Beginning in 1682, France laid claim to the area of central North America which included the vast Mississippi River drainage basin. French colonists moved to the region near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers in the latter half of the seventeenth century. French fur traders, trappers, farmers, and Jesuit missionaries came from France, French Canada, and New Orleans to Upper Louisiana (la Haute-Louisiane) or what was often called Illinois Country, an area which consisted of the present-day states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.² Initially settling on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the first half of the eighteen century, the French slowly began to expand their settlement to the west bank of the Mississippi River as the population grew.³

The growth of French settlements in Upper Louisiana was largely made possible by the expansion of the fur trade. French colonists’ success in the fur trade was tied to their unique relationships with the Indigenous peoples of the area, which allowed fur traders to expand their trade networks far into the American interior. Once dismissed by American historian Fredrick Jackson Turner as insignificant to American westward expansion, more recently scholars have recognized French fur traders and trappers as integral to non-Indigenous settlement in Middle America.⁴ The French established trading posts such as St. Louis, Kawsmouth, and St. Joseph in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which grew into thriving urban areas in later years.

In addition to the fur trade, French colonists established farms, aided in the spread of the Catholic religion, and worked to extract valuable natural resources such as lead. French settlement was initially concentrated on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River in communities such as Kaskaskia, Fort de Chartres, and Prairie du Rocher, in what is now the state of Illinois. During the early years of settlement, residents chose to live near military forts or trading depots for protection and their agricultural lands fanned out in long strips from these centralized settlements. French settlers raised livestock and grew grain products both for subsistence and sale to growing markets in Lower Louisiana. French settlements in Upper Louisiana were vital to the survival of the French Louisiana territory as a whole as it depended on agriculture to feed its growing population. The French also increased their involvement in the fur trade with Indigenous nations and searched for mineral resources to exploit. French settlers eventually expanded their operation west of the Mississippi River into what is now the state of Missouri. Founded in the 1730s, Ste. Genevieve was an example of such a settlement, becoming the first permanent French community west of the Mississippi River.⁵ Ste. Genevieve’s growth is attributed to settlers’ desire to move closer to the agricultural fields they established west of the river and to the lead mines they had established near current-day Potosi, Missouri.⁶

The French colonists in Upper Louisiana — and the enslaved people whose labor they exploited — made significant economic contributions to France’s colonial empire through agricultural production, lead extraction, and access to the lucrative fur trade business. Yet, France did not value Louisiana, particularly its northern reaches, as much as its sugar colonies in the West Indies. During the Seven Years War, France covertly offered French Louisiana, including the port of New Orleans, to Spain in payment for their military aid in the war against Great Britain.  The Treaty of Paris in 1763 resulted in the French ceding their territory east of the Mississippi River to the British in acknowledgement of their defeat. Spanish rule went into effect the following year west of the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Many French settlers vacated their lands in Illinois Country in what was now the British controlled territory east of the Mississippi for Spanish lands west of the river. French settlers thought their prospects would be better under Spanish control due to their shared Catholic faith and a belief they would better protect their rights and claims to the land.  French settlers’ reasoning proved sound. Although the Spanish colonial government officially ruled Louisiana for the next 40 years, there was never a large migration of Spanish settlers to the colony. The Spanish administrative structure was light handed and French colonists and cultural practices continued to dominate the colony.

During the colonial era, French settlements were home to a diverse population of both new and long-established residents — French, French Canadian, Indigenous, and African, who engaged in farming, trapping, and mining.⁷ The French sought to create a cohesive community among these diverse peoples through such mechanisms as a shared language, the practice of Catholicism, and the fur trade. During the eighteenth century, Indigenous Americans were the dominant group in Illinois Country. In response to their minority population, French settlers purposely cultivated business and governing alliances through trade relations and intermarriage with Indigenous peoples in the region. These often-reciprocal business and family connections promoted the expansion of French economic and political interests. One such example was the Chouteau family whose reciprocal relationship with the Osage allowed them to dominate the fur trade in the region and establish St. Louis as the primary trading outpost for the venture.⁸

French settlements were structured by a social hierarchy; at the top were Catholic missionaries, military officers, and wealthy traders. Conversely, enslaved people of African or Indigenous descent occupied the bottom tier of the social hierarchy. Soldiers, boatmen, hunters, trappers, and farmers occupied the middle ground between the two groups at either end of the social spectrum.⁹ A person’s place within the social structure was not always dictated by wealth, however. For example, in Ste. Genevieve, while the wealthy still sat at the top of the social structure, less affluent French families that persisted for long periods and were considered respectable.¹⁰

Enslaved Indigenous and African peoples played a prominent role in the social and economic structures of Upper Louisiana. Jesuit missionaries were the largest enslavers of African peoples in Illinois Country in the early eighteenth century,¹¹ but by the latter half of the eighteenth century, the trader elites owned the majority of enslaved people, both Indigenous and African.¹² Even though the governor of Spanish Louisiana, Alejandro O’Reilly, officially outlawed Native American slavery in 1769, the edict was never enforced and the colonists continued to enslave various groups of First Nation people into the early nineteenth century.¹³ The importation of enslaved Africans increased dramatically over the eighteenth century as both the French and Spanish colonial regimes encouraged the use of enslaved people to increase agricultural and mining production in the region.¹⁴

However, under both French and Spanish law, enslaved people were theoretically given some legal protections. Under the revised French Code Noir of 1724, while still defining enslaved people as property, the enslaved were also viewed as human beings that deserved certain rights. The code specified that enslavers needed to adequately provide for enslaved people’s religious, food, and clothing needs, while also outlawing torture and family separation. These requirements were difficult to enforce; therefore, compliance was usually left up to the conscience of individual enslavers. Although the law was not always followed in colonial Louisiana, according to the revision of the Code Noir by the Spanish in 1777, white people were not permitted to intermarry or engage in sexual relationships with enslaved men and women. As was the case in slavery systems, white enslavers frequently sexually exploited enslaved people, although there were a few interracial relationships that were long lasting and occasionally resulted in the freedom of enslaved individuals. Laws regarding manumission were more generous under the Code Noir. Some enslaved people were able to buy their own freedom, and, on some occasions, enslavers granted people their freedom. Emancipation was at the discretion of individual enslavers, however, as there were no fixed rules for the process. Overall, while the various “protections” for enslaved people were written into the law, there was no guarantee of enforcement of those protections.¹⁵

The law and custom allowed white women to enjoyed certain rights and some agency in determining their own lives in Upper Louisiana. In the eighteenth century, white men outnumbered white women by a significant degree in Ste. Genevieve and other French communities. French colonial women often married men over ten years their senior, resulting in significant age gaps between the parties. Because of this age disparity, women were more likely to be widowed and to remarry. Over time, some women accrued property and influence. Prenuptial contracts protected French women’s financial interests when they married.  Women often brought property into their marriages due to a douaire (dowery) or inheritance. Indeed, it was customary for French children to inherit their parents’ estates equally regardless of gender. Women could use these claims to financial assets as a means by which to protect property from their husbands’ debts and insolvency. At their husbands’ deaths, widows received the dower portion stipulated in the marriage contract as well as half of the couples’ joint property with the remainder divided among their children. Women without children were entitled to the entire estate. Widows frequently carried this property into subsequent marriages. Through these financial protections, French colonial women were able to maintain and manage their own property, which resulted in their ability to wield influence in their communities.¹⁶

French colonial women also demonstrated some agency within their marriages. French colonial men rarely worked in a single profession, instead they diversified their economic activities to guarantee their continued success in an ever-changing region. Their husbands were frequently absent from their families and households, no matter their economic situation. Wealthy men traveled for trade, diplomacy, and simply a desire to travel, while less wealthy men worked as soldiers, hunters, and boatmen. In their place, French wives acted as deputy husbands, given the power to act to protect business and family interests.¹⁷

The scarcity of white women in the colony encouraged white men to form sexual attachments with Black and Indigenous women. While many of these relationships were not consensual and were instead the result of an imbalanced power dynamics and even violence, there were some cases in which white men and Black or Indigenous women engaged in what might be described as common law marriages. Both parties understood the social and economic benefits of these partnerships. It was common for French men to forge economic and diplomatic relations with Indigenous people through marriages to Indigenous women. They also appreciated women’s domestic labor and fur processing skills. Some French men lived openly with their wives and children in French settlements, while other resided with their families upriver in the hunting grounds.  It also was not usual for French men to have both French and Indigenous wives and families.¹⁸

While most women of African descent during the colonial period, were impoverished and enslaved, in St. Louis there were cases of free Black women who owned property. In comparison to the British, the French and the Spanish had a more fluid understanding of race and were more tolerant of interracial relationships, especially in communities with uneven gender ratios. In some cases, French men even manumitted enslaved women with whom they shared long term relationships. A few Black women gained financial assets when their white partners put property in their names to legally protect it from the men’s creditors. Later, the women laid claim to the property when the relationships ended through voluntary separation or death. Eager to strengthen its presence in Upper Louisiana, the Spanish government was willing to grant land to petitioners, no matter their sex or race, also allowed some free Black women to acquire property. These exceptional women were part of a growing free Black community in St. Louis.¹⁹

