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Father
Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, who descended the Mississippi from the
north in 1673, supplied the first written accounts of exploration in
Missouri. The early Indians in Missouri were the Osages, Sacs, Foxes, Otos,
Iowas, Missouris, Miamis, Kickapoos, Delawares, Shawnees and Kansas.
Although named for an Indian tribe, today there are no organized tribes
left in Missouri. As part of the Louisiana Purchase territory, Missouri
has belonged to three nations: France, Spain and the United States. First
claimed for France by LaSalle in 1682, Missouri was ceded to Spain in
1762. Although Spain held the country for 40 years, its influence was
slight.
The early development of Missouri was
closely associated with lead mining. Galena, a lead ore, was first
discovered in 1701 near Potosi and began to be mined in earnest in 1720
upon the discovery of significant deposits at Mine La Motte. Mining, the
earliest commercial activity in Missouri, lured early French settlers and
continues to be a major enterprise today.
It was the French who were responsible for
the first permanent settlement of Ste. Genevieve in the mid 1730s. This
settlement survived alone in the huge Upper Louisiana Territory until the
establishment of St. Louis as a fur trading post in 1764. Because of its
excellent location where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi,
St. Louis became the largest settlement in the state and today is one of
the nation's larger cities.
By secret treaty in 1802, Spain ceded the
Louisiana Territory back to France. Napoleon Bonaparte, anxious to rid
himself of the vast and troublesome frontier, sold it to the United States
in 1803 for a total of $15,000,000. About this time President Jefferson
organized the Lewis and Clark Expedition which was the first extensive
exploration of the northwestern part of the new territory. The expedition
left St. Louis in 1804.
Missouri was organized as a territory in
1812 and was admitted to the Union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821.
Missouri was the second state (after Louisiana) of the Louisiana Purchase
to be admitted to the Union.
In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was
passed whereby Missouri was to be admitted as a slave state and Maine as a
free state. Although admitted as a slave state, Missouri nevertheless
remained with the Union throughout the Civil War. At the beginning of the
Civil War, most Missourians wanted only to preserve the peace. However,
the state governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, was strongly pro southern and
attempted to align Missouri with the Confederacy. He and most of the
legislature were forced to flee to southern Missouri where they actually
passed an ordinance of secession. However, this government was no longer
recognized by most Missourians.
The most important and bloodiest battle
fought in Missouri was the Battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield.
Other important battles in Missouri were fought at Carthage, Lexington,
Westport and Boonville - the first engagement within the state. Missouri
contributed 109,000 men to the northern cause while sending at least
30,000 men into the Confederate ranks.
During World War I, Missouri provided
140,257 soldiers, one third being volunteers. Missouri contributed such
notable leaders as Gen. John J. Pershing of Laclede, commander of the
American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, and Provost Marshall Enoch H.
Crowder of Grundy County who drew up the Selective Service Act.
During World War II, Missouri contributed
a total of over 450,000 men and women to the various armed forces. Eighty
nine top officers were from Missouri including Gen. Omar N. Bradley of
Clark and Moberly and Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle of St. Louis.
The nation's leader during the last year
of the war was Lamar born Harry S. Truman, first Missourian to become
President of the United States. After assuming office upon the death of
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, President Truman was re elected to a full
four year term. His was the fateful decision to use the atom bomb and
hasten the Japanese surrender consummated on the deck of the battleship
USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Missourians later served in the Korean and
Vietnam wars and Dr. Thomas A. Dooley and Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor emerged
as noted figures. Like the rest of the country, Missouri has moved toward
the 21st century with modernized technology, nuclear energy,
transportation, education; progress in civil rights and women's rights;
and shifts in the economy and business outlook.
Source: Missouri State
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