Labor Day

Among the holidays that Joplin celebrated with parades was Labor Day.  For this Labor Day, we offer up an editorial cartoon from around 1908 that represents at least one newspaper’s feelings on the matter.

Uncle Sam offers his hat to the laborer.

Source: Joplin News Herald

Shredded Wheat

An early advertisement for Shredded Wheat from the Library of Congress

Joplin was a stopping point for many hoboes and railroad tramps and one can only assume that they hoped to find a square meal as they roamed its streets and alleys. On one occasion, hoboes were able to secure themselves a free meal, but probably not the feast they had hoped for.

Early one morning, young boys roamed the streets of Joplin with free samples of shredded wheat biscuits. At every doorstep the boys visited, they left a small box that contained two shredded wheat biscuits. It was not long, however, before a tramp caught on and began to trail behind the boys collecting the boxes of shredded wheat. Before noon “over two dozen tramps had been told the joyful tidings” and soon each tramp had at least “half a dozen boxes.”

Armed with plenty of shredded wheat, the tramps and hoboes fled to the safety of the Kansas City Bottoms, where “cans, old buckets, cups, and in fact anything that would hold liquid were pressed into use.” A nearby farmer was talked out of a “gallon or so of milk.”

The newspaper, which often frowned upon weary willies, declared that perhaps the boxes of shredded wheat “did more good to mankind” that day than if it had remained on the doorsteps of its intended recipients. One has to wonder if hoboes reminisced years later about the time they feasted on shredded wheat in Joplin.

White Man’s Heaven Released!

Cover of White Man's Heaven by Kimberly Harper

White Man’s Heaven, by Kimberly Harper, has been released more than a month early!

As previously covered here on Historic Joplin, White Man’s Heaven: The Lynching and Expulsion of Blacks in the Southern Ozarks, is a non-fiction account of a string of violent episodes that occurred through Southwest Missouri and Harrison, Arkansas, between 1894 – 1909.  Two chapters of the book are dedicated to the lynching of Thomas Gilyard that occurred in Joplin in April, 1903, which should be of interest to any who have a passion for Joplin’s past, both bright and dark.

Buy a copy soon, as Amazon.com only has 5 copies left as of 8/30!  You can also purchase copies from the University of Arkansas Press and Barnes & Noble.  

Riches From the Earth

A typical mining scene around Joplin.

A typical mining scene around Joplin.

From time to time, we like to point out resources for Joplin’s and Southwest Missouri’s history.  For those of you who haven’t glanced at our links page, you likely haven’t noticed the link to Missouri Digital Heritage.  At that site is located the repository of the Joplin Public Library digital postcard collection which was used to great effect by Patrick McPheron in his Joplin video that we posted a couple days ago.  However, that’s not all that you can find at Missouri Digital Heritage worth looking at with concern to Joplin.  Another fantastic resource is Riches from the Earth.

Riches from the Earth describes its purpose as, “Riches of the Earth provides a basic introduction to the geological and industrial heritage of the Tri-State Mineral District. This district encompasses southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma and was one of the United States’ richest mineral districts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”  More importantly, it’s focused entirely on Jasper County, the “heart of the Tri-State Mineral District.”  What follows is 261 images of mining, from mines to miners, to even a few mules.

Interior of a Joplin Mine

Interior of a Joplin Mine

The project is a collaboration between the Powers Museum, Missouri Southern’s Spiva Library Archives and Special Collections, the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Rolla at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (U of Missouri – Rolla), and the Joplin Museum Complex.  It should be noted that if you have hopes of taking a peek at any of the Joplin Museum Complex’s photograph collection, this will be your only bet outside of buying one of the couple books the museum has deigned to publish periodically.  At this time, the photograph collection is generally off limits to the inquiring public (and in the process – Joplinites are cut off from freely accessing the best photographic and visual depiction of the city’s past).

Photograph access aside, Riches From the Earth is a good source for historic images of Joplin’s and Jasper County’s mining past.  It does suffer some from the slightly clunky interface of Missouri Digital Heritage website, but it’s a small price to pay for a glimpse into the past.

Note: All images are from Historic Joplin’s own collection.

A Quick History In The News Round Up

Joplin's Missouri Pacific Depot as of July, 2010

Joplin's Missouri Pacific Depot as of July, 2010

A couple things have popped up in the Joplin Globe over the last few days.  In good news, the old Missouri Pacific Depot that was saved and moved to its present location by David Glenn has found new owners.  Glenn bought the depot when it was scheduled to be destroyed and carefully relocated it to its spot off of Rangeline where it opened up as Timberline restaurant.  In the future, we’ll provide a little more history on this smaller depot of Joplin’s past.   The new owners are Raymond and Amy Yen, who will re-open it later this year as a far eastern restaurant.  Let’s hope when it comes to decoration that they don’t alter anything original!

