Early Lottery

On January 28, 1817 territorial Governor William Clark signed an act authorizing a lottery in St. Louis to raise funds for fire-fighting equipment and fire engines.

The lottery was designed to sell 6,000 tickets at $5 each. Half of the tickets would pay a prize ranging from $6 to a grand prize of $5,000. The territorial legislators hoped the lottery would generate a $3,000 profit.

But, the conservative nature of Missourians resulted in the lottery being called a "complete failure." Twenty-two months later in November 1818 the Missouri Gazette reported that Missourians were so "against lotteries that nothing could be done in that way to raise money.."

St. Louis got its first 2 fire engines in 1819. They were purchased by private subscription.

Source

• Shoemaker, Floyd Calvin. Missouri Day by Day, Volume 1. Columbia, MO: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1942.

Papal Visit

Having arrived the day before and attending a Youth Rally at the Kiel Center, Pope John Paul II holds mass at the Trans World Dome (now named Edward Jones Dome) the morning of January 27, 1999. After the morning mass and an afternoon at the Archbishop's residence, the Pope delivered speeches during a prayer service at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and departure ceremony at Lambert Field.

Sources

• AmericanCatholic.org. “The Pope Visits St. Louis” Accessed January 23, 2011. http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Apr1999/feature1.asp.
• Catholic Supply of St. Louis. “Pope John Paul II's St. Louis Visit” Accessed January 23, 2011. http://www.catholicsupply.com/pope/pope1.html.

Thieving Kansans

The following Union correspondence highlights the difficulties between Missourians and Kansans. Whether in the 1850s during the Missouri-Kansas Border Wars or during the 1860s (or now in college sports), "Jayhawkers" have long been a thorn-in-the-side for Missourians of all political allegiances.

Headquarters. First Calvary Missouri State Militia, Warrensburg, Mo., January 26, 1864. General E.B. Brown, Commanding Central District of Missouri: General: I have the honor to state that Captain Meredith reports that a detachment of his command have recaptured a part of the property taken by the Kansas men in LaFayette, viz, 2 horses and a wagon, and have returned the same to the owner, a widow lady by the name of Robinson. James McFerran, Colonel First Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, Comdg. Third Sub-Dist. of Central Dist. of Missouri.

Source

• United States War Department. "War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume XXXIV Part II." Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891.

Last Missouri Lynching

On January 25, 1942 the last racial lynching in Missouri occurred in Sikeston. Around 1:30am someone forced their way into a house occupied by 2 women whose husbands were serving in World War II. One woman was stabbed during the crime.

Thirty minutes later, Cleo Wright, a 25-year old black man, was arrested nearby with bloodstained clothes. On the way to jail Wright pulled a knife from his boot and stabbed the night marshal. Wright was then shot four times by the lawman. After being treated at the hospital, Wright was taken to the city jail.

That morning, the angry mob of 400-500 citizens forced their way into the jail. Wright was dragged out of the jail and down the courthouse steps by his feet. His was then tied to a car by his legs and dragged through the town. He was eventually set on fire and his charred remains laid in the street for 3 hours.

Source

• Sam Blackwell, “Sikeston's history as rich as its swamp-turned-farmland,” Southeast Missourian, November 11, 2001, accessed January 23, 2011, http://www.semissourian.com/story/50133.html.

St. Louis Arsenal

Early 1861 found many political factions positioning themselves to gain control of the St. Louis Arsenal. The seizure of federal property within the limits of already seceded States had focused attention on this federal arsenal. The tens of thousands of rifles and ammunition would be critical supplies when conflict broke out. The arsenal was commanded by Major William H. Bell. A North Carolinian by birth, Bell had been in the ordnance service since graduating West Point in 1820.

On January 24, 1861, General Daniel Marsh Frost wrote the following letter to Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson concerning the St. Louis Arsenal and Major Bell. Shortly after this time, unionists were successful in having Bell replaced. Rather than obey orders to transfer to New York, Bell resigned his commission and retired to his St. Charles County farm.

Frost was from New York, had graduated West Point in 1844, was a Mexican War veteran, and married in St. Louis in 1851. In 1854, Frost was elected to the Missouri Senate and helped pass the law that organized the Missouri State Militia. We would later organized and be appointed to command the First Military District, Missouri State Militia (authority with which he wrote the letter below). Frost would later command the 9th Division and 7th Division, Missouri State Guard and eventually become a Brigadier General of the Confederate Army.

The Joplin Kid

Born in Joplin, Missouri on January 23, 1887, Percy Wenrich became a successful and popular ragtime composer. In 1901 he enrolled in the Chicago Musical College. Known as "The Joplin Kid," Wenrich published Ashy Africa and Just Because I'm From Missouri. In 1905 his first major hit Peaches and Cream was published.

After several more successful songs, Wenrich acheived major success in 1909 when Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet (lyrics by Stanley Murphy) sold more than two million copies. Wenrich penned several war related songs during World War I including Where Do We Go From Here?

Source

• The Parlor Songs Association, Inc. "Percy Wenrich." Accessed January 21, 2011. http://parlorsongs.com/bios/pwenrich/pwenrich.php

A Native-born Governor

Missouri had seventeen governors, before electing a native-born Missourian. Thomas Clement Fletcher was elected Missouri's 18th governor in 1864 and re-elected in 1866.

The Fletcher family had emigrated from Maryland to Herculaneum, Missouri where Thomas was born January 22, 1827. In the mid-1850s Fletcher was admitted to the bar and became a land agent for the Pacific railroad.

Fletcher was a staunch supporter of Lincoln during the 1860 presidential campaign and a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago. He became one of Lincoln's chief advisors concerning Missouri. In 1861, Fletcher was appointed provost marshal of Missouri and was colonel of the 31st and 47th Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry. In December 1862, he was captured during the Confederate Victory at Chickasaw Bayou and sent to Libby Prison at Richmond, VA.

In 1864, Fletcher recruited the 47th Missouri Regiment of Missouri Infantry, U.S. Army and was later brevetted brigadier general.

Sources

• Douglass, Robert Sidney. History of Southeast Missouri. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1912.
• Johnson, Alfred Sidney ed. The Cyclopedic Review of Current History, Volume 9. Boston: Current History Company, 1900.
• Phisterer, Frederick. Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States: Campaigns of the Civil War, Supplementary Volume. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883.
• Shoemaker, Floyd Calvin. Missouri Day by Day, Volume 1. Columbia, MO: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1942.