This illustration by Echo staffer LCB is a sly reference to several of the 1902 school personalities.

If we seek a human icon for the first decade of the American Twentieth Century, an agent of both our modern impressions, plus what was important at the time, Olney Bondurant could be our guy. He personified the ready-for-action, well-meaning, American Pilgrim of our better myths, and he was dedicated to a cause we have largely forgotten and often find embarrassing. He would not sympathize with our embarrassment, and might tell us a thing or two.

He taught school prior to his Normal School stint, and seems to have left postitive impressions wherever he went. One old timer from Albany, Missouri, reminiscing in 1959, remembered he, "Had a good baritone voice and knew many school songs as well as old English and Welsh songs we had never heard of..." including..."The March of the men of Harlech." At Kirksville he played basketball, triumphed in debate, was praised for his writing, and, by force of will, founded the school yearbook.

Bondurant's tenure at the Normal School is ambiguous. He participated in school activities, but the yearbook he edited doesn't list him as a member of the senior class, or any other. He is not mentioned as one of the graduates in news articles at the time, but subsequent yearbooks, and eventually news articles, began listing him as a 1901 alumnus.

In 1901 he answered President McKinley's call to prepare the newly acquired Philippines for self-governance by educating the population. He left San Francisco for Manila in 1901 among the first 600 government-sponsored schoolteachers, called "Thomasites" for the name of their transport ship. With him on the boat was Robert L. Kirk, son of the Kirksville Normal School President. Another classmate, Billy Pearl Six, followed a few years later, but only Bondurant spent his life at the task.

The American Bondurants descend from Jean Pierre Bondurant whose ancestors were Huguenot (French Protestant) innkeepers along an old Roman road in the Rouergue region of Southern France. They were compelled to join the Catholic Church, with varying degrees of vigor, until Jean Pierre escaped in 1700 by emigrating first to Switzerland, thence London, and finally to what is now Richmond, Virginia.

The Bondurant family animates America's frontier history. A nearby slide presentation illustrates some high points, including the naming of two towns, one in Iowa, and one in Wyoming. You'll notice the Bondurants migrated through Olney Township, Pennsylvania, Daniel Boone's birth place, undoubtedly the inspiration for Olney Bondurant's name.

At least two branches, and maybe three, of these wandering Bondurants were in Missouri when Olney edited the "Mnameion," although their exact relationship hasn't been discovered.

Olney's sister, Lura Maude Bondurant, is probably the Maude Bondurant (or Bon Durant, as the editor insisted), showing prominently in the 1902 Echo, the replacement name for Olney Bondurant's "Mnameion." She later graduated from the Normal School in Warrensburg, Missouri before launching her own teaching career. She lasted longer than her adventuresome brother, spending several years in Oklahoma, where she graduated from teaching rural schools to teaching teachers in an Oklahoma Normal School. She completed her career in Los Angeles, where she died in 1960. Neither she nor Olney ever married.

Bondurant began his Philippines adventure in 1901 as a teacher, but his talents moved him swiftly into leadership roles. By 1908 he was superintendent of construction, building houses, and schools. He returned briefly to the United States in December 1910, working in El Paso and Brownsville as an immigration inspector. In late 1911, he went back to the Philippines as Vice Governor of Palawan.

Adventure could always find Olney Bondurant. During his short stay in Texas he was drafted as interpreter for a Mexican national accused of murdering two companions. The man was discovered to be an escaped Mexican criminal, was convicted, and sentenced to life in the Missouri Penitentiary. This Ramos proved to be violently disruptive in prison, escaped once, was sent to a mental hospital, and, in 1922, died in prison of what was termed "exhaustion from violent insanity."

In the Philippines Bondurant's friend, Charles Trotter, was brutally murdered, and Bondurant undertook a long, and successful campaign to bring the guilty to justice.

Shortly after his return to the Philippines, Bondurant died in Balabac in 1912 of pernicious malarial fever, referred to at the time as Black Water Fever. The following was noted by the Philippine Commission.

" The provincial service of Palawan and the special province service in general met with a serious and deeply regretted loss in the death of the assistant to the provincial governor, Mr. Olney E. Bondurant, caused by pernicious malarial fever. He died at Balabac on January 20, 1912, soon after his return from the United States. Mr. Bondurant had immediate charge of southern Palawan, the territory under his jurisdiction including all of the Moro and most of the Tagbanua country. He had rendered very important service in connection with the moving of renegade Moros from the west coast, and had made rapid progress in the establishment of helpful and friendly relations with both Moros and Tagbanuas. He was a fearless, tireless, efficient officer. Even when attacked by illness which ended his life he refused to give up, but rendered service in the field on the day of his death. His death was keenly regretted by many of the unruly Moros whom he brought under Government control and whose interests he carefully safeguarded as long as he lived."… From: Report of the United States Philippine Commission to the Secretary of War, pp. 80-81.

"Philippine Education Magazine," which published the nearby Bondurant obituary, grew out of "The Philippine Teacher," when another Thomasite, Verne E. Miller, graduate of Rutgers, became its editor. He soon bought the magazine, renamed it and founded the Philippine Education Company (PECO). PECO eventually expanded from retail store into educational publisher. Miller may well have written the above obit for his former fellow Thomasite. If you look for more information on Miller, be aware there was a famous prohibition era gangster named Verne Miller. Different guy.

Bondurant was apparently buried on Palawan in the Philippines, but there is a crude stone bearing his name in the Bondurant plot in the Miriam Cemetery of Bethany, Missouri (see above). This Mnameion to the adventurous Olney was perhaps placed there by his father.

Olney Bondurant went through the decade of first-flight, relativity, the Russian Revolution, the San Francisco earthquake, the Tunguska explosion, presidential assassination, the quantum hypothesis, the Model A, the Model T, radio, the Panama Canal, Picasso, Movies, Novels of Winston Churchill, Scott Joplin, and hamburgers. And Teddy Roosevelt. If any of these things touched him, we can't say, but it is certain he was of a piece with them, as unique, spirited, and of-the-moment as all the rest. His fellow Normal School colleagues flew off on the same winds, and most endured longer.

