Samuel Aaron Baker was born on November 7, 1874, to Sam Baker and Mary Amanda McGhee in Patterson, Missouri. Baker’s family was not wealthy, so he worked as a railroad hand and in a lumber yard to save enough money to attend the Southeast Missouri State Teachers’ College in Cape Girardeau. While studying for his bachelor’s degree in law, Baker worked with the school furnaces to pay for his tuition and board. He graduated in 1897, and later obtained his doctorate in law at Missouri Valley College.

Baker had a distinguished career in education. He taught in the rural schools of Wayne County, served as principal at Joplin and Jefferson City high schools, and was city superintendent in Piedmont, Richmond, and Jefferson City. His years of experience and success contributed to his election as State Superintendent of Public Schools in 1918. ​

While Baker was Superintendent, rural schools received an increase in funding, teachers’ salaries were doubled, and new facilities and programs were created to improve the training of educators. Despite these successes, Baker was not reelected. However, he ascended to a higher position when he was elected governor of Missouri in 1924. He was inaugurated in 1925, and served until 1929, when he retired from political life. ​

On June 1, 1904, Baker married Nelle R. Tuckley of Jefferson City. The couple had one daughter, Mary Elizabeth, who attended public school in the capital city.

August J. Bauer was born to prominent Jefferson City businessman, John N. Bauer, and Anna Barbara Bauer on August 8, 1966. Both of his parents were German immigrants. A.J. attended Jefferson City public schools, and after graduation was hired as a messenger for First National Bank. After two years, he was promoted to bookkeeper, but retired after seven years due to health problems. That did not stop him from establishing a fire insurance agency, or from being elected City Collector in 1891. Bauer was continuously re-elected to that position on the Republican ticket. He served as chairman of the Republican City Central Committee, secretary and treasurer of the Wyaconda Lead and Zinc Mining Co., and secretary of the Home Building and Loan Association. Additionally, Bauer was an active member of the Evangelical Central Lutheran Church.

Bauer married Laura E. Straub, daughter of cigar manufacturer Wendell Straub, on October 10, 1893. They had a son, Harold, on August 20, 1984.

Annie White was born on March 2, 1864 to John and Jenny White. She was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but spent most of her early years in Newark, Ohio. The White family moved to Carthage, Missouri in 1877. White graduated from Carthage High School, where she had a reputation for being outspoken, commanding, and aggressive.

After graduation, White was employed as the assistant of the Jasper County courthouse clerk. She was appointed as a regular deputy clerk in 1885, and performed her duties so well that the next elected clerk made her principal deputy.

White married Charlie Baxter on January 14, 1888, and retired to focus on her family. However, when the county clerk was unable to continue working, White returned to her former position.

In 1890, thirty years before women were given the right to vote, Annie White Baxter was elected by Jackson County to be the county clerk. She was the first woman in the nation to hold that office, and the first woman in Missouri to be elected to public office. During her term, White oversaw the construction of the current Jackson County courthouse.

Fred H. Binder was born in Hanover, Germany on October 14, 1845. His father, J.C. Binder, was an architect, builder, and civil engineer, and specialized in the construction of houses and water mills. After he and his wife, Johanna Meyer Binder, passed away, Fred immigrated to the United States. Binder had been educated in architecture and the builder’s trade, and moved directly to Missouri in 1866.

​Binder moved to Jefferson City in the spring of 1867. He began his professional career in construction, as well as government. He was elected to the Board of Education in 1878, to the city council in 1881, and as mayor of Jefferson City in 1884. That same year, Binder was appointed as superintendent of the construction of the United States Court House and Post Office.

​Binder designed most of the buildings in Jefferson City, including the St. Peter’s Catholic Church and Evangelic Central Church. He was president of the Jefferson City Water Works Company, and brought the water wheel to mid-Missouri.

​Binder wished for a public park to be built after his death, and left money for its construction. The city used those funds to build both Binder and Memorial Park.

James Thomas Blair Jr. was born in Maryville, MO on March 15, 1902 to James T. Blair and Grace E. Ray. His father was very active in state government, serving in the House of Representatives 1899-1901, assistant attorney general 1909-1910, and on the Missouri Supreme Court 1915-1924. Blair Jr. attended Jefferson City public schools, and played with the sons of Governor Herbert Hadley as a child. He attended Staunton Military Academy in Virginia before pursuing a higher education at Southwest Missouri State College, University of Missouri in Columbia, and Cumberland University in Tennessee. He earned his bachelor’s degree in law at Cumberland, and returned to Jefferson City in 1924 to practice law.

One year later, Blair Jr. was elected city attorney; he was the only Democrat elected to office in 1925. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1928 and 1930, and in 1931 became the youngest man to hold the office of majority floor leader. He was also the youngest man to be voted president of the Missouri State Bar Association, which happened when he was only 28 years old.

In May of 1942, Blair Jr. entered the air force and served in Europe for three years. Part of his service included night flights from England to Africa. When his period of active service was finished, he was a lieutenant colonel awarded with the Air Medal, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Presidential Unit Citation, eleven battle stars, and Arrow Head.

