All Stories: 99
Stories
Emma Missouri Civil War Massacre Monument
September 27, 1864, marked one of the bloodiest guerilla conflicts in Missouri throughout the war. It was on this date in Centralia, Missouri 400 bushwhackers led by William "Bloody Bill" Anderson killed all but 32 out of 155 new Union…
Concordia Missouri Civil War Massacre Site Marker
At the start of the Civil War, Lafayette County had the fourth-highest slave population of any county in the state behind just St. Louis, Jackson, and Buchanan. So, despite being officially unaffiliated, the militia which had been raised in…
Missouri's Little Dixie African American History Tour
Each of the places along this historic tour takes one through the important locations of African American history as this group progressed from enslaved people into 'freedom' in Saline County, Missouri. As you will see, when slavery…
Concordia Missouri Franz J. Biltz
It is difficult to discuss the history of Concordia without first discussing Franz Julius Biltz. Born in Mittelfrohna, then part of the Kingdom of Saxony now Germany in 1825, Biltz became an orphan at age twelve. His half-sister, Ms. Louise Volker,…
Concordia Missouri Marker
Starting in 1847, a stagecoach passed through Freedom Township twice a week as it traveled between Sedalia and Lexington. In 1851, a relay station was built along this road 3 miles east of St. Paul's church known as Cook's Store. When a…
Chillicothe Missouri Stone Music Hall Store
Spencer A. Stone was born on April 1, 1853 in Connorsville, Wabash County, Indiana to Kentucky native Spencer A. Stone Sr. and his wife Miss Ellen Daily. The death of his parents at an early age, left him an orphan. When he was fifteen years old, he…
Chillicothe Missouri Jenkins Hay Rake & Stacker Co.
Marion R. Jenkins was born in Audrain county on August 15, 1854. His parents Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Jenkins lived on a farm in Browning, Missouri of Linn County. After quitting the farm, M. R. Jenkins became the owner of the Jenkins Hay Rake &…
Chillicothe Missouri State Industrial Home for Girls
The State Industrial Home For Girls was approved by the Thirty-Fourth General Assembly of Missouri on March 30, 1887. Based on a cottage management plan and a domestic industry instruction program required by law, $50,000 was appropriated and the…
Chillicothe Missouri Luella Theatre
The Luella Theatre was the first opera house in Chillicothe, Missouri, to serve the patrons of the city for not only entertainment but as a place for social organization gatherings for important events in the late nineteenth century. In January…
Chillicothe Missouri Federal Building
The Federal Building and Post Office jointly located in one building on the corner of Locust and Clay streets in Chillicothe, Missouri, was constructed in a grand rectangular size, with three-floor levels in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, which…
Chillicothe Missouri Tour
Livingston County is located in northern Missouri north of the Missouri River that borders the Grand River. The land has several small streams with even smaller twisting water branches that flow southeast and drain into the Mississippi river. The…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
The park that today is known as Blind Boone Park once served as the park for African American residents of Warrensburg up until the Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, KS Supreme Court ruling that mandated the integration of public…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
John William Boone was born on May 17, 1864, to Rachel Boone in Miami, Missouri, in a Union army camp occupied by the Seventh Militia, Company I. Rachel Boone had been enslaved at birth in 1843 in Kentucky. It is unclear just exactly who enslaved…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
John Lange, Jr., was born enslaved in Harrisburg, Kentucky on October 4, 1840 to a free man and an enslaved mother. During the Civil War he worked with his father as a butcher and at the end of the Civil War the Lange family moved to Columbia…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
When Willie was eight, Rachel Boone married Harrison Hendricks and moved into his home, which sat "just back of the old Land Fike's Mill [Eureka Mills] on Mill Street." Melissa Fuell Cuther noted: "The house was a one-room log…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
Melissa Fuell was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, on May 15, 1886, and attended and graduated from the Howard School and was active in music. She went on to study at the Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, where she trained to be a…
Historic Pertle Springs Warrensburg Missouri 1884-1889
J. H. Christopher purchased the land just one and half miles south of Warrensburg in 1884 that came to be known as Pertle Springs. The faith leaders of the community approached Christopher in 1886 and asked if he would support bringing Sam Jones and…
Historic Pertle Springs Warrensburg Missouri People and Organizations who visited
Most people who came to Pertle Springs did so to attend business, religious, political, Chautauqua assemblies, or theatrical performances.
The Missouri Pharmaceutical Association held its annual meetings at Pertle. The Epworth League Conference,…
Historic Pertle Springs Warrensburg Missouri J. H. Christopher founder
J. H. Christopher has been credited with founding Pertle Springs. In reality he was a business entrepreneur who dabbled in real estate and owned a chain of dry goods stores. He was born in Jessamine County Kentucky on September 11, 1848, and he came…
Historic Pertle Springs Warrensburg Missouri The Cottages
James H. Christopher, developer of Pertle Springs, acquired some unoccupied housing lots on the north side of the park in 1885 that he sold to several individuals, who built their own cottages near Pertle Springs and then rented them out to…
Historic Pertle Springs Warrensburg Missouri The Dummy Line 1890-1922
When Pertle Springs opened in 1886 one of the challenges had always been getting visitors quickly and efficiently to and from the Union Pacific Depot and the resort because Pertle Springs was located about a mile and half from Warrensburg. From 1886…
Historic Pertle Springs Warrensburg Missouri Tour 1901-1921
After 1900 Christopher turned to hosting County Fairs and Sunday School Conventions and focused on improving Pertle Springs. In 1902 Christopher funded the construction of a new depot at the Dummy terminal, a new boat house, and a merry-go-round.…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
The Magnolia Opera house, an 800 seat theater, was located at 145 West Pine at the corner of Washington and West Pine. Construction started on the theater in 1889, but the first performances did not occur until 1890.
The Magnolia Opera house was…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
Blind Boone passed away in Warrensburg, Missouri, on October 4, 1927, while visting his step brother at 408 W. Market Street. (The actual home is no longer extant.)
African American men and women from Warrensburg attended Blind Boone's…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
On January 5, 1884, Blind Boone and his concert company performed at the Empire Theatre. Ellie Fike, daughter of Henry C. Fike, who operated the Eureka Mills north of town, attended the concert with her mother and wrote about it in her…
Blind Boone in Warrensburg
Blind Boone gave several concerts at the Christian Church in Warrensburg and, according to his biographer, Mellissa Fuell, he considered himself a member of the denomination.
On December 19th and 20th, 1890, Blind Boone gave two concerts at the…
Blind Boone's Warrensburg Experience Blind Boone Concert Company
In 1880 John Lange entered into a written contract with Rachel Hendrix that he would pay her $10 a month for young Willie's musical talent until he was 21. His first concert was in Columbia and it grossed only $7. At that time the company…
Knob Noster State Park Recreational Demonstration Area Storygraph
The National Park Service's Recreational Demonstration Area storygraph was completed in the 1930s and offers an idyllic view of what an organized group camp or demonstration area might have looked like.
While the foreground in this drawing…
Knob Noster State Park Camp Bobwhite Historic and New Pool
Camp Bobwhite has offered a swimming pool since the camp opened to the public in the 1940s. Long before the use of air conditioning, swimming pools offered a fun place to cool off during the summer months and campers looked forward to pool time.…
Knob Noster State Park WPA Bridge on Entrance Road
The National Park Service placed the Montserrat Recreation Demonstration Bridge, or Knob Noster State Park Bridge on Entrance Road, in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The Works Progress Administration and the National Park…