Columbia Manuscript Collections

Correspondence, committee reports, proposals, files, official journals and newspaper articles on the 1943-1944 Missouri Constitutional Convention and the 1949-1950 revision of the St. Louis, Missouri, city charter by the Board of Freeholders.

Papers of a University of Missouri professor of history and author. Personal, professional and editorial correspondence, departmental and committee papers, syllabi, lectures, exams, research notes, manuscripts of speeches, articles and books, records of students and copies of historical documents.

Constituent and legislative correspondence from Jones's terms as a Democratic congressman from Missouri's 10th district, 1948-1969. Jones's major committee assignments included the Agriculture and the House Administration Committees.

The papers of a Carthage, Missouri, lawyer, state senator, Democratic candidate for governor, president of the State Historical Society of Missouri, and member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators. The correspondence concerns civic, legal, political and business interests, family, and friends. The papers include correspondence of the McReynolds family dating from the 1840s through the 1940s.

Correspondence, including local and national committee reports, newsletters, bulletins and statements, and clippings from a variety of publications on topics such as faculty participation in government, academic freedom and tenure, and students rights.

Papers of a newspaper editor, tavern operator, teacher, and close friend of the poet John G. Neihardt. Smith managed one of Neihardt’s public speaking tours and the two corresponded regularly for twenty years. The papers consist primarily of letters from Neihardt to Smith, but also include records related to the 1965 speaking tour, newspaper clippings, and photographs.

Correspondence, diary, manuscripts of novels, poems, articles, photographs, books, memorabilia, and other personal and professional papers of an author and director of editorial research at LOOK magazine, 1943-1968.

Papers and genealogy of a prominent lawyer, writer and orator of Hannibal, Missouri. Includes incomplete journal of overland trip to California in 1849.

Papers of a Boone County, Missouri, farmer and mule trader, including several ledgers of mule breeding and sale records. Also contains a book of Lycurgus P. Hickam, his son, listing construction workers on a Boone County road, 1868-1869.

Mississippi River pilots’ charts, ships; logs, steamboat directions, and personal papers of Edmund Gray, a resident of Gray’s Point, Scott County, Missouri, and Cape Girardeau and steamboat pilot on the Mississippi for many years.

Genealogical papers of Sallie Frost. Families researched include: Birch, Campbell, Carmichael, Cox, Foster, Frost, Galbraith, Hoskins, Howell, Redfearn, and Routh.

Genealogical data on Glascock, Tutt, Watson, Woodson, Carstarphen and collateral families compiled by Carstarphen with his aunt, Emily Marion Watson, collaborating on the Watson, Woodson, and Tutt families.

Correspondence of two brothers, their parents, and other relatives while the brothers were in military service during World War I.

Church records, including births, confirmations, marriages, deaths, communions, family register, collections, and love offerings. The church was established in 1870 with fourteen families included in its membership.

Rules of decorum, articles of faith, membership records, and minutes.

Minutes and chronological register.

Church register, including lists of pastors, clerks, treasurers, deacons and trustees, a chronological register, compilations of statistics, and minutes.

St. Louis Municipal Opera memorabilia, including the history of the summer theatre in Forest Park, programs, articles on musicals held through the years, stars and casts, and photographs.

Correspondence, clippings, writings, speeches and notes pertaining to Brigadier General Robinett of Mountain Grove, Missouri, who, with his brother Frank, compiled material on his army career.

Records, correspondence and scrapbooks of a University of Missouri agricultural fraternity and its building association.

Minutes, clippings, photographs, yearbooks, and scrapbooks of an organization of women interested in growing flowers and stimulating beautification of their community.

Papers of the Fletcher family of Arcadia, Missouri. Included are two Civil War muster rolls; Missouri will and land deed; scrapbook of Alma's European tour, 1910; and detailed daily bird watching charts, 1960-1968.

Unpublished autobiography, correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings of a Missourian who graduated from the United States Naval Academy, spent forty years on active duty in the Navy, was made a Rear Admiral, and served in the diplomatic corps.

Newspaper clippings, reviews of stage plays, correspondence, and scrapbooks on the life and career of a popular comedian of the late 1800s, and his contemporaries.

