Tales from Days Gone By: Recent Episodes
Bill Eddleman
Behind the big themes, celebrated figures, and dry dates of history are the interesting stories of life in the past and ordinary people. Southeast Missouri has a varied and rich history that you often don’t hear about in history classes. Join Bill Eddleman of the State Historical Society of Missouri to hear about these stories with “Tales from Days Gone By.”
American settlers in Missouri 200 years ago would have been familiar with a ghostly “booming” sound heard in later winter and early spring on prairies. The source of this sound was displaying male greater prairie chickens.
Misfortune followed the Annie P. Silver. Built in summer 1878 from the dismantled Susie Silver, she operated in the St. Louis-New Orleans trade.
Rural residents often viewed lawyers suspiciously if they moved into their neighborhood after the Civil War with the intent of making their fortune. Such was not the case with Benjamin Benson Cahoon.
The death of George M. Nicholas in 1912 occurred under suspicious circumstances. Nicholas was a rich Virginia farmer who amassed substantial cash and property, aided by his miserly habits. He had been a recluse, never married, and left no will. His heirs were his four brothers. Surprisingly, evidence suggested Nicholas died by poison placed in his coffee.
The December 19, 1910, issue of The National Tribune of Washington, D. C. contained a letter from James A. Lawrence of Tecumseh, Nebraska, concerning an event from the Civil War in Cape Girardeau County in September 1863.
Prior to digital photography, photographers had the problem of taking dozens of portrait photographs for school yearbooks quickly. Cameras used before the 1920s required frequent changes of film, slowing the process, and increasing costs. A Ste. Genevieve photographer, Vincent J. Dunker, solved the problem by inventing a specialty, long-roll camera for school portrait photography.
Rev. Timothy Flint and his family descended the Ohio in 1816. At its lower end, Flint noted that his “…children contemplated with unsated curiosity the flocks of parroquets fluttering among the trees, when we came near the shore.” The parakeets that so fascinated Rev. Flint’s children were the now-extinct Carolina Parakeet.
The aviation pioneer Tony Jannus provided many residents of Mississippi River towns their first view of an airplane in November 1912. Jannus was a pioneer who piloted early models of aircraft and pointed out the potential of aviation. Among other things, he piloted the plane from which the first parachute jump occurred on March 1, 1912, near St. Louis.
Local officials maintain public records which are essential for proving land titles, marriages, and legal decisions. The loss of these records is devastating and require much effort to re-construct. Thus, when a disaster such as fire, flooding, or storm damage destroys a county courthouse, it is a blow to the residents of that county.
The aftermath of the Civil War was devastating in much of Missouri, but one fortunate result involved the founding of the town of Wappapello.
While school shootings were rare in southeastern Missouri in the early 1900s, they were not unheard of. One such event happened at Illmo High School on graduation day, May 20, 1921. As the ceremony occurred, Henry L. Rose, an engineer on the Iron Mountain Railroad, approached the school. Rose was exceptionally angry at the school over the whipping of his son.
Most settlements and communities in Missouri date back to the 19th century. Typically, an early settler or group of settlers either established the community or lent their names to it. However, it is rare to have more than one town founded by an individual. Judge Miles A. Gilbert was an exception. During his life he platted two towns: Cairo in Illinois and St. Mary in Ste. Genevieve County. Both prospered during Judge Gilbert’s lifetime but have fallen on harder times today, obscuring his importance.
A petition circulated in early 1898 to secure public subscriptions for the purpose of building a bridge. Eventually the campaign raised $10,000—half from donations and half from revenue bonds.
The Cape Girardeau area is usually not an area that people envision as the setting for an international spying mission. However, it was just that when a spy visited the area in 1796. Georges-Henri-Victor Collot was a 46-year-old soldier in the French Army.
The morning of May 27, 1873, began as a quiet, peaceful day in Ste. Genevieve. The Ste. Genevieve Savings Bank cashier, Dudley Harris, and young Firmin Rozier arrived to open at 10 a.m. Concurrently, four men rode into town, hitched their horses, and headed toward the bank.
