Historical Review — 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: Henry J. Weber established a nursery in southwestern St. Louis in the 1860s. By the turn of the century, the family-owned and -operated business had become one of the preeminent retail and wholesale nurseries in Missouri. Kenneth W. Keller traces the rise and decline of this business in "Merchandising Nature: The H. J. Weber and Sons Nursery," beginning on page 307. [Cover illustration courtesy of the L. H. Bailey Hortorium Library, Cornell University; tint added] MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI JAMES W GOODRICH EDITOR LYNN WOLF GENTZLER ASSOCIATE EDITOR CHRISTINE MONTGOMERY RESEARCH ASSISTANT ANN L. ROGERS RESEARCH ASSISTANT Copyright 1995 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., VOLUME LXXXIX Monday through Friday, and Saturday from 9:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., except legal holidays. NUMBER 3 Holiday Schedule: The Society will be closed May 27-29 for Memorial Day and on July 4. APRIL, 1995 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 1992-1995 Avis G. TUCKER, Warrensburg, President JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City, 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, Liberty, 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 LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1995 WALTER ALLEN, Brookfield W. ROGERS HEWITT, Shelbyville JAMES A. BARNES, Raytown EMORY MELTON, Cassville VERA H. BURK, Kirksville DOYLE PATTERSON, Kansas City RICHARD DECOSTER, Canton STUART SYMINGTON, JR., St. Louis Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1996 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 Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1997 ILUS W. DAVIS, Kansas City DALE REESMAN, Boonville JOHN K. HULSTON, Springfield ARVARH E. STRICKLAND, Columbia JAMES B. NUTTER, Kansas City BLANCHE M. TOUHILL, St. Louis BOB PRIDDY, Jefferson City HENRY J. WATERS III, Columbia 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 consti­ tute 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 G. TUCKER, Warrensburg LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla VIRGINIA G. YOUNG, Columbia JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City 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. Manu­ scripts pertaining to all fields of American history will be consid­ ered 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 manuscripts on disk. The disk must be IBM compatible, preferably in WordPerfect. 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 become the property of the State Historical Society of Missouri and may not be published elsewhere without permis­ sion. 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 American History. Manuscripts submitted for the Review should be addressed to Dr. James W. Goodrich, Editor Missouri Historical Review The State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, Missouri 65201 CONTENTS GEORGE ENGELMANN AND THE LURE OF FRONTIER SCIENCE. By Michael Long 251 "A MOST UNEXAMPLED EXHIBITION OF MADNESS AND BRUTALITY": JUDGE LYNCH IN SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI, 1859. PART 1. By Thomas G Dyer 269 CATALYST FOR TERROR: THE COLLAPSE OF THE WOMEN'S PRISON IN KANSAS CITY. By Charles F. Harris 290 MERCHANDISING NATURE: THE H. J. WEBER AND SONS NURSERY. By Kenneth W. Keller 307 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Society Libraries: Western Historical Manuscript Collection 327 News in Brief 329 Local Historical Societies 330 Gifts 340 Missouri History in Newspapers 343 Missouri History in Magazines 347 In Memoriam 353 Graduate Theses Relating to Missouri History 354 BOOK REVIEWS 355 BOOK NOTES 360 HISTORIC MISSOURI COLLEGES: GEORGE R. SMITH COLLEGE Inside Back Cover Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis George Engelmann and the Lure of Frontier Science BY MICHAEL LONG* In December 1832 the young physician and naturalist George Engelmann arrived in the United States. He had left the German city of Frankfurt at age twenty-three to make his uncertain way in the New World. By his second winter in America, Engelmann was living in an Illinois cabin with a roof so full of holes that he could observe the stars from his bed. To make daily notes, he had to keep a pen warming by the fire to replace the one in his hand when the ink froze.1 Despite such obstacles, Engelmann eventually succeeded in his adopted *Michael Long is an adjunct instructor in the media department at Webster University, St. Louis. He received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. 1 Jacob Lindheimer, "Meine Reise und Aufenthalt in Mexiko" [My journey and stay in Mexico], in A Life Among the Texas Flora: Ferdinand Lindheimer's Letters to George Engelmann, ed. Minetta Altgelt Goyne (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991), 13. 251 252 Missouri Historical Review country, as both a physician and a scientist. Indeed, during the fifty years he lived in and around St. Louis, he played an important role in American sci­ ence. He aided the French mapmaker Joseph N. Nicollet and the explorer John C. Fremont and corresponded with men like Asa Gray and Louis Agassiz of Harvard and William J. Hooker of Kew Gardens and dozens of other scientific persons around the globe. Engelmann encouraged and partly financed western plant collectors and wrote authoritative studies on American cacti, oaks, conifers, mistletoe, and grapes. Scientists Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, and Charles Darwin knew his work. In St. Louis he helped establish two scientific organizations and two botanical gar­ dens—the first of their kind west of the Mississippi—of which the Academy of Science of St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Garden still survive. Why did George Engelmann, a talented, young, middle-class physician, trade the comforts of Europe for the hardships of America? Several reasons prompted him. In the 1830s the Karlsbad Decrees, adopted by the German Confederation in 1819 to control intellectual freedom at German universi­ ties, continued to stifle the free exchange of ideas. Government agents spied on professors and students, censored their writings, and outlawed stu­ dent groups like the Burschenschaften that called for the unification of Germany. In effect, the measures attempted to suppress student opposition to the conservative government. While enrolled at the University of Heidelberg in 1828, Engelmann had supported a brief student protest that failed. Forced to leave Heidelberg, he transferred to the University of Berlin, a move that the German authorities made difficult. Newly graduated by the 1830s, he still sympathized with the movement for intellectual free­ dom and German unification but despaired of progress in his homeland.2 Economic conditions, too, discouraged him. Early nineteenth-century Germany was filled with middle-class professionals who had little hope of rising in the world without wealthy patrons.