Blair Jr. was elected mayor of Jefferson City in 1947, an office he held until he was elected lieutenant governor in 1949. He served as lieutenant governor until 1957, when he was elected governor of Missouri.​

During his term as governor, the state highway patrol was expanded, a water pollution board was organized, highway speed limits were created, and a state employee retirement plan was instituted. He also fought against segregation and discrimination, and proposed the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, which was established in May of 1957. Blair Jr. was a advocate for social welfare, junior colleges, education for children with special needs, and regulation of nursing homes that ensured their adequate care of the elderly.

In 1926, Blair Jr. married Emilie Chorn of Kansas City, and the couple had two children, James T. Blair III and Mary Margaret Cook. Blair Jr.’s gubernatorial term ended in 1961, but sadly he and his wife died in their home on July 12, 1962, when their car was accidentally left running in their garage.

Hugo Busch was born on January 1, 1867, in Germany to Theodore Busch and his wife, Marie. Busch received his basic education in public schools, then spent three years in an apprenticeship for the florist trade. He immigrated to the United States in 1884, and worked for a florist in St. Louis for five years. Busch ventured west for a bit, and worked in Kansas City for fifteen months before returning to St. Louis. He decided to try his luck in 1891, and moved to Jefferson City to open his own floral shop. Busch’s Florist became very successful, and has been one of central Missouri’s prominent florists for over 100 years.

Busch married Lena Young on January 13, 1891. Young was originally from Astoria, Oregon. The couple raised eight sons and two daughters in Jefferson City, and most worked at the florist shop.

William Qunitillian Dallmeyer was born to Johann Christopher Heinrich and Katherine Von der Horst Dallmeyer. He was born on October 23, 1829 in Dissen, Hanover, Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1845, and worked in New Orleans. He eventually traveled up the Mississippi River and worked for a brief time in St. Louis before settling in Gasconade County. He was a man of many talents; he ran a general store, owned farmland, and served as Postmaster.

Dallmeyer enlisted in the Union Army in 1861, and became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Mix Month Missouri Militia. In 1864, he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1868 was elected State Treasurer. After winning the position of State Treasurer, Dallmeyer moved to Jefferson City.

Dallmeyer organized a national bank with Nelson Burch in 1871 and absorbed the Capital City Bank. In 1875, he married Louise Sophia Lange, and they had five children. Dallmeyer served on the Board of Education for 18 years.

L.V. Dix was born on July 23, 1843 in Oneida County, NY. He was the youngest of Charles and Mary Alden Dix’s three children. Dix enlisted in the Union Army when he was eighteen, and was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. He fought at Fredricksburg, Antietam, and Gettysburg. He did scout and messenger duty at General Sheridan’s headquarters until he was discharged.

He traveled through the Midwest in 1865, looking for a place to settle. While on a train to Sedalia, Missouri, Dix stretched his legs in Jefferson City. After a chance encounter with a local resident, Dix was convinced to stay. He purchased 160 acres just outside Jefferson City, and established a successful farm and orchard. His son, Charles, expanded the family business, and Charles’ son-in-law opened Dix Nursery.

Howard Allan Gass was born on August 22, 1853, in Audrain County to Samuel Black Gass and Mary Elizabeth Pearson. His father was the sheriff of Audrain County at a time when money was transported from Jefferson City to Audrain in saddlebags.

​When Gass graduated from H. M. Hammel’s Academy in Mexico, Missouri, he taught for five years in county schools. He was then hired to teach at Hammel, but was soon employed as principal in Martinsburg, Missouri. He worked in Martinsburg for three years before becoming a superintendent in Vandalia, Missouri. During his seven years in Vandalia, Gass was elected county commissioner of Audrain. However, he resigned and moved to Jefferson City to become the chief clerk under the state superintendent of schools. In 1906, he was elected state superintendent of schools. He served two terms, one from 1907-1911, and another that began in 1915. He was supposed to serve until 1919, but he died suddenly in 1916.

​In 1887, Gass became editor of the Missouri School Journal, and held that position for twenty-six years. Naturally, he then joined the Missouri Press Association, and was elected treasurer for ten years.

​On Christmas day of 1876, Gass married Alice Josephine Shell, daughter of a judge in Audrain County. The couple had two children, Alma Josephine and Howard Ray. Alma married John M. Miller of Kansas City, and Howard became a civil engineer.

Thorpe Gordon was born on September 29, 1891, near Scruggs Station, which was known in the late 1800s as the “Gordon neighborhood.” He was born to Charles Alexander Gordon and Georgia Ann Dickerson.

​Gordon became an esteemed member of Jefferson City through his work in the undertaking business. As a young man, he was employed at the Walther-Wymore Furniture and Undertaking Company in 1910. Gordon then opened his own business, the Thorpe Gordon Funeral Home, in 1927 as a successor to Walther-Wymore. His funeral home was located in the house that formerly belonged to Major Winfield Scott Pope.

​On December 22, 1937, Gordon married Margie Irene Donaldson. He was an active member of the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, serving as president in both organizations. He also served overseas during World War I, with the 337th machine gun battalion. Gordon was a member of the Jefferson City School Board for 26 years, the longest term of any member to date, and was president 7 times. Thorpe Gordon Elementary School is named in his honor.

