(cover)

NEMOSCOPE
SPRING
1948

(page 2)

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

PROFESSOR J. W. Heyd

   For the first time in over thirty years the name of Professor J. W. Heyd is missing from the rolls 
of the active faculty members. Professor Heyd’s retirement at the end of the spring quarter 
brings to a close his long and successful tenure as a member of the faculty of this College.

   Mr. Heyd’s services to his country as an educator did not begin with his association with the 
Teachers College. As early as 1895 he was teaching in the rural schools, and his interest in the 
education of young men and women has continued to the present day.

   Hundreds of students of this College have felt his kindly influence and have been enriched by 
their association with Mr. Heyd. And the impressive list of his publications bear witness to his 
ability as a scholar and author.

   Professor Heyd served the College under the administration of three presidents and his 
elevation to the headship of the Division of Language and Literature speaks for itself concerning 
his administrative ability.

   Those of us who know Mr. Heyd as an educator and teacher regret to see him leave the 
campus but at the same time we rejoice at his opportunity for rest after so many years of 
faithful service. We wish for him many happy and useful years as a private citizen of this 
community.

COVER PICTURE

   Phil M. Donnelly, Governor of Missouri, poses with four members of the Board of Regents of 
the Teachers College, on the occasion of commencement ceremonies and the laying of the 
cornerstones of Blanton and Nason Halls on May 27, 1948. Left to right: Roy Quinn, Moberly; 
Roland Zeigel, Kirksville; W. A. Cable, Hannibal; Herbert Sears, La Plata. Not present for the 
picture: E. E. Swain, Kirksville; P. M. Marr, Milan; Hubert Wheeler, Jefferson City.

NEMOSCOPE
NORTHEAST MISSOURI STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE 
KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI 
WALTER H. RYLE, PRESIDENT

EDITOR 
ROBERT L. MCKINNEY

EDITORIAL BOARD 
WRAY M. RIEGER 
PAULINE D. KNOBBS 
BERENICE B. BEGGS 
C. H. ALLEN

VOLUME II	SPRING QUARTER, 1948		NUMBER 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CORNERSTONES FOR BLANTON AND NASON HALLS . . . . . The Honorable Phil M. Donnelly

“TO GIVE MORE ABUNDANT LIFE TO MANY PEOPLE” . . . . . Clifton Cornwell

AN ACCOUNT OF “ALLEN” . . . . . Claude Marshall

FIRST MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE AWARDED AT K. S. T. C.

ALUMNI NOTES

A quarterly publication issued in November, February, May, and August.

Subscription rate is $1.00 a year; single copy §.25.

Address all communications to Robert L. McKinney, Assistant to the President.

Entered as second class mail matter April 29, 1915, at the post office at Kirksville, Missouri, 
under the Act of Congress of August 24, 1912.

Accepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 
1917, authorized July 26, 1919.

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SPRING, 1948
NEMOSCOPE
PAGE 3

CORNERSTONES FOR BLANTON AND NASON HALLS
Address by The Honorable Phil M. Donnelly
Governor of Missouri

   We meet today to participate in the laying of cornerstones for new dormitories for the 
Northeast Missouri State Teachers College.

   In doing this we again reaffirm our faith in public education in Missouri and prepare to go 
forward into new days.

   These new dormitories are evidence of change and of growth in an institution that will 
influence the lives of countless students in the years to come.

   We give solid evidence by our participation in this event and in this ceremony that our faith is 
in the future and that we believe in that future.

   We indicate these things when we lay cornerstones for buildings that will join a group of 
buildings that have been dedicated to public education in Missouri for many years.

   All of this has the greatest significance, revealing as it does our conception of the part that 
education plays in the life of our time and demonstrating our conviction that general education 
is the foundation of our nation.

   I am informed that 1948 marks the eighty-first anniversary of the founding of the Northeast 
Missouri State Teachers College; and the one hundred and twenty-seventh anniversary of the 
birth of Joseph Baldwin, founder of this institution.

   Joseph Baldwin established the first normal school in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1867. It is fitting 
that we mention him today because he worked continually for a state normal school system. 
His own school was made a state normal school in 1870. He began with a faculty of six and an 
enrollment of one hundred and forty students.

   He believed in a teachers college for teachers. He established a system of student 
employment for the benefit of those worthy students who were unable otherwise to pay their 
way through school. He believed there were three factors in the successful teaching of children 
-- sound scholarship, a knowledge of the practical principles of education, and a love for 
childhood.

   On December 29, 1870, by an act of the General Assembly, Baldwin’s private teacher 
education institution became the First District Normal School, the first state supported
institution in Missouri established primarily for the purpose of educating teachers. The
institution from its beginning was a teachers college. On May 20, 1919, the General Assembly
re-christened the institution as the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College.

   Joseph Baldwin declared that his fundamental purpose in establishing the North Missouri 
Normal School and Commercial College was to elevate teaching to one of the chief of the arts. 
Furthermore, he declared that “eternal principles underlie all education processes . . . methods 
which are not grounded on principles are utterly valueless.”

   From the very beginning the central idea on the campus was the education of teachers for 
teaching in our public schools from and including the kindergarten through the high school, and 
today that continues to be the central idea of the institution.

   It has been said that the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College is the mother of the 
teacher education system of Missouri.