Although the French lived in the region for over a century, these diverse colonial communities remained sparsely populated. In fact, there had been such limited migration to the region that the Spanish leaders of the colony started to recruit American settlers, including Daniel Boone and his family, to move to Upper Louisiana with promises of generous land grants, no taxes, and protections for slavery. After assuming power in 1800, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte worked to restore France’s claims in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and North America.  He was able to successfully negotiate with the Spanish in secret for the return of Louisiana through the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1802. Yet, French troops were unsuccessful in their attempts to regain control of Saint-Domingue from the free Black and formerly enslaved revolutionaries who had fought to liberate the colony from French rule beginning with an uprising in 1791. Napoleon ultimately decided to cut his losses and agreed to sell all of Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. The U.S. was initially interested in only purchasing the port of New Orleans but recognized the value of acquiring claims to the vast territory offered them. Through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States laid claim to the territory that soon after became the state of Missouri. In the following years, many of Missouri’s flourishing urban areas, such as St. Louis, Kansas City, and St. Joseph, were built on the foundations of the remarkable early French communities. The state’s French roots remain visible to this day though place names and historic artifacts left by these early Missouri settlers.²⁰

Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Charles August Lindbergh (1859-1924) and Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh (1876-1954). The couple separated after his birth, and Lindbergh spent most of his childhood moving between Little Falls, Michigan, and Washington D.C. His father often created tests to develop Lindbergh’s moral and physical strength and to teach him self-reliance and personal discipline; characteristics that would prove essential to his career as a skilled pilot.¹ His mother, a schoolteacher, encouraged these same traits, as well as cultivated a strong interest in science and its applications.² Lindbergh worked as a farmer in Minnesota as he entered adulthood. Later, he decided he wanted a career “in which his work with machines was not constantly interrupted, as it was with farming, by long stretches of dull physical labor.”³ This desire pushed him to enter the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an engineering major in 1920.

Lindbergh intended to earn his degree and become an airplane pilot; however, college life did not suit him, and he dropped out to enroll at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation’s flying school in Lincoln. While at Nebraska Aircraft Corporation, Charles worked as a barnstormer⁴ and airplane mechanic to gain experience and earn tuition. After a year of barnstorming, he joined the United States Army Air Service in 1924 to receive more detailed training and graduated at the top of his class a year later. The Army did not need many active-duty pilots after the end of WWI, however, so Lindbergh returned to civilian aviation. He was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation, headquartered in St. Louis, as chief pilot on the new CAM-2 contract airmail route. Lindbergh’s role as a chief pilot provided ample experience for his famous transatlantic flight.⁵ While waiting for the negotiation of his job, he worked as a barnstormer and flight instructor and continued to do part-time military flying as a reserve officer in the 110th Observation Squadron of the Missouri National Guard, stationed in St. Louis.⁶

The strong presence of the developing aviation industry in pre-Lindbergh St. Louis resulted from multiple factors. The city was a major manufacturing center due to its access to rail and water transportation, as well as its central geographical location.⁷ It was also home to Scott Field (now Scott Air Force Base), which had been used to train WWI balloonists, as well as Lambert Field, which was a hub of air traffic after hosting the 1923 Air Races.⁸ It was in this growing aviation community that Lindbergh learned of a $25,000 prize offered by Raymond Orteig to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. Orteig, a French immigrant, and wealthy hotel owner loved aviation and believed that his patronage would create the next great aerial spectacle.⁹ Lindbergh convinced nine St. Louis businessmen to finance his attempt to secure the prize money. Unable to buy a suitable pre-made plane, the group partnered with the Ryan Aircraft Company of San Diego to build a custom model, which was designed jointly by Lindbergh and Ryan’s chief engineer. Lindbergh named the plane the Spirit of St. Louis in honor of his sponsors’ hometown.¹⁰

From May 20^th through the 21^st, Lindbergh completed his successful transatlantic flight. This flight catapulted him into the international spotlight and is often seen as “the first incarnation of media-driven celebrity in the twentieth century.”¹¹ Thanks to the press, his face and accomplishment was spread across the globe, making him the star of countless parades and parties wherever he traveled, both in the U.S. and internationally. Lindbergh, at first, “acquiesced to this popular mania… deciding to exploit his unique status” to further causes he believed in, such as aviation and American isolationism.¹² His fame contributed to the “Lindbergh Boom” of aviation, and his ideas regarding commercial passenger transportation “became the standard for aviation in the United States and, subsequently, around the world;” Lindbergh even helped design the modern airport.[enf_note]Berg, 189.[/efn_note] However, his prominence was not something Lindbergh enjoyed and it proved to be a double-edged sword. This was evidenced in the infamous kidnapping and death of his son, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. Additionally, his struggles with Franklin Delano Roosevelt would cast long shadows over his life, leaving scars that Lindbergh struggled with for the rest of his life.

Despite his personal struggles, Lindbergh’s promise that his success “would be a terrific boost for St. Louis… whose stature would shine with a nonstop transatlantic flight” was also proven true.¹³ Lambert Field (renamed the St. Louis Lambert International Airport in 1971) became a major flight hub for civilian and military aircraft.¹⁴ Various airlines, including McDonnell Douglas (later Boeing), TWA (Lindbergh served as chairman of their technical committee), and American Airlines all used St. Louis as an important hub in their operations because of its central location and newfound prominence in the industry. Later controversies, including his praise of the Nazi air force after a tour of aviation facilities in Germany and white supremacist beliefs, resulted in the inevitable fall of Lindbergh’s prestige, but the boost he provided to commercial aviation had a positive impact on modern aviation development.

Charles Lindbergh’s legacy is complicated by his argument for American neutrality in the lead up to WWII and his support for white supremacy, but his role in aviation and its evolution is undisputed. In a time in which aviation was still a dangerous occupation, Lindbergh’s seemingly impossible achievement gave incredible power to the aviation industry of St. Louis, transforming it into an international hub of commercial flight. Today, the St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in Missouri and hosts millions of passengers each year. It is a testament to Charles Lindbergh’s vision, and a tangible reminder of the strength of the determination and human spirit he displayed when he and the Spirit of St. Louis made their mark on history.

One such traveler, future governor Meredith Miles Marmaduke, detailed his 1824 expedition along the trail in journal entries, which the Missouri Intelligencer reprinted. The caravan was the largest yet to follow this route and comprised 81 people, which consisted  of white traders and enslaved people, more than 150 mules and horses, and nearly two dozen wagons.² After camping in Franklin, Missouri to prepare for the journey West, the caravan traveled to Blue Springs along the Missionary Road, a path likely forged in 1821 by missionaries sent in an attempt to convert to the Osage peoples. From there the group traveled into largely unmapped territories of the West. Among the challenges faced during their two-month long trip were the roaming buffalo who repeatedly frightened away the caravan’s horses, and a desperate paucity of water, which led to the deaths of other livestock.

The party arrived in Santa Fe with about $30,000 in trade goods, which likely included brightly colored clothing and fabrics, jewelry, sewing pins, and hand mirrors.³ William Becknell observed that New Mexican consumers preferred merchandise of considerable quality. However, Marmaduke worried that due to systemic conditions, many customers of Mexican descent in the region suffered from poverty. Therefore, Marmaduke was concerned that this could prevent traders from moving their goods at a profit.⁴ However, such ventures, nonetheless proved so lucrative that some American agents tried to warn away potential rivals back home lest an excess of sellers harm their own prospects. The silver coin that merchants brought back to Missouri helped to stabilize the fluctuations of a frontier economy in which specie often ran short. In addition, Missouri farmers were eager customers of the mules purchased in New Mexico. These reliable and versatile draft animals, which were a cross between a female horse and a male donkey, became an important Santa Fe Trade trade commodity.⁵

The trade’s growing profitability caught the eye of a famous Missourian, U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, who saw that Missouri’s strategic location made it a valuable gateway to the West. Anyone who wished to journey the Santa Fe Trail had to start in Missouri. Aided by Missouri trader Augustus Storrs, Senator Benton was a key component in sponsoring legislation to mark a road to Santa Fe. Storrs previously traveled the route in 1823. Benton and Storrs were also assisted by Alphonso Wetmore, a paymaster stationed in Franklin, the small town where the trail originally began.⁶ Once the bill passed through Congress, three commissioners oversaw the surveys of the road: Benjamin H. Reeves, Colonel Pierre Menard, and George C. Sibley.⁷ The men hired Joseph Cromwell Brown, an experienced surveyor who had been responsible for determining several key meridians and state boundaries in the past. In 1825, Brown began work charting out the Santa Fe Trail and produced a map spanning the entire length of the route later that year.⁸

The town of Franklin became an important trade center from 1822 to 1826, a marketplace where traders could buy merchandise at 20 to 30 percent above the prices in Philadelphia and take them to Santa Fe for a profit of 40 to 100 percent. Such bright prospects drew many people to the area near Franklin, but a series of floods through 1826 shifted the course of the Missouri River, which soon washed away the town altogether. Later, the town of Independence in western Missouri replaced Franklin as the starting point of the Santa Fe Trail.⁹ As the Santa Fe trade prospered in the subsequent decades, steamboat traffic increased significantly on the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers; goods brought up from New Mexico via the trail moved eastward to St. Louis and beyond. There were also Mexican traders who traveled the Santa Fe Trail in reverse to buy American goods from sellers in Missouri.¹⁰