Herbert Spencer Hadley was born in Olathe, Kansas, on February 20, 1872. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas, and his law degree from Northwestern University, before returning to Kansas City to practice law. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Jackson County in 1900, attorney general in 1905, and governor of Missouri in 1908.

During his gubernatorial term, Hadley was instrumental in laying the groundwork that led to the creation of the Missouri Department of Conservation. He hosted banquets at his mansion during which prominent Missouri men drafted state-wide hunting laws and conservation practices. Hadley also discovered that the three oil companies in Missouri were actually owned by the same corporation, so he spearheaded the movement to break up the oil monopoly in Missouri.

​He married Agnes Lee, a Kansas City journalist, in 1901, and they had three children.

​After one term as governor, Hadley moved west to teach law at the University of Colorado. He returned to Missouri a few years later to accept the position of chancellor at Washington University. During his administration, the bear was chosen as the official mascot of Wash U’s athletic department.

Agnes Lee was born on March 27, 1876 in Kansas City. She attended Vassar College, then returned to Missouri to be a reporter in Lawrence, Kansas. She was a successful journalist in the 1890s, defying expectations that women were supposed to remain in the home.

​She married Herbert Hadley in 1901, who became governor seven years after their marriage. As first lady, Lee was very involved in local, European, and women’s affairs. She traveled to often in the 1920s, to Canada, Spain, Poland, France, Italy, Germany, Morocco, Scotland, Ireland, and England, to name a few places. She was a delegate of the International Federation of University Women, and attended its conferences in Norway and Poland. She was a member of the executive board of the Kansas City Philharmonic association, and sponsored a French class that she hosted in her home.

​After her first husband’s death, she married the editor of the Kansas City Star, Henry Haskell, but wished to be buried by her first husband and son, who were already in Riverview Cemetery.

Alfred L. Hawkins was the son Judge Thomas W. and Anna Belle Newland Hawkins. He was born in Hannibal, November 6, 1873. Judge Thomas W. Hawkins was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, August 29, 1829, studied law at Transylvania University, and after his marriage located at Hannibal. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was editor of the South & West, a newspaper which advocated the Confederate cause. For the publication of his sentiments he was held in prison in St. Louis for the greater portion of the war. During his long residence in Hannibal he held various city and county offices, including probate judge, presiding judge of the county court, circuit clerk, representative, and mayor of the city of Hannibal.

A. L. Hawkins at the age of seventeen became deputy circuit clerk and recorder of Marion County. He came to Jefferson City to serve in the department of the secretary of state under A.A. Lesseur and remained during the tenure of office of Sam B. Cook. From 1905 to 1933 he served in an executive capacity with the Graham Paper Company, organizing the Midland Printing Company in the latter year. This company did the official printing for the state of Missouri and served a large clientele throughout the Midwest.

In 1926 Mr. Hawkins was married to Mrs. Helen Hume Harr of Kahoka. Scott Hawkins, a son by his first marriage to Lucy Winfield Pope Hawkins, lost his life in January 1938 by a fall from an airplane into the Pacific Ocean. He was a naval aviation cadet attached to the U.S.S. Chicago. His body was never recovered and his empty mausoleum is at Riverview Cemetery in Jefferson City.

Scott Pope Hawkins was born on October 23, 1908, to Alfred L. Hawkins and Winfield Lucy Pope. Both Alfred Hawkins and Winnie Pope came from wealthy political families, and young Scott enjoyed a life of luxury. He attended the private, all-boy’s Country Day school in St. Louis, then pursued his secondary education at Princeton and Boston Tech, before graduating from Washington University.

Hawkins spent some time assisting his father in business, but had a passion for aviation. He enlisted in the navy and earned his wings.

​In 1938, a bombing plane was lost off the coast of California, and Hawkins volunteered to take part in the search and rescue for the plane’s crew. While flying over the ocean, Hawkins fell from his plane. The navy was unable to recover his body, and he was announced dead.

Hawkins’ mother, Winnie, erected a grand memorial for her son in Riverview Cemetery. W. Ridley Young, the architect who pioneered the “St. Louis style,” designed the memorial, and the marble was carved in Italy. Along the inside of the top circle of the monument is inscribed “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” which was the theme of the navy chaplain’s sermon at Hawkins’ funeral. Also in the circle is an emblem designed by Hawkins. He was assigned to draw emblems for all the squadrons in the navy, and had just finished that emblem before his death. It was placed on all the planes of his scouting squadron. On the podium in the middle of the monument, a poem written by Janet Williams Gould, a former Jefferson City resident. The behind the monument was once a small lake, but Winnie had it drained. A small mausoleum was built under the monument, and Winnie was interred there in 1969. After her funeral, the doors to the mausoleum were cemented shut.

John Wilbourn Hobbs was born on April 7, 1896, in St. Louis to William Pulaski Hobbs and Laura Wilbourn Hobbs. He was the youngest of seven children, and his paternal grandfather was a judge in the southeast Missouri district. The Wilbourn home was one of the first large homes built in Missouri, but since both the Wilbourns and Hobbses were southern sympathizers and slave owners, they lost most of their wealth after the Civil War.