Eugene Monroe Violette, Professor of History, at the Kirksville school while Bondurant was there, credited him, in his history of the Kirksville Normal School, published 1905, as having conceived, edited, and largely financed the Mnameion, the first ever yearbook. We can't confirm, but can speculate, Bondurant probably also named it, and perhaps coined the slogan, Mnameion Eis Gamma. The meaning of this Greek phrase was probably well understood at the time, but by 1998, the yearbook recounted the history of student publications, and included this translation: "…the record or remembrance of a person or thing." Perhaps it was understood at the time as a remembrance or memorial, and the slogan probably suggested a memorial into eternity. If so it seems a marvelous title, and sentiment, but was discarded the following year for the more prosaic "Echo" which continues into the present.

We know Bondurant was a writer, and we have one example in the form a poem linked under a nearby picture. He donated artifacts of his travels to a museum in his old Alma Mater, and they may be seen there today. If his papers survived, perhaps they are held by the same authority, but have not been found.

What shall we make of Olney Bondurant? Let's take our tip from the prominent personality of the age, Theodore Roosevelt. It is not up to us to make anything of him. He was the man in the arena. Neither comment nor criticism matters.

John Robert Kirk was born into a farming family in Illinois, moved to Missouri at age 5, and went into teaching. He was the president of the Kirksville school from 1899 to 1925, and was succeeded by one of his own students. In 1940, three years after his death, he was called "Missouri's grand old man of schools," by an Alumni publication of the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, at the dedication of the John R. Kirk Memorial. The first quarter of the century saw him direct, with vigor, the growth of education in Missouri, and the nation.

The yearbooks published during his twenty-five year tenure as school president all speak with awed respect of their school's president. He seems to have been a powerful force of good, and his little school sent a steady stream of what were, by all accounts, excellent teachers into the state, the country...the world. We're linking other people's biographies here, rather than providing a synopsis, since their authors were closer to the subject.

It's interesting to note both John R. Kirk, the school president, and Olney Bondurant, the first yearbook editor, were from Bethany, Missouri. Kirk taught school in Bethany, in addition to being the state high school superintendent. Bondurant gave Kirk a highly positive biographical sketch in the 1901 yearbook. We can only speculate about any friendship between the two, and any role it might have played in Bondurant's yearbook success, and his selection for duty, along with Kirk's son, in the Philippines. If Bondurant and Robert L. Kirk had any interactions in the Philippines they have eluded the records we've seen.

Miss Baer was born in Bloomfield, Iowa graduated from the University of Missouri, spent some time at the Chicago Art Institute, and found her way to the Kirksville Normal School. By 1902 she was on the faculty as teacher of drawing and served as art editor for the Echo, the renamed yearbook.

The following year she left Kirksville and turned up in Portland Oregon teaching at St. Helens Hall school for girls. In 1905 she became the drama editor and critic for the theater section of the Oregonian. Quickly gaining a reputation for her impartial critiques of Portland stage events, Baer also became popular for her wit and clever comments.

In 1919, she married Harve Wagner Hicks, who had moved from Chicago to Portland. Hicks worked for the Oregon-Washington Railway & Navigation Company and was a member of the Multnomah Athletic Club. By 1923 she had moved to Hollywood, California to. She became drama critic, editor and feature writer for the Oregonian newspaper. Quickly gaining a reputation for her impartial critiques of Portland stage events, Baer also became popular for her wit and clever comments.

By 1923 she moved with her husband to Hollywood, California where he continued working for the railroad and she did freelance writing. She returned to Oregon and passed away in Tigard in 1949. Hicks retired and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii where he passed away in 1977.

She has an entry in "Women of the West" for 1928, "A series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America."

Dr. Violette was a life-long scholar, a student of history, and inspired a long list of better-than-they-would-have-been students, and admiring friends. He graduated from local Missouri schools, including Lamkin Academy, a well known early school in Missouri, and continued his education at the University of Chicago and Harvard.

He was for many years head of the history department at the Kirksville Normal School. He spent his final years at Louisiana University.

His best known publication was a history of Missouri, but he also wrote histories of the Kirksville Normal school, and of several Missouri counties. His "Missouri" is often cited as the best one-volume history of the state. It was revised and republished after his death.

E. M. Violette has joined that unheralded cadre of excellent local scholars who put their stamp on the education of countless young people in the twentieth century. He lacks an adequate biography, and perhaps someone from Truman State will fill that void.

Artie Cleaveland's name was spelled with an embedded "a" by the 1901 yearbook and like the president's in 1902. The census used the a-less spelling, but in 1959 she returned from London on the Pan Am Clipper, and her name, presumbably from her passport, was spelled, "Cleaveland, Artie K." Social Security also used the "a" spelling, as well as some legal proceedings in 1953. Hmmm. The 1902 yearbook, the source of her picture, also tells us she was teaching in Monticello, Missouri.

She grew up living with her mother and stepfather, and with her grandparents in Monticello, and later Kirksville, Missouri.

She was a principal in a "musical and elocutionary recital," in Milan, Missouri in 1900. She is called a "child impersonator." Directing youngsters in stage productions seems to have been a passion, and we read of them after she moved on to McKinley School in Santa Ana.

She was a teacher all her life, in Missouri and California, and never married. The Truman State Alumni page says she taught in Monticello, Mo.(1901-04), Canton Mo.(1904-05), Ferguson, Mo.(1905-10), and Santa Ana, California stating in 1910. We know she was teaching in the McKinley Elementary school in Santa Ana in 1916 and was still there, teaching first and second grade reading, through at least 1933. By 1935 she had moved on to the Jefferson School, another elementary. Her mother's sister, Ada B. Keller, was a physician in Bozeman, Montana, so perhaps professional women were a family practice.

By 1910 she was living with her mother and stepfather in Santa Ana, California, and teaching primary school. By 1930 she was living with her grandparents in Santa Ana, and teaching school.

The 1940 census shows her still living in Santa Ana, in her own home, and living with a widowed companion, Ida B. Harris. Nothing else has been learned of this Harris, but it's ineresting to speculate, it might have been a misspelling of Ada B. Henery, the married name of Artie's Aunt Ada. B. Keller, mentioned above. Dr. Keller Henery passed away in 1953, leaving about $10,000 to her niece, Artie Cleaveland.

She was a member of the DAR and hosted bond drives from her home during World War II. She traveled to Hawaii in 1955, and we also know she visited the Holy Land.

Over the years, she made periodic trips to Monticello, Missouri to see friends and family, and seems also to have traveled internationally. She often stayed with her lifelong friend, Reubie Johnson West, Mrs. R. Lance West, in Monticello.

In 1964 she broke her hip, and died soon after.

It was Mrs. West who received word her friend and died in 1964, and caused an obituary to be published locally.