Pascola in Pemiscot County was a small town in the early 1920s, with a population of about 420. The platting of the village occurred in 1894 upon construction of the railroad from Kennett to Caruthersville. Settlers had lived in the area since 1879, but incorporation of the town occurred in 1899.
We learn a lot from letters written home during war time. Often these were summarized or printed in hometown newspapers. The 1st Wisconsin Cavalry spent much time in Cape Girardeau during the Civil War. One cavalry soldier wrote a friend, and the recipient shared the letter with the Watertown News, a Wisconsin newspaper.
Robert W. Leslie, who went by his middle name of Walker, was the oldest son of William H. and Mary Leslie of the Gravel Hill area in Cape Girardeau County near the Bollinger County line.
Before the studio system and national theater franchises came into being after World War I, movie makers distributed motion pictures in two major ways. In the roadshow system, film makers entered into agreements with individual theaters. Theaters then sold tickets to generate revenue for the film maker and the venue. By limiting movie showings, theaters could drive up demand for tickets and enhance their prestige.
George Rogers Clark built Fort Jefferson on the east side of the Mississippi five miles south of its confluence with the Ohio in 1779 to control access and consolidate his forces. Shortly thereafter about 1000 Chickasaw and Cherokee besieged the fort. The defenders ran low on food, so a group of men stole out at night, crossed the river, and went 12 miles to Matthews Prairie in present day New Madrid County, Missouri. The goal was hunting buffalo.
Few traces remain today of what was the largest town in Carter County in 1920. Midco lay two miles north of Fremont and housed the Mid-Continent Iron Company smelter and chemical plant.
The demand for higher education in Missouri increased after the Civil War. Children of families from an expanding middle class aspired to prepare for better careers, but many could not afford the costs of university education.
Residents of Charleston, Missouri observed the holiday season on January 2, 1860 with a grand Christmas ball at the Charleston Hotel, hosted by Mr. Bob Holeman. This event followed another grand soiree held at the County Courthouse on Christmas Eve.
An often-overlooked journal by a British immigrant provides details of the eastern Ozarks of Missouri in 1834. George W. Featherstonhaugh’s training and connections in government earned him an appointment as U. S. Geologist, assigned to reconnoiter the region between the Missouri and Red Rivers.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the choice of which side to join in the conflict was obvious for many young Missouri men. One stuck with family, or tradition, or with their convictions. For one young Cape Girardeau County teenager, though, the choice was not obvious. Eighteen-year-old William R. Whittaker was a resident of the Pocahontas area in Cape Girardeau County when he decided to join in the fray in 1863.
Logging in the Bootheel began in earnest in the late 1800s. Several timber companies operated in the area, exemplified by the Wisconsin Lumber Company. The company operated on 60,000 acres initially purchased and leased starting in 1898 for logging by William Deering, founder of the Deering Harvester Company.
Local lore holds that the cemeteries between West High and West Breton streets in Potosi are haunted. What appears to be a single cemetery is three: the City Cemetery, the Old Masonic Cemetery, and the Potosi Presbyterian Cemetery. One of the most gruesome stories behind the tales of haunting involves the murder of five members of the Lapine family, all buried in the City Cemetery.
Shady Grove Cemetery, recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the final resting place of over 250 African Americans who lived in and near Cape Girardeau. Many were born enslaved but lived to see emancipation and life into the early 1900s. Among these was Charlotte (Gordon) (Giboney) Cook Holmes, whose remarkable story spanned more than 90 years.
Academic Hall is the centerpiece of the Southeast Missouri State University campus. The construction of Academic after the destruction of Old Normal by fire did not happen without one unfortunate bump in the road to completion.
The construction of the railroad system in Southeast Missouri by entrepreneur Louis Houck and others provided improved transportation. This improvement serves as the background for one tale of a teenage Wayne County couple from 1916.