   There are other men who contributed to the distinguished record of the Kirksville State 
Teachers College, but time will not permit the mention of their names. However, I do feel that 
the long and distinguished administration of John R. Kirk from 1899 to 1925 should be 
mentioned.

   Doctor Kirk was followed by Dr. Eugene Fair as president of this institution, and Doctor Fair 
was succeeded by your present distinguished president, Doctor Walter H. Ryle.

   It is not my purpose to discuss the courses of study offered in this educational institution. 
However, it is entirely fitting that the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College should have 
three well defined functions:

   First, to promote an enriched program of general education based upon fundamental values 
tested by the experiences of mankind.

   Second, to educate teachers for the public schools of Missouri. This is the primary function of 
the Teachers College, and therefore a majority of the courses offered have been planned to 
meet requirements in the various curricula leading to the sixty-hour certificate for elementary 
teachers, to the ninety-hour certificate for rural teachers, to the Bachelor of Science Degree in 
Education and a life certificate with majors, minors, and professional work necessary for 
teaching one or more subjects offered in Missouri high schools, and to a Master of Arts Degree.

   Third, to offer academic courses preparatory to the student’s entrance to a professional 
school. Although this is a minor function of the Teachers College, each year an increasing 
number of students enter to receive specific academic courses that prepare them for entrance 
into a medical school, a school of engineering, a law school, a school of osteopathy, and other 
schools. The Teachers College is attempting to be of real service to this group of students.

   Thus, this institution is fulfilling a three-fold function in the educational system of our state, 
and at the same time, meeting the high standards of new days in education.

   In 1945 permissive legislation was enacted granting teachers colleges of Missouri the right to 
become State colleges. The Northeast Missouri State Teachers College retains its name as a 
State Teachers College and prides itself on setting a pattern for the American four-year 
teachers college. It prepares for leadership in the field of education in particular, while aiding 
students to prepare for other fields.

   The Northeast Missouri State Teachers College is classified by the American Association of 
Teachers Colleges as a Class-A institution, the highest classification in this association. It also is a 
member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Its undergraduate 
and graduate work is approved by this association.

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NEMOSCOPE
SPRING, 1948

   A list of illustrious leaders in education, business, industry, government and other fields have 
graduated from this college.

   In all of this, this institution is doing its part to instill in the minds and hearts of the students 
who pass through these halls the right concept of achievement in this day and time.

   We, in America, are accused of being materialists, of placing undue value upon possessions, of 
gauging success by the number of cars we drive and the pretentiousness of our homes, upon 
material wealth.

   And yet, are we thinking of those things today, as we lay the cornerstones of these new 
buildings for this college? Or, are we thinking of excellence of attainment, of the true meaning 
of achievement, and of the will and the courage of men and women to excel in their chosen 
fields by establishing high standards of conduct and of accomplishment?

   That to me is the true significance of this day, as we hold these ceremonies. Do we not rate 
achievement by such standards? Whether the field be business, or engineering, or any of the 
other professions, or government and politics, it is in performance, based upon such standards, 
that true and lasting achievement is attained.

   What is true of individual effort, and the individual as such, is equally true of organized, group 
endeavor. Whatever the work may be, whatever the organization, achievement in the last 
analysis must be measured in terms that take in other things rather than the material.

   At this moment when our country is attempting to readjust itself in the paths of the post-war 
world, this pioneer teachers college realizes these things and in addition reaffirms its faith in 
the rights of free people. It renews its vows to keep steadfast its devotion to the task of 
educating for the greatest of the arts -- the art of teaching -- to the end that the American Way 
shall not pass.

   I do not believe that we in this nation have cause to worry about the future if, in keeping our 
nation strong, we also keep our citizenship strong; strong in the belief and practice of the 
principles of true democracy; strong in our faith in humanity and in freedom.

   Our America will be safe against all perils, and against the assaults of those who would change 
our way of life so long as we have institutions which will realize the importance of those things, 
and so long as our schools recognize their great responsibilities. May we not hope and expect 
that the graduates of this college will be motivated by the ideals we have discussed and that in 
their example others will find renewed hope, added courage and, increased devotion to high 
aims.

   A college that can lead and show the way, as this college has done, lends encouragement that 
these things will happen. Let us hope that the students who will have the advantage of these 
new facilities will also have the inspiration to work hard, to study hard, and to achieve in its 
true sense. Influenced by such motives, they will go forth into a world bright with promise for 
those who will see the light and will follow it unerringly to their goals, whatever those goals 
may be.

[photo caption] GOVERNOR DONNELLY SPEAKING AT THE CORNERSTONE CEREMONIES OF BLANTON AND 
NASON HALLS

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SPRING, 1948
NEMOSCOPE
PAGE 5

"TO GIVE MORE ABUNDANT LIFE TO MANY PEOPLE”
by
Clifton Cornwell
Director of Information
The Kirksville College of Osteopathy and Surgery

   Northeast Missouri has been the home of peerless leaders. Here men and women have been 
born and reared to shape the destinies of millions when military force flouted the eternal 
verities; here men and women have added to the sum total of human happiness because they 
dared to challenge entrenched tradition and selfish interest with new institutions for training in 
education and therapeutics. For here lived Pershing, Coontz, Crowder and Willard and here 
lived Rollins, Baldwin and Still. Here is a place that can claim as its own leaders who dared to 
bring truth to bear upon history in time of crises.