We've found no writing, and if she kept papers, they've not been found. We wonder how many people she taught to read and write.

In later years the friend she saw most often was Reubie Johnson West, perhaps a childhood friend. Mrs. West was seven years younger than Artie, and died five years after her.

Basil Brewer was born in Rush Hill, Missouri (probably), a tiny village near Mexico, Missouri, 100 miles south of Kirksville. His father, Addison Brewer, was a Methodist circuit-riding preacher, and owner of a Kirksville print shop, where Basil worked until graduating high school in 1899. Details of his early life are conflicted by competing accounts from different witnesses. You'll notice some of them herein.

He entered First district Normal School, Kirksville, and graduated in 1901 with a degree in Didactics. He taught school in Mexico, Missouri a year, and during the summer assisted at the Normal School Chemistry lab. During his short return to Kirksville, he wrote the words to the school song, and selected the school colors.

Brewer taught high school in Mexico, Missouri, until 1903 when he entered the University of Chicago, earning a law degree in 1905.

A mysterious vision problem sent him to Oklahoma City where he sold newspaper subscriptions, and joined the Scripps-Howard organization in 1908. He became business manager of the Cincinnati Post in 1916 and the Cleveland Press three years later.

From 1921 to 1924 he was editor and publisher of the Omaha Bee, later taking over the Capital News at Lansing, Michigan.

He moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1931 to manage local papers, and soon purchased control of the New Bedford Standard-Times, Mercury and Cape Cod Standard-Times in Hyannis, Massachusetts. He also acquired several radio and television stations in the New Bedford area.

His well articulated editorial views empowered his political clout and influence, sometimes extended by his practice of purchasing full-page op-ed space in rival papers. In 1951 he was the Massachusetts manager of Robert Taft's presidential run, and is described in today's partisan journalese as an "arch conservative." Later, Brewer split with the Lodge faction of Massachusetts Republicans, and endorsed the young John Kennedy, making him palatable to many Republican voters. In 1960 he strongly denied his former Taft organizations were leaning for Kennedy, even as his own paper endorsed the local senator.

In 1958 his alma mater named a building for him, and unveiled his portrait in 1963.

On his death in 1975 his papers were donated to the Missouri Historical Society in Columbia.

Mr. Brewer made lasting, positive impressions on people everywhere. When he died in 1975, the Mexico Ledger ran an obituary recounting Brewer's career. Wally Feutz, retired cashier of a local bank, was moved to respond with a personal, and tender, recollection. Feutz, life-long resident of Mexico, Missouri, then 83, remembered Brewer boarding with the Feutz family in 1902 while teaching at nearby Rush, Missouri, over 70 years before. It made a great impression on ten-year-old Wally (see nearby).

Basil Brewer was born in horse-drawn, kerosene-lantern America, moved into the leadership of his generation, and became an opinion maker through a technological medium invented in the 15th century and another, television, enabled during the first decade of the 20th century. He left his mark.

While in school she belonged to the Philomathean Society and won, in 1900, the "William T. Baird" medal for declamatory excellence, by reciting "The Spanish Duel." In 1901 the papers mentioned her excellent performance in the graduation exercises, citing her for an excellent Elocutionary Recital. She also sang and figured in several other items on the program. It was her last year at Kirksville, and she is listed as a graduate student.

She graduated in 1901, and by 1903 was teaching at Kahoka public schools and probably living with Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Greenlee, and according to news accounts entertaining with her music. During the 20s and 30s Eloise performed frequently at weddings and social events.

She married Ennis Hubert Gipson (17 Jul 1879- 3 Dec 1943), an attorney/politician in Oklahoma, 5 Aug 1908, in Revere, Clark County Missouri. Gipson graduated from U of Missouri, and was adjutant general of Oklahoma in 1918. By 1931 he was judge Gipson, and in July 1931 he formed a law partnership with L. G. Brewer in Sayer, Oklahoma. He seems to have followed the oil business to Borger and Amarillo, TX. and in 1932 he went to Excelsior Springs, Missouri for "treatment and rest." Excelsior Springs is a popular Alcohol & drug rehab center.

By 1936 Eloise was living in Amarillo, Texas, where she helped found the Little Theater. She was also active in the Amarillo Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

She was credited as being the first vocal teacher for famed opera star Giuseppi Bentonelli.

There were two George R. Crocketts in Missouri at this time, and their paths are hard to untangle. We know that our George married Alice Josephine Will, and died in Kansas City, working as a building contractor, in 1959.

The other George R. Crockett was in Marshal Missouri, working as superintendent of a local college. He was charged with murdering his father in law in 1918, over visitation rights for his step-daughter. He was acquitted on grounds of self-defense.p>

Our George began teaching school after his 1901 graduation. He married Alice Josephine "Josie" Will (1877-1955) in 1903. By 1906 George and Alice had moved to Kansas City, where, by 1910, he had became a building contractor. By 1950 the census says he was unable to work.

The Mnameion averred of him as follows:

Mamie Fugate was one of the thousands of Normal School students who left Kirksville with a teaching certificate, but no degree. She is listed in several school bulletins, and may appear in some of their unidentified pictures in the 1908-1910 period.

She married Thomas A, Tommy, Stasey on November 15, 1911 and if she taught prior to her marriage, we've found no record of it. Stasey, the only child of Thomas Hart Benton Stasey, and grandson of an infamous Civil War Confederate bushwhacker, would have been heir to a sizable farm holding in northwestern Shelby County, save for some bad investments by his father.

Thomas A. Stasey's father was a forward thinking farmer/businessman who consolidated his mother's and stepfather's acreages into a decent prospect. He married a daughter of the prominent Borron family, also a sizeable-acreage farming interest in nearby Macon County.

Heeding the can't-miss cries of automation, Thomas A's father invested heavily in tractors and hay-making equipment. He intended covering the loans he'd gotten from his in-laws by jobbing-out his equipment to nearby farms. It all seemed to go well at first, but when his neighbors were slow to give up their horses, the loans defaulted, and the bushwhacker's son was soon reduced to a small homestead. He never recovered and his son's inheritance prospects vanished.

Mamie and Tommy had a daughter in 1915, while living with Tommy's parents. They named her for her Grandmother's sister, but after the Borron loans were recalled the daughter became known by her middle name, and a rift between the families endured through a generation.

Mamie and Tommy moved to Nebraska, and then Wyoming, and Mamie taught school. Tommy worked as a laborer in the oil industry. They came to roost in Parco, Wyoming.

