MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVI EW. CONTENTS George Engelmann, Man of Science William G. Bek The National Old Trails Road at Lexington B. M. Little The Blairs and Fremont William E. Smith An Early Missouri Political Fend Roy V, Magers The Great Seal of the State of Missouri Perry S. Rader Historical Notes and Comments Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI VOL. XXIII JANUARY, 1929 NO. 2 OFFICERS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, 1925-1928 GEORGE A. MAHAN, Hannibal, President. LOUIS T. GOLDING, St. Joseph, First Vice-President. WALTER B. STEVENS, St. Louis, Second Vice-President. WALTER S. DICKEY, Kansas City, Third Vice-President. CORNELIUS ROACH, Kansas City, Fourth Vice-President. E. N. HOPKINS, Lexington, Fifth Vice-President. ALLEN McREYNOLDS, Carthage, Sixth Vice-President. R. B. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer. FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Secretary and Librarian. BOARD OF TRUSTEES Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1928 ROLLIN J. BRITTON, Kansas ISIDOR LOEB, St. Louis. City. C. H. McCLURE Kirksville. T. H. B. DUNNEGAN, Bolivar. JOHN ROTHENSTEINER, BEN L. EMMONS, St. Charles. St. Louis. STEPHEN B. HUNTER, CHAS. H. WHITAKER, Cape Girardeau. Clinton. Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1929 PHIL A. BENNETT, Springfield. J. F. HULL, Maryville. JOSEPH A. CORBY, St. Joseph. ELMER O. JONES, LaPlata. W. E. CROWE, DeSoto. WM. SOUTHERN, JR. FORREST C. DONNELL, Independence. St. Louis. CHARLES L. WOODS, Rolla. BOYD DUDLEY, Gallatin. Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1930 C. P. DORSEY, Cameron. H. S. STURGIS, Neosho. EUGENE FAIR, Kirksville. JONAS VILES, Columbia. THEODORE GARY, Kansas City. R. M. WHITE, Mexico. GEORGE A. MAHAN, Hannibal. WALTER WILLIAMS, Columbia. WM. R. PAINTER, Carrollton. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-six trustees, the president and secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and President of the Uni­ versity of Missouri, constitute the Executive Committee. FINANCE COMMITTEE R. M. WHITE, Chairman, Mexico. ISIDOR LOEB, St. Louis. WALTER WILLIAMS, Columbia. THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW VOL. XXIII JANUARY, 1929 NO. 2 CONTENTS George Englemann, Man of Science 167 WILLIAM G. BEK The National Old Trails Road at Lexington 207 B. M. LITTLE The Blairs and Fremont 214 WILLIAM E, SMITH An Early Missouri Political Feud 261 ROY V. MAGERS The Great Seal of the State of Missouri 270 PEKKY S. RADER Historical Notes and Comments 298 Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks 323 FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Editor The Missouri Historical Review is published quarterly. The subscription price is $1.00 a year. A complete set of the Review is still obtainable—Vols. 1-2Z, bound, $70.00; unbound, $35.00. Prices of separate volumes given on request. All communications should be addressed to Floyd C. Shoemaker, The State Historical Society of Missouri. " Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Columbia, Mis­ souri, under Act of Congress, October 3, 1917, Sec. hk%" CONTRIBUTORS BEK, WILLIAM G., a native Missourian, is head of the department of Germanic languages in the University of North Dakota. His contributions and translations relating to German settlements in the United States, place him among the highest authorities in this line of historical research. His trans­ lations of "Duden's Report" and "The Followers of Duden," published in the Review several years ago, are regarded by scholars as among the most important contributions to western history that have appeared in recent years. LITTLE, B. M., was educated in the University of Missouri and Wisconsin University. He specialized in history. He has taught school, written two books, and contributed to various magazines. He is cashier of the Traders Bank of Lexington, Missouri. SMITH, WILLIAM E., native Missourian, received his undergraduate degree at the State Teachers College at Springfield and his Ph. D. at Wisconsin Uni­ versity. He is an associate professor of history in Miami University. MAGERS, ROY V., native Missourian, was educated in Park College, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. He is head of the history department in Park College. RADER, PERRY S., native Missourian, was educated in Central College, Fayette. He is the author of textbooks on Missouri history and government, which are widely used in the schools of the State, and has edited over 150 vol­ umes of Missouri Reports. He has been reporter of the Supreme Court of Missouri since 1897. GEORGE ENGELMANN, MAN OF SCIENCE BY WILLIAM G. BEK Doctor George Engelmann has written his own record well. His name is imperishably inscribed in the book of Nature. The buffalo grass of our western plains whispers it as the eternal breezes waft over it, the most beautiful of the conifers of the Rocky Mountains {Abies Engelmanni) sighs