The Civil War in the Midwest

The Old Northwest went to the polls in November 1860 enthusiastically voting for Abraham Lincoln.  The ties of commerce to the South were being broken with the coming of the railroads displacing the Mississippi River trade and anti-slavery views growing with the influx of Irish and German immigrants to the Midwest.

In Missouri, the state's pro-southern governor, Claiborne Jackson was backed by rural and small towns as a real threat to the Union.  In and around St. Louis, however, sentiment was overwhelmingly pro-Union.  Union Army captain, Nathaniel Lyon, was a stern abolitionist and had been assigned to defend the federal arsenal in St. Louis against an explosive situation that had developed between rival factions in February 1861. 

Lyon's pro-southern superior, General William S.  Harney, refused to act to defend St. Louis and by early May pro-southern militiamen were camped outside St. Louis.  The threat to the city had grown acute when General Harney was called away and Captain Lyon was left in charge.

On May 10th, Lyon marched on the rebels camped outside the city and took back St. Louis for the Union. Lyon then paraded the prisoners through the streets of St. Louis, enraging the city's secessionist minority.  Rioting and shooting followed the parade and by the end of the day 28 citizens were dead and scores injured.  However, St. Louis remained in Union hands.

Governor Jackson with his pro-southern sympathies, met with Lyon (now promoted to Brigadier General) and proposed that if Lyon would call off the troops, Jackson would declare Missouri a neutral state in the Civil War...

Next time...Lyon responds to Governor Jackson
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On October 26, 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona."

Boonslick Country

Central Missouri in the early 1800s was known as Boonslick Country, named after none other than Daniel Boone and the area's most famous resident.  He discovered a large valuable salt lick in central Missouri and decided it was a great place to set up home.

Boone himself, however, felt unappreciated and didn't welcome newcomers who took property he felt was rightfully his as a pioneer.  He left the state and settled on the Missouri River in 1799 when Joe Walker was a mere infant.

Franklin, Missouri was the capital of Boonslick Country and where Joseph Walker took the steamboat ride to.  1000 people strong, it was the largest settlement west of St. Louis.  The town boasted 125 cabins, six warehouses, four taverns, two billiard parlors, a steamboat landing, and $300 courthouse, two story jail, a race track, a brothel, a barber, and banker and the only newspaper published in the Mississippi Valley at that time.

As early frontier towns go, Franklin was quite a place!

Next time - Walkers go off the beaten path...