When World War II came, Mamie and Tommy followed their just married daughter to California. Tommy got a job at Hunter's Point, doing maintenance on the Pacific Fleet. After the war he and Mamie returned to Missouri in a school bus they'd converted into a camper. They used their savings to buy a small acreage near Cherry Box, and tried farming again. Perhaps recalling his father's experience with automation, Tommy bought a couple of mules, and eschewed a tractor.

Mamie and Tommy lasted a year or two, sold out, and went into the restaurant business in nearby towns, Macon and Atlanta. They leased a filling station near Anabel for a year or so, and then moved to Macon where Mamie became a short-order cook at various venues. Tommy worked at what was then called the Asylum. They eventually followed their daughter to Carlsbad, New Mexico where Tommy worked for a local labor union.

Mamie's education at Kirksville helped define the path they took through life, with bookkeeping skills and confidence required for their businesses. They heavily influenced their daughter. She and her husband scrapped their way through hard times, volunteering at the San Francisco Opera house, leading their rural church and rural schools in Missouri and helping to found the little theater in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Mamie's background as a schoolteacher was fundamental to her identity, and helped inspire her grandchildren to go to college.

Her story is the story of twentieth century America: well-meaning, hopeful and unrelenting.

Billie Pearl Six carried a swashbuckling name, and maybe a personality to match. His days at Kirksville Normal included the coveted Oratorical medal in 1901, called the Ringo Medal, besides which he was captain of the football team, participant in most local celebrations, and in the Senior Latin course. We learn from newspapers Mr. Six spoke at his own commencement with a "spicy and well written class history."

This meld of intellectual and physical pursuits was typical of the time, but with Mr. Six there was evidence of waywardness. We learn from the newspapers Mr. Six's medal was later withdrawn and given to Edward Nelson Sears, after Billie Pearl was "convicted of plagiarism." He left Kirksville for the University of Missouri, where he was equally active in sports and debate. He went to Japan as a missionary in 1904, and returned as superintendent of schools in Shelby County, where, five years later he awarded an oratorical medal to one of his students.

By 1906 he was on his way to the Philippines to join classmate Olney Bondurant in the Philippines education project, but returned in 1909.

Just before he left, Mr. Six was superintendent of schools in Shelby County, Missouri, where he presented a gold medal to the winner of the local high school's declamatory contest.

When he returned to the states, Mr. Six took a job with the government, working as an Indian Agent in Minnesota, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico. He married Hannah G. Lien in Yellow Medicine Minnesota in 1917 (or myvw Granite Falls, Minnesota in 1918). By 1920 he was living at Fort Simcoe in Yakima Washington, with newborn son, George W. Six. He was chief clerk of the Yakima Indian Agency in Washington from 1920-1926, and superintendent of the Pima Indian Reservation in 1926. By 1929 he was living in Shiprock NM where he died of heart disease in 1939. His wife, Hannah, and his son George were living in Granite Falls, Minnesota by 1940 where George was in college, and working as a draftsman.

We don't now much about Billie Pearl's conviction of perjury, except that it happened. There is no further evidence of shortcutting life's rules, but he did live beyond life's usual paths. He is a man worthy of closer inspection.

Mary Lucy Rudasill, called Mary, arrived with the invention of the telephone, and lived into the personal computer age. Her life connected the legacy of Olney Bondurant, author of the "Mnameion Eis Gamma" slogan, and adherent to the Thomasite's education clarion, to the heart of Cold War turmoil in a way no one could have foreseen on the idyllic and idealized campus of 1901 Kirksville Normal.

She was born in Mexico, Missouri, and taught school both before and after her days at Kirksville, Normal. Nelson was born in Lewis County, Missouri and began practicing law in Seattle after Kirksville.

She and Nelson Sears earned advanced degrees from the Univeristy of Missouri. Sears began working in Seattle. Mary worked a few years as a school teacher until they married on April 11 1910 in Missouri. They returned to Seattle, built a home on an 8-acre farm, and Nelson practiced law. The 1940 census lists him as a probate lawyer, Lucy as a housewife, their daughter Baba Jeanne as a political office worker, and son John Rolf as a poultry rancher.

Perhaps because of Nelson's expertise as a probate lawyer there is little in the record about their lives and passing. Sears died of a heart attack in 1942 at age 62. We find little more of Mary, who lived on to 1984, perhaps with one or the other of her children: Baba Jeanne Sears (1915-2007), and John Rolf Sears (19 Feb 1917 -January 30, 2000). She was living with son John in 1950, and he provided the information for her death certificate in 1984. She died of hypertension and a stroke. She had been ill for several years and was living at the Lake Vue Gardens Convalescent Center.

Baba Jeanne joined the communist party while attending college in Washington, and in 1954 testified before the UnAmerican Activities Committee. She remained active in the party all her life. Their son, John, studied music during WW II, and by 1950 he was 33 and unmarried. Lucy was living with him at that time and his business pursuits were nebulous. The census gave his occupation as, "having a 20 acre tract plotted for home building lots." John was married to Beverly Hoppe on June 6, 1970, they had two children and divorced on May 19 1992. He was apparently living with Krista Jensen at the time.

Baba Jeanne, took her communist activism underground, left her daughter with her mother Mary, and went to Spokane under an assumed name. She returned to Seattle, was called to testify before Congress about her Communist Party connections, and met her second husband, Ernesto Mangaong, while he was defending against a deportation order based on his activities in the Communist Party. They married and remained together until his death in 1968.

She had three daughters, one from a previous marriage. She remained active in the Communist Party for the rest of her life. She took over as party chair in Washington, and ran for governor in 1988. By the end of her life she gained some perspective, finally admitting Stalin has made "some horrible mistakes." In one of Baba Jeanne's interviews, in 1978, the reporter is led to believe both her parents were deceased. Probably just bad journalism, that. Mary Lucy Sears Social Security record indicates the 1984 death.

x

We tasked ChatGPT with the following prompt.

Write a short essay about the Thomasites of 1901 who went to the Philippines to establish schools.

It responded:

We then prompted the magnetic oracle with this humble request.

Write a poem about the Thomasites in the style of Walt Whitman

Although the Kirksville yearbook alludes to a physics lab accident involving Randall, we've found no more information on that incident. N. H. Randall taught school several years, went into the insurance business and settled in Chillicothe for the rest of his life.

