville, Missouri 64468. It sells for $2.00, plus 50 cents for mailing and handling.
Pioneer on the 102: Rosendale, 1846-1979. Sponsored by the Rosendale Lions Club (Rosendale, Missouri, n.d.). 129 pp. Illus trated. Not indexed. $18.00, plus $2.00 shipping.
Rosendale's history begins with a story of the old mill on the banks of the 102 River in Andrew County. First erected in 1845, the mill changed owners many times. The small settlement, which grew up around it, known as Ogles Mill, became Rosendale in 1869. Benjamin Ogle started the post office in the settlement in 1856. Typical of a midwestern river town, Rosendale experienced periods of growth, catastrophies, achievements, decline and at- temps at regrowth. The hardback volume, with many excellent photographs, features histories of churches, homes, businesses, schools, organizations and other nearby communities. More than half the book is devoted to area family histories. Pioneer on the 102 may be ordered from Robert Grishow, Route 258 Missouri Historical Review
1, Rosendale, Missouri 64483. It sells for $18.00, plus $2.00 for shipping.
The Current River and Tributaries [Part II] The Jack's Fork of the Current River Historical and Geographical. By David Lewis (Mountain View, Missouri: Ozark Custom Printing, 1980). 78 pp. Illustrated. Maps. Not indexed. $4.50. The second of three parts about the Current River and its tributaries, this book discusses the Jack's Fork River and adjacent points of interest. The author follows the river from the head waters in Texas County downstream to its junction with the Cur rent in Shannon County. The text and accompanying maps relate information about caves, springs, cemeteries, churches, schools, mills, mines, trails and other features, as well as the place names of the area. The paperback book may be purchased for $4.50, postpaid, from David Lewis, Route 6, Box 205, Columbia, Missouri 65201.
Urban Oasis: 75 Years in Parkview a St. Louis Private Place. By Jean F. Eberle and Judith P. Little (St. Louis, Missouri: Boar's Head Press, 1979). 123 pp. Illustrated. Appendexes. Bibliography. Not indexed. $12.95. Using interviews, archives, newspapers and other research materials, Jean F. Eberle and Judith P. Little have reconstructed the seventy-five year history of Parkview, a private subdivision with two-thirds of the land lying in University City and one-third in the City of St. Louis. The authors use a chronological approach for their history of the people and homes developed on a tract of land originally owned in 1796 by Marie Louise Chouteau Papin. Parkview, a private place, became a reality in 1901 when Henry S. Caulfield filed the articles of incorporation for the Parkview Realty and Improvement Company. Eberle and Little include a great deal of information in the history. Descriptions of early homes, often accompanied by in teresting photographs and sketches, are presented. Reminiscences of residents add flavor to the narrative, and are mingled with the changes which occurred in the neighborhood during the decades. This attractive soft-bound book may be purchased for $12.95 from Parkview Agents, P. O. Box 24249, University City, Missouri 63130. Historical Notes and Comments 259
Historical Glimpses of Lexington. By Katherine Wilson Sellers (Lexington, Missouri: Lexington Library and Historical Association, 1980). 54 pp. Illustrated. Not indexed. $3.00, plus $1.00 postage. This brief overview, by Lexington-native Katherine Wilson Sellers, includes many of the prominent people and businesses that compose a part of the community's rich heritage. The author tells her story in an introduction and eight short chapters. Those familiar with Lexington will recognize the names of John Aull, Eldredge Burden, John Ryland, Hamilton Gamble and Thomas Crittenden. One chapter is devoted to the effects of the Civil War, while another discusses the impact of the twentieth century. The paperback book may be purchased for $3.00, plus $1.00 postage, from the Lexington Historical Association, Lexington, Mis souri 64067.
Detractions of Winter Kansas City Post, January 12, 1909. Manipulating a snow shovel detracts from the picturesqueness of the winter landscape. Chicago News
Comparison of Men and Women's Work Mississippi Valley Democrat and Journal of Agriculture, July 20, 1899. Among us today the instances are becoming more and more rare when a woman qualified to hold a position is rejected on account of sex. Wherever women do good work they are, as a rule, more or less gladly admitted. In science, art, and business, if they do equal work they can earn an equal stand ing, though, perhaps, not yet always an equal salary. . . . The quick intuition and the keenness of perception of women in the past, notwithstanding their ignorance, have often won for them a commanding if indirect influence over public affairs . . . Higher education held out to all is rapidly raising the entire level of womanhood, and with it has become a higher conception of its dignity. . . . The class of self-respecting and self- supporting women, married and single, is growing at a rapid pace. They not only hold an important place in the modern world of art and literature, but as teachers, book-keepers, clerks, secretaries, stenographers, and operators they are finding their way into every business establishment. Lippincott's A NEW SOCIETY MAILING ADDRESS
The State Historical Society of Missouri has been assigned a new mailing address. In the future, please address any correspondence to:
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 A Joint Publication with THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (During the Years 1824, '25, '26, and 1827) GOTTFRIED DUDEN JAMES W. GOODRICH, General Editor GEORGE H. KELLNER, ELSA NAGEL, ADOLF E. SCHROEDER, and W. M. SENNER, Editors and Translators Duden's Report on a Journey, published in Germany in 1829, was one of the most influential titles in what is now known as emigration literature—travelers' writings about their ex periences in the New World. Duden's idyllic descriptions of pioneer farming in Missouri, written in the form of personal letters, attracted thousands of Germans to the Midwest and particularly to Missouri. However, his pro-emigration bias, colored by the fact that he himself had hired help on his Missouri farm, made Duden's view of the farmer's life more idyllic than practical. Many would-be gentlemen farmers, inspired by Duden's book, found pioneer farming more strenu ous than they had expected. This edited and annotated translation is the first com plete version of Duden's work to be published in English. It provides for the general reader and the professional his torian a significant contribution to U.S. immigration history and a unique and delightful fragment of Missouri's rich German heritage. 400 pages 5 3/4 by 9 inches Appendixes, index $22.00 This book may be purchased from: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PRESS P. O. Box 1644 Columbia, Missouri 65205 Missouri residents add $1.02 for state sales tax. Orders from individuals must include payment; the Press pays postage and handling.