However, the prosperity of the Santa Fe Trail did not last. After Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, years of political instability followed. Albino Perez, the federally appointed governor of New Mexico, became increasingly unpopular after he imposed sharper regulations on trade within the province, including on the Santa Fe Trail. Widespread anger among the people of the area erupted into an uprising known as the 1837 Chimayo Rebellion. The rebellion resulted in the killing of the governor, but collapsed the following January. The Santa Fe trade soon shrank to levels witnessed in decades prior to 1821. The Trail assumed renewed importance with the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, which served as a vital corridor for the Army of the West and later represented an important link between the United States and the southwestern territories acquired in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.¹¹

Several factors contributed to the decline of the Santa Fe Trail in the early 1840s. The Oregon and California trails commanded greater attention and siphoned away some of the people and wealth that poured into the West. The emergence of mines in Colorado and Nevada reduced the demand for Mexican silver, and several Americans–many of them in Missouri–began to breed mules that were superior in functionality. Heightened dangers threatened the fewer numbers of traders who continued to use the Trail.¹² The fear of attacks by Indigenous raiders was a concern by the white traders. Additionally, during the Civil War, there was a legitimate concern by traders of small bands of Confederate guerrillas, as they attacked Independence and other provisioning towns in Missouri for political and economic reasons. Traders moved as many as 50 million pounds of freight along the Trail in 1865, yet by this time, the Trail had become nearly out of use.¹³ Soon, railroads spanned across the trans-Missouri West and took most of the region’s traffic with them. Once the first trains reached New Mexico in 1880, the Santa Fe Trail finally became obsolete.¹⁴

Advocating for Statehood

Missouri newspapers first demonstrated their powerful influence during the path to statehood. In 1817, the Gazette published a petition submitted by citizens to Congress, hoping to establish what would become Missouri’s borders. Many newspapers strongly supported the territory becoming a state and urged Missouri citizens to demand representation in Washington, D.C. Others provided a glimpse at the sectional politics that eventually resulted in the Civil War. The controversy surrounding Missouri’s statehood was centered on slavery and if the predominantly pro-slavery population of the new state would be allowed to continue the barbarous practice of owning humans. In 1821, the central Missouri city of Franklin’s Missouri Intelligencer published an article celebrating the territory’s “prospective” entrance into the Union. Citing the admittance and the view that states should get to decide the fate of slavery on their own terms, the article declared, “we consider ourselves rescued from the hands of our Eastern Friends in a manner to us satisfactory, to them disgraceful.”²

In the decades following statehood, Missouri experienced rapid expansion in publishing. Before the mid-1840s, newspapers across the state were plagued by timely access to current news and often included stories copied from other publications, written lectures, and poetry. However, with the invention of the telegraph in 1847, papers became increasingly focused on current news events, as they provided more up-to-date information to readers. A boom in the number of people living in the state and technological innovation resulted in a large growth of publishing newsworthy information in Missouri. The population had grown from around 65,000 in 1820 to almost 1.2 million by 1860, and the number of newspapers increased with it, growing from 5 to 148.³ The expansion of publications connected Missourians to regional, national, and even international news. In Clay County, the Liberty Tribune began its 171-year run in 1846. The first year of printing included articles about the Mexican American War, as Colonel John Hughes sent letters to Liberty, Missouri that covered the conflict.⁴

During Missouri’s early statehood, newspapers were heavily biased. They were often the organs of political parties that vied for power and influence. Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, parties like the Whigs, Democrats, and Republicans were not legally recognized by the government and lacked institutional structure. As historian Jeffrey Pasley describes, parties had little staffing and day-to-day management. Political factions also had no formal way to communicate about the latest issues being debated around the country; thus, partisan newspapers stepped in. Local newspapers were established by parties and became their voice on the ground, connecting voters, holding the party together between elections, and communicating its stance on regional and national issues.⁵ By the Civil War, political parties had become more organized, but the stances of newspapers continued to hold great influence among their readers.

Politicizing Newspapers

The onset of the Civil War resulted in many newspapers intensifying their political voice and expressing their opinions about where Missouri should fall in the North-South conflict. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the only major pro-Union newspaper in a slave or border state, was influential in preventing Missouri from seceding. The publication first began printing in 1852, holding a pro-Republican stance in its early years and later flourishing as a gateway of information between Washington D.C. and the developing West.⁶ During the war, President Lincoln recognized the power of the Globe-Democrat, famously stating that the newspaper was worth ten regiments of Union troops.⁷ Other publications followed the Globe’s lead, like the Osage Valley Star, which expressed a pro-Union slant throughout the war. There were a few newspapers that took an opposing stance. The St. Louis Bulletin, one of the most notable pro-Confederate publications, advocated for secession and the preservation of slavery. However, the Federal army’s presence in Missouri soon brought an end to all anti-Union publishing. Throughout the war, Lincoln worked to suppress newspapers in Union controlled areas that supported the Confederacy, as his administration claimed that these actions were militarily necessary. In Missouri, Lincoln gave his commanders ample leeway in establishing press suppression policies, as they tried to influence coverage of the war and prevent publication of newspapers that spoke ill of the Union.⁸ Censorship left the press to debate the politics of loyalty. Staunch Unionist newspapers like the Globe-Democrat advocated for a full commitment to the US federal government, putting country over the state, adopting the values that made St. Louis a pro-Union stronghold. Many pro-slavery publications also supported the Union, but with much less vigor, as their loyalty was contingent on Missouri remaining a slave state at the end of the war.⁹

German Language Newspapers

German language newspapers emerged as some of the strongest supporters of the Union.  Missouri has a long history of non-English speaking newspapers that correlates back to the large number of German immigrants who flocked to the state in the early 1800s. German immigrants began moving to Missouri in vast numbers during the 1820s, following the publication of Gottfried Duden’s widely read A Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America. Duden was a German writer, and his book highlighted the new state as a particularly promising destination for immigrants. German-language newspapers played a critical role in these communities, helping immigrants protect their linguistic and cultural identities and form a sense of community. German immigrants and their American born descendants who wrote in these papers were often outspoken in their disdain for slavery. This was exemplified by one of the earliest German publications, the Licht-Freund, which began printing out of Hermann, Missouri in 1840 and advocated for the abolition of slavery. Although Missouri Germans were diverse in their political and religious beliefs, ranging from radical ‘48ers who supported the European revolutions of 1848, to the religiously conservative Saxon Lutherans, most German immigrants in Missouri adopted an antislavery stance. Many German immigrants joined Unionists groups in the state during the Civil War. American-born Missourians often viewed German immigrants as outsiders and some even discriminated against them, but despite this, a majority in the German community were forthright in their loyalty to the US. As the slavery debate raged in the border state, many fought for the Union. Following the Civil War, German-language newspapers continued to flourish for decades in cities like Jefferson City, Booneville, and St. Charles. However, the 1910s saw the forced collapse of the German-language press in the state. The advent of World War I resulted in a strong disdain for German American heritage across the country and increased concerns about their loyalty in the war against Germany, which caused the shuttering of numerous newspapers in Missouri.¹⁰

Newspaper Consolidation

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Missouri witnessed the founding and merging of some of its most prominent newspapers. Publications in cities such as Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield, emerged as the dominant newspapers in each urban area. The Springfield News-Leader printed its first edition on April 4, 1867, with O.H. Fahnestock acting as the paper’s first publisher. In 1947, a fire destroyed much of the mechanical plant where the paper was printed, resulting in a major adjustment to its production location, as the News-Leader was printed in Tulsa, Oklahoma and trucked to Springfield every day for months until a new plant was completed in 1948. The paper outlasted that inferno, mergers, and Depression-era financial struggles, and continues to publish daily editions. Today, the News-Leader still serves as the preeminent newspaper for the state’s third largest city and the wider Ozark region.¹¹

In 1878, Joseph Pulitzer purchased the 15-year-old Dispatch and merged it with the Post to form the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.¹² The paper quickly took on Pulitzer’s progressive attitude, fighting for reform and justice. The Post-Dispatch officially embraced these values in 1907 when Pulitzer wrote “The Platform.” Similar to those adopted by political parties, “The Platform” acted as a moral guide for journalists working at the paper in its early years and is still embraced today. It makes a commitment to “the public welfare” and “never being afraid to attack wrong,” which resulted in journalists promoting racial justice and women’s rights in the early twentieth century. “The Platform” also gave Pulitzer and the paper an ethical foundation as they challenged powerful institutions. This included clergy in St. Louis who were pushing for prohibition and even President Theodore Roosevelt, who was exposed for corruption relating to the Panama Canal.¹³

The Kansas City Star was first printed in 1880, with the name alluded to in its evening publication schedule. Early versions of the paper faced competition from the Times and Journal in the morning and the Mail in the afternoon. Issues were available for two cents a copy and focused on local events. William Rockhill Nelson, one of its two founders, saw the Star as a chance to profit and make a difference. The paper soon began campaigning for improvements such as municipal parks and a boulevard system. Nelson bought the Kansas City Times in 1901, creating a news empire that he labeled the “24-hour Star.” That 24-hour cycle allowed the paper, and Nelson, to dominate the region politically, and would continue until the Star became a morning-only daily in 1990.¹⁴

