Download or read book Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland written by John C. Fisher and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the 20th century began, swamps with immense timber resources covered much of the Missouri Bootheel. After investors harvested the timber, the landscape became overgrown. The conversion of swampland to farmland began with small drainage projects but complete reclamation was made possible by a system of ditches dug by the Little River Drainage District—the largest in the U.S., excavating more earth than for the Panama Canal. Farming quickly took over. The devastation of Southern cotton fields by boll weevils in the early 1920s brought to the cooler Bootheel an influx of black and white sharecroppers and cotton became the principal crop. Conflict over New Deal subsidies to increase cotton prices by reducing production led to the 1939 Sharecropper Demonstration, foreshadowing civil rights protests three decades later.
Download or read book Flagland the History of a Swamp Farm written by Martha Jean Stewart and published by . This book was released on 2009-11 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flagland is the story of a farm in the rich swampland of Southeast Missouri that was part of the push to drain and tame the area, as told through the eyes of the Heath and Hubbard families. This heartfelt and touching story portrays the struggles and triumphs of farm life and and the strong bond that held their family together. Ralph and Alma Hubbard's story is conveyed through the ongoing chronicle of Round Robin letters spanning 36 years that circulated among over a dozen farm families. The voice of their daughter, Martha Jean Stewart, continues into the next generation with her skillful story telling. You'll enjoy her direct and lively wit as she remembers the life of perseverance and love born of the close-knit family called the farm.
Download or read book From Missouri written by Thad Snow and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Snow purchased a thousand acres of southeast Missouri swampland in 1910, cleared it, drained it, and eventually planted it in cotton. Although he employed sharecroppers, he grew to become a bitter critic of the labor system after a massive flood and the Great Depression worsened conditions for these already-burdened workers. Shocking his fellow landowners, Snow invited the Southern Tenant Farmers Union to organize the workers on his land. He was even once accused of fomenting a strike and publicly threatened with horsewhipping. Snow’s admiration for Owen Whitfield, the African American leader of the Sharecroppers’ Roadside Demonstration, convinced him that nonviolent resistance could defeat injustice. Snow embraced pacifism wholeheartedly and denounced all war as evil even as America mobilized for World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he became involved with creating Missouri’s conservation movement. Near the end of his life, he found a retreat in the Missouri Ozarks, where he wrote this recollection of his life. This unique and honest series of personal essays expresses the thoughts of a farmer, a hunter, a husband, a father and grandfather, a man with a soft spot for mules and dogs and all kinds of people. Snow’s prose reveals much about a way of life in the region during the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the social and political events that affected the entire nation. Whether arguing that a good stock dog should be left alone to do its work, explaining the process of making swampland suitable for agriculture, or putting forth his case for world peace, Snow’s ideas have a special authenticity because they did not come from an ivory tower or a think tank—they came From Missouri.
Download or read book Missouri Historical Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book This Place of Promise written by Gary R. Kremer and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conceived of as a way to commemorate Missouri’s bicentennial of statehood, this unique work presents the perspective of Gary Kremer, one of the Show-Me State’s foremost historians, as he ponders why history played out as it did over the course of the two centuries since Missouri’s admittance to the Union. In the writing of what is much more than a survey history, Kremer, himself a fifth-generation Missourian, infuses the narrative with his vast knowledge and personal experiences, even as he considers what being a Missourian has meant—across the many years and to this day—to all of the state’s people, and how the forces of history—time, place, race, gender, religion, and class—shaped people and determined their opportunities and choices, in turn creating collective experiences that draw upon the past in an attempt to make sense of the present and plan for the future. Key elements of the book include the centrality of race to the Missouri experience—from the time Missourians began to seek statehood in 1817 all the way up to the Black Lives Matter movement of the 21st century—as well as ongoing tensions created by the urban-rural divide and struggle to define the proper role of government in society.