​Hobbs received his primary education in St. Louis public schools, and attended Washington University night school. He then moved to Chicago, where he worked for the Continental and American Can Corporation and attended Northwestern University night school. He returned to St. Louis in 1917 to enlist in the aviation corps, and served in the war until 1919.

He moved to Jefferson City in 1923 and became involved in the real estate business. He developed the Oak Park subdivision, turned the Monroe Hotel into office buildings, and promoted the Bella Vista Apartments. He built one of the largest real estate changes in central Missouri, and served as both secretary and treasurer of the Missouri Real Estate Association.

​Hobbs married Myrene Houchin in February of 1923, and his wife shared his love of the outdoors. Hobbs owned a farm outside Jefferson City, where he raised a herd of Guernsey cattle, and he and his wife spent their summers horseback riding every day.

James Albert Houchin was born to John Bourbon Houchin and Margaret Ann Jones Houchin on October 10, 1869, in Logan County, Illinois. Houchin grew up on a farm, and graduated from the Gem City Business College in Quincy, IL. In 1891, the College secured an opportunity for Houchin in Jefferson City as a clerk for the Charles L. Lewis Clothing Company.

Four years later, Houchin organized the Star Clothing Manufacturing Company. When manufacturers could purchase prison labor, Houchin was one of Missouri’s largest employers. At one time, he owned over fifteen factories in various states and paid the state over a million dollars a year for prison labor.

​Houchin owned stock farms in Cole, Calloway, Morgan, and Pettis counties, where he raised a herd of Hereford cattle and bred saddle horses. He gained a reputation as one of the leading breeders, and was the owner of the thoroughbred stallion Astral King.

​In 1893, Houchin married Mollie Clark, daughter of Benjamin Clark and Isabelle Sone Clark. The couple had a daughter, Myrene Houchin, who was born on October 20, 1896. Myrene shared her father’s love of horses, and often rode in shows.

The Houchin home, which still stands on E. Capitol Avenue, had an impressive reputation for grandeur. The Houchins entertained governors and legislators, as well as an annual Christmas party for 700 of Jefferson City’s needy children. On the night of Myrene’s debut ball in 1919, a fifty-foot pavilion was erected in the garden for a midnight dinner, and fireworks were shot off the terrace.

Arthur was born to George and Mary Hough on January 8, 1848, in Jefferson City. His first job was at a large department store, but he later decided to be a clerk on a Mississippi River steamboat. In 1970, Hough decided to study law, and moved to Kansas City. He worked in the office of his brother, Judge Warwick Hough, as well as for the clerk of the Jackson County circuit court. After being admitted to the bar, Hough worked as a clerk for the Missouri General Assembly. He moved to Jefferson City, and became invested in the state’s capital. He vehemently campaigned against moving the Capitol to Sedalia, and was largely responsible for the establishment of the Jefferson City Public Library, as well as Andrew Carnegie’s involvement in the project.

George Hough was born on April 17, 1808 in Loudon County, Virginia. He moved to St. Louis in 1837, and continued west to settle in Jefferson City in 1838. He was elected to represent Cole County in the Missouri House of Representatives in 1842, and in 1849 participated in framing the “Jackson Resolutions,” which encouraged the Missouri legislature to pledge loyalty to the southern states. In 1854, Governor Sterling Price appointed Hough as president of the Board of Public Works of Missouri, which supervised all the railroads in the Show-Me State. The Democratic party planned to have Hough succeed Claiborne Jackson as governor of Missouri in 1864, but the Civil War interrupted those plans.

​Hough married Mary C. Shawen on March 24, 1833. The couple had three sons and three daughters. Two of his sons became judges, and the third became a doctor.

Laurance Mastic Hyde was born in Princeton, Missouri, on February 2, 1892. His parents were Ira B. Hyde, a lawyer and former United States Congressman, and Eliza Mastic Hyde, daughter of a San Francisco lawyer. Hyde obtained his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Missouri, served in the Army during World War I, then became a lawyer in Princeton.

​Hyde married a lecturer and writer, Florence Fuller, in 1922. They had two children, Laurance Jr. and Florence, who followed their father’s footsteps and became lawyers, as well.

​In 1931, Hyde became a commissioner of the Missouri Supreme Court. Three years later, he ran for a seat on the court. During this time, Supreme Court judges were elected by the people. Hyde was defeated by Caleb Leedy Jr., but in 1940 Missouri adopted a new way to select judges. Called the Missouri Plan, it gave the governor the ability to appoint people to the Supreme Court. In 1943, Hyde was the first judge appointed under the Missouri Plan, and the first person in America to earn a judicial office by merit, not election.

​When Hyde was appointed to the Supreme Court, the man who defeated him in the election of 1934, Leedy Jr., was still on the bench. Leedy Jr. and Hyde were such bitter political rivals that when a portrait of Hyde was presented to the Supreme Court after his death, Mrs. Hyde had the artist add a mustache to her late husband’s upper lip because she thought the original painting made him look too much like Leedy Jr. Despite the fact that the men were political enemies, Hyde and Leedy Jr. were buried next to each other!

