{"id":85,"date":"2010-04-07T11:32:44","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T16:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=85"},"modified":"2010-04-07T12:12:47","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T17:12:47","slug":"letters-to-the-joplin-police-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=85","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the Joplin Police Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1907, the Joplin Police Chief Myers shared some of the letters he received on a daily basis with the Joplin Globe<\/em>.\u00a0 The letters offer a glimpse of life in Joplin and the surrounding areas.\u00a0 Some the letters he received were mundane, such as the following letter:<\/p>\n

\u201cCherryvale, Kan., Oct., 21, 1907.
\nJoplin City Marshal, Joplin, Mo.<\/p>\n

Will you please see and inform me if there are any girls wanted to attend to lunch counters.\u00a0 If so, I can send an experienced one, and please give me the number and the price of wages.\u00a0 Let me hear soon.\u00a0 Respectfully,<\/em><\/p>\n

S.A.T.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Globe<\/em> jauntily remarked, \u201cThe chief of police has not answered the above letter because of the fact that he is not running an employment agency.\u00a0 In fact, if the chief answered all of the letters of this nature he receives he would have to hire a private secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another letter that Chief Myers received read,<\/p>\n

\u201cCassville, Mo.\u00a0 Oct.\u00a0 22, 1907.
\nChief of Police, Joplin, Mo.<\/p>\n

Dear Sir \u2014 Will you please inform me by enclosed card if a woman by the name of Ella Hailey is in your city.\u00a0 She may be working in one of your hotels.\u00a0 Please phone hotels and see if she is there.\u00a0 Oblige, A.C.H.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Globe<\/em> noted that the \u201clast letter is somewhat out of the ordinary as he addresses\u00a0 the chief as ‘dear sir’ and actually says ‘oblige’ in ending his letter.\u00a0 The majority of the letters simply tell the chief of what they desire him to do and let the matter pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other letters were in response to an earlier missive from a Joplin man, C.T.\u00a0 Plimer, who was hunting a wife.\u00a0 One woman from Platt City, Missouri, declared, \u201cNow please understand I am not a man hunter, for I never gave this subject much thought.\u00a0 I think that I will fill the bill and the description, except having the several thousand dollars.\u00a0 I have some nice property here.\u00a0 I have visited in Joplin and like your city very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cmost amusing letter\u201d that Chief Meyers received, according to the Globe<\/em> was one from an African American man in Fort Scott, Kansas, who wrote,<\/p>\n

\u201cCity marshal, be on the lookout for a young colored woman by the name of Leatha B—-.\u00a0 She is a brown skin, good looker, good hair, a pair of earrings with blue sets, and a finger ring with a blue set in it.\u00a0 She might go by the name of Leatha C.\u00a0 She wears a long black coat, a black hat turned up on the side with a band with a red stripe in it, a nice black dress, and a changeable silk underskirt.\u00a0 I just bought them for her.\u00a0 There is a young brown skin man by the name of Will Julien.\u00a0 If you catch them arrest them both and lock them up until you hear from Butler or Mr.\u00a0 George Julien.\u00a0 If she is there and ain’t working and running the streets, make her leave town.\u00a0 Yours truly, Andy B<\/em>.<\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0 \u2014 Make her come home; she ain’t got no business down there.\u00a0 I have got a good home for her and she don’t want for nothing.\u00a0 Make her leave town.\u00a0 She left this afternoon at 3 o’clock.\u00a0 Telephone back at my expense<\/em>.\u201d \u2014 Andy B.<\/p>\n

We’re not sure if Leatha returned to Andy B.\u00a0 in Fort Scott or not, but it was probably not the last time that Chief Myers received a letter from the hopeful and the lovelorn.<\/p>\n

Source: The Joplin Globe<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1907, the Joplin Police Chief Myers shared some of the letters he received on a daily basis with the Joplin Globe.\u00a0 The letters offer a glimpse of life in Joplin and the surrounding areas.\u00a0 Some the letters he received were mundane, such as the following letter: \u201cCherryvale, Kan., Oct., 21, 1907. Joplin City Marshal, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[245,35],"tags":[32,31,8,339,83,284,338,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}