   Intimately associated with northeast Missouri is the history, of the osteopathic profession and 
the story of its founder. In a little more than fifty years more than 11,000 licensed osteopathic 
physicians and more than 250 osteopathic hospitals located throughout the United States and 
foreign countries minister to millions who entrust to them their health and look to them for the 
restoration of their health. This profession bringing complete health care to ever increasing 
numbers had its beginning in Kirksville in October 1892 when Dr. Andrew Taylor Still 
established there the first school of osteopathy.

   Long skeptical and finally completely disillusioned with old school medicine, Dr. Still, serving 
as a medical missionary to Kansas Indians, undertook a study of the very foundations of healing. 
His study revealed a new concept for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. This thoughtful 
man who came from a long line of rugged Virginia pioneers was challenged by the utter futility 
of medicine as practiced when he stood by helpless as three of his family succumbed to an 
epidemic of spinal meningitis.

   Believing that man was a part of a universe operating in accordance with fixed laws, he 
examined therapeutics by a study of available authorities, by the dissection of countless human 
bodies and by everyday medical practice. His study revealed the stark inadequacies of orthodox 
medicine and suggested a realistic doctrine fundamental to the solution of problems 
encountered in the healing art. Studying alone on the American frontier, he arrived at 
conclusions simultaneously being established in the laboratories of the scientists of central 
Europe. This doctrine and its corollary, long since affirmed by leaders in old school medicine, is 
that known as the natural immunity and the structural integrity of the human body.

   Stated simply as principles of therapeutics, they are, first, the normal living body contains 
within itself the mechanism of defense and repair in injuries resulting from trauma, infections 
and other toxic agents; second, the body is a unit, and abnormal structure or function in one 
part exerts abnormal influences on other parts, and third, the body can function best in defense 
or repair when it is in correct structural adjustment.

   Upon these principles the art of diagnosis and treatment by manipulation known as 
osteopathy was founded. Manipulative methods of treatment as originated by Dr. Still, and 
later developed by other osteopathic physicians, constitute true manipulative orthopedics 
designed to correct structural maladjustments and malfunctions which are disturbing factors in 
regional blood and nerve supply predisposing to functional and organic disease.

   While manipulation has always been, and still is, the distinctive feature of osteopathic 
practice, it is only natural that in keeping with scientific progress, osteopathy has accepted, and 
does teach and use other diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic procedures constituting a 
complete system of therapy. Osteopathy is legally recognized in all states.

   When Dr. Still located in Kirksville to study and practice a new therapy, he was not unknown 
in northeast Missouri. He and his family had many friends and relatives in this section where he 
had arrived in 1837 when his father Dr. Abram Still was sent from Tennessee by the Methodist 
conference to serve as a medical missionary in Macon county. Here Andrew attended school 
and became interested in the study of medicine with his father. In 1840, the family moved to 
Schuyler county. Here they remained until 1845 when they returned to Macon county. In 1849, 
young Still married Mary B. Vaughn. They lived on a farm there until 1853 when he moved to 
the Methodist Shawnee Indian Mission near Lawrence, Kansas. Here he farmed and studied and 
practiced with his father who had preceded him to the Indian mission from Macon county.

   The Kansas years saw the future founder of a school of therapeutics active as a surgeon in 
the volunteer corps of the Union Army, as a representative in the state legislature and as a 
professional man of such consequence as to be able together with relatives to make a gift of 
the land upon which a college, Baker University at Baldwin, Kansas, was built. But he was 
unorthodox. Because he dared to be independent in his thinking and talking about the art of 
healing the laymen were skeptical and the members of his profession antagonistic. So much 
was he limited that he gave up further attempts to study and practice in Kansas and returned to 
northeast Missouri.

   Although Dr. Still moved to Kirksville in 1875, he did not make this town his fixed home until 
1887. Between these years, he traveled from place to place in northeast Missouri and 
throughout the state seeking opportunities to heal the sick and talk with individuals and groups 
about his new method of healing. Important among the places visited were Wadesburg, 
Clinton, Holden, Harrisonville, Hannibal, Palmyra, Rich Hill, Kansas City and Eldorado Springs.

   In Hannibal, he and his son Charles treated Samuel Langhorn Clemens (Mark Twain). At 
Eldorado Springs, the first suggestions for a school were made when three medical doctors and 
a cabinet maker insisted that Dr. Still train them to treat by the new method. In a recent letter 
to the profession, Dr. Charles E. Still, now a member of the Board of Trustees of

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PAGE 6
NEMOSCOPE
SPRING, 1948

the College, verified this fact saying, “Here, Father said to me, ‘Charlie, I want you to help me 
train these men’. They studied with us a year and when we were ready for clinic instructors in 
1892, we had four splendid men ready to work for us.”

   By 1891, the success of Dr. Still and his sons whom he had trained to assist him was so great 
as to bring to Kirksville and the other towns where they treated far more patients than they 
were able to manage. This demand, together with that already noted on the part of individuals 
who believed as did Dr. Still that the new therapy was not a gift confined to one man but a 
thing which could be taught to others successfully, pointed definitely to the necessity for 
establishing a school for the preparation of osteopathic physicians.