​Hyde served on the Supreme Court until 1967, when he was forced to retire. He was highly respected, and many believed him to be “the greatest judge who ever sat on the Missouri Supreme Court.” He had a reputation for being kind, intelligent, and always well dressed. goes here

The divide of the nation was felt more powerfully in Missouri than in any northern or southern state. The Show-Me State was the border between the Union and the Confederacy, and political allegiances divided families, friends, and towns. It was entirely possible that your mother, brother, best friend, and pastor all supported the side you did not. For Missouri men, it was also probable that you would see your friend or cousin on the opposite side of a battlefield.

James Levi Keown experienced this nightmare. He was born on April 11, 1821, to Scottish immigrant Robert Keown. Although he was born near Nashville, Tennessee, he grew up in Missouri. He learned the carpenter’s trade, and after a short hiatus in California during the 1849 Gold Rush, returned to run the woodworking shop at the Missouri State Penitentiary. He also played an influential role in the construction of the interior of the governor’s mansion.

Keown joined the Confederate Army under the command of General Sterling Price. He served as Captain, and was attached to General M. M. Parson’s Brigade. During the Battle at Wilson’s Creek, he saw his childhood friend, Frederick Buehrle, fighting under the Union flag. He witnessed Buehrle get shot in the shoulder and leg, and in that moment, Keown’s political loyalty came second to his friendship. In the middle of a fierce battle, Keown ran across the field, into enemy territory, to pull his friend to safety. Keown stayed behind his enemy’s line with Buehrle until Union medical help reached them.

Both Keown and Buehrle survived the Civil War, and were reunited in Jefferson City fifty years later.

Keown married Georgia Barkley, and the couple raised six children.

Caleb A. Leedy Jr. was born to Charles A. and Laura Gray Leedy on May 20, 1895, in Benton, MO. He studied law at St. Joseph Law School, and became a court reporter for the Fifth Circuit Court. In 1918 and 1919, Leedy Jr. served in the military, and was an official reporter at the Peace Conference in Versailles and Paris. He saw the creation of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War.

Leedy Jr. moved to Kansas City in 1925 to practice law with his father. In 1933, Governor Guy Park, also from Kansas City, appointed Leedy Jr. to the Missouri Supreme Court. He presided on the bench for thirty-two years, earning the record of longest term any judge has ever held on the Supreme Court. He served as chief justice three times, 1940-1941, 1948-1949, and 1955-1956. Leedy Jr.’s lengthy stay on the Supreme Court, which lasted from 1933 to 1964, was most likely helped by his ally, the Kansas City political boss Thomas Pendergast.

Leedy Jr. had a well-known political rivalry with a judge from Princeton, Missouri, Laurance Hyde. In 1934, when Supreme Court judges were voted into office by popular election, Leedy Jr. defeated Hyde. However, the men are buried next to each other in Riverview Cemetery!

He married Agnes Hudson on February 25, 1920, and the couple had one son, William Hudson Leedy.

Charles F. Lohman was born to a merchant family in Prussia in 1818. He served in the German army, then immigrated to the United States in the 1840s. Although originally intending to travel to the state of California, Lohman was convinced to stay in a small town that was in the middle of Kansas City and St. Louis. He and his wife, Henrietta, settled near the Missouri River, and Lohman established a trading post he called Lohman’s Store.

The area quickly came to be known as Lohman’s Landing, until it was officially named Jefferson City. Since all goods entering Jefferson City via the Missouri River had to go through Lohman’s Store, Lohman maintained a successful and profitable business until the railroad replaced boats as the main means of transportation.

Burr Harrison McCarty was born to William McCarty and Mary Champ on June 10, 1810, near Leesburg, Virginia. His mother was an English lady, and she met his father while visiting President George Washington. McCarty graduated from Virginia University and moved to Missouri in 1835, settling in Jefferson City in 1836.

McCarty built a grand house on a street that was later named after him. He was so hospitable and entertained so many friends that he turned his home into the largest hotel in Jefferson City. During the Civil War, the hotel was vacated and used as a hospital. When the nation was not at war, the McCarty Hotel housed businessmen, legislators, and other distinguished Missourians.

When Frank James, brother of Jesse James, came to Jefferson City to turn himself in to Governor Crittenden, he stayed the night at the McCarty home. News traveled quickly throughout the town, and the McCarty house was soon full of people who stayed up until the early hours of the morning listening to James tell stories of his misadventures.

McCarty married Alzira Hughes on May 4, 1838. They had four children that survived into adulthood, William, Aurthur, Ella, and Lee.

Louis Ott was born on August 27, 1869, to German immigrants Phillip Ott and Elizabeth Wippenbeck. He was born in a log house across the road from the Cole County Courthouse in Marion, Missouri. Although his father owned a farm, Ott was forbidden to ride any horses because his younger brother had been thrown from a horse and killed. Instead, Ott broke a calf, and rode it.

​Ott took a steamboat to Jefferson City in 1882, and worked in his father’s lumber business after school and on Saturdays. After graduating, Ott began an apprenticeship with a plumber, but quit to work with his father full time.

