|
 Jesse
Woodson James was born in Kearney,
Missouri,
the son of a Baptist minister. Some believe that cruel treatment by Union
soldiers during the Civil War was what turned
Jesse and
his brother Frank to a life of crime after the war. Their first bank
robbery got them $60,000 from a bank in Liberty,
Missouri.
For 15 years, Frank and Jesse robbed trains and banks throughout the US.
In 1876,
Jesse and Frank were involved in a robbery along with the Younger
Brothers and other gang members. The Pinkerton detectives killed or
wounded all of them except Frank and Jesse. From that point,
Jesse,
his wife, and children went into hiding, but the $10,000 price on
Jesse's
head led Bob Ford to shoot him at his
St. Joseph,
Missouri
home in 1882 to collect the reward.
Laura
Elizabeth Ingalls, writer of Little House on the Prairie settled in
Missouri
with her husband Almanzo Wilder.
The first ready-mix food to be sold
commercially was Aunt Jemima pancake flour. It was invented in
St. Joseph,
Missouri
and introduced in 1899.
"Madonna of the Trail" monument in Lexington tells the story of the brave
women who helped conquer the west and is one of 12 placed in every state
crossed by the National Old Trails Road, the route of early settlers from
Maryland to
California.
In Buckner,
Missouri,
yard waste may be burned any day except Sunday.
Warsaw holds
the state record for the low temperature of -40 degrees on February 13,
1905. It also holds the state’s high temperature record when it
reached 118 on
July 14, 1954.
Missouri
has an official state rock – the Mozarkite adopted by the
Missouri
legislature on
July 21, 1967.
During
Abraham Lincoln's campaign for the presidency, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat
named Valentine Tapley from Pike County,
Missouri,
swore that he would never shave again if Abe were elected. Tapley kept his
word and his chin whiskers went unshorn from November 1860 until he died
in 1910, attaining a length of twelve feet six inches.
Kansas City has more miles of boulevards than Paris and more fountains
than any city except Rome.
Missouri
ties with Tennessee as the most "neighborly” state in the
U.S.,
bordered by eight states.
St. Louis;
is also called, "The Gateway to the West" and "Home of the Blues".
Ozark folk wisdom says
that splitting a persimmon seed into 2 thin halves will reveal an omen of
the coming winter's weather. If the seeds reveal "spoons," they point to
shoveling snow. "Fork" images foretell light snow and "knives" portend
cutting cold winds.
On July 3, 1985 the honey bee was
officially declared the state insect.
St. Louis
was the site of the demonic possession incident that inspired the book,
and later the movie, "The Exorcist."
Before 1866 it was illegal to educate blacks in the state of
Missouri.
The Reverend John Berry Meachum found a way around the law by taking his
students out on a boat in the middle of the Mississippi and holding class.
In
the early 19th century, the folk song, Shenandoah, was sung about a trader
in the
Missouri
River area who fell in love with the daughter of the Algonquian chief,
Shenandoah. Sailors heading down the Mississippi River took up the slow,
rolling melody for the slow, rolling work of hoisting a ship's anchor,
changing the words to suit their purpose.
Installation of
bathtubs with four legs resembling animal paws is prohibited.
Sedalia has been called the cradle of classical ragtime.
The soft drink Dr Pepper
was introduced at the 1904 World's Fair in
St. Louis.
7-Up also was invented in
St. Louis.
Missouri's
state musical instrument: fiddle and the state folk dance is the square
dance.
Leroy "Satchel" Paige received his nickname as a young boy when he worked
as a redcap and "looked like a walking satchel tree." He was noted for his
famous "hesitation pitch."
Maple Leaf Rag became one of the first pieces of American sheet music to
sell over one million copies.
Missouri
has 5,500 recorded caves. Nearly 20
Missouri
caves are called or connected to saltpeter, which was mined in some
Missouri
caves in the early 1800’s because nitrate was needed for the manufacture
of gunpowder. At least 13 cave names are associated with "beaver," 36 with
"bear," 13 with "panther," and 17 with "wildcat." More than 30 have
"buzzard" in their names.