   Many who had benefited from Dr. Still’s treatment saw the reasonableness of the principles 
and results of the practice of osteopathy and desired to become students of the new therapy.
Requiring assistance in his growing practice, he had trained his son Harry M. Still as early as 
1887. Later his oldest son Charles E. Still studied and practiced with him and still later sons 
Herman T. and Fred.

   But it required more than a demand for more physicians and the demonstrated fact that they 
could be trained to establish a school of osteopathy. The osteopathic idea was new. For the 
most part only the plain, common people, who had seen the results of osteopathic treatment, 
accepted it without question. Many looked upon it with suspicion, lacked faith in its future and 
doubted the success of an osteopathic college. It was almost impossible to obtain experienced 
instructors, because even those favorable disposed did not care to incur the ridicule, the 
censure and the ostracism that probably would follow if they took such a step.

   But having fastened upon a new truth as great as life itself, Dr. Andrew Taylor Still knew no 
such thing as failure. Just as always, obstacles and opposition spurred him on with renewed 
energy for greater activity. Within five years after the opening of the American School of 
Osteopathy at Kirksville, more than five hundred students were enrolled in osteopathic schools, 
pursuing a course of study requiring twenty months for completion, under skilled instructors, 
many of whom were college graduates.

   The first charter for the American School of Osteopathy was granted by the state of Missouri 
May 10, 1892, under the law governing scientific institutions. The articles of incorporation 
stated “The object of this corporation is to establish a college of osteopathy, the design of 
which is to improve our present system of surgery, obstetrics and treatment of disease 
generally -- and to grant and confer such honors and degrees as are usually conferred by 
reputable medical colleges.”

   The School opened in October of that year with an enrollment of eighteen students who 
completed the course as required by March 1893. However, the class was not graduated 
actually until March 2, 1894. Among the first graduates to receive diplomas and have conferred 
upon them the degree of Diplomate of Osteopathy, later changed to Doctor of Osteopathy, 
were three of Dr. Still’s sons, Charles E., Herman T. and Fred, and one brother, Edward C. Still.

   A new charter was granted to the institution October 30, 1894 and the two year course of 
study definitely established. In 1904, the professional course of study was increased to three 
years and in 1916 to four years of nine months each. In 1922, the Andrew Taylor Still College of 
Osteopathy and Surgery was founded in Kirksville by Dr. George M. Laughlin, son-in-law of Dr. 
Still. Dr. Laughlin and his wife Dr. Blanche Still Laughlin, were both early graduates of the first 
school of osteopathy. In 1926, the American School of Osteopathy and the Andrew Taylor Still 
College of Osteopathy were merged under the name of the Kirksville College of Osteopathy and 
Surgery.

   After the first school was established at Kirksville in 1892, a total of thirty-eight osteopathic 
institutions sprang up in various parts of the country, some to operate but a short time and 
pass out of existence or merge with substantial schools. At present there are six colleges; the 
Kirksville College of Osteopathy and Surgery, the College

[photo caption] Dr. A. T. Still

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SPRING, 1948
NEMOSCOPE
PAGE 7

of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, in Los Angeles; the Des Moines Still College of 
Osteopathy and Surgery, in Des Moines, Iowa; the Kansas City College of Osteopathy and 
Surgery, in Kansas City, Missouri; the Chicago College of Osteopathy, in Chicago; and the 
Philadelphia College of Osteopathy, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

   Each of these schools operates a large clinic in which every recognized diagnostic measure 
and treatment are carried out. Efficient laboratories are provided. An out-patient department is 
operated as well, where students obtain wide experience in the care of bedfast patients. Each 
college has connected with it one or more general hospitals and some are connected with 
hospitals for specialty practice.

   At Kirksville the entrance requirement has been raised gradually to the present prescribed 
two year pre-professional course. The requirement for graduation is now two years of nine 
months each and two years of twelve months each with one month’s vacation during each of 
the last two years.

   From a beginning of two, Dr. Still and Dr. William Smith, instructor in anatomy and physiology, 
the faculty and administrative staff have grown to more than forty. The basic science faculty is 
composed of instructors and research men holding graduate degrees from leading universities. 
The clinical faculty, composed of osteopathic physicians and surgeons representing four 
osteopathic colleges, is departmentalized with qualified specialists at the head of each 
department.

   Through the years the student body increased at Kirksville from the first class of eighteen until 
at one time more than half of the eighteen hundred enrolled in the six colleges were attending 
there. Now because of increased standards, enrollment is limited to one hundred new students 
per year. This is in keeping with the educational practice in all recognized institutions for the 
preparation of physicians.

   From the small fourteen by twenty-eight frame structure which housed the first school, the 
plant has grown to include three modern school buildings, a clinical hospital, a convalescent 
hospital and two nurses dormitories. The Infirmary Building, the first permanent structure in 
the history of osteopathic education, now only partly used for machine shops, animal house 
and storage, is to be incorporated as a clinical unit in the planned expansion of the hospital. The 
hospital was

[photo caption] Dr. J. S. THOMAS
who delivered the commencement address for the spring division of the senior class of 1948.

established in 1905, the first permanent osteopathic hospital structure in history. In addition to 
these buildings the college also owns a men’s dormitory, and housing units for both veterans 
and non-veterans.