Personal papers, genealogical notes, and correspondence of a professional genealogist in Columbia, Missouri. Main names researched are Bright, Carter, and Haden. Secondary names are Bell, Black, Cave, Hansford, McClung, Turner, and Wood. Information on many other families is included.

Recollections of A.W. Reese, a surgeon who served under Sherman in Georgia. Describes army life, battles, impressions of the South, and the war in Missouri. Recalls Indiana childhood. Comments on experiences at Post Hospital, Warrensburg, after the war, including vigilante action against former rebels.

Papers produced by various anti-war, political, religious, student, and community groups for distribution on the UMC campus: newspapers, newsletters, broadsides, petitions, flyers, handbills, pamphlets, posters, circular letters, reprints, programs, announcements, and position papers.

The papers of a Columbia, Missouri, banker and his heirs. Hunt’s other interests included farming and acquiring business and residential property in Columbia. Includes genealogical notes collected by his wife, Margaret Bright Hunt.

Daybooks, ledgers, and payroll records of a family-owned milling company in Loose Creek, Osage County, Missouri. Operations included a sawmill, winery and flour mill. Most of the mill's business was done with local German immigrant farmers and their descendants. Early records are in German shorthand script and there are some gaps.

Record books of the Friedens Evangelical Church, Warrenton, Missouri, and the Bethany Evangelical Church, Pendleton, Missouri. The two merged to become the Friedens Evangelical and Reformed Church, later renamed the Friedens United Church of Christ. The Friedens Church was organized in 1877, but the record book has entries dating from 1868. The earliest record in the Bethany book is for 1910.

Elevations, plans, and details for the buildings of the University of Missouri Francis Quadrangle, the Missouri Industrial Home for Girls at Chillicothe, churches, private and public schools, and domestic architecture in Missouri.

Papers of the author of the "Little House" series of children's stories. Manuscripts, a diary and some correspondence are included.

Office files of the Executive Director of the Committee, and minutes of related organizations: the Joint Administrative Committee of the St. Louis Supplemental Manpower Agreement / of the St. Louis Construction Manpower Corporation; the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Construction Manpower Corporation; and the Board of Directors of Construction Job Opportunities, Inc.

Records of the Perche Church from its founding in 1874 as the Arm of Bethlehem Church. The name was changed in 1880. Minutes of business sessions include periodic lists of members.

The collection contains French colonial and territorial records of the District of Ste. Genevieve, along with Ste. Genevieve County records and court records. A third of the documents are dated 1756-1804; the remainder date from 1805 to 1930.

Primarily newspaper clippings documenting Symington's years as a Democratic senator from Missouri, 1953-1976. Early volumes cover his activities while heading the Surplus Property Board, the Air Force, the National Security Resources Board, and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

The origins, history, minutes, and memorials of The Readers, a Columbia, Missouri, club for women started in 1925. The club’s emphasis is the reading and discussion of books.  Profiles of women from this club give a useful comment on the concerns of educated women in the early twentieth century.

The papers contain copies of correspondence and official documents of a Missourian who served in the Civil War as a captain, major, and colonel in Union regiments. Included is correspondence concerning a pension Price requested for an injury sustained during the war.

Record books containing lists of members of the church, the constitution, and the abstract of principles. A synopsis of each meeting of the congregation is also included.

Materials from a member of the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Included are correspondence, minutes, National Register nominations, statewide historic preservation plans, publications, and newsletters.

Papers from the chairman of the Missouri American Revolution Bicentennial Commission. Included are correspondence, business papers, programs, and miscellaneous items.

The marriage, baptismal, confirmation and funeral records of a German evangelical church located near Warrenton, Warren County, Missouri. Volume three also contains the rules of the congregation and list of its members. The records are written almost entirely in German script.

Records of the state organization of affiliated high school FFA chapters. Includes constitution and bylaws, applications for and articles of incorporation, minutes of meetings, and scrapbooks on state and local chapter activities.