He was teaching school in Parson Creek, Missouri in 1900, boarding with some other Randalls who were perhaps related, before attending the normal school. By 1903 he was teaching high school in Poplar Bluff. He married Grace Leavell in 1906, and by 1910 he was out of teaching, selling insurance in Meadville, Missouri. By 1930 he, Grace, were living in Chillicothe, and he was an Insurance Salesman. He died in 1957 in Chillicothe, Missouri, leaving a wife, Grace Leavell, and two children.

N. H. Randall's older brother, Delmer (D. A.) Randall, was also a well respected teacher and principal of schools in Missouri. Delmer helped develop the school curriculum in Linn county. Teaching was a competitive sport in those days, and qualifications were subjective. You can read about one resulting controversy nearby.

Delmer, like his younger brother, also attended Kirksville Normal, as well as Ohio's Defiance College, Ohio Northern College and,Harvard. He was superintendent of rural schools in Linn County, Missouri, and in Poplar Bluff. He authored a widely used English grammar text before going into the banking business. By 1916 he'd moved to Colorado where he organized banks in Denver, Leadville, Pueblo, and Grand Junction.

There were many Myrtle Traughbers in those years. Her married name was Myrtle Bryson, and there were at least two of those, and they both came from Missouri in the 1880s and died in 1981. Our Myrtle's father was Frank M. Traughber, a famer near Centralia, Missouri.

Myrtle graduated Centralia high school in 1901, as valedictorian. The title of her valedictory address was "Farewell to the Past and All Hail to the Future." We wish we had a copy of it. It sounds apiece with the times, but perhaps we should note it is consistent with, and perhaps cribbed from, a Bartleby's quote from Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D., a Congregational minister from those days, whose views would be controversial these days.

Fannie, as she was called, taught school in Portageville, MO in 1902, then in Wyoming in 1904, and then in California in 1906 on what the newspapers called "Catalline"Island.

In 1908 she married Charles W Bryson, dean of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Los Angeles. Charles was also from Missouri, and had the same last name as his bride's mother. Perhaps he was a cousin.

In 1912 she was called Myrtle Traughber-Bryson in a local news article from Centralia. She seems to have used that name thereafter. Dr. Bryson died in 1928, and news articles at the time placed his estate at $50,000, a bit over $800,000 in 2024.

She made periodic trips back to Centralia, Missouri, including a class reunion in 1943. She may appear in a legal proceeding in 1985 that identifies Myrtle Francis Bryson as owner of some mineral rights inherited from F L Purinton. Her father passed away in 1931, and his obituary in the Centralia paper makes him sound like a person we'd like to have known.

Myrtle passed away in 1981, age 99, barely known to anyone. We've found only one news account of her death, mentioning only surviving nephews Frank L. Traughber (Frank Leslie Traughber, 1906-1996), and Robert T. Traughber (Robert Taylor Traughber, 1913-1993); both are sons of Myrtle's brother Frank. She and Dr. Bryson had no children, although he had a daughter, Beryl G. Bryson (1887-1971) from a previous marriage.

Gertrude Francis Watson was born to William H, and Elizabeth A. in Cornwall, England. They immigrated to America in 1885, and by 1900 were living in Montana. Her father is listed as a minister of the gospel. She graduated from the Red Lodge based University of Montana in 1900, and from the Kirksville Normal School in 1902. She taught school in and around Red Lodge until her father moved to Louisiana in 1906. She showed up teaching school in Hammond Parish until she married George H. Burnham in Roseland Louisiana in 1907, where her father was pastor of the Congregational Church.

Her husband was assistant postmaster of Amite City, and she organized a local book club called the Roseland Round Table Club. George went off to WW I as a supply lieutenant. Gertrude published a short story in the Crowley Post-Signal in 1924 called, "Haunted." By 1926 George was selling life insurance in Baton Rouge, and then in 1930 they divorced.

Gertrude remained in Louisiana, working as a hostess at a local hospital, and later as supervisor at the Jackson, Louisiana Insane Asylum. She died in 1967.

When we look at Hervey Allen Lemon's early pictures in the Kirksville yearbook, we might be struck by his "out-of-era" presentation. His self-assured, casual demeanor could have come from a much later era, and contrasts sharply with his contemporaries. Part of that is his dress. Everyone else is dressed in best formal wear, while he appears in a sports shirt. Perhaps he forgot it was picture day. Lemon seems to have been that sort of guy.

Lemon was the son of James Hervey Lemon, a local VIP around Maryville, Missouri, a civil war officer in the Union army, and a state legislator. James Hervey Lemon founded the Northwest Missouri Normal School in Maryville, 1905, and was elected to the Nodaway County Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1977.

Hervey participated in sports and civic activities at Kirksville, graduating in 1904. Afterward he married, taught school for a short time and went into the horse and stock business. We have a few pictures of him in later years and we can see that penetrating, youthful personality still lurking in his face.

Hervey and his wife had one dauhter, Beatrice, who pursued a scholar's life, married a professor at Northrern Colorado University, and herself taught at the university for several years.

Howard, apparently known as H. T., graduated in 1902. He was president of the Websterian Debating Society, and was recognized by the Echo as one of the most popular men on campus. The Echo predicted he would become a lawyer, and it was right for a few years. He taught school immediately after graduating, as he'd done before, but soon moved to Montana, studied law and passed the bar exam. He practiced for a few years, and then bought a newspaper. His new journalism career stuck, and he owned newspapers all over the Pacific northwest.

He married Virginia "Jennie" Walker, the G-G-G granddaughter of Major James Green of the Culpepper County militia during the revolutionary war. Jennie was born in Illinois on August 25, 1872. The 1910 census indicates they were married in 1895.

Jennie and Allen had a daughter Naomi.

By 1900 they were in Trotter, Missouri, and he was teaching school. He attended the Kirksville Normal school after that, graduating in 1902.

After graduation, Allen taught school for a while, and by 1906 he was principal at the Billings, Montana High School. Naomi was born during that time. He went to Montana, studied law, passed the bar, but soon went into the newspaper business. He worked as a reporter and editor for a while, and in 1913 became part owner, and publisher of the Dawson County Review in Montana. During his stay there Jennie underwent successful surgery for appendicitis, an often fatal disease at that time.

Naomi married H. C. Barrows in 1919 at age 22, William Black in 1936, and William Ross in 1952. She helped found the Little Theater in Weiser, Idaho.

He left the Dawson paper, and may have left the state for a while, but returned in 1926 to take over the Silver State Post in Deer Lodge, Montana. He moved on to publishing the Weiser American in Weiser Idaho, from 1930-1939.