   Committed to a search for truth from its founding, the college fosters scientific investigation 
in the basic sciences in the clinical fields. Investigations now being carried on are directed 
primarily toward a further understanding of the mechanisms involved in the relationships of 
body structure and function.

   In addition to the college research program, work is being done here in the Still Memorial 
Research Trust. This is a non-profit corporation established for the purpose of receiving grants 
and conducting fundamental research in fields pertinent to osteopathic principles and practice.

   Grants for research have been made to the Kirksville college and to the Trust by the American 
Osteopathic Association, the United States Public Health Service, other Trusts, individuals and 
groups.

   The college at Kirksville and the other five osteopathic colleges are nonprofit institutions 
dedicated to the principle of rendering the greatest possible service to humanity by providing 
the finest possible facilities for the preparation of young men and women to go out to practice 
a complete therapy. Although they brought to the healing art a revolutionary basic concept, 
their original pattern of organization was stereotyped. They were cast in the mold of the 
proprietary old school medical college. They were institutions for profit.

   But in their case vested interest was not so deeply entrenched as to make it difficult to 
change when public demand pointed the way for institutions charged with so great a social 
responsibility; Readily, enlightened leadership in the osteopathic profession and the colleges 
themselves undertook the tasks of transformation of educational program and clinical practice 
necessary to fulfill the requirements of non-profit institutions, whose incomes from tuition, 
clinic and hospital fees can be plowed back into the institutions and together with grants from 
foundations, professional organization, philanthropists and all individuals and groups be made 
to provide a more and more adequate service to humanity.

   The title of a biography of the man from northeast Missouri who made all of these things 
possible probably symbolizes best the contribution of one who made this section of the state 
richer for the mingling of cultures which his therapeutic concept wrought here and the one 
whose vision brought health and hope to millions throughout the earth and to generations yet 
unborn. The title of the biography written by a devoted member of his first graduating class, 
Arthur Grant Hildreth is “The Lengthening Shadow of Andrew Taylor Still.”

   Surely the finest penned tribute to this pioneer physician is found in the closing paragraphs of 
“Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, a portrait presented” by Kathryn Turney Garten:   “People came, for he 
said, ‘I can help you. I can help in the re-creation of your wonderful bodies.’ They came with 
crutches -- they came in wheel chairs. There was a girl from Montana whose father brought her 
on crutches. Her father was so wealthy he had taken her all over the country to see if some 
doctor couldn’t help her. She got onto the table. Dr. Still treated her once. ‘Get up and walk.’
   ‘Why,’ she answered, ‘Dr. Still, I can’t walk.’
   ‘Get up and walk.’ So she slid to her feet, discovered she could stand upon them. Her father 
got on one side and Dr. Still on the other. In his hand her father held the crutches. They started 
down the hall. When they
(Continued on Page 10)

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PAGE 8
NEMOSCOPE
SPRING, 1948

AN ACCOUNT OF "ALLEN”
by
Claude Marshall

   The greatest surprise encountered in my attempt to report the history of Allen, a town in 
Randolph County of former years, is how little people really know about it. I found many who 
said, “Yes, I remember it. I remember being there on certain occasions, but can tell you very 
little definitely about the town.”

   I also found incorrect impressions as to the location, time of existence and other such details 
concerning Allen.

   This is explained in the fact that most of the “old timers” have passed on and left no records 
and the few left were too young at that time to give much accurate history of it.

   The town was named for a man by the name of Allen. This information was secured from the 
“St. Louis Gazetteer” of 1860, and from several people interviewed. On the record of the plat I 
find it written “Allin,” but I am convinced that “Allen” is the correct spelling.

   All are agreed that there was an old stage route from Hannibal to Glasgow and located on this 
road across from the present Buchannan home and exactly on the spot of the new home of 
William Stringer stood the “Old Tavern,” built about the year of 1837. This old tavern was a 
station on the stage route. It was here that the stage driver changed horses. Barns for the 
horses were just across the road north of the tavern. In an interview with Mrs. Agnes 
Schuneneman, she reported that this tavern was once burned and rebuilt. Also, that there was 
a saloon in a separate building directly east of it. In an interview with Mrs. J. E. Briggs, she 
stated that the stage line at one lime belonged to William Smith, a Moberly man. She had a 
brother who was a driver on this line and he changed horses at Huntsville and not at the 
Tavern. So we find some difference of opinion on this point. But what I want to say is this: 
there seems to be a general understanding in the present generation that the “Old Tavern” and 
“Old Allen” were one and the same. I, myself had that idea. Such is not the case at all. Another 
erroneous opinion that prevails is that “Old Allen” was a store and trading point for many years 
before the war. The records of the county and the abstract office of W. B. Stone, show that 
Allen came into existence on June 11, 1858 and that West Allen followed in October, 1858. 
Allen as a town went out of existence in 1871 when the North Missouri Railroad Company gave 
G. B. Dameron a quit claim deed to the five acres they had secured from him for a depot site in 
1858. The “Old Tavern” was not part of Allen according to Mrs. Briggs, Mr. Lynch and others, 
but there was a hotel in Allen at least three-fourths of a mile from the “Old Tavern.”

   Mrs. J. E. Briggs, who moved from Huntsville to Allen, states that Allen was south of the 
wagon road. Also that it was west of the railroad and that the business houses faced the 
railroad and were on what was called Front Street.