Black Owned Newspapers

Though the Post-Dispatch and Star took over the press in Missouri’s two largest cities, they often lacked coverage of the state’s Black communities. Thus, African American newspapers stepped in. Since the nineteenth century, Black Missourians have published their own newspapers. For instance, Advance and Welcome Friend operated out of St. Louis in the 1870s and 1880s and served the state’s growing Black population. Black newspapers covered local and national news that was relevant to African American communities and featured advertisements for Black businesses. The newspapers were often published in predominantly Black neighborhoods. For example, in 1919 Chester Arthur Franklin founded The Call, which was established in, and still operates out of Kansas City’s 18^th and Vine District. African American papers did not exist only in Kansas City and St. Louis, however. During the first half of the twentieth century, newspapers such as The Searchlight, Southeast Missouri World, and the Home Protective Record were prominent in Sedalia, Sikeston, and Hannibal. In an era in which white newspapers typically neglected to report on news in the growing Black communities and often perpetuated racist stereotypes when they did, Black publications served a valuable purpose for Missouri’s Black communities. Today, The Call, the St. Louis American, and other African American newspapers carry on that legacy of amplifying the voices of Black communities in Missouri.¹⁵

Newspapers as Facilitators of Change

Newspapers of all kinds, white and Black, held a critical place in conversations happening in Missouri during the twentieth century. They played a major role in the day-to-day lives of Missourians, providing important and timely news updates for their readers. Debates over national matters such as the fight for Black civil rights played out in small towns and major metropolitan areas across the state. Thus, newspapers were central to shaping public opinion. The Civil Rights Movement was in full force in the early 1960s and activists spoke out and took action in many American cities. One of the most significant events in St. Louis was the Jefferson Bank demonstration, where protesters marched outside of the financial institution hoping to gain attention for ongoing labor disputes. Numerous St. Louis newspapers covered the protest, and columnists debated the effectiveness and validity of the demonstration. Coverage varied based on if it was a white or Black owned newspaper. For example, an editorial in the Post-Dispatch from October 25, 1963, called for an end to the protests in the name of “public peace and progress.” While in the same month, the American took the opposite stance and supported the actions of the civil rights protesters, saying, “let the solemn picketing continue.”¹⁶

Throughout the twentieth century, newspapers have played a vital role within Missouri municipalities and hundreds of publications operated in the state. Although nightly television news and later twenty-four-hour cable news broadcasts gave Missourians other outlets to gather information, local newspapers still served as reliable institutions in cities and small towns. Missouri newspapers maintained a continued significance to their communities. This is evidenced by the natural disaster in Joplin, Missouri in 2011.  An F-5 tornado ripped through the city, and the Joplin Globe acted fast. Staff of the Joplin Globe continued to go to work, even after some lost their homes, as they understood the responsibility they had to their community. The next day’s paper was only an hour late off the presses, as journalists at the Globe helped the city digest the disaster immediately after and for weeks to come.¹⁷

Print Newspapers on the Decline

Over the last twenty years, the expansion of high-speed internet has led to a decline in newspaper publication across the United States. Many people now get their news from social media and other online sources. Advertisers, once the backbone of the newspaper industry, have turned their attention from print to digital. This new reality has not passed over Missouri. According to the University of North Carolina, there were 256 newspapers published in Missouri in 2004 and as of 2019, that number dropped to 220. There has also been a 25 percent decrease in newspaper circulation across the state from 2004 to 2019 and it now has fifty-three counties with a single paper.¹⁸ Even with a decrease in publication, newspapers continue to publish for the people of Missouri, as they have done for two centuries. Those like the Liberty Tribune, Kirksville Daily Express, and Marshall Democrat News have served a local purpose, while others like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gained national acclaim. The Kansas City Hispanic News, Kansas City Call, St. Louis American, and Red Latina provides coverage for underrepresented groups such as Black and Latinx Missourians. Similarly, Il Pensiero helps many St. Louisans stay connected to their Italian heritage. Even as the news landscape changes, newspapers continue to hold an important place in the culture and conversations happening around the Show Me State. Missouri has demonstrated a proud history of journalism and acts as a portal into the past and a foothold for future newspapers throughout Missouri.

The Louisiana Territory was a massive area of land in the center of North America. Before the United States gained control of the region from the French in 1803, Indigenous peoples controlled the American interior and various European empires vied for control of the territory. The Louisiana Territory included several key geographical pieces that resulted in the eventual success of the Midwest as well as the United States. The Mississippi River, which runs north from what is now the state of Minnesota and south to the Gulf of Mexico, was a vital transportation route for goods and people. Referred to as the confluence region by historian Stephen Aron, the area around the juncture of the Missouri and Ohio rivers with the Mississippi River was both a geographic place of convergences, as well as a meeting place of Indigenous nations and European empires.²

French colonists, who mostly came from French American colonies, first arrived and settled along the Illinois and Upper Mississippi River in the late seventeenth century. They farmed the river bottomlands and traveled west of the river, into what became Missouri, to mine salt deposits and engage in the fur trade with the many Indigenous groups, in particular the Osage and the Missourias, who inhabited the region.  French habitants, as they were called, established the first permanent settlement on the western bank of the Mississippi River at Ste. Genevieve in 1750. French colonists increasingly settled west of the Mississippi, after the British gained control of the American land east of the river, after their victory over France at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763.³ The year before, France had ceded control of Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in recognition of Spain’s support during the war with Great Britain.  In addition, Louisiana was expensive to administrate, and few French settlers had moved to the colony. This was particularly the case in the area that became Missouri, where only 1,000 settlers resided at the time the Spanish took control.  During Spanish rule, the population of the future state of Missouri more than tripled, largely due to generous land grants by the Spanish, which they offered to entice Americans to move into the region. French traders also established St. Louis as a successful trading post in 1764.⁴

Napoleon, who came to power in France in 1799, had big plans for Louisiana and the rest of his American empire in New France. His ultimate goal was to regain control of both Louisiana and the island of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti).  The French Caribbean colonies, which included Saint-Domingue, used enslaved agricultural workers to produce valuable commodities that were in high demand in European markets. Suffering brutal treatment and inspired by the events of the French Revolution, the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, staged an uprising against their enslavers, and took control of the island in 1791.⁵ After he came to power in 1799, Napoleon hoped to regain control of the French colony and restart the production of sugar, coffee, and other commodities. The port of New Orleans was an important trade venue, and the Louisiana colony was integral as a grain producing region for France’s American empire. Napoleon negotiated with Spain for the return of Louisiana to France in the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800.⁶

Napoleon soon accepted that he had been defeated by the formerly enslaved people of Saint-Domingue and, therefore, decided that control of Louisiana would be too expensive to justify. Unaware of Napoleon’s intention to relinquish his claim to France’s North American holdings, President Thomas Jefferson asked American envoys James Monroe and Robert Livingston to negotiate with France to purchase the Port of New Orleans and West Florida for up to $10 million.  To the surprise of the American diplomats, Napoleon offered to sell France’s preemptive claims to all French Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. Jefferson’s purchase of Louisiana doubled the land mass of the United States.⁷ Within this acquisition, the nation gained control of the entire length of the Mississippi River in addition to the port city of New Orleans.  Although he was concerned about the constitutionality of the purchase, President Jefferson decided that the vast benefits of the acquisition outweighed any legal concerns.⁸

Once the territory belonged to the United States, Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an expedition to learn more about the newly acquired land. One specific goal of the expedition was to discover a waterway that led to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson’s expectation for the new American territory was to open land for citizen farmers to create generational wealth and expand American democracy. Jefferson and many other government officials negotiated and implemented treaties to manage Indigenous nations’ long-existing claims to the land. “Jefferson used the networks created by treaties to further the program of gradual ‘civilization.’ Through treaties and commerce, Jefferson hoped to continue to get Native Americans to adopt European agriculture practices, shift to a sedentary way of life, and free up hunting grounds for further white settlement.”⁹ Some nations fell in line with Jefferson’s “civilization” programs, while others rebelled against the United States government. Historian Robert Lee says that ultimately the purchase price of Louisiana was actually much higher than the $15 million given to France. This amount only accounts for the price paid for France’s claims to the land. The US government continued to take land from the Indigenous peoples who inhabited it through various means, including violence, intimidation, and treaties. Lee argues the United States government has paid “no less than $2.6 billion” for 222 cessions of First Nations’ title to the land that comprised the Louisiana Territory as well as settlements and annuities related to it in the many years since its purchase. This amounts to “$418 million in 1803 dollars or more than $8.5 billion in 2012” dollars. This dollar amount does not account for the human costs of the American settlement of the Louisiana Purchase, however.¹⁰

Although some were already living on Louisiana Purchase lands, the migration of white Americans accelerated quickly after Jefferson’s purchase and over the following decades they settled in the areas that became part of the present-day states of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming. American settlers moved to the Upper Louisiana area that became Missouri, bringing their “property,” which included household items, livestock, and even enslaved people, into the territory. In the years following the conclusion of the War of 1812 in 1815, there was a land rush in the Boon’s Lick region, along the Missouri River in central Missouri, as settlers from the Upper South flocked to the region in search of fertile and inexpensive land.¹¹

As more Americans moved into Louisiana Territory, the topic of statehood became a common conversation. After the state of Louisiana entered the union in 1812, the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory. At the time Congress considered Missouri statehood, there was a balance between 11 free states and 11 slave states.   This kept a balance within the US government as far representation in the US Senate. When Missourians petitioned for statehood, a controversy erupted in Congress as to whether or not it should admit Missouri as a slave state. After much controversy, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 divided the lands of the original Louisiana Purchase into two parts. Any land north of Missouri’s southern border – with the exception of Missouri itself – would be free of slavery, while anything south of the border would allow slavery. Missouri entered the Union as a slave state in 1821 and the state of Maine entered the Union as a free state in 1820.