Many
historians believe that the Civil War began along the border of
Missouri
and
Kansas
when Missourians and Kansans battled over whether
Kansas
would become a "free-state” or a "slave state.” The border warfare
began in 1854, seven years before the start of the Civil War.
Anyone under the age of 21 who takes out household trash containing even a
single empty alcohol beverage container can be charged with illegal
possession of alcohol in
Missouri.
St. Louisans
consume more barbecue sauce per capita than any other city in America.
Blanche Kelso Bruce, the slave child of a
Mississippi planter and a slave, became the first African-American to
serve a full term in the U.S. Senate in 1875. He founded a school for
blacks in
Hannibal.
Creve
Coeur's name means broken heart in French, comes from nearby Creve Coeur
Lake. Legend has it that an
Indian
princess fell in love with a French fur trapper, but the love was not
returned. According to the story, she then leapt from a ledge overlooking
Creve Coeur Lake; the lake then formed itself into a broken heart.
In
Missouri,
minors are not allowed to purchase cap pistols, however they may buy
shotguns freely.
The most
destructive tornado on record occurred in Annapolis,
Missouri
on March 18, 1925. In three hours, it spun through the town
leaving a 980-foot wide trail of demolished buildings, uprooted trees,
overturned cars and left in its wake 823 people dead and almost 3,000
injured.
Iced Tea was
first served at the
St. Louis
World's Fair in 1904
The
state animal is the Mule.
A milk man may not
run while on duty in
Missouri.
The "Missouri
Waltz" became the state song under an act adopted by the General Assembly
on June 30, 1949
The
present
Missouri
Capitol in Jefferson City was completed in 1917 and was the sixth in
Missouri
history. The first seat of state government was housed in the Mansion
House in
St. Louis,
the second was in the
Missouri
Hotel in
St. Louis,
St. Charles was designated as temporary capital of the state in 1821 and
remained the seat of government until 1826 when Jefferson City became the
permanent capital city. The current building was the third in Jefferson
City as the first burned in 1837, the second burned in 1911.
Kansas City
has more miles of freeway per capita than any metro area with more than 1
million residents.
Frightening a baby is in violation of the law
in
Missouri.
Jefferson
National Expansion Memorial consists of the Gateway Arch, the Museum of
Westward Expansion, and
St. Louis'
Old Courthouse. During a nationwide competition in 1947-48, architect Eero
Saarinen's inspired design for a 630-foot stainless steel arch was chosen
as a perfect monument to the spirit of the western pioneers. Construction
of the Arch began in 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965.
It's illegal to sit
on the curb of any city street and drink beer from a bucket.
The tallest
man in documented medical history was Robert Pershing Wadlow from
St. Louis.
He was 8 feet, 11.1 inches tall
Missouri
was named after a tribe called
Missouri
Indians;
meaning "town of the large canoes"
Situated
within a day’s drive of 50% of the U.S. population, Branson and the
Tri-Lakes area serves up to 65,000 visitors daily.
Should you decide
to provide alcoholic beverages to an elephant in
Missouri,
you could be arrested.
The tallest monument built in the
U.S., the Gateway Arch, in
St. Louis,
is 630 feet tall.
Missouri's
oldest community, Saint Genevieve, was founded as early as 1735.
Saint
Louis University received a formal charter from the state of Missouri in
1832, making it the oldest University west of the Mississippi.
Dancing is strictly
prohibited in Missouri.
Hermann,
Missouri
is a storybook German village with a rich wine-making and riverboat
history that is proudly displayed in area museums. Built in 1836 as the
"New Fatherland" for German settlers, the town has achieved national
recognition because of its quality wines and distinctive heritage.
Auguste
Chouteau founded
Saint Louis in 1764.
On Sucker Day
in Nixa,
Missouri,
school closes officially and the little town swells to a throng of 15,000
hungry folks. All craving a taste of the much maligned but delicious
bottom dweller fish loathed by almost everyone else.
During the
Civil War,
Missouri
was the scene of more than 1,000 battles.
Compiled and
edited by
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated January, 2010.
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