Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland

Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland PDF Author: John C. Fisher
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786479957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
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.

Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland

Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland PDF Author: John C. Fisher
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786479957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland

Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland PDF Author: John C. Fisher
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476627916
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

This Place of Promise

This Place of Promise PDF Author: Gary R. Kremer
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826274668
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
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.

The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi

The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi PDF Author: Boyce Upholt
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393867889
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
Instant Bestseller A Chicago Public Library Must-Read Book of 2024 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.

Missouri Historical Review

Missouri Historical Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Missouri
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description


A Missouri Railroad Pioneer

A Missouri Railroad Pioneer PDF Author: Joel P. Rhodes
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826266428
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
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.

A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri

A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri PDF Author: William Smith Bryan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Missouri
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description


Max the Knife

Max the Knife PDF Author: Max Heeb
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503592731
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
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.

Uniquely Missouri

Uniquely Missouri PDF Author: Lisa Owens
Publisher: Heinemann-Raintree Library
ISBN: 9781403444950
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
Provides an overview of various aspects of Missouri that make it a unique state, including its people, land, culture, and attractions.

When They Blew the Levee

When They Blew the Levee PDF Author: David Todd Lawrence
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496817745
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Winner of the 2019 Chicago Folklore Prize In 2011, the Midwest suffered devastating floods. Due to the flooding, the US Army Corps of Engineers activated the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway, one of the flood prevention mechanisms of the Mississippi Rivers and Tributaries Project. This levee breach was intended to divert water in order to save the town of Cairo, Illinois, but in the process, it completely destroyed the small African American town of Pinhook, Missouri. In When They Blew the Levee: Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri, authors David Todd Lawrence and Elaine J. Lawless examine two conflicting narratives about the flood--one promoted by the Corps of Engineers that boasts the success of the levee breach and the flood diversion, and the other gleaned from displaced Pinhook residents, who, in oral narratives, tell a different story of neglect and indifference on the part of government officials. Receiving inadequate warning and no evacuation assistance during the breach, residents lost everything. Still after more than six years, displaced Pinhook residents have yet to receive restitution and funding for relocation and reconstruction of their town. The authors' research traces a long history of discrimination and neglect of the rights of the Pinhook community, beginning with their migration from the Deep South to southeast Missouri, through purchasing and farming the land, and up to the Birds Point levee breach nearly eighty years later. The residents' stories relate what it has been like to be dispersed in other small towns, living with relatives and friends while trying to negotiate the bureaucracy surrounding Federal Emergency Management Agency and State Emergency Management Agency assistance programs. Ultimately, the stories of displaced citizens of Pinhook reveal a strong African American community, whose bonds were developed over time and through shared traditions, a community persisting despite extremely difficult circumstances.