This Month in St. Louis History

Missouri, a leader in inventing new foods

We think of Missouri as the current front-runner in making beer and toasted ravioli. But, what about the state as the birthplace of the hamburger and sliced bread?

Past Januarys also included a famous break-in at the St. Louis Art Museum, the birth of a three-state U.S. senator and the first African-American to serve on both the 8th District U.S. Court of Appeals and the Missouri Court of Appeals.

Then, there was the end of Western Union telegraph service.

(Each month, Young Saint Louis.com gets together with the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park to look for people and events in St. Louis and Missouri history. Each item is based on a significant anniversary in the current month.

(If you'd like to know more about state and city history, visit www.mohistory.com.)

Missourian invents the hamburger

The state legislatures of Texas and Wisconsin have passed joint resolutions each claiming their states served the first hamburgers. In Texas, the claim was that Fletcher Davis of Athens. Tex., was the first vendor.

Davis was a native of Webster Groves, Mo., who moved to Athens to open a restaurant. He then was said to have had "Old Dave's Hamburger Stand" at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

In Wisconsin, the resolution claimed that Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, Wis., sold the first hamburgers at the Seymour Fair in 1885.

As might be imagined, there are quite a few claimed "firsts" when it comes to something as common as the ground meat patties on bread.

In fact, if you'd like a comprehensive look at the history of the hamburger, you can go to www.americanthinker.com/2007/04/home_of_the
_hamburger.html.

The piece was written by Barry Popik, a Texan, who urged the Texas Legislature to repeal the "hamburger" resolution. Popik identifies himself as a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary and editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America.

For more, visit http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/
HamburgerHistory.htm.

That piece takes the hamburger origins back to Genghis Khan in the 12th Century.

Machine-sliced bread in Chillicothe

Of course, the history of bread making goes way back in history. But, the history of bread slicing by machine goes back only to the 1920s in Chillicothe, Mo.

That's when Otto F. Rohwedder turned out the first loaves of bread sliced and wrapped by machine. He was working for the Chillicothe Baking Co. at the time.

Rohwedder was living in Davenport, Iowa, when he built the first prototype, in 1917. But, that machine was destroyed by fire before it was put into commercial use. It wasn't until 1928 that he built a new machine and sold the first loaves of sliced bread.

St. Louis baker Gustav Papendick bought the second slicing machine.

The January anniversary date associated with sliced bread is January, 1942. That's when government put a ban on sliced bread. Apparently sliced bread was deemed to get stale faster than unsliced bread, thus causing harmful waste during the World War II period.

The bread slicer also led to a famous phrase: "The greatest thing since sliced bread."

For more, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sliced_bread.

A St. Louis Art Museum theft

St. Louis Art Museum

On Jan. 29, 1978, the St. Louis Art Museum was broken into and several pieces of art were stolen. The robbery was possible because final security measures on a $6.6 million renovation project weren't totally in place.

To make matters worse, robbers broke in again 22 days later. This time, they got away with three small bronze statues by noted French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

The FBI was called in and a manhunt was underway. Before it ended, there was found to be a link between the museum art thefts and the investigation into the shooting death of Martin Luther King.

The links were the subject of congressional hearings on the St. Louis-based plot to assassinate Dr. King.

The whole complex story of art theft and political intrigue was outlined in St. Louis Magazine in January, 2007.

For the complete story, see: http://www.stlmag.com/media/St-Louis-Magazine/January-2007/The-Plot-to-Kill-a-King/.

James Shields, a 3-state U.S. senator

James Shields

James Shields was elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri on Jan. 22, 1879. Thus, he earned a distinction not likely to be repeated. He became the only person elected to the U.S. Senate from three different states--Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri.

He won his first U.S. Senate term in 1849 from the state of Illinois. He won election by defeating the incumbent, Sen. Sidney Breese, a fellow Democrat.

After failing to win re-election, he moved to the Minnesota Territory, where he helped establish colonies for poor Irish immigrants. In 1856, he became one that state's first two senators. After losing a re-election bid, he moved to California.

During the Civil War he served as a Union general and settled in Missouri. By this time, he had become a beloved character among Irish-Americans.

His election to the Senate from Missouri was an expression of affection for that work with Irish immigrants. He was elected to fill the uncompleted term that had just six weeks to run. He died soon after finishing that term.

First African-American appeals judge

Theodore McMillian

Theodore McMillian was born Jan. 28, 1919, and died Jan. 18, 2006. He was the first African-American to serve both on the Missouri Court of Appeals and the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals.

He also was the first African-American state prosecutor and first A-A member of the Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society.

McMillian works his way through college as a janitor. He later became an associate professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1970.

Western Union telegraphs end

On January, 26, 2006, Western Union quit sending telegraph messages. That company was formed in 1851 and one of its landmark dates came 10 years later.

That's when the first message was sent from St. Joseph, Mo., across the country to Sacramento, Calif. It marked completion of a line to allow instant messaging by dit-dot code across the whole country.

Western Union continues today as a company with 270,000 locations throughout the world. But, its primary business is the instant transmitting of money.

Announcement of completing of the St. Joseph-Sacramento line was sent by Horace W. Carpentier, president of the Overland Telegraph Co., to President Abraham Lincoln.

It said, "I announce to you that the telegraph to California has this day been completed. May it be a bond of perpetuity between the states of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific."

The Morse-code telegraph has been superceded by long-distance telephone, e-mails, faxes and a variety of wireless communication systems.

For more on WU, visit www.nytimes.com/2006/02/06/technology/06telegram.html and www.scripophily.net/wesuntelcom1.html.