Scrapbooks of clippings about Jacob LeRoy Milligan and Maurice M. Milligan. They contain information on Richmond, Ray County, Missouri; the law firm of Roberts, Milligan and Milligan; Company C, 140th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division, U.S. Army [6th Regiment, Missouri Infantry]; and Maurice's prosecution of Thomas Pendergast.

Annual meeting minutes of organization of newspaper publishers. Minutes reflect concern about advertising rates, postal rate and freedom of the press legislation, and contemporary issues. Includes list of organization's presidents.

Minutes, treasurer's reports and account books of a German social club established in Warren County in 1856. Books contain membership lists and records of the Schuetzenfest sponsored annually since the club was founded.

The records of the state council of a leadership and service sorority include The Missouri Hawthorne and state council officers’ materials.

Origin, history and meetings of an organization whose members seek to promote the general welfare of the people through a recreation program. Minutes of the executive boards, committee work, conference and treasurers' reports and correspondence are included. The last section of the collection comprises papers relating to supervised recreation in Columbia, Missouri, 1940-1960.

Papers of a University of Missouri professor who was chairman of the Department of Industrial Education, served as chairman of the Missouri State Planning Board, 1933-1935, taught vocational war training, wrote many books and articles, and was a proponent and innovator of specific job and information sheets for trade teaching with individual instruction.

Correspondence, minutes, annual reports, and other materials, arranged chronologically by dean. Information on personnel, Student Health Service, Crippled Children's Service, controversy over location of clinical training, and physical plant.

The papers contain correspondence, minutes, programs, financial records, newspaper clippings, and photographs of Columbia People-to-People Sister City Corporation, Columbia, Missouri, and sister city committee of Armenia, Colombia, South America. Material pertaining to membership, fund raising, exchange visits, library contributions, and sponsorship of students.

The papers contain Civil War correspondence, military forms, photographs, and newspaper clippings regarding Samuel C. Gold, Union officer, commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau, and prominent citizen of Sedalia, Missouri. Includes certificates of appointment, discharge papers, a letter written during the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, in 1862, obituaries, and a copy of a manual on military science.

Letters from Highley to his family in Elvins, Missouri, while serving with the 375th Squadron of the 308th Heavy Bomb Group, Army Air Corps, in China and India during World War II. The papers also include an edited version of his letters by his son J. Scott Highley.

The papers of the Hardeman family, who moved to Howard County, Missouri, from Tennessee, developing Fruitage Farm and a botanical showplace called Hardeman’s Garden on the Missouri River include correspondence, financial records, and scrapbooks. The correspondence includes letters from Henry Clay and Thomas Hart Benton.

The papers of a Boone County, Missouri, family with roots in North Carolina, include correspondence, genealogical information, and daybooks of a physician, Frank G. Nifong, who married Lavinia Bradford Lenoir.

Records of a professional writer’s organization that include administrative files, correspondence, event and membership information, and newsletters. The collection also contains information on select local affiliate chapters.

Minutes, bylaws, correspondence, resolutions, association histories, probate decisions and financial reports of the Missouri Association of Probate and Associate Circuit Judges from its founding in 1914 as the Missouri Probate Judges’ Association to 1979. The organization has also been called the Missouri Association of Probate Judges and the Missouri Association of Probate and Magistrate Judges during the course of its history.

Records taken from the abandoned station of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Cairo, Illinois in 1975. Includes correspondence, waybills, reports of traffic, blueprints, tariff information, a timetable, and pamphlets of work rules and rates.

Records of the Louisiana Central Lumber Company and associated companies. Includes correspondence, financial records, company reports, maps, photo­graphs, and other materials related to the southern lumber industry.

The records consist of minutes, financial records, correspondence, and printed material of the union. The records also include The Typographical Journal and The Bulletin of the International Typographical Union and material from the St. Louis Allied Printing Trades Council.

The papers of a journalist include correspondence, literary works, printed material, photographs, and a scrapbook. Drafts for My Twenty-Five Years in China and Powell’s articles (1941-1947) predominate. Information on China, Japan, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Central Asia, India, Philippine Islands, World War II, and the Washington Conference.

Records of a German savings and loan association in Washington, Missouri, organized in 1871 and rechartered twice before it received a permanent charter and took its present name in 1908. Includes charter, bylaws, minutes of board meetings, and lists of stockholders. Minutes were kept in German until September 4, 1918.