   The explanation of it being south of the wagon road is that the old atlas of 1877 in Mr. Stone’s 
office on North Clark Street shows that the stage route was in a northeasterly direction from 
the “Old Tavern” to about what is now Pollard’s comer. Mr. W. C. Buchannan says that he 
remembers the time when the old road was changed to the present Sparks Avenue.

   Mr. Swin Turner reported in an interview that he is of the opinion that Allen was a store or a 
town before 1840 as his grandfather used to go there and would come home intoxicated from 
liquor that he had bought at Allen. However, the records show that this land was not entered 
from the government until 1848. It may have been that Mr. Turner was visiting the “Old 
Tavern” across the road from the Buchannan place in the town of Allen.

   The Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri records that the first survey of the west end of 
what is now the Wabash, then called the Randolph and Chariton County Railroad, was started 
at Allen. “Allen, a post village of Randolph County, Sugar Creek Township, situated on the North 
Missouri Railroad, six miles from Huntsville, the county seat, and one hundred and forty-six 
miles from St. Louis. It was first settled by C. C. Buchannan in 1858 and the population in 1860 
was one hundred and fifty. There was a Presbyterian church and the pastor was J. B. Mitchell.” 
According to the above there was a church in Allen, but according to Mrs. Briggs who lived 
there and all the others interviewed there was not a church or school. Both the church and 
school being located at Sugar Creek about a mile west.

   The following is a copy from a paper written by Miss Gladys Holloway. “Old Allen was a village 
one mile north of where Moberly now is. It was a shipping point for Huntsville and points west. 
People came to Allen to make connections with the stage coach to Glasgow. There were really 
two parts to the village. West Allen was one mile from Old Allen proper. Near what is now 
known as the Stringer place was a hotel on the road to Huntsville.

   In 1865 Bill Anderson’s men and the Randolph County Militia had a skirmish here. Anderson’s 
men were stationed in the depot. Today an old barn on the Buchannan farm northeast of 
Moberly which was moved there from Allen has bullet holes in it from this battle.

   In the summer of 1861 the Chariton and Randolph Railroad offered all who would move their 
homes from Allen the same amount of land in Moberly that they had owned in Allen. The 
proposition was rejected by everyone except Patrick Lynch. The people of Allen laughed at him 
but others moved after 1866. About this time the population of Allen was about two hundred. 
There were no schools nor churches. When the first school and church were built in Moberly, 
people walked from Allen to attend them, following paths across the prairie.

   Dr. Cottingham also says in another interview that he was a member of the surveying party 
that in 1867 surveyed the present M. K. T. Railroad and that it was first planned to survey it to 
Allen and that later it was changed to Moberly.

   The statement in the above that West Allen was 1 mile west of Allen is incorrect as the 
records in the abstract office show that the towns were directly by the side of each other. West 
Allen was a residential section exclusively and was platted by C. C. Buchannan in October, 
1858. Allen was a business section along with residences platted in June of the same year by G. 
B. Dameron.

   Mr. D. S. Forney, father of Frank and Irve Forney, landed at Allen with his family soon after the 
Civil War

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SPRING, 1948
NEMOSCOPE
PAGE 9

closed. He had been buying tobacco for eastern firms for a number of years. He built a factory 
about four miles east of Allen and manufactured tobacco there for several years. He had 
several wagons that hauled it to all parts of north Missouri and sold it wholesale. One brand 
that he made was called “Forney’s A.” Another was “Fig Leaf.” Also, Ploeb Jones and Wash 
Grimes had a tobacco warehouse in Allen but not a factory. Tobacco was bought from the 
farmers for two or three cents a pound.

   Many houses were moved from Allen to Moberly and the entire block of frame buildings from 
Clark to Williams on the north side of Reed Street was moved from Allen. They were generally 
moved with ox teams. Also, the depot from Allen was moved to Moberly.

   Names of some of the residents of Allen in 1860 taken from the “Missouri Gazetteer,” also the 
occupations of each:

   J. B. Mitchell -- Pastor of church; Physician and Druggist 
   William Palmer and Company- General Store 
   Joseph Croden Brothers -- Carpenters and Builders 
   John N. Mabee -- Carpenter and Builder 
   M. Reese -- Cabinet Maker 
   B. S. Kinnan -- Groceries 
   Hotels -- Allen House, City Hotel, Farmers Retreat
   James F. Hannah -- Justice of Peace 
   J. A. Arnott -- Livery Stable 
   William J. Cave -- Lumber Dealer 
   Mrs. E. P. Cave -- Milliner and Dress Maker
   Ragsdale and Grimes -- Blacksmith 
   Jenkins and Smothers -- Saw Mill 
   Reese -- Painter and Paper Hanger 
   Crowder & Brothers -- Painter and Paper Hanger
   David Dillman -- Chair Maker 
   W. D. Blaker -- Carriage and Wagon Maker
   Asa Barnett -- Dry Goods 
   Mr. Pearl -- Hotel
   Dr. Wight -- Physician 
   Dr. Clarkson -- Physician 
   Mr. F. Heether -- General Store; sold stage tickets

   The following names of property owners were taken from the abstract books of Mr. Wilber 
Stone.