Jennie passed away in 1947, and Allen in 1949, both in Weiser Idaho.

Enoch Seitz was a worthy link in a chain of Seitz family renown. His father was Enoch Beery Seitz, late chair of the Normal School mathematics department, and celebrated American mathematician. He is said to have published over 500 specific problem solutions, and he was elected to the London Mathematical Society in 1880, the 5th American so honored.

One of Seitz's students was General John J. Pershing, who wrote a letter endorsing the dedication of a plaque to Seitz in 1929. The mathematician's wife was also a professor at the normal school, heading the teacher training school for 4 years, and later graduated from the school of Osteopathy in 1899. He died suddenly in 1883, age 37. Enoch's brother, George, was a civil war veteran and celebrated his 100th birthday in 1942, a year after our Enoch Jr. passed away. Researchers will want to note that George also named one of his sons Enoch Beery Seitz, and they can be confused for each other in the record.

Our Enoch excelled at his late father's school, winning the oratorical medal in 1901, and being recognized as an all around athlete. He went into industrial management and in 1926 was called back to his alma mater to deliver the convocation address for the graduating class. He also organized a reunion of the class of 1901 to watch one of their own, Dr. Eugene Fair, be inaugurated as president of the school.

After Enoch, the procession of Seitz's continued, with his son Kerlin, who became a naval aviator during WW II, retiring as a naval reserve Commander. After the war he became a well respected professor of geography at Troy State University, and the University of Wisconsin. He and his wife, also a UW geography professor, endowed a $100,000 scholarship with their estate. One of their sons, Karl, was the editorial page editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald.

Our Enoch, from 1905 to 1913, was superintendent of the Milan Missouri high schools, and by 1917, he was a building contractor. He became executive secretary of the Power Washing Machine Association, and by 1926 VP of the Electric Finance Corporation of Chicago. In 1929 he became President and treasurer of the Frederick Company, marketing Maytag washing machines. He later moved went into the insurance business, and moved to Seattle. Like his father, Enoch Jr. died suddenly of a heart attack in 1941 at age 58.

Maude was a celebrated graduate of the normal school, President of the Junior class in 1901, and reporter for the senior class in 1902. The yearbook noted her poetry writing, and expected her to be a "Missionary to the Philippines." She taught school in Webster Groves, Missouri, until she married Vincent E. Waddock (1871-1955) and moved to Texas for a time. They lived in St. Louis after 1919.

Maud pursued her writing, and published several stories and poems in popular magazines. She had one reprinted from the Saturday Evening Post into Tom Masson's Annual for 1924, and she gained a mention in "The Writer" in 1924 (see below). Maud won the $100 first prize in 1925 for her poem about what to do with a million dollars. She published a poem in 1919 entitled, "The Lament of the Stay-at-Home," in 1922 came a poem in American Cookery, "One Woman's Way," and over the years several more.

Secondary critiques of her work include "Inarticulate Longings:The Ladies' Home Journal, Gender and the Promises of Consumer Culture," by Jennifer Scanlon, 1995.

She and Vincent had one child, a daughter, Delores Kennen Waddock (1903-1979). Delores lived at home while her parents lived, and was employed as an artist. She studied art at Washington University, St. Louis, and was elected secretary of the Art School Association. Delores designed one of the fire screens in the House of Tomorrow for the 1939 World's Fair. She never married, and worked as a designer k for a glass company. She died in 1979.

We don't know much about Maud's husband, Vincent E Waddock. A few months before he died, in July, 1955, his picture appeared in the St. Louis Globe with the caption, "Vincent Waddock, marketmaster and trouble-shooter, arrives on the scene at 4 a. m. each day." The accompanying story was about the local produce market, and had a paragraph identifying Waddock as the "Market Master." The 1950 census lists him as a salesman for a building materials company as does his death certificate. We know there were at least two Vincent Waddock's in St. Louis at the time, so perhaps the market master was no Maud's husband.

We have scant insight into Silas Andrew Coffman's life, but what we have outlines a life devoted to rural education, and its successful administration. It hints strongly toward a life of scholarship and frenetic activity.

He began teaching school in 1893, at age 19. A news article from that time referred to him as "A prince of rural education." For most of his life he was a fulltime teacher and administrator, as well as a farmer. He seems to have seized every opportunity to sharpen his skills, attending, and leading, conferences and schools. He graduated the Kirksville Normal School in 1904, attended the Alvas State Teachers College in Oklahoma, and earned a PhD from the University of New Mexico.

During all that education, he ran schools. In 1897 he was superintendent of schools in Andrew County, Missouri. He taught and held various administrative jobs in schools from Missouri, through Oklahoma and into New Mexico.

In 1897 was confirmed as School Commissioner of Andrew County. At that time he was credited with "two years at one of the educational institutions of the country….that placed him in the front rank of the educators of our county." He'd been teaching since the age of 19, and held two first-grade teaching certificates.

By 1902 he was elected Principal of schools in Parnell, MO. He is credited with "ten years of experience in district and grade work." After graduating from the Kirksville Normal School, he was Principal and instructor at the high school in Oregon, MO from 1905 to 1907.

In about 1908 he moved to Oklahoma, attending and conducting the Alva State Teachers College local normal schools. He farmed and taught at the Tahlequah high school.

He married on August 1, 1910, to Bessie Newton from Canadian,Texas. She passed away 11 months later.

In 1916 he was running the schools in Buffalo, Oklahoma. A 1917 news article refers to him as "a prominent farmer-teacher," who had just "squared himself for another year."

Coffman attended the Alva State Teachers College in Oklahoma, farming in that state, and working as a teacher and school administrator. In about 1919 and 1920, he received his Ph. D. from the university of New Mexico, while working in Clayton, New Mexico as a teacher.

He registered for the draft in 1918, age 43, occupation, "School Principal and farm management," with employer noted as, "Rosendale School Board," puzzling, since he was in Oklahoma at the time. His physical condition is noted as "Nervous system unstable." The physical description of his nervous system is perhaps consistent with other vague descriptions in his Kirksville yearbook that indicate someone of frenetic mannerisms. These observations could be consistent with chronic hypertension.

We note that he was sued by the Harper County, Oklahoma, school board for taking a piano from the school building in May, 1918. That was about the time he left for New Mexico to pursue his PhD. This dispute seems related to the school system acquiring a piano in January, 1918, by winning an unspecified contest sponsored by the Temple Department store, in which Coffman was an effective participant, according to some vague news items. A judgment was handed down in February, 1920, for the plaintiff. How Coffman met it is unknown.