Included in this collection are some of the compositions of John William "Blind" Boone, a musician and composer of classical and ragtime music. Also included are orchestrations and choral arrangements of Boone's music, correspondence, programs, and posters from a memorial concert in 1961. Correspondence concerning recovery of Boone's piano and posters and tickets from some Boone concerts are also part of the collection.

The personal and professional papers of Benjamin F. Schaberg, Sr., who worked as an engineer on the Panama Canal, St. Louis sewer projects, World War II army post construction, and Missouri Public Service Commission studies, include family correspondence between Schaberg and his wife, sisters, and sons. Ben Jr. and John George Schaberg were in China during and after the 1937 Japanese invasion.

Papers of a state labor leader. State CIO Industrial Union Council, State Labor Council, Political Action Committee, Missouri Valley Authority, Governor's Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation, United Labor Committee of Missouri, State Environmental Improvement Authority and Executive Review Committee materials. Personal records.

Papers of James S. McLoed, his father, William, and family. McLoed was a farmer, carpenter, county clerk, justice of the peace, road commissioner, and school trustee in Calumet Township, Pike County, Missouri.

Letters received by Rodney Martin Hinde and his wife, Catherine Scholl Hinde, of Moorefield, Nicholas County, Kentucky, and Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, from Hinde and Scholl relatives in Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana, and Kentucky. Letters discuss farming and family matters.

The records contain minutes and scrapbooks containing photographs, programs, newspaper articles and memorabilia of the Missouri chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa, international honorary sorority for women educators. State convention minutes for 1953-1966 and minutes of the executive board meetings for 1953-1967 are included.

The records of the Fortnightly Club, a women’s organization for wives of University of Missouri faculty and female faculty members, which consist of materials surrounding membership and recruitment, finances, board meetings, committees and interest groups, and events and trips. Also included are bulletins and newsletters published by the group.

Correspondence, deeds, appointments, legal documents regarding suits and estates, receipts and business papers concerning Samuel W. Smiley, early settler and property owner in Lincoln County, Missouri. Similar material regarding his wife, children, relatives, and descendants is also included. The bulk of this collection dates from the 1820s to the 1840s.

The papers of a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism primarily pertain to his years as a professor of journalism at St. John’s University, Shanghai, China, and an adviser to the Nationalist Chinese Ministry of Information. Included are transcripts of oral interviews, correspondence, literary productions, minutes, printed materials, maps, lists, photographs, and books. Topics include Votaw’s life; writers, missionaries, political and military leaders, and events in China (1922-1977); U.S. China policy; Chinese and American journalism and newspapers; the Shanghai Short Story Club; and St. John’s University and the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Marriage certificates signed by religious officials and justices of the peace; some give parent’s names. There are also certificates from German Settlement in Ste. Genevieve County.  The certificates are arranged by year, then alphabetically by groom’s name within each year. Mentioned are St. Anthony’s Chapel, St. Joseph’s Church, St. Philomena’s Chapel and Methodist Episcopal Church South.

Copy of a roll of attorneys and their addresses, as written by each individual who practiced before the Ste. Genevieve County Court from 1844 to 1978.

Copies of lists of persons from whom taxes were collected in Ste. Genevieve County on writs, executions, and deeds recorded, and on merchant, ferry, and other licenses.

French colonial and territorial records of the Cape Girardeau District and Cape Girardeau County records and court records.

Copies of lists of persons from whom taxes were collected in Cape Girardeau County in 1814 and 1815, and accounts of the public securities and money received for 1827-1829. Nature of claim, water course, original owners, number of arpens, enslaved persons, town lots, houses, improvements, carriages, and valuations are given on tax lists.

Copies of delinquent tax lists of Gasconade County for 1821 and 1828.

Summons dated August 22, 1808, for William Perry to testify in suit of John Smith T vs. Moses Austin in the General Court of Louisiana Territory.

Abstract of title to lands in Johnson County, Missouri, 1898; land deeds, Henry and Johnson Counties, Missouri, 1843-1871.

Charter granted to a branch of the National Farmers and Laborers Union of America.

