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AOWM-February

The Battle Of Sacramento Pass

by Bob Priddy on February 28, 2007

in Across Our Wide Missouri

In 1847 a small army of Missourians struggled toward the city of Chihuahua, Mexico, through deserts of blowing sand.  There was little water.  The horses died.  The men suffered. They were Doniphan’s First Missouri Volunteers who filled the pages of history with their battles and played a major role in the Mexican War.

When the Mexican War broke out, Governor Edwards called for Missouri volunteers to help other American forces take Sake Santa Fe.  About 1,200 Missourians volunteered and marched with General Stephen Kearney.  They captured Santa Fe without firing a shot.  The Missourians then elected Colonel Alexander Doniphan their commander.


Tagged as: Across Our Wide Missouri, AOWM-February

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Roads Of Wood

by Bob Priddy 02/27/07 4:10 PM

As we drive down our fine highways today, it is difficult to understand the thinking of some of our forefathers in the 1840s and ’50s who were saying that gravel and paved roads were inadequate.  Some thought the best thing you could build of was wood.  The idea wasn’t bad.  But the execution was impossible.  [...]

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The Shoemaker Governor

by Bob Priddy 02/26/07 4:09 PM

In the space of one year, shortly after Missouri became a state, it had three different Governors. Missouri’s second Governor, Frederick Bates, caught pleurisy in the summer of 1825 and died in August.  The state constitution provided that the Lieutenant Governor would step into the vacated office.  But our Lietenant Governor, Benjamin Reeves, had resigned [...]

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The Church Of Georg Wall

by Bob Priddy 02/25/07 4:06 PM

As a student of the Missionary Society in Basel, Switzerland, he had intended to go to Southern Russia to preach.  But Czar Nicholas abolished the church’s missions and decreed that the only churches to be allowed were Greek Catholic churches.  So when the call went out from the American west for a young man to [...]

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The Sibley’s and Their School

by Bob Priddy 02/24/07 4:04 PM

George Champlin Sibley, for a number of years, commanded the westernmost government outpost in the United States, Fort Osage.  For years he worked to maintain close and peaceful relations with the indians of western Missouri.
He married a girl half his age and a few years later they settled near St. Charles, on a hill crowded [...]

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