OLDn’NEWS FROM AROUND THE COUNTY

The Daughters of the American Revolution, Margaret Miller Chapter, heard Randolph ‘countian’ Jim Harlan describe his Lewis and Clark in Missouri project Tuesday night. Jim, who lives in Moberly and is assistant director of the Geographic Resource Center at the University of Missouri, was in charge of the monumental task of re mapping the Missouri River to show it as it was in 1804 when Merriweather Lewis and William Clark made their historic trip. Lewis and Clark were exploring the new United States territory gained in 1802 by President Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.

Due to the extensive notes taken by Lewis and Clark plus other members of the party it was possible, with a lot of tedious reading of the old note books, to recreate the river as it was in Missouri in 1804. The nearest the river came to Randolph County is a stretch from Glasgow to Brunswick. The group camped at Chicot Island near Glasgow on June 12 and proceeded up river past what is now known as the Dalton cutoff, an oxbow lake created when the river changed course. That night the explorers camped at the Brunswick site near the mouth of the Grand River. A description of the island in the cutoff is a part of their papers. The cutoff has been a favorite of Randolph county duck hunters for many, many years.

There will be many more articles and programs concerning this historic trip coming in all of the media in the next few years. We’ll all know more about it by September 2006, the anniversary of their homecoming to St Louis.

National Geographic featured Jim Harlan in their April 2002 issue. You can travel upstream on the virtual Missouri River by going to www.lewisclark.geog.missouri.edu on the internet. Also look at www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0204

HISTORY CENTER

We need help identifying this unmarked picture at the History Center. The sign on the window of the store say, JIM BOWLES, GEN. MDSE. It appears that the street is blacktop. Let us know at the phone number, address or email noted above. Or just drop by the History Center. The most recent acquisitions for the museum and library include the Kirkendoll Genealogy, Salem Cemetery Record, a picture of the 1960 Ban Johnson team that won the championship that year, plus clippings and other memorabilia about Weldon Elsberry, who was in charge of the Moberly Water Treatment plant for many years.

Sheryl Morgan, library director, is continually moving shelves of books from place to place in the library to keep up with the new genealogies and family history books that are being donated. We welcome any family history notes or genealogies in any form. We will copy them or take donations.

We had a total of 142 visitors from 8 states and Germany in October. Many flew and/or drove to Moberly strictly to use our genealogical library. Come take a look for yourself. We’d like to see some more of you Randolph County folks. You might as well join Historical Society. Only $15.00 and you get our quarterly journal and newsletter, programs, etc.

Carolee Hazlet is still gearing up for the campaign to get corporations to pay their state tax to us instead of to the state. Due to our being awarded a $350,000 Neighborhood Assistance Project grant by the State of Missouri, 70% of Missouri state income taxes can be donated directly to the Randolph County Historical Society instead of to the state for our use in restoring the 4th Street Theater in Moberly.

Dora Mae Cravens tells me that the Huntsville Christmas Home Tours will be a biannual event on the odd number years, so the next one will be in 2003.