Download or read book The Great River The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi written by Boyce Upholt and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2024-06-11 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping history of the Mississippi River—and the centuries of human meddling that have transformed both it and America. The Mississippi River lies at the heart of America, an undeniable life force that is intertwined with the nation’s culture and history. Its watershed spans almost half the country, Mark Twain’s travels on the river inspired our first national literature, and jazz and blues were born in its floodplains and carried upstream. In this landmark work of natural history, Boyce Upholt tells the epic story of this wild and unruly river, and the centuries of efforts to control it. Over thousands of years, the Mississippi watershed was home to millions of Indigenous people who regarded “the great river” with awe and respect, adorning its banks with astonishing spiritual earthworks. The river was ever-changing, and Indigenous tribes embraced and even depended on its regular flooding. But the expanse of the watershed and the rich soils of its floodplain lured European settlers and American pioneers, who had a different vision: the river was a foe to conquer. Centuries of human attempts to own, contain, and rework the Mississippi River, from Thomas Jefferson’s expansionist land hunger through today’s era of environmental concern, have now transformed its landscape. Upholt reveals how an ambitious and sometimes contentious program of engineering—government-built levees, jetties, dikes, and dams—has not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems but may not work much longer. Carrying readers along the river’s last remaining backchannels, he explores how scientists are now hoping to restore what has been lost. Rich and powerful, The Great River delivers a startling account of what happens when we try to fight against nature instead of acknowledging and embracing its power—a lesson that is all too relevant in our rapidly changing world.
Download or read book A Missouri Railroad Pioneer written by Joel P. Rhodes and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lawyer and journalist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Louis Houck is often called the “Father of Southeast Missouri” because he brought the railroad to the region and opened this backwater area to industrialization and modernization. Although Houck’s name is little known today outside Missouri, Joel Rhodes shows how his story has relevance for both the state and the nation. Rhodes presents a more complete picture of Houck than has ever been available: reviewing his life from his German immigrant roots, considering his career from both social and political perspectives, and grounding the story in both state and national history. He especially tells how, from 1880 to the 1920s, this self-taught railroader constructed a network of five hundred miles of track through the wilderness of wetlands known as “Swampeast Missouri”—and how these “Houck Roads” provided a boost for population, agriculture, lumbering, and commerce that transformed Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area. Rhodes discusses how Houck fits into the era of economic individualism—a time when men with little formal training shaped modern industry—and also gives voice to Houck’s critics and shows that he was not always an easy man to work with. In telling the story of his railroading enterprise, Rhodes chronicles Houck’s battle with the Jay Gould railroad empire and offers key insight into the development of America’s railway system, from the cutthroat practices of ruthless entrepreneurs to the often-comic ineptness of start-up rail lines. More than simply a biography of a business entrepreneur, the book tells how Houck not only developed the region economically but also followed the lead of Andrew Carnegie by making art, culture, and formal education available to all social classes. Houck also served for thirty-six years as president of the Board of Regents of Southeast Missouri State Teacher’s College, and as a self-taught historian he wrote the first comprehensive accounts of Missouri’s territorial period. A Missouri Railroad Pioneer chronicles a multifaceted career that transformed a region. Solidly researched, this lively narrative also offers an entertaining read for anyone interested in Missouri history.