      ALLEN
G. B. Dameron		P. C. Smothers
J. B. Mitchell		Louis Heether
Chas. G. McHatton	George W. Bean 
Sam C. Tedford 	Charles Tissue 
Richard Kitchen	H. H. Gray
Noah J. Smothers	W. H. Robertson
Ann Heether		Monroe A. Henry
Martha A. Daily 	Moses Heyman 
Solomon Mark		Jas. R. True
Thos. P. White		S. March and Schoen
Thomas Gorley	
James S. Hedges	        A. W. Lobdell
B. J. N. Clarkson	W. L. Rutherford
Johnson T. Stevens 	Jas. R. True

      WEST ALLEN
C. C. Buchannan	        Benj. Ragsdale
Chas. Ragsdale	        Jas. C. Grimes
J. E. Amick		J. B. Mitchell
J. P. Crowder		R. B. Crowder
N. B. Coates		Theophilus Sears
John Terrill		Mahlon Hicks
William Skinner	        C. Wisdom
Richard Kitchen 	Sarah A. Skinner 
William Holman	        J. P. Crowder

   The following is a story told to me by Mrs. Briggs whose maiden name was Heether and along 
with her mother and father lived in Allen throughout the Civil War period. Her father had a 
general store at Allen. Her memory of Allen seemed to be clearer than any other person that I 
interviewed.

   “It seems that Allen like Renick, Centralia, Huntsville and other points in this part of the state 
was a rendezvous for guerillas, such as Anderson and other organized bands of Confederate 
soldiers and the loyal State Militia or regular Federal soldiers.

   Sometime during the summer of 1863 a quantity of ammunition was shipped to Allen for the 
Federal soldiers at Glasgow. A man by the name of Dewire was the station agent for the North 
Missouri Railroad at Allen. Mrs. Briggs relates that Mrs. Dewire became afraid to stay at the 
hotel. She came to her mother’s house, Mrs. Ann Heether, and asked to stay all night which she 
was allowed to do.

   The following night the agent and

[photo caption] THE SPRING DIVISION OF THE 1948 CLASS OF SENIORS

(page 10)

PAGE 10
NEMOSCOPE
SPRING, 1948

his wife both came and slept at their home. About one o’clock in the morning there was a 
knock at the door. Mrs. Heether, Mrs. Briggs’ mother, got up and loosened the iron bar from 
the door and asked the two men what was wanted. They inquired as to the whereabouts of the 
agent. She gave them evasive answers, but finally had to call the agent as they insisted on 
seeing him. Dewire seems to have been a shrewd fellow and kept the iron bar across the door. 
Mrs. Briggs says that she as a little girl can yet remember how one of the men twisted his head 
and neck in under that iron bar and how she uncovered her head long enough to get a glimpse 
of him. An incident she has never forgotten. The intruders insisted on the agent going to the 
depot to send a message to Macon for them. But in some manner he talked them out of it or 
else he convinced them that he was friendly to their side and they finally let him off and did not 
force him to go. Mrs. Briggs says these two were Anderson’s men.

   “The following morning about five or six o’clock we looked down the road toward Glasgow 
and here came riding up the road what looked to me like an army of Federal soldiers.

   “They were coming to Allen to get the ammunition that had been shipped here. Arriving here 
they proceeded to hitch their horses, clean up and scatter around to get something to eat. The 
hotel being unable to feed them all, one soldier called at our house,” says Mrs. Briggs, “and 
complained of being very sick and wanted a cup of good coffee which my mother gave him. She 
also gave him something to eat.

   “He then insisted on lying down as he was very sick. My mother remonstrated with him and 
told him that the hotel was fixed to care for him and that she was not. She tried to persuade 
him to go to the hotel, but he refused and went in the middle room and lay down on the 
lounge. We went, on as usual with our morning work until about eleven o’clock when my sister 
standing in a window looking up the road, suddenly screamed, ‘Oh Lord! yonder comes Bill 
Anderson and his men.’ The sick man at our home, on hearing the name Bill Anderson 
disappeared.

   “I think it was the most beautiful sight that I have ever seen. There coming at break-neck 
speed on horseback was Bill Anderson and a bunch of his men. In the fight that followed, I don’t 
know how many but quite a few men were killed, and dead horses were scattered all over the town.
It seems that the soldiers used hogsheads (large barrels) of tobacco as a protection in this fight.
They would advance by rolling one in front of them on the ground and fire from behind it.

   “The fight continued for several hours and it seemed that Anderson had the best of the fight 
but some time in the afternoon re-enforcements for the Federal soldiers came in on a train 
from Macon and as the train pulled into Allen with the fresh soldiers Anderson and his men 
rode out of the town on the other side.

   “After the shooting had subsided somewhat, word came to us to move out as they were going 
to burn the town and so we left our home, going to a neighbor’s in West Allen. I remember 
seeing some soldiers pick up two dead men and throw them across their horse and ride off with 
them. I was a little girl but I can never forget the things that I saw or heard on that day.”

   In connection with this battle, Mr. J. E. Lynch tells that he was in Allen the next day and that 
dead horses were all over that prairie and that many wounded ones were lying around. He and 
his father took one home with them and kept it until it got all right and then J. E. McKinsey, a 
captain in the Federal army came and took it away from them.

   The town was not burned as they had threatened to do.

   From all the information that I can gather, Allen was quite a village, trading station and 
shipping point from 1858 to the time that the North Missouri Railroad built the new branch 
west and established the junction at the present site of Moberly. At this time the railroad 
offered all who would move to Moberly an equal amount of land in the new town.