his name, the stateliest cacti in the world stand like monuments to his memory, and numerous genera and species of American flora per­ petuate his name and fame. As long as man will study plants and trees it will be remembered that George Engel­ mann lived, and that his clever, tireless mind, more than that of any other American before him, has revealed the secrets of plant nature in the western world. Part L In a series of articles published in The Missouri Historical Review some time ago, we discussed, under the caption, "The Followers of Duden," a number of men who came to Mis­ souri in the early part of the last century. All these men had been induced to seek Missouri as their new home after reading Doctor Gottfried Duden's "Report". We presented the account of men of different type, engaged in different vocations, in an effort to show what kind of people those early immigrants were, and to have them tell us what the Missouri of almost a century ago looked like. We considered one of the early schoolmasters, a successful business man, an itinerant clergy­ man who became the founder of a great church organization, two statesmen, of whom one was an especially gifted thinker and writer. At this time we wish to discuss the remarkable career and the notable contributions that one of those early immigrants made to science, and also to let him tell in his own words some of the observations he made, particularly during that time when Missouri was yet very young. (167) 168 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Doctor George Engelmann* was born on February 2, 1809, in the venerable city of Frankfurt am Main and died in the city of St. Louis on February 4, 1884. His paternal grandfather, the Reverend Theodore Erasmus Engelmann, was pastor of the Reformed church in Bacharach, Germany. His father, also named George, was expected to enter the ministry, a calling in which several generations of Engelmanns had served. To prepare him for this vocation he was sent to the University of Halle. It appears, however, that this profession did not appeal to the young man. He became a schoolmaster instead. He married the daughter of one, George Oswald May, a painter of considerable reputation, a descendant of old Huguenot stock, which had been driven from France during the reign of Louis XIV. The young people founded a private school for young women. Their union was blessed with thirteen children, the oldest being George Engel­ mann, the subject of this sketch. His early education was directed by his clever parents, and then he entered the gym­ nasium of his native city. At an early age a preference for the natural sciences was manifested by the youth. His father was a member of the "Senkenberg Society of Natural History" in Frankfurt, and he often took his son to the meetings of this body, where he heard some extremely in­ teresting and instructive discussions on the various phases of science. It was here that the young man's interest in botany was awakened. In conformity with the traditions of the Engelmann family young George was expected to take up the work of the ministry, though his natural inclination was to study medicine. His parents were not wealthy, so in 1827, the congregation of the Reformed church in Frankfurt made up a stipend to send the young man to the University of Heidelberg to study theology. Even in his first year he *The material for this sketch was obtained from the following sources: Der Deutsche Pionier, Vol. XVI, Numbers 7, 8 and 9, H. A. Rattermann. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. XIX, pp. 516-522, Asa Gray. Botanical Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 5, C. S. Sargent. The Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, Vol. IV, No. 4, pp. 1-18, Enno Sander. Bericht der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft, Vol. II, I, Urban. DOCTOR GEORGE ENGELMANN GEORGE ENGELMANN, MAN OF SCIENCE 169 found this work incompatible with his inclinations; he there­ fore changed his objective and devoted himself with zeal to the study of medicine. In connection with this work he spent much time in a thorough study of botany, geology and chemistry. In this pursuit he was aided and greatly en­ couraged by three friends at Heidelberg, all of whom became famous in science: Louis Agassiz, Karl Schimper and Alex­ ander Braun. With the latter he kept up a lively corre­ spondence until Braun's death in 1877. The revolt among the students of the German universities against their oppressive rulers extended also to Heidelberg during the years 1824 to 1830. In 1828 Engelmann, being a member of the liberal party, participated in a student demon­ stration. This made it necessary for him to leave the Uni­ versity of Heidelberg in the autumn of 1828. He went to the University of Berlin, where he continued his medical studies for two years. Thereupon he matriculated at the University of Wuerzburg, where he was graduated as Doctor of Medicine on July 9, 1831.