This Month in St. Louis History

Rich Irish history in St. Louis

St. Patrick's Day will be Wednesday, March 17. Of course, the holiday didn't start in St. Louis but the city has a rich Irish history.

If you are of Irish descent or interested in Irish history, there's an interesting website where you can get lots of neat information. It's called The Kerry Patch and is located at http://members.gtw.net/~seamus/KerryPatch.htm.

Things about Ireland and the Irish will be the main feature of the March edition of YSL.com's This Month in St. Louis History. (Information for this feature is provided monthly by the Missouri History Museum.)

Other historic happenings in March that have St. Louis roots are two births and one death.

The births are of famed Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham and Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The death anniversary is for William Christopher (W.C.) Handy, who wrote the most famous song about St. Louis, "St. Louis Blues."

The Irish in St. Louis

The Kerry Patch website represents research by Diane Shaw, who gives a personal touch to the history of St. Louis' Irish. The title, Kerry Patch, comes from the name given to an old neighborhood where most Irish lived.

Ms. Shaw said St. Louis was "somewhat tolerant" of immigrants from Ireland. She said that allowed individual Irish to succeed if they tried.

She cites John Mullanphy, who was St. Louis' first millionaire, and Jeremiah Conner, St. Louis' first sheriff.

Ms. Shaw said the history of the Kerry Patch in St. Louis started around St. Patrick's Catholic Church, then and now at Sixth and Biddle. There are a flood of Irish in the early 1800s. In 1950, the population of St. Louis was 43 per cent Irish.

Many of them settled in the Kerry Patch, which was greatly expanded on land donated by Mr. Mullanphy.

Ms. Shaw's website includes a lot of internet and book links which include more history about the Irish in St. Louis.

A book, The St. Louis Irish

William Barnaby Faherty, a professor emeritus in history at St. Louis University, has produced another look at the Irish in St. Louis. This is an adult book but will be interesting reading for some kids.

He also talks about the flow of Irish immigrants into the Kerry Patch on St. Louis' near north side. Along with the French and Germans, the Irish have had a big part in the development of St. Louis.

The book is titled: The St. Louis Irish: An unmatched Celtic Community. The book is available at the St. Louis History Museum or through the University of Missouri Press.

George Caleb Bingham

One of Missouri's most famous artists, George Caleb Bingham, was born on March 20, 1811, in Virginia. But, the family moved to Missouri when Bingham was eight.

He became one of the most famous Missouri artists. But, he also was entangled in the state's controversial politics of the Civil War. He was sympathetic to the South in a state where many skirmishes were fought between Northern and Southern troops.

The St. Louis Art Museum has a large collection of Bingham's paintings. His works achieved widespread acclaim for capturing the feeling of Missouri of the 1800s.

For more information about Bingham, visit www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/5437/GCBind.html.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee was born in East St. Louis, Ill., on March 3, 1962. She is considered to be one of the best female athletes in the world.

Much of her stardom is associated with track and field. She won three gold, one silver and one bronze medals in the Olympic Games. She was the first woman to score more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon.

She won the first of four consecutive National Junior Pentathlon Championships at 14. She also starred in volleyball and basketball in high school. After earning a basketball scholarship at UCLA, which earned All-America honors as a four-year starter for the Bruins at forward.

Her UCLA coach Bob Kersee urged her to focus on the heptathlon in track and field. The two were married in 1986.

She and her husband have established a multi-purpose facility for kids in East St. Louis.

For more information about Joyner-Kersee, visit www.sportsstarsusa.com/olympians/joyner-kersee_jackie.html.

W.C. Handy

Composer W.C. Handy was neither born or died in St. Louis. But, the world-famous "Father of the Blues" is forever tied to our city after composing the world-famous "St. Louis Blues."

He was born in a log cabin on Nov. 16, 1873, in Florence, Ala., and died March 28, 1958.