​Ott established a reputation in the lumber industry by writing “Lumber Doctor” articles in the St. Louis Lumberman. He addressed the Lumber Associations all over the Midwest, in Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas, and Nebraska, as well as Missouri.

He married Hilda Wagner, and the couple had two children, Irene and Elmer, and seven grandchildren, Frank Louis Steppleman, Jack Donal Steppleman, Elmert Ott Jr., William Albert Ott, and Thomas Sproule Ott. Louis Ott built homes for the families of his daughter and son, and designed “Ott Park,” with a playground, pond, island, and cave for his grandchildren.

Philip Ott was born to Charles Ott and Catherine Semmelman Ott on October 11, 1831, in Beyreuth, Bavaria, Germany. He attended college in Beyreuth, and immigrated to the United States with his sister, Johanna, in 1849. They landed in New Orleans, and Ott followed the Mississippi River up to St. Louis, where he worked for his uncle.

He purchased his uncle’s business after his death, but grew tired of it and moved to Cole County in 1853. Ott began to work in merchandising, and established a farm in Marion, Missouri. In 1865, Ott was appointed Postmaster in Marion. He moved to Jefferson City in 1882, and established a lumber business.

In 1885, Ott was appointed County Judge, and was reelected for two more terms. On April 2, 1889, Ott was elected mayor of Jefferson City.

On April 14, 1853, Ott married Elizabeth Wippenbeck, who was also a German immigrant. The couple had four children, Francis, Katie, and Louis, and a young son who died after being thrown from a horse.

Mosby Monroe Parsons was born on May 21, 1822, in Charlottesville, VA. His father, Gustavus Adolphus Parsons, was the last personal secretary to President Thomas Jefferson. The Parsons family moved to Jefferson City in 1840, and Parsons attended St. Charles College. in 1846, he became a member of the Missouri Bar.

During the U.S.-Mexican War, Parsons rallied a company of volunteers, called the Cole County Dragoons, and was given the rank of captain. Parsons saw action during an expedition to Chihuahua, Mexico, and fought in the battles of Brazito and Sacremento. He returned to Missouri in 1847.

​In 1856, Parsons was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives from Cole County, and was subsequently elected to the Missouri Senate after just one term in the House. In 1861, Parsons initiated the “Military Bill,” which organized a Missouri militia to resist invasion. When the Missouri State Guard was activated by Governor Claiborne Jackson, Parsons was given command of the Sixth Division and the rank of General.

​General Parsons led his troops against Franz Sigel in Carthage, Missouri, and many newspapers at the time considered this battle the first major engagement between the North and the South.

General Parsons engaged in the battles at Oak Hills, Drywood Creek, and Lexington, before being appointed Commander of the Missouri State Guard in 1862, after the previous commander, Sterling Price, had been commissioned to the Confederate Army. General Parsons was wary of committing the Missouri Guard to the Confederate Army because he did not want his troops to leave the Show-Me State. Nevertheless, Governor Jackson turned the Missouri Guard over to the Confederate Army later that year, and Parsons was named brigadier general of the Confederate Army. Parsons saw action at Carthage, Springfield, Pea Ridge, Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, Mark’s Mill and Jenkin’s Ferry.

​After the Confederate surrender at Shreveport, Louisiana, Parsons fled to Mexico. It is believed that Parsons, along with other Confederates, joined the imperial forces of Emperor Maximilian. Soon after, in 1865, he was attacked and killed by Mexican guerrillas, and was probably buried near China, Mexico.

Hon. Winfield Scott Pope, the son of Thomas Pope and Mary Ann Hale Pope, was a native of North Carolina. He was born on a farm in Davidson County in that state, July 20, 1847, and died in Jefferson City, Missouri, April 13, 1921.

In his youthful days he attended the Davidson Academy and became a student at the Hillsboro Military Academy at Hillsboro, North Carolina, where he was a cadet during the Civil War period. About the close of the war he started west and traveled by rail to Rolla, Missouri, afterwards across the country to Marshfield, Webster, County, where many former residents of North Carolina had settled. He taught school there during the time he read and studied law.

​In February 1867, he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the active practice of law at Hartville, Wright County, where he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives from that district in 1872. While in Jefferson City serving in the Legislature he met Miss Lucy Miller, and on June 19, 1873, they were married in Jefferson City at the home of her father, Hon. George Wear Miller (see sketch), at that time judge of the circuit that included Cole County.

​Soon after Mr. Pope’s marriage and the expiration of his term of office, he moved to Jefferson City where he entered the practice of law which he continued during his entire life. In Jefferson City were born and reared his three daughters, Mrs. Horace B. Church, Jr., former Mary Louise Pope, died September 2, 1938. Mrs. Winfield Pope Hawkins (formerly Lucy Winfield Pope) lived in St. Louis. The youngest daughter, Mrs. Frances M. Cockrell, Jr., (Miller Chappell Pope) died in 1919. Mr. and Mrs. Pope were married for thirty-seven years, Mrs. Pope’s death occurring in 1910.

​Mr. Pope again served in the lower house of the legislature in 1897, being elected from Cole County, and was a member of the Commission that made the revision of the statutes in 1899. He was active in the pioneer times and in his younger days rode the circuit on horseback, attending the various sessions of court with the contemporary lawyers and judges. He was both a criminal and civil lawyer, but in later years, as law became more specialized, his practice was mostly civil.