The Louisiana Purchase provided the United States with geographical pieces essential to trade routes in the central part of the country, linking the heart of the nation with the greater Atlantic world.  It also led to the expansion of American settlement up and down the major rivers in what eventually became the Midwest. The amount of land occupied by White Americans doubled through this acquisition. By the late 1820s, white Missourians had forced most Indigenous peoples out of the state through intimidation, violence, and treaties and resettled them on land west of the Missouri state line in what eventually became the states Kansas and Oklahoma. With the “Platte Purchase” of 1836, the Americans achieved the forcible removal of all Indigenous peoples from what is now the geographic boundaries of the state of Missouri. This completed what historian Stephen Aron has called the “ethnic cleansing of Missouri” and further opened up the state to the expansion of slavery.¹²

Robert Ritchie Robertson, born in Burntisland, Scotland, was deeply dedicated to the development and continuation of Springfield’s Boy Scout Band. His knowledge of musical instruments and his ability to teach student musicians were critical to the band’s early success. His musical talents developed from an early age in Scotland. His father, David, directed choirs in the community and encouraged young Robert to pursue music. As a result, Robert learned to play the flute, concertina, piano, and violin between the ages of 6 and 12. Young Robert became conductor of the town band at age 18.

On August 25, 1900, Robertson departed for America, and this may be the first time his Americanized name “R. Ritchie Robertson” appeared on a U.S. government record. In 1902 he moved to Paola, Kansas, and while there earned the alliterative nickname, the “Star Spangled Scotsman” due to his interest in American patriotic music. He was named music supervisor for the Paola, Kansas, schools in 1912. Robertson accepted a similar position with the Springfield Public Schools in 1916. Among Robertson’s first observations of Springfield were the choices of music played in the city; it was “saturated” with ragtime. He wanted to change the city’s musical focus to classical, patriotic, and other varieties of popular music. In 1920, in his capacity as supervisor of music in the Springfield schools, Ritchie was offered the opportunity to create a Boy Scout Band.²

With the support of Springfield’s Rotary Club and the local Boy Scout Council providing sheet music and the more expensive instruments, the Boy Scout Band was organized in November 1920 to involve young people in programs outside Springfield’s school curriculum. Over time, other local civic organizations provided funds to make the Boy Scout Band self-supporting. Boy Scout leaders arranged fifty boys, aged 12-14, as the first members of the Boy Scout Band in November 1920. On February 22, 1921, the band played its first concert for a Rotary Club luncheon at the Colonial Hotel.³

Eventually, boys ranging from ages 12 to 18, participated in the band with the stipulation that they be registered members of the Boy Scouts. The boys played a varying repertoire of popular and classic music artistically. Will James of Martin Brothers Piano Company pointed out the Boy Scout Band did not play jazz numbers, only “clean, high-class music.” ⁴

In the late summer of 1921, Robertson announced the first expansion of band members and called for the first “Beginners Band” to meet on September 15. Seventy-five new boys showed up that day, ready for practice. As membership in the band grew, the need for a mid-level group was recognized as a way for band members to advance, especially those who needed slightly more time to polish their skills with their instruments before participating in public concerts. The result was a Monday night band for beginners, a Wednesday night band for intermediate musicians, and the Thursday night band was for advanced band members.⁵

In 1923, the Boy Scout Band began to earn regional recognition. On June 19, 140 members of the Boy Scout Band “created a furor” when they performed a concert at the International Rotary convention in St. Louis, serenading a distinguished Rotarian in attendance, President Warren G. Harding. The following day, the band members marched in a parade in St. Louis. While marching along Ninth Street during the Rotary International Convention Parade on June 20, the 125 Springfield Boy Scout Band members lost their march discipline. Bystanders along the street and onlookers from the Frisco Building enjoyed the band and their music so much that they showered the band with coins and dollar bills. Seeing the money landing at their feet and nearby on the street, the Boy Scouts stopped playing and broke ranks to collect the money. The wild scramble for cash halted the parade for about five minutes until Robertson and other scout leaders restored order. As the band started forward again, more parade attendees showered the boys with additional money. The dismayed Robertson shook his baton and roared out, “Forward, MARCH!” Though the temptation to pick up more cash was great, the boys reportedly followed their band leader’s direction.⁶

Over the first three years, likely the Boy Scout Band’s most memorable moment was later that summer. On August 20, 112 selected members of the Boy Scout Band and a large group of citizens boarded a special train destined for the Missouri State Fair. The train had banners as decorations, and passengers wore badges advertising Springfield and the Boy Scout Band. On August 22, the Boy Scout Band demonstrated the quality of their musicianship during a band competition with a dozen other bands at the Missouri State Fair. Springfield’s Boy Scout musicians won first prize and were honored with a cash award of $150.⁷

After the Fair ended, the Missouri State Fair Board members fondly recalled Springfield’s Boy Scout Band as the key attraction at the 1923 state fair. The Board members contacted Robertson, who then received an additional honor. On September 29, 1923, the Missouri State Fair Board sent a letter to inform the Springfield band of their intent to present a silver loving cup to the boys at a local celebration in Springfield. By the end of 1923, the Boy Scout Band emerged as a source of pride for the Springfield community and the state.⁸

In February 1924, the band greeted the world-famous bandmaster John Philip Sousa and the “best band in the land.” On February 5, a frosty and very snowy day, the “March King” and his band arrived by train in Springfield for an afternoon matinee and evening concert. Earlier that morning, Robertson and the Boy Scout Band had marched through heavy snow and waited three hours for Sousa’s late-arriving train at the Frisco Railroad’s passenger station. Then, to the sound of drums, the Boy Scout Band escorted Sousa and his band to their quarters at the Colonial Hotel. After unfreezing the valves in their instruments at the hotel, Robertson’s Boy Scouts played a short piece, Sousa’s own “Our Director,” and then cheered Sousa. Later, the boys made their way to the afternoon matinee concert at the Shrine Mosque, where Sousa invited them to attend as guests of his band. Future composer of The Music Man musical, Meredith Willson, accompanied Sousa’s Band as a solo flutist. The band members likely were just as impressed as Sousa with the Boy Scout Band’s determination to march through snow and endure cold temperatures, just to greet Sousa and the other band members that day.⁹

In 1924, Springfield’s Boy Scout Band began summer “Goodwill Tours.” These goodwill tours consisted of three-to-five-day trips sponsored by the Springfield Chamber of Commerce. These trips included up to forty-car caravans and were very popular into the early 1930s, particularly in rural towns where entertainment was rare. Typically, the band would drive to a small town, circle the square, and meet with town officials before a short concert. The band visited up to nine towns daily. By 1930, the “Goodwill Tours” resulted in performances in 160 Missouri towns.¹⁰

During 1928, the Boy Scout Band reached its peak enrollment at 440 members. During this period, Robertson composed his “Bluebonnet March,” which some consider his best composition. The music that the band composed was after the Frisco Railway’s coach in which the Boy Scout Band traveled for performances in Kansas City, Sedalia, St. Louis, Chicago, Memphis, and Dallas circa 1927-1928. On November 21, 1928, Robertson was invited to be a guest conductor when John Philip Sousa’s Band performed at Springfield’s Shrine Mosque. There, Sousa’s band debuted Robertson’s “Bluebonnet March.” Later, Sousa was a guest conductor for the Boy Scout Band. The boys played two Sousa compositions: “Solid Men to the Front” and “Semper Fidelis.” Sousa also presented a silver cup to Robertson for his musical achievements and evolving the Boy Scout Band at the concert.¹¹

The Boy Scout Band’s illustrious reputation continued through the 1930s. Even during difficult economic times of the Great Depression, the community’s support of the Band continued. For example, the band was slated to perform at the Texas Centennial in Dallas in 1936 but did not meet its undraising goals. Frisco railroaders came forward with a last-minute cash contribution of $240, ensuring the band had $900 to cover their round trip expenses. On June 16, the Boy Scout Band, designated as the official Missouri band for the Texas Centennial, paraded through the Centennial’s 200-acre Fair Park Complex in Dallas. They passed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the second president to view them in person.

Robertson was in his twenty-third year as music supervisor of the Springfield Public Schools at the time of his death in 1939. His son, James P. Robertson, replaced him as Boy Scout Band director and as the supervisor of music for the Springfield Public School system.¹²

In the early 1940s, the Boy Scout Band adapted to the changing times. The United States’ entry into World War II resulted in the band’s shift from musical focus to mostly patriotic scores. The band’s sterling reputation was honored in February 1944 with a distinguished service citation from the Music War Council of America.¹³

Although many were unaware of it at the time, 1949 was the Boy Scout Band’s final year. Until his retirement in 1948, Springfield Boy Scout leader Allen C. Foster resisted all pressure to dissolve Springfield’s Boy Scout Band. Unfortunately, Foster’s replacement, Melvin Tudor, a native of St. Louis, did not recognize the Boy Scout Band’s widespread outstanding reputation throughout the nation, nor the band’s appearances in Ozarks communities as Springfield’s finest representatives. Tudor, therefore, was not supportive of the Boy Scout Band as a separate function of the Boy Scouts, and so he sought its dissolution. In part, James P. Robertson resigned as music supervisor for the Springfield Public Schools and the Boy Scout Band at the end of the 1949 school year. With James Robertson’s departure for a position at the former University of Wichita, Springfield’s Boy Scout Band disbanded, ending the Robertson era of influence on Springfield’s music scene. At the conclusion of its distinguished life, approximately 3,500 musicians had played in the Boy Scout Band. The Boy Scout Band established a reputation for high-quality music, disciplined musicians, and set a standard for school bands nationwide to model.¹⁴

Long before Route 66 was conceptualized, transportation changes in the early 20^th century prompted local and national interest in creating a public road network. In 1911, over 16,000 cars were registered in Missouri. That number climbed to 150,000 in 1917, as a growing number of Missourians could afford to purchase automobiles.¹ This new population of car-owners created a demand for a navigable, well-maintained public road system to replace existing unpaved and inadequate roads. Missouri voters approved a $60 million bond issue to improve road conditions in 1920.² A year later, the federal government, which shared an interest in improving roads, introduced the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1921 with the intention to create a cohesive highway network that connected rural and urban communities.³ Together, these state and national efforts paved the way for the creation of Route 66.

