Original 1861 Stars and Stripes Newspaper
The Stars and Stripes Museum and Library
Let us transition from
the swamps to Crowley's Ridge. Moving in time from the early 1800s to the
Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Crowley's
Ridge is a major regional landform of hills
in Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas, made of loess mantle and
underlain by loamy, sandy, or gravelly deposits.[1] This Ridge extends
from Cape Girardeau, Missouri in a wide arc of over 150 miles down to Helena,
Arkansas. The sloping 200 to 500-foot elevation contrasts sharply with the
surrounding delta bottomland. Early settlers were attracted to Crowley's
Ridge as it offered pasture lands well above the adjacent swamps. About
ten years after the New Madrid Earthquake, the government built a road on the
ridge, because it was impossible to travel through the thick timber and marshy
swamps.
Few people today
realize that of the 10,000 battles and scrimmages fought in the American Civil
War, over 2,000 of those were fought in Missouri. There is an invisible
line in Scott County that separates not only the lay of the land, but also the
thinking of the people who live there. You experience a rather steep drop
in the elevation at the end of the Benton Hills. That is where the land
flattens. The land remains flat until you reach Memphis. Where the
land flattens, is the Mason-Dixon Line. As a child, my father
took me up to a point around Morley, where he showed me a metal stake with
words on its side buried in the ground. He announced, "This,
Margaret, is the Mason-Dixon Line. It divides people far
more than it divides the land." His statement meant little to me at
the time; however, I now understand his statement completely.
In 1861, the
state legislature passed an act authorizing the Missouri State Guards. The
statue divided the state into military districts; Southeast Missouri was
District One with N. W. Watkins of Cape Girardeau appointed by the Governor as
Brigadier General to command the district. Finding the work distasteful
after his Jackson home was pillaged and burned, by Col. Charles T. Marsh
and his troops on Aug. 30, 1861. Watkins resigned shortly after than and
moved to his Beechwood Plantation in Scott County. He was replaced by M.
Jeff Thompson who temporarily made his headquarters at Bloomfield.
Northern sympathizers
who didn’t join the Union Army joined the “Home
Guard.” Between the Home Guard and the “Confederate State
Guard,” there was constant hostility and warfare throughout the
state. The Bootheel was strongly pro-Southern, therefore,
hostility was especially strong in Southeast Missouri. I have a
personal account of individuals who wrote their experiences in journals,
similar to those written about the New Madrid Earthquake. Sometime in the
future, I will tell their stories.
The once pro-southern
town of Bloomfield is the county seat of Stoddard County. It is located
on Crowley's Ridge, where it offers an excellent vantage point in all
directions. Both the Union and Confederate forces traveled through the
town on their way to various battles. From time to time, there was
fighting between the two armies. The town is famous for one particular
event. Three Illinois Union units camped in Bloomfield on November 9,
1861. A few of the soldier went for a walk in the town and came to the
local newspaper office. The office was unattended so they decided to
publish their own newspaper. They wrote on their military activities and
sent it back home to their family. They named the paper The Stars
and Stripes newspaper. Although it is not directly associated with
the current United States’ military newspaper, the title "The Stars and
Stripes" came from that first newspaper published in Bloomfield.
Today, Bloomfield proudly houses the Stars and Stripes Museum and
Library. [1] One of the three original 1861
issues of that first paper is on display in the museum.
My friend Doris Jean Arnold of Cape Girardeau, formerly of
Dexter, sent me an article published in The Dexter Statesman.[2] The story was based on her cousin
Kathy Mooney Skelton’s presentation on the History of Evan’s
Pottery to the Stoddard County Historical Society in 2014. Missouri's
first known pottery business started in Stoddard County by the Jacob Semmimon
family between 1850 and 1858. Jacob was a potter in Georgia who sent his
son Thomas from there to Arkansas in search of clay soil suitable for the
potter's trade. On the advice of friendly Indians, Thomas Semmimon
continued to the Bloomfield area. He was joined later by his then-widowed
mother and other family members, and they established themselves as “Jug
Makers.” They blasted clay soil out of the ground, then hit with a hammer
until pieces were small enough to be ground up. The pottery method and
items produced were primitive and utilitarian. Finished pottery included
fruit jars, kraut crocks, milk pitchers, and whiskey jugs. The business was
expanded by loading oxen-drawn wagons with pottery and peddling them along the
Bloomfield to Cape Road. Upon arriving in Cape Girardeau, the family set up
shop at a livery stable. After they sold their pottery, the family then bought
goods coming into Cape on steamboats. They resold the goods on their
return trip back to Bloomfield.
In 1882, Hugh Evans
was working for Jacob Semmimon and married his daughter Lucinda.
Following the death of Thomas Semmimon, Evans took over the operation of
the business. Evans' son Randall also learned the potter's trade and
continued the business under the name of Evans Pottery. Evans Pottery
ended production in the 1960's, and the last building was demolished for the
widening of Highway 25 between Bloomfield and Dexter. Family members in
Nevada have remained interested in pottery, and Charles Randall Evans Jr. works
part-time creating pieces in the Desert Sands style pottery. Doris Jean
Arnold, Charles Randall Evans, and Kathy Money Skelton are descendants of Hugh
Evans. The following is a summary of Ms. Skelton’s presentation on
the history of Evan's History.
Although Bloomfield
was burned three times during the Civil War, the pottery business was always
spared, possibly because none of those involved wanted to see a shortage of
whiskey jugs!
There are many
stories I could tell about the people and events in Bloomfield. I will
write about the Confederate Cemetery there next week. I hope to have
answers to requests about the Miller House in Bloomfield. If I receive an
answer to my query, I will tell the story of the Miller House next week.
If not, we will look at more of my family history. Look for a
combination of my family history and general history of the Southeast Missouri
region in the future. Thank you for joining me on this Blog.
[1] https://mdc.mo.gov/resource/current-river-geology-and-geomorphology
[2] The Dexter Statesman, Dexter, Missouri, August 6, 2014, By Karen Peters
[2] The Dexter Statesman, Dexter, Missouri, August 6, 2014, By Karen Peters
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