Thomas L. Price was born on January 19, 1809, near Danville, Virginia. He moved to Missouri in 1831 with the aim to establish himself in St. Louis. However, the cholera epidemic forced Price to move further west, and he settled in Jefferson City.

​After his arrival, Price purchased two hotels and a large amount of central Missouri land. He made his fortune selling real estate to people that followed the legislature to Jefferson City. He also aided the development of the capital by establishing a mail coach line between St. Louis and Jefferson City, founded a bank and a savings and loan company, and invested heavily in the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

​When Jefferson City was officially incorporated as a city in Missouri in 1839, Price was elected the town’s first mayor. This was just the beginning of his political career. He served as Missouri’s Lieutenant Governor 1849-1853, in the state House of Representatives from 1860 to 1862, and in the United States Congress for a year after John C. Reid was expelled.

​Despite the fact that Price was one of the largest slaveowners in mid-Missouri (he owned approximately 70 people, while most slaveowners had 4), Price was staunchly pro-Union. President Lincoln commissioned him as brigadier general during the Civil War, but the title was symbolic; he never saw battle.

​The only thing larger than Price’s reputation was that of his home. The mansion, which once stood where the Missouri Supreme Court is today, was the most ostentatious building in Jefferson City. Its grandeur was so great that the first ladies often asked to host their gatherings, parties, and even inaugural balls at Price’s mansion instead of the governor’s.

​In 1830, Price married Lydia Bolton, and the couple had one daughter, Celeste. She later married Celuso Price, the son of General Sterling Price, who had no relation to Thomas L. Price.

Ernst Simonsen was born in Sweden on November 30, 1858. He received an education in engineering from the University of Stockholm, and traveled around Europe practicing his trade. He ended up in New York for nine years, where he met and befriended Henry Walthers. Together, the two traveled to Jefferson City in 1888.

​After settling in central Missouri, Simonsen purchased a company that manufactured farm machinery. Unfortunately, despite the factory’s success, an accident cost him an eye, and he sold the business a few years after purchasing it. Simonsen’s next endeavor was a steam heating company, which turned out to be very prosperous.

​Simonsen was very invested in Jefferson City. He worked to erect the first public library, and wished to create a scholarship fund for underprivileged students. After his death, his wife, Frederica DeWyl Simonsen, gave the city a large grant to erect a school in his name. His funeral was the first automobile funeral in Jefferson City. It was said that he “hated to die because he loved to live here.”

Frederica “Rickey” DeWyl was born on November 2, 1862, in Jefferson City to Swiss pharmacist Dr. Nicholas DeWyl, owner of DeWyl Drug Store. Instead of focusing on climbing social ladders, Frederica spent her time helping her father. She left home briefly to study pharmacy in St. Louis, and was the first woman in Missouri to become a registered pharmacist. She returned to Jefferson City to help her father at the drug store, and took over after his death. She had a knack not only for pharmacy, but also for business, and maintained the drug store’s success.

On November 30, 1903, Frederica married the Swedish engineer Ernst Simonsen. The couple took a great interest in the community of Jefferson City, supporting education and the arts.

​After her husband’s death, the Jefferson City School Board wanted to build a new high school on “Hobo Hill,” as it was called then, but did not have enough money. Frederica provided the funds for the school, asking that it be named in honor of her late husband. In 1913, Frederica gave the school $10,000 to build and equip a manual training and domestic science department, two areas her husband had always wished the Jefferson City Public School would teach. A few years later, she provided money for one of the first intercom systems in Missouri schools. In 1947, students were allowed to listen to the Cardinals beat the Red Sox in the World Series Championship game.

Mrs. Simonsen enjoyed traveling the country and world, both with her husband and after his passing. Although she scorned publicity, newspapers commented on her comings and goings to California, New York, and Sweden, and other locations that sounded exotic for a widowed woman in the early twentieth century.

Hugh Stephens was born on December 4, 1877, in Columbia, Missouri. His grandfather, James L. Stephens, donated $20,000 to the Columbia Baptist Female College, which was renamed Stephens College in his honor. Hugh’s father, Edwin W. Stephens, owned the Tribune Printing Company in Jefferson City. He was also president of the Missouri Press Association, and advocated for the establishment of a School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. Additionally, Edwin was instrumental in the creation of the State Historical Society of Missouri.

​When Edwin became suddenly ill in 1897, Hugh left his studies at the University of Missouri and took over the Tribune Printing Company. In 1905, he built a new office in downtown Jefferson City, and renamed the business the Hugh Stephens Printing Company.

​Stephens was elected president of the Jefferson City Commercial Club in 1911. During his eight terms, he was responsible for expanding St. Mary’s Hospital, building the Governor’s Hotel, creating an industrial fund, and leading the $3,500,000 bond issue to rebuild the Capitol.

On June 19, 1901, Stephens married Bessie Miller, daughter of Nick T. Miller. The couple had one daughter, Louisa Miller Stephens.

George Tompkins was born on March 20, 1780 to Benjamin Tompkins and Elizabeth Goodloe.