Download or read book Mingo written by Cletis R. Ellinghouse and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2008 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tribesmen regarded Mingo Swamp as a rare wildlife haven and made it a favored hunting ground long before white settlers discovered it, but in even earlier times, the storied Mississippi River passed through it moving to Arkansas. The soggy countryside around it made a good part of the neighborhood virtually inaccessible and therefore sparsely settled at the time of the Civil War; but Mingo, nevertheless, became one of Missouri's more hotly contested battlegrounds. Guerrillas fighting for the Lost Cause made its cypress and water tupelo forests their hideout, and it is identified to this day with one of the state's bloodiest encounters, the Battle of Mingo Swamp. The treacherous swamp's abundance of natural resources first attracted hardy backwoodsmen, but the entire countryside remained commercially undeveloped until arrival of the railroad and the founding in 1883 of Pucksekaw, now Puxico, which quickly became the base of a great logging and tie operation headed by newcomer Thomas J. Moss, the town's esteemed merchant prince who quickly became the largest tie contractor in the state. After the great timber boom ended in the early 1900s, newly organized Mingo Drainage District, encompassing 39,786 acres in Stoddard and Wayne counties, sought to clear the stumpage and drain the swamp to enhance agricultural pursuits and control costly St. Francis River overflows. After that glorious adventure failed in the 1930s, the federal government stepped in to acquire land for construction of two ambitious projects that changed the countryside forever, the 21,676-acre Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and, just beyond it to the west, a dam on the St. Francis River that created sprawling Lake Wappapello, which, in both land and water, encompasses more than 44,000 acres. Shortly thereafter, in the early 1950s, the Missouri Conservation Commission acquired the rest of the swamp to establish what now is Duck Creek Conservation Area, which encompasses 6,234 acres in Wayne, Bollinger, and Stoddard counties. Though obviously vastly different now and managed today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mingo remains one of America's premier wildlife havens. It is home to tens of thousands of waterfowl, three distinct ecosystems, and an incredible diversity of plants and animals. A great number of rare species, such as the swamp rabbit and the alligator snapping turtle, still strive at Mingo.
Download or read book Pot Roast Politics and Ants in the Pantry written by Carol Fisher and published by University of Missouri. This book was released on 2008 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A treasure trove of anecdotes and nuggets of historical information about the culinary heritage of the Show-Me-State reveals Missouri's rich cookbook history and delivers a generous sampling of recipes for favorite regional dishes. Original.
Download or read book Federal Wetlands Policy written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Reform and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Scott County MO written by and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 872 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Scott County, MO and their communities. Also includes Scott County officials, churches, businesses and family histories.
Download or read book Max the Knife written by Max Heeb, MD, FACS and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2015-08-06 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a balmy early September evening in 1998. The event was the annual fund-raiser for the Missouri Delta Medical Center, and I was the guest of honor; to receive a meritorious service award and recognition for services performed as a surgeon for more than four decades, as well as my work in various community projects and promotions. This was the second annual fund-raising event sponsored by the Missouri Delta Medical Center Foundation. The first one, the year before, had paid tribute to Judge Marshall Craig, a distinguished circuit court jurist, a legal icon in our region, and an all-American basketball player at the University of Missouri during his college days. It was my privilege to introduce the out-of-town special guests in attendance that had come to honor Judge Craig. The president of the University of Missouri, Dr. George Russell, originally from Bertrand, Missouri, a small town just east of Sikeston, and the renowned coach of the University of Missouri Tigers basketball team for more than twenty-five years, Coach Norman Stewart, had traveled down from Columbia, Missouri, to help honor Judge Craig.
Download or read book General Farm Program and Food Stamp Program written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book General Farm Program and Food Stamp Program Cotton November 18 19 25 December 2 3 and 8 1969 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Congressional Record written by United States. Congress and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 1198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)
Download or read book History of Southeast Missouri written by Robert Sidney Douglass and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 798 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wetlands Management written by Didem Gokce and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2019-01-23 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wetlands include mangroves, peatlands and marshes, rivers and lakes, deltas, floodplains, rice fields, and even coral reefs. It is known that wetlands are ecologically sensitive systems and the most vulnerable of habitats. Anthropogenic activities (urbanization, water uses, land cover changes, industrial activity, pollution, climatic change, etc.) have direct and indirect effects on wetlands. The evaluation of wetlands with a multidisciplinary perspective in environmental sciences and social sciences provides efficient results. Each chapter takes a crucial look at different approaches to the solution by analyzing wetland problems in the laboratory or in the field and collecting data. The purpose of this book is to help researchers, scientists, and decision-makers utilize a methodology appropriate for a specific problem.