He went to New Mexico in 1918-1920, perhaps to accept a teaching job, but more likely to pursue a doctoral from the University of New Mexico. In 1918 he obtained a teaching certificate in Union County, New Mexico and was on the faculty at the Union County Normal. His obituary tells us he earned a PhD at the Univeristy of New Mexico, so that must have occurred at some point during these years. By 1921 he was back in Tyrone, Oklahoma.

According to news accounts from the 1920s, Coffman was known to have expertise in "the very early historical features of this area (Texas and Oklahoma), …with reference to the evidences of civilization in the country of several thousand years ago…."

On December 27, 1923, Coffman again married, this time to Adeline Moore, in May, Oklahoma. Coffman was the superintendent of the high school, and Adeline was teaching English. She was a graduate of the Oklahoma normal school, and held a life certificate.

In September, 1928, he returned to Missouri with his wife, and by April, 1929, he was serving as principal of the Cosby, Missouri, high school, when he suffered two strokes. He was taken to a hospital in St. Joseph. His wife, Adeline was appointed to complete his term as Principal. This seems to have effectively ended his career.

Coffman died in 1935 of "Cerebral apoplexy, age 61." His death certificate indicated he was a retired rural teacher. Adeline took over his administrative job, went on teaching, and survived him by 31years until 1966.

There is an unexpected surprise at the end of this story. We find that Coffman, in 1919, published a book, really more of an essay stuck between book covers, authored by Col. John Sobieski. The Colonel was a faintly notorious soldier of fortune from Poland, and the book is about his experiences helping overthrow the Mexican self-styled emperor, Maximilian. It's called "The Life of President Benioto Pablo Juarez," and was published by S A Coffman of Rosendale, Missouri, our Coffman's home town. He wrote the introduction to the book, and holds the copyright. We don't know Coffman's relationship to Sobieski, nor the motive for his involvement in the book.

Perhaps the publication date indicates a connection to Coffman's PhD. We also note Sobieski was living in Neosho, Missouri in the 1890s a short distance from Rosendale. Also, Sobieski, like Coffman, was a vocal prohibitionist, giving lectures on the topic all around Missouri during Coffman's formative years. Sobieski ran for governor on the prohibition ticket in 1892, so would have been well known to Coffman. Also, for unknown reasons, Sobieski appeared often in the papers in 1905-1925, and his story of escaping Maximilian in Europe, and serving as his execution guard in Mexico, was prominent, and probably well known.

How Sobieski's story about Juarez came into Coffman's hands remains mysterious. Whether it's really Sobieski's work, or a cut-and-paste of Coffman's is unknown, and how it manages to survive on the internet is itself a mystery. But, there it is, part of the legacy of a country schoolteacher.

Leonard, apparently called Leon, was one of three Normal School grads to participate in the first Missouri-Nebraska debate. He graduated and went into teaching. He was principal of a high school in Lancaster when he married Mary Grist in 1903 Their wedding made the newspapers when a rainstorm stopped train service and they were in danger of missing their connection to leave on their honeymoon. The section gang saved the day by conveying them away on a handcar.

Leon and Mary had three children, and Leon switched careers to become an account agent, salesman, for International Harvester. Leon died in 1930, unfortuitously, after surgery for an obstructed bowel. His wife lived on to 1982, nearly a century, and his son, Gene compiled one of those quietly heroic efforts in World War II, one of the greatest generation.

James Stelle and Pearl Young met in Kirksville when they attended the Normal School. James had already been teaching rural schools in Missouri, and they met when James took a room with the Young family in Kirksville. He was the Echo yearbook editor in 1902 when they both graduated. For some reason Pearl is not mentioned in the yearbook and we've found no certain picture of her from that period, but see further below.

We should note confusion about Stelles' date of birth. We've used the date from his death certificate, which differs from that on his gravestone.

James and Pearl founded the College of Dressmaking in Kansas City, as President and Vice President, respectively. It was somehow reincorporated, or acuired, by the Associated Training Schools. It was a correspondence school and grew to have students all over the world. Pearl had far ranging business recognition in Kansas City, as is seen by a feature story in the St. Louis Star of June 20, 1914, see below.

We must note some confusion about the attendance of this pair at Kirksville Normal. The official alumni site indicates "Saida Pearl Young" attended in the years 1897-1898, and James attended 1899-1900. We know James edited the yearbook in 1902, and othere sources have Pearl atteding in later years also. She doesn't seem to have been mentioned in any yearbooks.

The Stelle's college seems to have suffered setbacks with the advent of war in Europe, and the college was sold in bankruptcy proceedings in 1916, prior to Pearl's death. As a sign of the times, we note Pearl's death certificate listed her occupation as "Housewife," though she was recognized in her obituary as a well-known, successful businesswoman in Kansas City. Her cause of death was noted as "Typhoid, Reinfection, Hemorrhage & perforation."

The story of the dressmaking college lives on via the Internet. James and Pearl wrote and published a now curious textbook, used in their correspondence course, and you can have a glance at it nearby. It is recognized by historians of the art of sewing. The textbook, we note, was published by J. M. Stelle, and authored by Pearl Merwin, a pseudonym made up of Pearl's first name, and James' middle name.

We've found a nearby newspaper advertisement for the school, and it features a picture of Pearl Merwin. Perhaps that is the likeness of Pearl Stelle from her school todays.

The Internet hasn't figured out what to make of Pearl Merwin. The American College of Dressmaking has been rediscovered because of copies of correspondence school lesson plans, and the text book Pearl and James Stelle authored, coming into the collectibles market and into such forums as Youtube. We can now provide at least an outline of an answer to their question of, "Who was this Pearl Merwin, and what's become of her?"

Census records show James living in boarding houses, after Pearl's death, and making a living as an investment broker, and salesman. The Kirskville Normal School Echo of 1924 has him in the oil business in Kansas City.

James Stelle outlived his wife by 28 years, passing away in 1945 of a "Cerebral vascular accident." The college of dressmaking seems to have been the highpoint of his business career, as his death certificate lists his usual occupation as "Retired American College of Dress Making." This information came form Mrs. Ora B. O'Connor, who knew James was a widow, but didn't know his wife's name. How Mrs. Connor came to be the informant at James' death we can't say. She was a reasonably well known police officer in Kansas City, so maybe that's a clue.