​Tompkins was a judge of the Missouri Supreme Court from 1824-1845, and was forced to retire because of his age just a few years before the Dred Scott case. During his time on the bench, Justice Tompkins expressed his anti-slavery sentiment by ruling in favor of slaves that sued for their freedom. Through almost a dozen cases, Tompkins established a precedent that since Missouri was a free state, if a man came into Missouri with intent to settle, his slaves were freed. For this reason, it was appalling when the Missouri Supreme Court ignored two decades of legal precedent and ruled against Dred Scott.

Betty Goshorn Weldon was born on February 22, 1922, to Robert C. and Lenore Rhino Goshorn in Eagle Grove, Iowa. When she was five years old, the Goshorns moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, and Robert became owner of the Jefferson City News Tribune, California Democrat, and Fulton Sun. Betty Goshorn grew up in the capital city, then attended Mount Holyoke College.

​After her graduation in 1943, Goshorn moved back to Jefferson City and opened Calloway Hills Stables, a place where she could indulge her love of horses. Goshorn eventually built a reputation in the horse breeding community, and trained Will Shriver, a five-gaited World Champion stallion. Calloway Hills Stables was the largest privately owned American Saddlebred horse operation in the nation.

​In 1953, Goshorn’s career took a dramatic turn after the death of her father. She took over Robert’s two businesses, KWOS-Radio and the News Tribune. Goshorn decided to buy a TV station, and traveled to New York to seek the million dollars in advertising fees needed to make her dream a reality.

​She met with a representative from Blair Advertising, and was not taken seriously. The man with whom she met disregarded her request and sexually harassed her. Furious at his disrespect, Goshorn demanded to speak with the vice president of the agency, Bill Weldon. At the end of her meeting with Weldon, she had a million dollars and a future husband to bring home. In the same year, she became Betty Weldon and the first woman to own and operate a television station.

Although all stations west of the Mississippi River had to use the call letters “KR” in their name, the owner could decide the last two. Weldon named her station KRCG, after her father. She was incredibly successful, and the executive director of the Missouri Press Association said that people interested in running for statewide office sought Weldon’s blessing before beginning their campaigns. In 1966, the Federal Communications Commission prohibited any person from owning both print and broadcast operations, so Weldon sold her television and radio stations in order to remain with her father’s original newspaper business.

Weldon loved all animals, not just horses, and in the 1980s she established an animal shelter in Calloway Hills that did not euthanize stray cats and dogs. She was also very charitable in the human community. She mailed Christmas presents to the children of men and women who were incarcerated in local jails. Weldon also donated the building space for the Goshorn Handicapped Center, to be used for the education of handicapped children. It later merged with other schools, and is today known as the Special Learning Center. She co-founded and co-chaired many social service agencies, including the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, and organized the first cancer fundraising drive in Missouri.

​She had one son, Frank Gifford Weldon, and two daughters, Lenore “Tony” Weldon and Sally Proctor.

Edward H. Winter was born on April 5, 1879 the fifth of German immigrants Anton Frederick Winter and Dora Richterbergs’ eleven children. Winter grew up on his parents’ farm outside Warrenton, Missouri, and would have been a farmer if he had not sustained injuries from a tornado when he was nineteen. Winter attended Central Wesleyan College, and after graduation became the business manager and editor of The Banner, a Warrenton newspaper.

​Within a few years, Winter managed to buy out two competing newspapers, and took over Wright City News. After achieving great success in business, Winter said that there were not enough newspapermen in the Missouri General Assembly, and was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1922. Despite his brief amount of experience, Winter was elected Speaker of the House after five years. He was then elected Lieutenant Governor in 1928.

While in the state’s capital, Winter purchased and consolidated two newspapers into the Jefferson City Post-Dispatch.

Franz (or Francis) Joseph Zeisberg was born on August 21, 1862, in German Silesia. He grew up on a farm, and inherited his parents’ interest in music. His father played many instruments and performed in the church orchestra and a local band, and his mother sang in a choir. It’s no surprise, then, that after Zeisberg immigrated to Jefferson City in 1881, he enjoyed studying at the state teachers’ college, which placed a large emphasis on music.

​Zeisberg dabbled in many trades during his early life in Missouri. He briefly owned a farm in Osage County, worked in a brickyard in Jefferson City, and worked as a clerk in a book and music store until he gained a mastery of the English language. Zeisberg then began a career is music education, and established the Jefferson City Conservatory with Professor Carl Preyer.

​Preyer later moved to teach at Kansas State University, and Zeisberg spent a short time in Lexington, Missouri, teaching at Elizabeth Aull Seminary. In 1892, he was asked to be directory of the conservatory at Martha Washington College in Abingdon, Virginia. He spent thirty years teaching piano, violin, harmony, composition, and organ. He composed his own works, mostly for educational purposes, and his repertoire included choruses, church music, and almost seventy fugues for piano and organ.

​In 1922, Zeisberg retired and moved back to Jefferson City. In 1887, he had married Clara M. Hugershoff, stepdaughter of Fred Binder. The couple had three children, Fred, Carl, and Ella, and all settled on the east coast.