Historical IR,evie^w- The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI BOARD OF EDITORS LAWRENCE 0. CHRISTENSEN SUSAN M. HARTMANN University of Missouri-Rolla Ohio State University, Columbus WILLIAM E. FOLEY ALAN R. HAVIG Central Missouri State University, Stephens College, Warrensburg Columbia JEAN TYREE HAMILTON DAVID D. MARCH Marshall Kirksville ARVARH E. STRICKLAND University of Missouri-Columbia COVER DESCRIPTION: For over half a century (1903-1963), Charles Trefts, St. Louis pro­ fessional photographer, focused his camera on activities of his generation, capturing a pictorial record of Missouri scenes for pos­ terity. In the early 1930s, Union Electric Company employed Trefts to photograph the Bagnell Dam area. This sunset on the Lake of the Ozarks is part of the Trefts Collection in the State Historical Society of Missouri. MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI JAMES W. GOODRICH EDITOR MARY K. DAINS ASSOCIATE EDITOR LYNN WOLF GENTZLER ASSOCIATE EDITOR LEONA S. MORRIS RESEARCH ASSISTANT Copyright © 1991 by the State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201 The Missouri Historical Review (ISSN 0026-6582) is owned by The State Historical Society of Missouri and is published quarterly at 10 South Hitt, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Send communications, business and editorial correspondence and change of address to the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201. Second class postage is paid at Columbia, Missouri. SOCIETY HOURS: The Society is open to the public from 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., Monday through Friday, and Saturday from 9:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., except legal holidays. Holiday Schedule: The Society will be closed Saturday during VOLUME LXXXV the Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's weekends. NUMBER 4 On the day of the annual meeting, September 21, 1991, the Society libraries will not be available for research. JULY, 1991 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of the State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R.S. of Mo., 1969, chapter 183, as revised 1978. OFFICERS 1989-1992 ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia, President AVIS TUCKER, Warrensburg, First Vice President SHERIDAN A. LOGAN, St. Joseph, Second Vice President VIRGINIA G. YOUNG, Columbia, Third Vice President NOBLE E. CUNNINGHAM, Columbia, Fourth Vice President R. KENNETH ELLIOTT, Kansas City, Fifth Vice President ROBERT G.J. HOESTER, Kirkwood, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer JAMES W. GOODRICH, Columbia, Executive Director, Secretary and Librarian TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton JOSEPH WEBBER, St. Louis Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1991 JAMES W. BROWN, Harrisonville BOB PRIDDY, Jefferson City ILUS W. DAVIS, Kansas City DALE REESMAN, Boonville JOHN K. HULSTON, Springfield ARVARH E. STRICKLAND, Columbia JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City BLANCHE M. TOUHILL, St. Louis Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1992 MRS. SAMUEL A. BURK, Kirksville DOYLE PATTERSON, Kansas City RICHARD DECOSTER, Canton STUART SYMINGTON, JR., St. Louis JEAN TYREE HAMILTON, Marshall ROBERT WOLPERS, Poplar Bluff W. ROGERS HEWITT, Shelbyville DALTON C. WRIGHT, Lebanon Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1993 HENRIETTA AMBROSE, Webster Groves FREDERICK W. LEHMANN IV, H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid Webster Groves LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis ROBERT S. DALE, Carthage WALLACE B. SMITH, Independence BOARD OF TRUSTEES The Board of Trustees consists of one Trustee from each Congressional District of the State and fourteen Trustees elected at large. In addition to the elected Trustees, the President of the Society, the Vice Presidents of the Society, all former Presidents of the Society, and the ex officio members of the Society constitute the Board of Trustees. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Eight Trustees elected by the Board of Trustees together with the President of the Society constitute the Executive Committee. The Executive Director of the Society serves as an ex officio member. WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington, Chairman ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood BLANCHE M. TOUHILL, St. Louis H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid Avis TUCKER, Warrensburg JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City JOSEPH WEBBER, St. Louis VIRGINIA G. YOUNG, Columbia EDITORIAL POLICY The editors of the Missouri Historical Review welcome submission of articles and documents relating to the history of Missouri. Any aspect of Missouri history will be