Mid-Missouri History Associates

03/04/2026

03/04/2026

You never know what post will make an impact. This past Saturday i made a decision to visit a local area about which I'd long been curious. That post, and others associated with it blew up and brought a lot of new followers to the page. The page following is up to 1700. Thank you!

03/04/2026

Last May I did an investigation into a 90 year old unsolved murder in Saline County.

The victim's name was Nellie Price. She disappeared on an April evening and for the week or so people tried in vain to find her. Unfortunately, her body was discovered on a sand bar in the Missouri River. There was no doubt she was murdered as her body had been weighted down with an iron bar and windows sash weights.

Unfortunately, the case remained unsolved. It did open up two more avenues of research. I was able to tell the store of John Hart Nunn...a man accused of murder in his own right. The connection to the Price case? A cryptic question in a cross examination by an attorney about Nunn's victim, Carl Wood. It didn't advance the Price case, but it brought to life a...shall we say, colorful individual from Slater's history.

The other story was that of Joe Smiley. A native of Longwood in Pettis County, he was - to me - the most likely suspect. He supposedly had an alibi. I would love to know what it was...because several things just did not add up. Suspicions aside, I told his story as best I could.

Curiously, in 1940, a small article appeared in a Marshall newspaper that lamented the lack of progress on the Nellie Price case. Curiously, the article mentioned that she was not Marshall's only unsolved murder. In 1904, the Marshall community was rocked by a similar grizzly discovery. This week I'll work to make a post about that event.

In the meantime, this link will allow you to access my posts about the Nellie Price Case.

📌https://www.facebook.com/share/p/186ZofSXAQ/

This link will take you to the story of John Hart Nunn

📌https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DR6zQCKgB/

These links will take you to the story of Joe Smiley.

📌Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E91AtXxPE/

📌Part 2:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B8GFnwW3X/

📌Part 3:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Dv9nQUC72/

📌Bonus:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1F7fj62cHi/

This week, I dove into an unsolved murder mystery that occurred in Marshall, Missouri, nearly 90 years ago. I feel, realistically, that there is probably more than can be done to flesh out the people involved in this case. I am reaching out through lineal descendants to see if any letters between members of the family might still be in existence. I'm also reaching out to the Saline County Historical Society - and may reach out to the courthouse and law enforcement to see what might still be in existence. It's a sad story. The links are found below:

Part 1: The Troubled Life of Jesse Price
Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16E9TsEG8F/

Part 2: The Disappearance and Murder of Nellie Price
Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C2eMKPS6m/

Part 3: The Slow Face of the Price Family
Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16WvWKud1G/

Part 4: Epilogue
Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ydnnd4D4s/

As always, if you enjoy the content you see here - be sure you like and follow the page, then share it with others who will enjoy it as well!

Thanks!
Eric, M2 Historian

03/02/2026

Union Hill: From Freedom to Farewell

Northeast of Marshall once stood a small but enduring Black community known as Union Hill — anchored by the Union Hill Free Will Baptist Church.

The earliest known burial in the cemetery dates to 1868, just three years after emancipation.

In 1885, Samuel and Mary Patrick deeded one acre of land for the church and cemetery — laying the foundation for what would become the heart of the community.

Their daughter, Laura Ellis, born at Union Hill in 1868, lived her entire 92 years there. When she passed away in January 1961, her funeral was held at the same Union Hill church her parents helped establish. She represents nearly a full century of Union Hill’s history — from Reconstruction to the dawn of the Civil Rights era.

Union Hill was more than a church. In the early 1900s, it supported:

🔹John Sanders, described in 1906 as the “only merchant of Union Hill.”
🔹Will Conway, who took out a license in 1906 to operate a restaurant there.

Families such as the Van Burens, Whites, Williams, Brooks, and Patricks farmed the surrounding land, attended local schools, worshiped at the church, and were buried in its cemetery.

By the 1940s and 1950s, younger generations began relocating to Marshall, Slater, Kansas City, and Chicago. Union Hill gradually became home primarily to elderly residents.