Prior to settlement by Europeans, the Missouri Ozarks had vast forests of shortleaf pine, estimated at 6.6 million acres. Pines grew well at drier sites on ridgetops and west and southwest-facing slopes in rocky or sandy soils. Early stories tell of forests so open that a rider could gallop through without striking a branch.
The early days of the Civil War in Missouri in 1861 were chaotic. Union commanders and sympathizers lived in fear of secessionists in eastern Missouri, especially those under the command of Col. M. Jeff Thompson in Southeast Missouri. One of the steamers running on the Mississippi River at this time was often pressed into service in support of Union troop movements.
One of the presidents of Southeast Missouri State has a permanent place in Missouri folklore. Willard D. Vandiver traditionally is credited with the nickname for Missouri—the Show Me State.
Artists in the Midwest prior to 1932 had to travel long distances to participate in an art colony. These gatherings were seasonal events, usually providing artists with time at a site with natural beauty or interest at which they could receive education and feel a sense of community with other artists.
Many people who were prominent in the early days of American settlement of Missouri are little known today. One of these early Missourians, John Smith T, was from a family of Virginia gentry who moved to Georgia prior to his birth in 1771. He left home before 1790 to settle in Tennessee during its frontier days.
Among the many useful inventions developed at the turn of the 20th Century was the adding machine. One of the most widely-used of these was invented in Missouri and initially manufactured in Poplar Bluff—the Dalton Adding Machine.
During the early years of the Third District Normal School (1876-1893), three educational leaders held the post of principal. The title was later changed to president.
A grave marker in the Mount Pleasant Methodist Church Cemetery, also called Campground or Camp Grayson Cemetery, in Perry County states, “IN MEMORY OF/BENNETT MURRAY/BORN FEB. 18. 1823/Captured and wounded/by the Confederates/OCT. 11. 1861./Recaptured by the/Guerillas and killed/JULY 3, 1864/AGED 41 Y. 4 M. 15 D.”
Zewapeta appears on maps in a location north of Commerce in Scott County, Missouri. Because Commerce is 39 and a half miles north of the mouth of the Ohio, and the locations on maps place Zewapeta at River Mile 41 or 42, the location is too far upstream for Hamtramck’s estimate. Nonetheless, it is only an estimate.
The chronic need for trained teachers in Missouri gave rise to the normal school movement. The movement gained momentum in the 1850s, was delayed by the Civil War, and came to the forefront thereafter. The state legislature created a third normal school district in Southeast Missouri in 1873 after establishment of the first two schools in Kirksville and Warrensburg.
The story of transportation improvements in the mid-1800s until World War I is a story of railroads. Routing of railroads made the difference between prosperity if a line went through a town or stagnation if the railroad bypassed it. By 1900 electrified lines offered a new option that lacked smoke or diesel emissions and offered rapid acceleration, fast braking, and the ability to change direction without turning a locomotive around.
The Farm Security Administration, or FSA, proposed an experimental demonstration project to point families toward better farming methods in 1937—LaForge Farms.
Steamboats on Missouri rivers meant high profits because they moved more freight faster than the earlier pirogues, keel boats, and flat boats. Balanced against this lucrative trade was the capricious nature of river channels, with shifting channels, movement of silt and sand, and rapid variation in flow. Crumbling banks, fallen trees, or ice could sink boats in an instant.
The War of 1812 in Missouri bore little resemblance to the war most of us hear about in history classes. Most Missourians who served were frontier militiamen such as a young man from near Caledonia—George D. Strother.
Residents of parts of southeastern Missouri were shocked to hear of the actions of a criminal gang during the late spring and early summer of 1881. Four men who had met socially, Jesse Myers, Robert Rhodes, James Hamilton, and Frank Brown were the primary members.
East of Oak Ridge in Cape Girardeau County is an old cemetery beside a county road. The inscription on the sign marking the cemetery is “Wilson Cemetery.” However, Wilson Cemetery illustrates how present-day names for locations and features can hide or blur history. The place has gone by three different names over the last 202 years.