For more about Handy's life, visit www.wchandyfest.com/history/handybio.htm. This website also includes a recording where the composer sings his "St. Louis Blues."

 

From "St. Louis 365"

American flag flies over St. Louis in 1804

The American flag flew over St. Louis for the first time in March, 1804. Also, there were lots of St. Louis sports highlights during the month of March in years past.

The Sporting News newspaper started in March more than 100 years ago. The best St. Louis Browns baseball player was born in this month. And probably the greatest individual performance in the NCAA basketball championships came in St. Louis.

These are just a few of the 155 items of St. Louis history listed in the March chapter of "St. Louis 365." That's a book of historical items compiled by local historian Joe Sonderman.

(This book is available in local book stories or at www.booksonstlouis.com. Sonderman has given Young Saint Louis.com permission to quote from his book.)

Here are 10 of the items listed in the March chapter of "St. Louis 365."

March 10, 1804: The American flag was raised over St. Louis for the first time by Captain Amos Stoddard. The United States had bought the Louisiana Territory from France, but it hadn't been transferred to France from Spain. Captain Stoddard performed that ceremony on March 9th. The French flag flew over St. Louis for one day before he raised the American flag.

March 12, 1989: The curtain came down on the Ambassador Theatre. The chandeliers, staircases and even sections of the plasterwork were auctioned off. The Ambassador was once the home of the "Skouras Brothers Missouri Rocket Girls," which evolved into the world-ramous Radio City Music Hall "Rockettes." The theater was torn down in 1997 to make room for a plaza in front of the Mercantile Bank headquarters.

March 17, 1886: The first issue of The Sporting News hit the newsstands. Al Spink, a former reporter for the Post-Dispatch, established the paper in St. Louis. Spink is credited with naming Sportsman's Park. (The Sporting News continues to be published in St. Louis.)

March 17, 1969: The Cardinals traded the hero of the 1967 season, Orlando Cepeda, to the Braves for Joe Torre. Torre would go on to become the National League MVP in 1971. Torre would manage the Cardinals from 1990 to 1995. He was fired in 1995 and went on to manage the New York Yankees. (He continues to manage the Yankees today.)

March 18, 1948: The Saint Louis University Billikens beat New York University to win the National Invitational Basketball Tournament championship. At that time, the NIT was the premiere tournament in college basketball.

March 21, 1904: The new St. Louis water works was completed in a rush, just in time for the 1904 World's Fair. The new system brought an end to the days when St. Louis water had "body." Nervous fair officials had installed their own water purification system in case the new water works wasn't on line in time to keep the fountains from being fouled with muddy, brown water.

March 23, 1806: The Lewis and Clark Expedition began their return trip from the Pacific Coast to St. Louis. They reached St. Louis on September, 23, 1806. The round trip took two years and four months, covering over 4,000 miles.

March 24, 1893: The greatest player in St. Louis Browns baseball history was born in Manchester, Ohio. George Sisler played for the Browns from 1915 until 1928 and managed them from 1924 until 1936. He hit .407 in 1920 and .420 in 1922, ending his career with a lifetime average of .314. Sisler was one of the original 12 players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

March 26, 1973: UCLA's Bill Walton hit 21 of 22 shots and scored 44 points as the Bruins beat Memphis State in the NCAA championship game at the St. Louis Arena. Walton's performance is still considered one of the greatest individual performances ever in an NCAA championship game. (Walton continues to be active in sports as a network and cable television commentator.)

March 30, 1890: The Great Blizzard of 1890 began. Officially, 20.4 inches of snow fell here on the 30th and 31st. That's still the all-time record for the worst snowstorm in St. Louis history.

March 31, 1964: The seven-month long demonstrations by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) at Jefferson Bank and Trust came to an end. The first large-scale civil rights protest here forced the bank to hire five African-American clerical workers. CORE organized the protests. The bank obtained injunctions against the protesters and many civil rights leaders were arrested and sentenced to jail time or fines.