considered for publication in the Review. Genealogical studies, however, are not accepted because of limited appeal to general readers. Manuscripts pertaining to all fields of American history will be considered if the subject matter has significant relevance to the history of Missouri or the West. Authors should submit two double-spaced copies of their manuscripts. The footnotes, prepared according to The Chicago Manual of Style, also should be double-spaced and placed at the end of the text. Authors may submit manu­ scripts on PC/DOS, 360K floppy disk. The disk must be IBM compatible, preferably the WordPerfect 5.1 or Display- write 3 or 4 programs. Otherwise, it must be in ASCII format. Two hard copies still are required, and the print must be letter or near-letter quality. Dot matrix submissions will not be accepted. Originality of subject, general interest of the article, sources used, interpretation and style are criteria for acceptance and publication. Manuscripts should not exceed 7,500 words. Articles that are accepted for publication be­ come the property of The State Historical Society of Missouri and may not be published elsewhere without permission. The Society does not accept responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by the authors. Articles published in the Review are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, Recently Published Articles, Writings on American History, The Western Historical Quarterly and The Journal of Ameri­ can History. Manuscripts submitted for the Review should be ad­ dressed to: Dr. James W. Goodrich, Editor Missouri Historical Review The State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 CONTENTS HERMANN'S "FREE MEN": 1850S GERMAN-AMERICAN RELIGIOUS RATIONALISM. By Siegmar Muehl 361 DANIEL MARSH FROST, C.S.A. By Robert E. Miller 381 MOTHER AND TEACHER AS MISSOURI STATE PENITENTIARY INMATES: GOLDMAN AND O'HARE, 1917-1920. By Bonnie Stepenoff 402 DESEGREGATION IN A BORDER STATE: THE EXAMPLE OF JOPLIN, MISSOURI. By Lori Bogle 422 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS New Binghams Enhance Art Exhibit 441 News in Brief 443 Erratum 445 Local Historical Societies 446 Gifts 456 Missouri History in Newspapers 461 Missouri History in Magazines 467 In Memoriam 474 BOOK REVIEWS 476 BOOK NOTES 482 INDEX TO VOLUME LXXXV 485 NATIONAL REGISTER SITES: BENNETT SPRING STATE PARK DINING LODGE Inside Back Cover State Historical Society of Missouri Hermann, located on the south bank of the Missouri River, was founded in 1837 by the German Settlement Society of Philadelphia. Hermann's "Free Men": 1850s German-American Religious Rationalism BY SIEGMAR MUEHL* Religious rationalism in the United States came in at least two major national varieties: English deism and German rationalism. English deism flourished mainly in East Coast centers before, during and after the American Revolution. By the early 1800s, deism had faded while evangelical Protestantism spread and accompanied settlers to the American frontier.1 German religious rationalism, as a large-scale organized movement, appeared in the United States beginning in the early 1840s and 1850s. Its free congregations traced back to similar groups in Germany that had their beginning with the Friends of Light (Lichtfreunde) in Prussia. This Prussian movement arose in 1841 as protest against oppression by the state-controlled Lutheran church.2 *Siegmar Muehl is professor emeritus in the College of Education, University of Iowa, Iowa City. He has the M.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago and the Ph.D. degree in educational psychology from the University of Iowa. 1 Gustav A. Koch, Republican Religion, The American Revolution and the Cult of Reason (New York: Henry Holt, 1933), 238. 2 Robert M. Bigler, The Politics of German Protestantism: The Rise of the Protestant Church Elite in Prussia, 1815-1848 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 196; Albert B. Faust, The German Element in the United States (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909), 2: 428. 361 362 Missouri Historical Review The religious tenets of deists and rationalists derived from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophers.3 In the United States, both groups paid homage to Thomas Paine. Paine set forth his contro­ versial religious views in The Age of Reason, published in 1794. He believed in an indivisible God (not a Trinity), in hope for immortality of the soul and in a morality dedicated to serving human welfare. He rejected Christ's divinity and the Bible as God's revealed word. The followers of German rationalism (Vernunftglaube) went by a variety of names: free men, free thinkers, friends of light, rationalist Christians or friends of religious enlightenment {Aufklaerung). When organized, the groups most