Like many of the 1901 Normal school seniors, George Lorimer Hawkins, 1878-1970, had taught school in rural Missouri before his graduation. He married classmate Sevena Hennon in 1906, and the couple lived all their lives in the St. Louis Area. Sevena had graduated in musical training at the Kirksville, Richard Wagner Conservatory in 1896 before taking up teaching. After their marriage she and George began a family in 1910, ultimately having five children, three of whom lived to adulthood. Their last son, George Junior, became a well known neurosurgeon in the St. Louis area.

While Vena turned her talents to parenthood, George went into teaching and school administration in the St. Louis area. He became assistant superintendent of St. Louis schools, and, briefl, acting superintendent. When the superintendent, in the early 1940s, was dismissed for corruption, George was named acting superintendent to clean up the mess left behind. He was later denied the permanent assignment, apparently for political reasons, and continued his administrative career as a high school principal within the St. Louis system.

George had retired by 1950. Sevena passed away in 1958, but George lived to the age of 92, passing away in 1970, living from the age of invention right on through the moon landing.

We find few pictures of George, none of Sevena, and little information in newspapers.

Clarence Eugene Fair, and Alta Mona Lorenz graduated the Kirksville Normal School as the 20th century began, married in 1903, had three children and became forces in Missouri education. Eugene experimented with educational methods, and served as President of his alma mater from 1925 to his death in 1937. The story is told in links behind the pictures.

Known as Alta, she married Dr. Edward A. Grim in 1915, co-founder, with brother Ezra, of the Grim hospital in Kirksville. Dr. Grim passed away in 1936, leaving his wife a wealthy woman. They had no children.

In 1946 the State Teachers' College sued Effa Alta Grim to acquire some of her property to build student housing for ex-service students, near Stokes Field. The dorms were built during the next few years.

The old Grim clinic building is still standing in Kirksville. It's now a privately owned office building, until recently held by the family.

E. Alta Grim became a prominent property owner in Kirksville, after her husband's death in 1936. She avoided the spotlight, and not much public information is available. By 1950 she was living in a large apartment building.

Edna was the daughter of Jeremiah Baker, a sergeant in the Confederate Army, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a farmer.

Edna Baker's name was misspelled in the yearbook as Barker. We've found only one picture of her, a low-quality image of her and her husband, from a newspaper. Her family moved from Kirksville to California after she graduated. She taught for a time in Malaga, near Fresno, and attended Claremont College until 1905 when she married local rancher, Henry Preston Dralle (1871-1941). Dralle was himself a Missouri transplant, from Lewis County.

Henry began farming raisins and was a pioneer in various modes of irrigation. After he died Edna was farming their property by herself in the 1950 census. Edna seems to have been an active leader in the Presbyterian church, and her husband was recognized as a leader in the Fresno County Farm Bureau.

The Dralle's had one daughter, Thelma (1911-1989), who was remarkably ill as an infant, as well as being the unharmed victim of a runaway horse. She became a teacher in the Fresno region.

Wat Arnold taught school a few years, became superintendent of the public schools in Middletown, (1901-02) and in Atlanta, Missouri, in 1903.

The "Miller" mentioned in his yearbook citation referred to Myra Gertrude Mills, the daughter of a local banker, whom he married in 1904. She had been teaching school for several years, and probably was a student at the Normal School.

Sam, on leaving school, began working for the St. Louis, Internal Revenue office in 1904 while engaging in the retail lumber business at Atlanta, (1905-08). He moved to Kirksville, Missouri in 1908 and started the Arnold Lumber Company. In 1943 he went into politics and was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth and Eightieth Congresses, serving until 1949. Following his final term, he retired from politics and founded a broadcasting company. He ran radio stations in Missouri until his death at age 82.

Here's how the Kirksville Daily Express remembered Sam Wat's radio days, in a recent issue.

75 Years Ago, October 17, 1947

At noon on Friday, October 17, 1947, KIRX radio station joined the air waves as Kirksville’s first radio station. It began with a dedication program, and Richard Canaday, commercial manager, served as the announcer. The opening ceremony began outside the station with music by the teachers college (now Truman State University) band. Many residents were in attendance, and representatives of various community organizations made welcoming remarks. The radio station was the result of the efforts of Samuel W. “Wat” Arnold, U. S. Congressman from Missouri, his son, Samuel M. Arnold, a Kirksville businessman, along with Samuel A. Burk. The three men formed the North Missouri Broadcasting Company, and in February 1947 they filed an application with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to operate a radio station. The FCC granted approval in May 1947. The broadcasting station and 150-foot-tower were located north of Kirksville on Highway 63 on the highest ground in Kirksville. Following the dedication KIRX began its regularly scheduled programming that continued until 11 p.m. The highlight of the opening day’s broadcast was the football game between the Kirksville and Cape Girardeau State Teachers Colleges. The game was played in Cape Girardeau and broadcast remotely by KIRX. Most of the programing in the early years featured local talk, news and music venues, high school and college football and basketball, and a local religious service Sunday morning included a different community church each week. A popular show was “KIRX Barn Dance,” broadcast live from Rieger Armory on Saturday nights. (See 65 Years Ago, October 18, 1957, below.) One of the longest running programs to air on KIRX was “Party Line,” hosted by Charlie Porter, studio and transmitter engineer. Besides Porter, other KIRX personnel were Sam Burk, general manager; Richard Canaday, commercial manager; William Morgan, program director and sports announcer; Leon Brauhn, chief engineer; and Mrs. Lois Daudel, office assistant.

Sam also appears in the list of famous Freemasons with the following entry.

" Arnold, Samuel Washington (1879-1961) — also known as Samuel W. Arnold; Wat Arnold — of Kirksville, Adair County, Mo. Born near Downing, Schuyler County, Mo., September 21, 1879. Republican. School teacher; superintendent of schools; lumber dealer; U.S. Representative from Missouri 1st District, 1943-49; defeated, 1948 (1st District), 1950 (1st District), 1952 (9th District). Presbyterian. Member, Rotary; Freemasons. Died in Kirksville, Adair County, Mo., December 18, 1961 (age 82 years, 88 days). Interment at Maple Hills Cemetery, Kirksville, Mo. "

Sam Wat's son, Sam Miller, took up his dad's mantle in Kirksville. Besides running the family's lumber and radio businesses, Sam Miller Arnold also had the distinction of being the best left-handed golfer in Missouri for three years running, 1935-1937.