Some witnesses reported seeing smoldering cinders blowing from the smokestack of a train passing on the main track before 9:30 a.m. One of these landed on the roof of the train depot and ignited the dry shingles. The station master quickly extinguished this fire. However, shortly thereafter fire appeared on the roof of Jacob Goeltz’s barber shop.
The U. S. government created a pension system in 1862, not only for soldiers disabled in the Civil War but also for widows and children of those dying in the line of duty. Also included were mothers who documented their soldier sons as their sole support. The resulting files are a treasure trove of Civil War stories, including that of one young Bollinger County soldier, Albert T. Limbaugh.
American settlers in Missouri 200 years ago would have been familiar with a ghostly “booming” sound heard in later winter and early spring on prairies. The source of this sound was displaying male greater prairie chickens.
Halloween is coming up within a week. I am going to veer a little bit from the documentable stories I usually tell and relate a tale that borders on legend. Sometimes things may have a perfectly logical explanation but appear supernatural. Such was the case with an experience a man from Daisy in Cape Girardeau County had in the mid-1800s.
On Saturday, October 15, 2022, an unveiling ceremony will reveal markers placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution at the grave of James Caldwell at Parkview Cemetery in Farmington. Caldwell was not only a veteran, but an under-appreciated pioneer and legislator in Kentucky and Missouri, and a local leader in Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties.
On January 17, 1926, newspaper readers throughout Missouri were surprised to read the following: “Benjamin Hodge today celebrated his 109th birthday. Records at his home near here show that he was born in New York Jan. 16, 1817.”
One of the initiatives of the Federal Writers’ Project portion of the Works Progress Administration in 1936 to 1939 was the Slave Narrative Project. This effort sent mostly white writers to interview over 2300 surviving African Americans formerly enslaved. Despite potential issues with the information, the narratives provide a glimpse into the experiences of formerly enslaved people during and after emancipation. One example is Robert Bryant of Herculaneum, Missouri.
Missourians were shocked to learn of a brutal murder in Dunklin County on August 6, 1851. The victim was Nathaniel Cook Jr., shot from ambush in a cypress swamp about four miles south of Kennett.
No other river best captures the diverse nature of Missouri than the St. Francis River. The river begins its 426-mile course in the St. Francis Mountains, flows rapidly in its rugged upper part, before taking the appearance of a typical Ozark river, then ends in the flat swampy country of southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas.
The Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wished to document the flood devastation and chose to do so in a unique way. They hired the distinguished Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton to sketch the scenes of the floods and their effects on the residents of the area.
The horrors of Foeste's war captivity can be summed up by his own words, spoken years later to a hired man on his farm. “They damn near killed me in that camp.”
Father, later Bishop, John Joseph Hogan was born in Bruff, County Limerick, Ireland in 1829. He came to the U. S. in 1847, attended seminary in St. Louis, and became a Priest on April 10, 1852. By 1857, he established missions to Irish railroad workers and Catholic settlers in outstate Missouri in Chillicothe, Macon City, Brookfield, Mexico, and Cameron.
Alexander Buckner was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1785 and became a lawyer in Charlestown, Indiana. He relocated to Missouri in 1818 and settled in Jackson. He served in the Missouri Senate from 1822 to 1826, before the state legislature chose him to succeed David Barton as U. S. Senator in 1830.
We’ve all heard excuses for people’s failures, some legitimate and others not. Sometimes we can find examples of excuses in history, too. Today’s story involves an excuse for a problem with clearing a land title early in the history of Perry County, Missouri.
The Rev. Timothy Flint left an 1820 account of the Dutch or Bollinger Settlement, 1st to 3rd generation German immigrants who came to Missouri starting in 1800. His book, Recollections of the Last Ten Years, includes details on Missouri in 1815-1822. Thousands of Missourians trace their ancestry to the Bollinger Settlement, so it is well-worth discussing his observations.
A number of Missouri counties found it necessary to move their county seats early in their history. Often, the goal was to find a central location so residents would not have to travel as far to conduct public business. In the case of Shannon County, the destruction of the county seat during the Civil War doomed the original site.