This month in St. Louis History

From Missouri History Museum

Juneteenth and RV Wanderlust events

The Missouri History Museum in June will present events on two very different historic themes. One celebrates the end of slavery in America; the other is an exhibit about 20th Century highway wanderlust.

The Museum's Juneteenth celebration of the end of slavery has two events. On Sunday, June 1, there will be play, "Voices of the Past." The play was written and produced by St. Louisan Robin Moore-Chambers. She is a lecturer at Fontbonne University.

Then, on Sunday, June 15, blues artist Lemuel Sheppard will present a musical concert celebrating Juneteenth.

Each event starts at 3:30 and attendance is free.

Also, on Sunday, June 15, the museum's "American Wanderlust" exhibit opens. It will feature vehicles and other memorabilia of America's romance with highway travel in the last century. The public grand opening of the exhibit will be from 2-4 p.m.

This traveling exhibit has attendance fees, $5 for adults; $4 for seniors and students. However, there will be free admission to the public on every Tuesday from 4-8 p.m.

The Wanderlust exhibit includes vintage recreational vehicles, camping gear and road memorabilia. Kids will be able to participate in hands-on activities and audiovisual interactives.

Most of the travel exhibit is indoors. But, the museum has installed a big "hippy bus" on the lawn just outside the new south entrance. Kids and families will be able to tour the bus and see how some of the "hippy generation" got around the country.

(For details about these and other museum events/exhibits, visit www.mohistory.org.)

A painting depicting Missouri's last slave auction. The artwork is on exhibit at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

The official ending of slavery in Missouri actually came on January 11, 1865. That's when the Gov. Thomas Fletcher announced: "Henceforth and forever, no person within the jurisdiction of this state shall know any master but God."

However, Juneteenth is celebrated in June. That's when federal troops arrived in Texas to enforce the ban on slavery. Texas was the last state in the country to end the practice of slavery.

This official ending of slavery in the whole United States came a full 2 1/2 years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. That was announced on Jan. 1, 1863.

(For a fuller explanation of Juneteenth, you can go to www.juneteenth.com/history.htm)

For a chronology of events leading to the end of slavery, there's another good website. The address is www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/chronol.htm.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis also has information on the role of blacks in Missouri history. To see that, log on: www.umsl.edu/services/library/blackstudies/slavery.htm.

 

Lots of old-time firsts in local history

June is the anniversary month for a lot of long-ago historic happenings in St. Louis. And then there's a recent one involving rapper Nelly.

The first European settlement west of the Mississippi River came to St. Louis in 1702. The first land battle of the Civil War happened in Missouri, not at Bull Run.

And the woman who was to establish the first kindergarten class in the country was born here in June, 1843.

In more recent times, rapper Nelly's highly popular CD "County Grammar" was released in June, 2000.

(These and many more interesting events are mentioned in local historian Joe Sonderman's book, "St. Louis 365." The book can be purchased at local book stores or on the internet at www.booksonline.com.)

Here are a few of the 150 local items with June anniversary dates in Sonderman's book:

June 1, 1890: The first bridge over the Missouri River at St. Charles other than a railroad bridge opened. It was a pontoon bridge, supported by 50 barges. The two center barges, pulled by cables, were opened to allow boats to pass. The bridge was destroyed by ice and raging water after just five months. The permanent highway bridge opened in 1904.

June 1, 1934: Paul and Dizzy Dean (of the St. Louis Cardinals) claimed they had sore arms that only a pay raise would heal. Rookie Paul was making $3,000, while Ol' Diz got $7,500. The brothers gave in, and went on to win 49 games that season, plus four in the world series.

June 3, 1875: Business was suspended in St. Louis as residents attended church services and spent the day in fasting and prayer. Governor Charles Hardin had declared a statewide day of prayer for divine intervention to halt a devastating plague of grasshoppers. Within a few days, heavy rains arrived and drove the critters into Iowa.

June 5, 1916: The first production took place at what is now the "Muny." "As You Like It" was given to mark the tercentenary of the death of William Shakespeare. The chosen site (in what is now Forest Park) sloped down to a natural stage-like area with huge oak trees on either side. The St. Louis Advertising Club offered money to the city to build a concrete auditorium on the site. A presentation of "Aida" for an advertising convention took place there on June 5, 1917. The Municipal Theater Association was organized in 1919.

June 7, 1843: Susan Elizabeth Blow was born in St. Louis. Applying the theories of Frederich Froebel, she opened the first public kindergarten in the United States at the Des Peres School on Carondelet in 1873. She was instrumental in establishing kindergartens all over the country.

June 10, 1702: Father James Gravier landed at the mouth of the River de Peres to establish a Jesuit mission. The village there was the earliest European settlement in Missouri. Many French settlers from Cahokia moved to the village when the Kaskaskia Indians built a fort there. By the spring of 1703, the Indians moved away, and so did most of the settlers.

June 17, 1861: The first land battle of the Civil War was fought at Boonville, Missouri. (The Battle of Bull Run didn't take place until July 21st.) The rebels under Sterling Price and governor Claiborne Jackson were defeated by the federals under (St. Louisan) Nathaniel Lyon. Price retreated into Arkansas, and northern Missouri was secured for the Union.

June 27, 2000: Nelly's "County Grammar" CD was released. Born Cornell Haynes Jr. in Texas, Nelly spent his early years in Spain, before his family moved to St. Louis, then University City. In 1993, he formed the "St. Lunatics" with his high school friends. "County Grammar" would go on to sell nine million copies and score three Grammy nominations.