Route 66 also grew out of the shared interests of Springfield Attorney John Woodruff and Oklahoma Highway Department Chairman Cyrus Avery. Although only Avery is remembered as the “Father of Route 66,” both men were extremely influential in planning and promoting the motorway; Avery was also prominent in naming Route 66. Woodruff and Avery advocated for Route 66’s diagonal Chicago to Los Angeles route believing it would divert traffic from Kansas City to Missouri’s rural towns.⁴ Their proposed route would pass through the state, crossing St. Louis before heading southwest through Cuba, Rolla, Lebanon, Springfield, Carthage, and Joplin. After years of unsuccessful lobbying, Route 66 was finally approved to travel their route by the Secretary of Agriculture on November 11, 1926.⁵ The following year, Avery pushed for the creation of the US Highway 66 Association to promote and pave the road. Woodruff became the organization’s first president and Avery its vice president.⁶ Although Route 66 would not be entirely paved until 1938, Avery and Woodruff’s efforts paid off in 1931 when the Missouri stretch was completed.⁷

The promotion and improvement of the highway in the late 1920s caught the attention of the trucking industry, in its infancy, quickly recognized Route 66’s promise as a shipping way. Unlike highways in the Northern United States, the diagonal, all-season route traversed flatlands through temperate climates.⁸ It also crossed rural and previously isolated regions, like Southwest Missouri, enabling farmers to ship their grains and produce by truck.⁹ These conditions made Route 66 an ideal choice for transporting freight from the Midwest, and by 1930 the trucking industry rivaled the railroad in terms of shipping.¹⁰ The need for roadside amenities along Route 66 resulted in the proliferation of small businesses along the road, particularly in Missouri.¹¹ The increased demand for roadside services along Route 66 throughout the 1930s continued to feed the growth of Missouri’s small towns and businesses, despite devastating economic and environmental crises. Although trucking declined because of the economic downturn during the Great Depression, Route 66 saw increased traffic from laborers, farmers, and working families desperate to find economic opportunities in California and the West. Many of these travelers were also fleeing the Dust Bowl, a destructive environmental disaster that caused drought and soil erosion across the Great Plains, including parts of western Missouri. By the end of the 1930s, an estimated 400,000 people had traveled west on Route 66.¹² This unprecedented movement westward led to a boom in many of Missouri’s towns and mom-and-pop businesses along Route 66.

Although civilian travel on the road declined during World War II, Route 66 continued to bolster Missouri’s roadside economies as it served as a major military transportation corridor. From 1939 to 1945, the highway provided an avenue for moving materials and personnel from centralized production locations and military bases in the Midwest and West to coastal staging points.¹³ As military families and people seeking employment in western defense plants traveled the highway, new businesses emerged and existing service stations, restaurants, and motor courts reaped the financial benefits of long-term and repeat visitors. Motor courts or “tourists courts” emerged in the 1930s and 40’s as a “classier alternative to dingy cabin camps. Unlike downtown hotels, courts were designed to be automobile friendly. You could park next to your individual room or under a carport.”¹⁴ One collection of roadside businesses just north of the newly constructed Fort Leonard Wood were so successful that they eventually grew into a town called St. Robert.¹⁵

After World War II, Route 66 experienced a “golden age” as Americans gained unprecedented wealth and enjoyed increased leisure time. These conditions led to a rise in the number of families who could afford to purchase a car and take vacations. The preceding decades of travel along Route 66 had created infrastructure in small towns to support travelers. As a result, the road quickly became the popular choice for the “Great American road trip.” The increase in travel sparked another, much larger, boom in Missouri’s businesses along the route. One popular motor court, the Coral Court in St. Louis, was founded in 1941 with twenty-one rooms. The number of rooms grew to 66 by 1946.¹⁶ The increased demand for roadside amenities also drove innovation in the restaurant industry and led to the creation of the first drive-up restaurant. Fittingly located in the birthplace of Route 66, Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield drew travelers off the highway for a bite to eat.¹⁷

Taking a road trip on Route 66 involved extra considerations for Black Americans looking to take part in America’s new favorite pastime. Although white Americans found countless travelers’ courts and roadside attractions along Route 66, Black tourists faced the challenges of navigating segregation and sundown towns as they traversed the road west. This was especially true in Southwest Missouri, where several sundown towns¹⁸ and unwelcoming businesses dotted the route.¹⁹ Sundown Towns are historically all-white communities, neighborhoods, or counties that exclude Black and other historically marginalized people “through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence.”²⁰ The name derives from the posted and verbal warnings issued to Black people that they may be allowed to work or travel in a community during the daytime, but were instructed to leave by sundown, or face the prospect of violence.²¹ African American travelers relied on tools such as The Negro Motorist Green-Book and a similar Southwest-Missouri pamphlet to help them locate the few Black-owned and welcoming businesses along Route 66 in the state.²² One Springfield business, Alberta’s, was listed in the Green Book almost every year from 1954 to 1967 and provided travelers a safe place to stay, eat, and shop. Similar businesses included Williams Hotel in Joplin and Austin House in Columbia, among others.²³

Ironically, the success and popularity of Route 66 occurred at the same time as its demise. Dwight Eisenhower had observed the importance of an efficient road system to national defense as a general in World War II. Taking inspiration from Germany’s system of high-speed autobahns, President Eisenhower pushed for a highway system that connected major cities via direct routes. Congress approved the Federal Highway Aid Act in 1956, jump-starting the modern Interstate Highway System. That same year, on August 2, Missouri became the first state to award a contract under the new highway law, and the first interstate construction began in St. Charles, Missouri, on I-70 at Missouri Route 94.²⁴ Nearly 20 years later, Route 66 was almost completely bypassed in Missouri by I-44, and by 1985 the road was officially decommissioned in the state.²⁵ The decline in travel and decommissioning of Route 66 increasingly led to the demise of many roadside towns and businesses. Red’s Giant Hamburg closed in 1984 and the Coral Court ended operations in 1993.²⁶

In the wake of the highway’s decommissioning, the Missouri Route 66 Association was formed in 1990, with an intention to “preserve, promote, and develop old Route 66.”²⁷ At the time, Missourians recognized the importance of preserving the ideas and themes that Americans associated with the route. In popular culture, Route 66 was memorialized in an American Adventure crime drama television series that ran from 1960-1964, called Route 66; it starred Martin Milner and George Maharis. Route 66 had become more than a major route West. The highway was a symbol of freedom to Americans; the freedom to travel, explore, try new things, and seek a better life. As Bobby Troup’s song about the famous highway suggests, “Get your kicks on Route 66. It winds from Chicago to L.A. 2,000 miles all the way.”²⁸ Today, Route 66 lives on as the old “Mother Road” from Missouri to the great west, providing travelers a glimpse back in time to a lost era.

Competing attitudes of reconciliation and resentment took hold along the border in the years following the Civil War. The war was especially brutal along the state line, as tensions that had been boiling since the 1850s erupted into full-scale guerrilla warfare. The localized combat resulted in citizens experiencing the full force of the war and the destruction of entire communities. Pro-Confederacy Missouri Bushwhackers terrorized Lawrence, and the Union Army removed residents and burned the properties of four western Missouri counties. Following these struggles, many region’s residents preferred both sides come together, and they attempted to foster an attitude of healing to memories of the war. These feelings were likely spurred on by the possibilities of economic growth, as intrastate commerce made the region more attractive for potential immigrants. Railroad expansion in particular prompted boosters to advocate for a more harmonious border, as they saw railroads as key to the development of post-war Missouri and the West.²

The anger brought on by the border conflict could not be smoothed over so quickly for others, however. Confederate sympathizers formed a perspective built around bitterness, regret, and a shared victimhood, resting on the idea that hard feelings lingered although the fighting was over. Confederates living in Missouri competed with Union commemorations after the war and made great efforts to explain why Missouri was worthy of an honorable place in the South. They argued that Missouri shared the same virtues as the true Confederate states and that the state’s location on the border led to an increased level of violence and suffering for the rebel cause. Groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) worked hard to place Missouri within the Lost Cause narrative, leading many in the state to adopt a Southern identity and memory of the conflict.³

