WHERE:  Main Street Books, 307 South Main Street in St. Charles, Missouri

WHEN:  Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010, 3 – 5 p.m.

The author will speak on Missouri’s Civil War and sign books purchased for the event.  Books must be purchased from the stock of the host retailer in order to obtain an autograph.

Don Corrigan, columnist for the Kirkwood-Webster Times and the South County Times, has a front page story this week (September 3) in both papers.  See the Kirkwood-Webster Times article by following this link:  http://www.websterkirkwoodtimes.com/Articles-i-2010-09-03-170651.113118_Missouris_Civil_War.html.

The Times newspapers cover a large territory in St. Louis County.  As Corrigan writes, it is time for the St. Louis area to get itself prepared for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which starts in 2011.  And it is.  In other news this week, St. Louis County announced a $500,000 grant to go to the Missouri Civil War Museum project at Jefferson Barracks.  Congrats to Mark Trout, the force behind the museum, which now is assured of opening in time for the anniversary.

WHEN:     Monday, August 30, 2010

WHERE:   On the radio, 90.7 FM

Greg Wolk will appear on KWMU’s “St. Louis on the Air”, with Don Marsh.  The live broadcast is at 11:00 a.m., and the segment will be rebroadcast at 10 p.m.  Consult KWMU’s website at www.kwmu.org for additional information, including call-in instructions.

The notorious Sam Hildebrand of St. Francois County, Missouri, was wounded quite severely in 1869.  As a result, he hid out in the town of Big River Mills, where he dictated a memoir of his Civil War escapades.  The memoir, referred to as his Autobiography but also known as his “Confessions”, is on book shelves again thanks to author Kirby Ross.

The man who shot Hildebrand lived in Fredericktown, Missouri, as a young man, but he moved on to St. Louis to became an author and an officer of the Missouri Historical Society.  The man died in 1915 in Webster Groves.

Readers?

The 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry took part in Fremont’s 1861 campaign, as well as the Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove campaigns.   John Charles Black of Danville, Illinois, would ultimately be the 37th’s colonel.  His younger brother, Captain William Black (right), won the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions at Pea Ridge.  John Charles received the MOH for gallantry at Prairie Grove.  They were the first of five sets of brothers in American history to receive the nation’s highest military honor.

Mark Twain

Lear is a name that is known to Marion County, Missouri.  It is a name known to much of the world, in fact, because a man born in Hannibal in 1902 gave us first the car radio, the 8-track, and then the Lear Jet.  He held over 150 U.S. Patents.  His name was William Powell Lear.  He died in Las Vegas in 1978.

Is it possible that the inventor of the Lear Jet is related to our Francis Marion Lear?  Francis’ name appears on the monument in Palmyra.  He was captured during Porter’s Raid in Missouri in 1862, and he was one of the 10 men put to death at the Marion County Fairgrounds.

If anyone knows the burial place of Francis Lear, please let me know.  Is Francis Lear related to William P?  I’ll let you know.

Drive west from Palmyra for 13 miles, to the town of Philadelphia, which is on State Highway 168.  At Philadelphia take a turn north on State Route D, which you will follow for about 12 miles.  There is a bend in the road here where you will find the graveyard of an old Baptist Church, call Mt. Pleasant.  This is one of the most interesting gravestones in Missouri, and it is interesting on a number of levels.

There is an epitaph on this stone that reads:  “This monument is dedicated to the memory of Hiram Smith. The hero that sleeps beneath the sod here who was shot at Palmyra Oct. 17, 1862 as a substitute for Wm. T. Humphrey my father.”

William T. Humphrey was a young man with a large family who was selected for execution by the authorities in Palmyra, and then was spared at the last minute for reasons that are unclear but that still stir controversy.  We say the reasons are unclear, but Humphrey’s wife testified to a court martial in 1864 that the Union provost marshal in Palmyra demanded and received sexual favors in exchange for Humphrey’s release.  This could be a fertile basis for discussion, if we keep the discussion civil.

The son who erected the stone for Hiram Smith was George W. Humphrey, who became a Missouri State Senator.  Cynics might suggest that the stone was a political ad, but we don’t know when it was erected.  Probably before Humphrey’s political career began and probably for purely sentimental reasons.  George was not born when Hiram Smith was killed.

The date on the stone is wrong.