"A History of the 3196th Signal Service Company," including roster of name, address, nickname, and date for each member. The group served in Italy during World War II.

Blueprints done of Thespian Hall for the Historic American Buildings Survey by John A. Huffman, restoration architect. First floor, second floor and balcony plans and longitudinal sections are included.

Certificate of incorporation granted by the State of Missouri for non-profit cooperative agricultural purposes for fifty years. Signed by Charles U. Becker, Missouri Secretary of State, on April 11, 1924.

The papers of Jacob F. Newbrandt contain documents of a former Union soldier concerning money lawfully due him for twenty-one months imprisonment by the Confederates.

The collection contains a recollection of Stones' service as a trumpet player with the Police Department band in St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1920s.

The papers of James B. Musick contain essays and notes written by a former secretary of the St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, on the subjects of Carl Weimar, artist; western pioneers as portrayed particularly in the paintings of George Caleb Bingham; and historic places on the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

The papers of Joseph C. Moore contain an honorable discharge from service with O'Fallon's Regiment of Riflemen, U.S. Army; and a commission from Governor Robert M. Stewart to the position as justice of the county court of Linn County, Missouri.

The collection contains a typescript history of an area in Carroll County, Missouri, which included Cherry Valley School near the town of Miles Point.

The collection contains minutes of meetings of the Henry County branch of the Missouri Council of Defense, set up to prepare citizens for emergency situations.

The papers of Harriet D. Johnston contain letters of an instructor in zoology at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, 1925-1927, to John F. Calvert concerning family matters, happenings in Columbia, the University of Missouri, Stephens College, and Butler College, Indianapolis, Indiana. Also included are miscellaneous printed materials and photographs.

The records of the Woman's Auxiliary to the Boone County Medical Society contain minutes and treasurer's records of an organization of wives of Boone County, Missouri, physicians.

Correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, account books, ledgers, financial and personal records, genealogical materials, photographs, and miscellaneous material of the Conley and Miller family of Boone County, Missouri.

The records of a Columbia-based organization established in 1968 to discover ways to implement peace, to promote and encourage peace research and education, and to work with other peace organizations, include the group’s organizational records and subject files.

The papers of a singer and radio, theater, and movie star contain correspondence, financial records, musical arrangements, photographs, audio and film recordings, and scrapbooks. The papers include material on radio, movie musicals, the USO, theater and club appearances, television, and popular music of the 1930s through the 1950s. Also includes some papers of her mother, Anna Barcafer Froman Hetzler (1873-1962).

Minutes, correspondence, financial records, labor contracts and apprenticeship records. The St. Louis District Council, one of four in the state of Missouri, worked to unionize carpenter shops, provided benefits for members, and mediated jurisdictional disputes between unions.

The Corder-Thomas Family Papers consist of the diaries of Leslie Walker Corder, a Waverly, Missouri, farmer and civic leader; his wife Nellie Perry Buck Corder; and her aunt Susan Buck Cooper Thomas. The diaries contain routine entries about life in Waverly; weather statistics; farm and rental accounts; expense records; genealogies; and comments on building roads and railroads. The papers also include family letters, news clippings, and miscellaneous items.

The records of the Lake Creek United Methodist Church contain histories, minutes and membership, baptism, marriage, and funeral lists of the Versailles Mission; Florence District; later Lake Creek District; and the Lake Creek Church, Pettis County, of the Methodist Episcopal, later United Methodist, Church, founded in 1843. Volumes 1 and 2 are in German and volume 3 is partially in German.

Carbon copies of letters mailed from Ichord's office. Arranged chronologically by congressional session, then alphabetically by addressee, except on subject folders where arrangement is chronological. Ichord was a Democratic representative from Missouri's 8th District to the 87th through 96th congresses.

The records of the State Council office of the secretary-treasurer, formed in 1938 by local unions to oversee union activities within the state, include weekly reports and other correspondence; photographs, printed material; and the proceedings of the annual council conventions.

Records of the Bethlehem Baptist Church, Florence, Morgan County, Missouri, consisting of membership lists, minutes of meetings, association letters, and miscellaneous records.