The recollections of violence on both sides became central to this narrative, as groups like William Quantrill’s Bushwhackers and Jim Lane’s Jayhawkers were regarded as famous or infamous depending on which side of the state line you resided. One Southern sympathizer was William Napton, a former judge of the Missouri Supreme Court. Napton lost his seat after refusing to take a Union loyalty oath in 1861, and a year later, he lost his wife during childbirth amid harassment from a pro-Union militia. In the years following the war, Napton was known to keep an image of John Wilkes Booth in an album alongside a photo of his oldest son in a Confederate uniform. Men and women like Napton would lead the charge of remembering Missouri as a Confederate state, and Kansas City became the symbolic capital of this movement. They worked to keep the two sides separate, dividing Kansan from Missourian and Black from White. Straddling the turbulent border, the city gave former Bushwhackers and Confederates a chance to keep an eye on any would-be invading Jayhawkers.⁴

The hard feelings between the states deepened as the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas began competing in athletics. The schools first met in football in 1891, playing the game in Kansas City. The Jayhawks won that inaugural game 22-8 in front of 3,000 fans. The schools were rivals from then on, and even though the play on the field was peaceful in these early games, private security guards from the Pinkerton Detective Agency and the Kansas City police were used to ensure the crowds did not get too rowdy. The first men’s basketball games between the schools tipped off in 1907 and these contests became frightening because of the crowd’s proximity to the floor. At one game, Missouri fans nearly started a fight after a Jayhawk player stepped on a Tiger guard, and Missouri players reportedly practiced avoiding objects thrown at them when running onto KU’s court.⁵

The bad blood between the states continued outside of the sporting world, brought on in large parts by competing reunions. Members of Quantrill’s gang began meeting annually in Independence, Missouri, in 1898 to share war stories and hold on to the guerrilla way of life that had been so important in their youth.⁶ Lawrence residents were shocked to learn that the men who had once destroyed their town were now gathering in remembrance of their deeds, and the fact that the former guerrillas often met around the anniversary of the deadly raid was not lost on the Kansans. After a string of disagreements, Lawrence leaders were able to hold their own reunion in 1913, the 50th anniversary of Quantrill’s raid on the town. The reunion brought together 200 men and women and the Lawrence Journal recorded that it gave survivors a chance “to live the past 50 years over again.”⁷ The last of the Quantrill reunions was in 1929, as four men, including formerly enslaved Henry Wilson, gathered in Independence. Wilson was one of three elderly African Americans to occasionally attend the reunions. He claimed to have fled Union troops and served as a cook and bodyguard in Quantrill’s gang during the war. The reunions on both sides showed that wounds along the border had never really healed, and as the Topeka Daily Capitol noted in 1913, they resisted any notion of forgiveness and propped up the idea of revenge.⁸

The dueling reunions that occurred heightened the polarized dynamic that stemmed from the border violence and conflicting memories of the war. Although Missouri never formally entered the Confederacy, the celebration of pro-slavery guerrillas and the embrace of the Confederate narrative by many connected the Civil War border state with the South.⁹ Meanwhile, Kansans embraced a free-state history based on racial acceptance, though that narrative did not always match the true story. Thirty-seven Black men were lynched in Kansas from 1864 to 1920.¹⁰ Racial segregation and racist rhetoric were also common throughout the state, and in 1905 newspapers from Emporia ran headlines calling for lynchings. Examples like these show how the racial utopia portrayed by many Kansans was a myth. In reality, its free-state origins were based more on white men maintaining political and economic power than on a sense of morality. Many in the state used violence and intimidation to oppress African Americans for decades after the war, and harsher racist attitudes in Missouri helped Kansans rationalize their views. Kansans openly embraced figures like John Brown and routinely blamed incidents of violence near the border on Missourians and other outsiders. This allowed Kansans to uphold an air of righteousness and separated the Midwestern state from Missouri and the rest of the Jim Crow South.¹¹These competing cultures added to the hard feelings that accompanied the memory of the Border War and entrenched both sides in their disdain for one another.

Efforts of Civil War remembrance became prevalent throughout the first half of the twentieth century, and various southern-sympathizing organizations worked to keep up with their Union rivals. Groups like the UDC relied on efforts of memorialization to keep the Confederacy at the forefront of Missouri history. Statues commemorating Confederate soldiers went up in Kansas City, St. Louis, and numerous towns in between.¹² In Higginsville, the home for Confederate veterans was converted to a memorial park. This space, the UDC noted, was meant as a place where Missourians could enjoy nature and celebrate the valor that was shown by Confederates during the war.¹³ These efforts kept the legacy of the Confederacy alive in Missouri and continued to stoke old tensions throughout the state.

By the late 1940s, college students across the South had adopted Confederate symbols to show pride in their schools. Confederate flags became a staple at college football games, as southern powerhouses emerged in a sport traditionally dominated by northern universities.¹⁴ This was also true at the University of Missouri, where Confederate culture had become fully entrenched by the 1960s. Confederate flags flew at sporting events, and the university band played “Dixie.” Fraternities also flew the flag, and the Ordinances of Secession were read annually at the “Old South Days.”¹⁵ This embrace of the Lost Cause enflamed the culture clash between the states, and the sports rivalry hostilities matched that level of escalation. Following a controversial football result, the two schools faced off on the hardwood in Columbia in March 1961. The game turned into a bench-clearing brawl, with kicking, punching, and hundreds of fans rushing the court. The contest ended with a 79-76 MU win and KU losing their chance at a conference title. That fight sparked a stream of incidents between the rivals that included Missouri football coach Dan Devine flipping off Kansas coach Pepper Rodgers and KU football coach Don Fambrough refusing to cross the state line to see a recommended surgeon in Missouri.¹⁶

By the 2000s, the border conflict between Missouri and Kansas had become fully ingrained in the rivalry between the flagship universities. The schools officially established the Border War series in 2002, with the name being changed to Border Showdown two years later.¹⁷ One of the biggest football games in the rivalry’s history occurred in 2007, when No. 3 Missouri beat No. 2 Kansas 36-28.¹⁸ The prestige of the teams and the history of the region was a perfect storm for many to make connections between the real war and the athletic competition. The Kansas City Star wrote “digital bushwhackers and jayhawkers” still battled, while Metro Sports said the rivalry was “the only American college rivalry derived from actual warfare.” Outlandish fan behavior also gained national attention. Missouri fans could buy shirts featuring a Tigers’ logo and the image of a burning Lawrence, with the word “Scoreboard” prominently shown. Meanwhile, KU fans wore shirts that said “Kansas: Keeping America Safe from Missouri since 1854” and included an image of John Brown. The schools continued to show disdain for each other even after the rivalry had seemingly ended in 2012. After Missouri joined the Southeastern Conference, KU’s public relations office responded by posting, “Missouri forfeits a century-old rivalry. We win.”¹⁹

A resolution considered in 2011 by the Board of Aldermen in Osceola, Missouri showed the level of contempt both sides have for each other and how real battles and sporting events have inherently become one in the same for many people. Around the 150th anniversary of a deadly raid on the town by Lane’s forces, the Board passed a resolution condemning the use of the mascot name Jayhawk by KU, citing the name’s origin as a “group of domestic terrorists.”²⁰

With the recent announcement that the universities’ plan to resume the football and basketball rivalries, the conflict between the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri lives on.²¹ Through those games, memories of the violence that took place along the border will also endure, and even though stories of deadly raids and reunions have turned into divided tailgate parties and fan-made shirts, the conflict still holds influence over Missourians and how they view their neighbors to the west.

The “Forty-Eighters” also preferred the city and most of them settled in St. Louis County during the early 1850s to take advantage of lower housing costs, yet be close to the city’s market and the opportunity for employment as artisans, teachers, journalists, and politicians. By 1880, the majority of Germans coming to St. Louis were displaced farm laborers or urban workers from northern Germany who pursued manufacturing and mechanical occupations. Ludwig Dilger, for example, indicated to his family in Germany that St. Louis offered excellent opportunities for masons, carpenters, and wheelwrights.³

The economic opportunity in St. Louis and its rich farming hinterland also provided temporary employment for needy newcomers who had enough savings to pay for the voyage across the Atlantic but not enough to purchase land. Single travelers or newlywed couples often lived in the city on the way to the farm. Mutual aid societies, such as the Deutsche Unterstützungs Band (German Aid Society) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft (German Society) of St. Louis, assisted new arrivals with finding employment, provided access to hospital care, aided with burials and assisted with arrangements for those who wished to continue their journey farther west.⁴

Initially, Germans settled in the northern and southern wards of St. Louis, but by 1900 Germans lived throughout the city. They took advantage of the social and geographic mobility of an open society and different class, religious, and regional backgrounds as well as diverse economic and social ambitions encouraged such movement. The 1912 edition of The Book of St. Louisans, noted 292 individuals born in Germany who had become successful doctors, educators, bankers, journalists, politicians, and businessmen, including Herman Kroeger, the founder of Kroeger-Amos-James Grocery Company.⁵ Military heroes of German birth, who made St. Louis their home, included Union officers Franz Sigel and Peter Joseph Osterhaus.⁶ Among the notable politicians with national fame was Richard Barthold, who served as United States Representative for St. Louis between 1892 and 1915.⁷ Carl Schurz, publisher of the Westliche Post, served as United States Senator from Missouri between 1868 and 1874, and accepted the appointment as President Rutherford B. Hayes’s Secretary of Interior in 1877.⁸ Several German-born men became mayors of St. Louis, including Henry C. Overstolz and Henry Ziegenhein, the latter despite his broken English.⁹

One of the biggest German success stories of St. Louis was the creation of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. In 1857, Eberhard Anheuser, who had already established a successful soap factory, bought the failed Bavarian Brewery and through the managerial assistance of his son-in-law Adolphus Busch turned the local brewery into an international business.¹⁰ Indeed, by the turn of the century, Germans essentially monopolized the brewing and malting business in St. Louis.