   As mentioned earlier, Patrick Lynch and his family took advantage of this offer and moved his 
house to Moberly in 1861, and lived there throughout the war period. After the war was over, 
in 1866 the offer was renewed and gradually the residents and the buildings of Allen were 
moved to Moberly. The depot was moved and used as a depot at the railroad junction for a 
number of years and the records show that the North Missouri Railroad in 1871 gave G. B. 
Dameron a quit claim deed to the five acres of depot ground that had formerly been deeded to 
them and this appears to have been the end of Allen.

 -- MORE ABUNDANT LIFE TO MANY PEOPLE 
(Continued from Page 7)

came to the stairway her father held up the crutches and shouted triumphantly, ‘Crutches for 
sale. We won’t need them any more.”

   “There are many stories like that. The Old Doctor laid his hand with understanding of the 
machine upon it, and it began to function again. Out of his mind he taught the young people 
who were coming along the principles of life and creation. At first it was difficult; there was 
antagonism; that antagonism grew less, but the work grew more difficult.”

   “Presently -- and I am sure it happened with him as it happens with many people -- he 
suddenly discovered that he was an old man. It just didn’t seem possible that he was eighty-
nine. He still prayed. ‘Every day of my life I pray to the Lord to keep my head combed with a 
fine comb, and get all the ignorance out of it, for Thou knowest the dandruff of laziness is rank 
poison to knowledge, success and progress. It is the dust of hoggish meanness. Keep it off, O 
Lord. Amen! The dust of hoggish meanness and laziness never settled upon his head.” “A final 
reckoning is inevitable, a final question: What did you do with your life? What did you do with 
eighty-nine years? His answer must have been as simple, as direct, as his answers always were: 
‘I took my knowledge, I took my belief, and through my hands I used them to give more 
abundant life to many people’.”

   James Brockman, 1940, Physical Education and History major, is Principal of the Festus, 
Missouri, High School.

   Albert A. Miller, 1941, formerly of Hilman City, Missouri, is now Superintendent of Schools at 
King City, Missouri.

   Nannie Lou Kennedy, 1941, whose home town was St. Louis, Missouri, is employed as music 
instructor in the Union, Missouri, High School.

   Monroe S. Jones, 1941, formerly of Unionville, Missouri, has the position as Elementary 
Principal at Sweet Springs, Missouri. His address is: 212 Bridge St., Sweet Springs.

   Lyle Dee Hensley, 1943, mathematics major, is Superintendent of Schools at Craig, Missouri.

(page 11)

NEMOSCOPE
SPRING, 1948
PAGE 11

[photo caption] Dean Robert C. Aukerman, performing “hooding” services for Mr. E. R. Dizon, President of 
Corregidor College, Phillipine Islands. Mr. Dizon received the first Master of Arts degree 
awarded by the College.

   In speaking of the historic event President Walter H. Ryle commented, “It has been said that 
there is a point in the life of every individual toward which all things have been moving and 
from which all future events may be reckoned. As it is in the life of an individual so it is in the 
life of an educational institution. 

   “We feel this morning that the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College has reached such a 
point as it confers its first Master’s degrees.

   “The faculty have been looking forward for a period of many years toward this event. No 
doubt, this occasion will influence many events in the institution in the years that lie ahead.”


ALUMNI NOTES

   Pert Allen Stagner, 1906, is a Consulting Chemist for the Union Oil Company of Los Angeles, 
California. His home address is: 1121 South Hill St., Los Angeles.

   Mrs. DeEtta Broadbent Garlock, 1904, is teaching in the Joplin Schools. Her address is: 527 N. 
Wall, Joplin, Missouri.

   Gwyn H. Baker, 1899, is in General Law practice in San Francisco. He is living at: 2256 42nd 
Ave., Oakland 1, California.

   Perry O. Sansberry, 1900, is engaged in the Banking business and Law Practice at Wyaconda, 
Missouri.

   George Emmett McFadden, 1909, whose home town is Charleston, Missouri, is now Principal 
of Schools at Puxico, Missouri.

   Daphne Crawford, 1904, formerly of Monroe City, Missouri, is teaching Wnglish and 
Mathematics in the Herculaneum, Missouri, Public Schools.

   Fred Fair, 1897, is in the Abstract Business at Marshall, Missouri.

   Pauline Evans, 1943, business education major, is employed as secretary to the Dean at the 
University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland.

   Lloyd Bruce, 1946, whose home town is La Plata, Missouri, has the position as manager of the 
Tansil-Grantges Store there.

   H.	T. Allen, 1902, is engaged in the newspaper business at Weiser, Idaho.

   Melvin Earl Colbert, 1935, is teaching at Lisbon, Iowa. He was a social science major while 
attending J.S.T.C.

   Nella Stice, 1934, is teaching at Troy, Missouri, High School.

   Harold Cox, 1939, is music instructor at the Clarence, Missouri, High School. 
	
   Otis Walker, 1938, social science major, is Principal of the Junior High School at Iowa City, 
Iowa.

   James H. Mahoney, 1942, formerly of Clarence, Missouri, is an instructor in industrial arts at 
the Hannibal, Missouri. Senior High School.

(page 12)