The other news item has to do with the arrival in Joplin of general American history, a restored B-17 Flying Fortress, the Liberty Belle. Just like another restored B-17, Aluminum Overcast, the Liberty Belle, never saw combat due to being produced at the end of the war.  However, that doesn’t make her any less grand a lady.  It’s highly recommended to go visit the Liberty Belle when she arrives on August 29 at the Joplin airport.  For those of you in Springfield, she’ll visit Springfield’s airport a day earlier on August 28.   Check here for her schedule and more information about the Liberty Belle.

Music Video Joplin

For those of you who just want to sit back and look at photographs of historic Joplin and listen to good music in the process, we present to you Patrick McPheron’s work, Presenting Joplin (click here!).  McPheron is a free lance designer in Los Angeles with Joplin roots and crafted this music video using photographs and images from Digital Postcard Collection at the Joplin Public Library’s website.

For a look at the rest of McPheron’s work, including photographs, other videos, and music, just follow this link to Interiorstate.com.

The Schedule of the 1902 Joplin Colts / Miners

We previously discussed the emergence of Joplin’s first professional baseball team, the Colts who soon after became the Miners.  After some research, we uncovered what appears to be the schedule for the team that season in the Missouri Valley League.

1902 Joplin Miners' Missouri Valley League schedule

For a larger version click on the photograph

In the earlier post, we offered a team photo from that year.  To keep things fresh, we’ve added a photograph of the 1904 team.  A glance between the supplied rosters for the teams reveals some old faces and some new.

1904 Joplin Miners

1904 Joplin Miners

Sources: Joplin News Herald, Historic Joplin Collection

Hell Hath No Fury Again

Shrill screams pierced the air. Residents who lived in the vicinity of Sergeant and Fourth Streets emerged from their homes at two o’clock in the afternoon to investigate the horrific screams. Two women were struggling in the street. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that one woman had the upper hand as she “had seized the other by the hair was applying a whip vigorously over her head and shoulders. Hence the screams.”

Spectators intervened and the two women were separated. The woman who wielded the whip, Mrs. John Essry, turned herself in to Officer Robinson. She explained that her husband had been courting Miss Anna Rosser, a young woman who still lived at home with her parents on Sergeant Avenue. After she discovered that her husband had taken Miss Rosser on a Sunday buggy ride the preceding week, Mrs. Essry decided that revenge was the best course of action.

She drove to the Rosser home and pretended to be looking for a young woman to work for her selling samples. While in the street, Mrs. Essry drew her whip and began beating Miss Rosser.

But the beating was not enough. The following week, Mrs. Essry once again unleashed her fury against Miss Rosser. This time she returned to the Rosser home armed with rocks. She began to bombard the house with rocks, breaking windows. The Rossers escaped out the back door and ran to a neighbor’s home as Mrs. Essry continued to assault the Rosser home until she managed to break down the door. Finding no one inside, she went to the neighbor’s home, but was given an evasive answer.

Mrs. Essry was not finished. She returned to the Rosser home, picked up a hatchet, and smashed what she could. “Doors, windows, furniture, stove and household fixtures” were destroyed. Spectators watched her frenzied hatchet attack but did not intervene. Joplin police officers arrived and took Mrs. Essry into custody.

She quickly bonded out of jail “as public sympathy is strong in her behalf. Her neighbors speak highly of her in her struggle to maintain five small children almost wholly without aid from her profligate husband.” Her husband’s advances towards Miss Rosser had driven her “wild.”

The girl’s mother had attempted to keep the two apart, but the girl “is at that giddy, gosling period when a waxed mustache, soft talk, and a musk befogged handkerchief would turn her head more in a minute than maternal precept could right in a day.” It was said that Miss Rosser had left town.

Joplin’s First Speeding Ticket

Just after the turn of the century, Joplin attorney Fred Basom received the first speeding ticket issued in Joplin. He was “hailed by an officer of the law while out for a spin,” after the mayor’s recent instructions to the police department to arrest drivers who violated Joplin’s city ordinance that set the speed limit at six miles an hour. The news item did not explain how fast Mr. Basom was going when he was ticketed or what the fine was for breaking the speed limit, but it can be expected that attorney Basom was able to secure adequate representation for his police court appearance.

Source: Joplin News Herald

Update on Nominated Historic Districts

Becky Brill, of the city of Joplin, was kind enough to drop by and leave us an update on the status of the nominations that went before the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on Friday.  For those of you following the status of the Joplin and Wall Historic District and the South Main Street Historic District, Becky had some good news!  Both districts were approved by the council and were recommended to be placed upon the Federal Register of Historic Places as commercial districts (which bring important tax benefits).  That final decision will be made by the Federal government in Washington, D.C.   Becky’s comment noted that that decision will probably come in October.  Let’s hope for good news in the fall!

For those of you who missed our initial coverage of the nomination of the districts, here’s the post with all the details.