The children of German immigrants also became successful and famous. Charles Nagel, son of German parents, became a well-known lawyer, served in the Missouri House of Representatives during the 1880s, became the Republican Party National Committee chairman in 1908, and served as Secretary of Labor under President Taft.¹¹

German immigrants and their descendants certainly left a lasting impact on St. Louis. The actions of German-born volunteers on May 10, 1861, at Camp Jackson kept Missouri in the Union during the Civil War.¹² Susan Blow established the first public kindergarten in the United States in St. Louis in 1873.¹³ During its long history between 1859 and 1924, the German Theater Society produced such plays as Der tolle Wenzel and the Schützen König. German immigrants also established social and cultural clubs such as Sängerbünde (Singing Societies), Turnvereine (Gymnastic societies), and Bier Gärten (Beer Gardens).¹⁴These clubs and organizations served as the core of the German-American social season and sponsored dances, plays, and musical performances.

Although these clubs gave the public the impression of ethnic unity, such oneness is deceiving because regional origin, specific social limitations, or occupational requirements often restricted membership in these clubs and societies. Fragmentation and disagreements existed from the early days of immigration because Germans were very diverse in intellectual background, religion, social class, education, and attitudes.¹⁵ German singing societies in St. Louis that survived into the twentieth century included the Schwäbischer Sängerbund (Swabian Singer Union), Bayerische Männerchor (Bavarian Men’s Choir), Rheinischer Frohsinn (Rhenish Cheerfulness) limited membership to geographic origin.¹⁶ Even mutual aid societies, such as the Badische Unterstützungs Verein (Baden Aid Society), required evidence of common geographic origin for membership.¹⁷ Class or occupation also influenced in what choir one would sing or to what society one belonged.¹⁸

Religion, in particular, was a divisive rather than uniting factor for Germans in St. Louis. The majority of Catholics and Lutherans who arrived during the 1830s and 1840s were conservative. These “Grays” resented the newcomers, or “Greens,” who arrived in the 1850s. Among them were freethinkers, who were liberal and believed that free thought was the basic requirement for true freedom. Freethinking editors openly expressed anti-clerical thoughts in newspapers, such as the Anzeiger des Westens, that opposed Catholics as well as Lutherans, the Concordia Seminary, and their conservative political stand.¹⁹ 

Neither were the Germans of St. Louis united politically. Most quickly adjusted to the American two-party system and chose their affiliation with either the Democratic or Republican Party according to religious beliefs and personal, economic, and ethnic needs. For example, most Catholics supported the Democratic Party and numerous factory workers voted for the Socialist Party.²⁰ 

The German-language newspapers published in St. Louis over time also reflect this political and ideological split. Whigs established Die Deutsche Tribüne but it became a Democratic paper in the early 1850s. The Freie Blätter served as a freethinking publication for Forty-Eighters. The Amerika, published between 1872 and 1924, has been called one of “the best of all German Catholic papers in the United States” and supported the Democratic Party. The St. Louis Arbeiterzeitung represented the Socialists. The Westliche Post became the most respected Republican German newspaper west of the Mississippi.²¹ 

The degree of acculturation varied widely in St. Louis because, as Germans adjusted to life in America, they had to adapt, transform, and mold their ethnic consciousness according to their individual circumstances and needs. Economic expansion, class mobility, political participation, and social acceptance were some of the many factors that influenced the creation of the German-American identity in St. Louis. Daily economic and social interaction with Americans and other ethnic groups required adoption of English and discouraged second and third generation German-Americans from maintaining their parents’ language. The German language survived the longest in churches because many pastors believed that truth could only be learned through the German language. To maintain knowledge of German, Catholic and Protestant churches in St. Louis established parochial schools where German was not just a subject but where many classes were also taught in German. Nevertheless, German was declining during the 1910s because American born children and grandchildren began to demand sermons in English. The German Lutheran Holy Cross Church, for example, introduced English evening services on the second and fourth Sunday of every month in 1909.²² 

By contrast, children attending public schools could still receive German language instruction in reading, writing, and speaking through second or third grade. Beyond that all classes were in English. This encouraged the children of German immigrants to learn English at an early age but also offered English-speaking children the opportunity to learn rudimentary German. This policy was popular and so successful that the study and use of German in public declined by the early twentieth century.²³

By the turn of the century, the adoption of the English language would have been looked upon as becoming American. One example is Henry W. Kiel, the mayor of St. Louis, who had to apologize during the German Day festivities in the city in June 1913 that he was no longer able to address his fellow German-Americans in his parents’ native language. German culture and identity, however, continued to exist through occasional German services in churches and an interested person could still learn the German language. The German theater fulfilled the need for intellectual stimulation and several German clubs and organizations offered ample opportunity for socializing. The two vibrant newspapers, the Westliche Post and Amerika, informed Germans in St. Louis and surrounding areas with news about the city, state, nation and Germany in the German language, thus representing strong evidence of Deutschtum in St. Louis.²⁴ English-language newspapers in St. Louis cited the examples of Carl Schurz, Franz Sigel, and Adolphus Busch to argue that German immigrants and especially their children had assimilated and, “had been interwoven with our composite national fiber…[and] had been transformed into Americans.”²⁵ Editorials discussing the unveiling of the “Naked Truth” Memorial to three distinguished German-Americans in 1914, celebrated their lives and argued that their dedication to freedom furthered American history as well as represented the best of German culture and should serve as inspiration to immigrants already here and those still to come.²⁶

Missouri became a popular destination for German immigrants in part because travelers to the state, such as Gottfried Duden, had written glowing reports during the 1820s about its land, waterways, and climate. Additional elements that contributed to the immigration to America and Missouri were improved accommodations aboard steamships that lowered expenses and the growing efficiency of emigration societies. For example, the Deutsche Ansiedlungs-Gesellschaft zu Philadelphia (German Settlement Society of Philadelphia) purchased land along the Missouri and Gasconade Rivers suitable for both agricultural and manufacturing pursuits and established the city of Hermann in 1837 to unite Germans in America into a colony where they could fully preserve German language, customs, and culture.² By mid-century the most important factor that shaped the decision to cross the Atlantic was that more and more Germans had relatives in America who wrote letters to the old country describing land, opportunities, and personal experiences.³

The first sizable wave of German immigrants arriving in Missouri during the 1820s and the early 1830s included a few noblemen, scholars, preachers, artisans, shopkeepers, farmers, and liberal intellectuals who fled repressive measures after unsuccessful revolutions against undemocratic German governments during the early 1830s. They hailed primarily from southwestern and northwestern German regions and settled in St. Charles and Warren Counties. For example, Friedrich Münch, a Lutheran pastor, writer, farmer, and future state senator, and Paul Fellonius, a lawyer and revolutionary, brought members of the Gießener Auswanderungs-Gesellschaft  (Gießen Emigration Society) to Missouri and established the town of Marthasville in 1835. The topography of the green hills along the Missouri River reminded many of these settlers of the old Rhineland in western German regions.⁴

Several immigrants followed their religious leaders who wanted to secure greater freedom of worship.  In 1839, Martin Stephan and the Saxon Settlement Society brought a group of Lutheran clergymen and their congregations to Missouri to establish a religious community according to orthodox Lutheran principles. They established settlements in Altenburg and Wittenberg in Perry County along the Mississippi River, and those who moved to St. Louis provided leadership in the formation of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.⁵ German Catholics came to Missouri for economic reasons as well as religious freedom. Many settled along the Mississippi River in Zell, New Offenburg, Weingarten, and Coffman in Ste. Genevieve County during the 1840s.⁶ In central Missouri, Father Ferdinand M. Helias, a Belgian-born Jesuit who was devoted to preserving the Catholic faith among German immigrants, established seventeen parishes during the 1830s and 1840s, including Taos in Cole County, and Westphalia, Rich Fountain, and Loose Creek in Osage County.⁷ 

Others came to Missouri to set up isolated ethnic agricultural settlements where they could preserve German culture. In 1844, Dr. William Keil founded the communal society of Bethel in Shelby County in northeast Missouri.⁸ Germans from the Kingdom of Hanover founded Cole Camp in Benton County and Concordia in Lafayette County. Members of both communities preserved their Lutheran faith and their distinct Plattdeutsch or Low German dialect for decades.⁹

The majority of German immigrants who came to Missouri before the Civil War arrived between 1845 and 1854.  So steady was their influx that by 1860 Missouri ranked sixth among the states in the size of its foreign-born German population.¹⁰ This group has been labeled as the “Forty-Eighters” because famous “refugees” such as Carl Schurz and Franz Siegel had participated in the failed 1848 Revolutions and fled political persecution. However, the legend of the Forty-Eighters overshadows the great diversity of this group of immigrants that included farmers, journalists, judges, physicians, professors, skilled craftsmen, merchants, and unskilled laborers who escaped economic crisis to improve their lives.¹¹ For over one hundred years, German immigrants who settled in Missouri during the first half of the nineteenth century, established ethnically cohesive communities where they and their American-born children preserved German as their first language, memorized German nursery rhymes, recited bible verses in German, and participated in such German traditions as St. Nickolaus Tag, the Gastbitter, and the Wurstjäger.¹²