As each one passed, the community faded.
Services were still reportedly held on the first and third Sundays in 1964. After that, Union Hill largely disappears from available newspaper records.
But the cemetery endured.

Burials continued into the 1970s — descendants returning to sacred ground.

Union Hill’s story spans more than a century:
🔹1868 — First burial
🔹1885 — Church land deeded
🔹1906 — Local store and restaurant operating
🔹1961 — Laura Ellis, daughter of the founders, laid to rest
🔹Post-1964 — Fading community mentions

What remains today is quiet ground — the cemetery is overgrown, the church and homestead long gone. Web pages indicate visits have continued and that the grounds...while overgrown, are not forgotten. The words preceding this are a basic scratching of the surface of Union Hill’s history. With more than 100 burials listed, a great many details could be added to the story.

Eric, M2 Historian

03/01/2026

I just wanted to say thank you. As a historian, sometimes you never know what's going to resonate with people and what isn't. Yesterday, a simple trip down County Road 127 in Saline County brought fifty new followers and appeared to touch a lot of people.

I want everyone to know that I live and breathe history, and I always approach it with the utmost respect. Especially in regards to cemeteries, though state statutes allow you to visit without consultation, I never do. Abandoned buildings are still someone's property. I do not enter without first seeking permission.

M2HA, or anyone associated with my work, will never take part in anything resembling desecration. There was a comment yesterday that I wasn't sure how to take - so I thought i should maybe respond to my audience.

Thank you so very much for following my stories and page! As the school year winds down, I'll be posting more.

Eric, M2 Historian

03/01/2026

George Washington Mills

June 1841 – January 29, 1906
Union Hill Cemetery
Arrow Rock, Saline County, Missouri

George Washington Mills was born in Missouri in June 1841, almost certainly into slavery. Census records consistently report that both of his parents were born in Virginia, placing his family within the forced westward migration of enslaved Virginians into Missouri during the antebellum period.

His Mother: Fannie (Jolep / Jollif)

George’s mother, Fannie, was born in Virginia in the decade of the 1820s. By 1880 she was living in George’s household in Clay Township, Saline County. Census records render her surname phonetically as “Jollif,” while her headstone at Union Hill Cemetery clearly reads Jolep. The variation reflects the common inconsistencies of post-emancipation recordkeeping, but it confirms her independent identity.

Fannie was widowed by 1880. She represents the first generation in this family’s Missouri story — born enslaved in Virginia, transported west, surviving the Civil War, and living to see her son established as a landholding farmer in freedom. Her presence in the 1880 household demonstrates a stable, multi-generational family unit during Reconstruction — something far from guaranteed for formerly enslaved families.

His Wife: Nancy Mills

George married Nancy in 1864, during the final year of slavery in Missouri. The 1900 census records that they had been married thirty-six years, suggesting their union began either while enslaved or at the very moment of emancipation.

Nancy was born in Missouri about 1849–1850 and was also almost certainly enslaved in childhood. In 1880 she was listed as a housekeeper and mother of three sons: Jeff, E.D., and Jasper. Later records show a daughter, Pearle, born in the 1880s. Like her husband, Nancy could not read or write, yet together they built and maintained a stable agricultural household.

The Arrow Rock Statesman (August 4, 1905) reported her death on August 1, 1905, noting that she was the wife of one of Saline County’s “most highly respected colored citizens.” She was buried at Union Hill Cemetery the following day. Her death preceded George’s by just six months.

Land Ownership and Community Standing

By 1880, George was listed as a farmer and head of household in Clay Township. The most compelling evidence of his economic standing appears in the 1896 Plat Book of Saline County, which shows George Washington Mills as owner of 70 acres directly across from Union Hill Church and Cemetery.

For a man born enslaved in 1841 to hold title to seventy acres of land by the 1890s represents a profound achievement. Land ownership in rural Missouri was the clearest marker of independence, stability, and status. His proximity to Union Hill Church suggests he was not merely a landowner, but a central figure in the African American community clustered around that church and cemetery.

By 1900, his son Jasper had assumed headship of the household, indicating generational continuity and likely succession of the farm. The Mills property remained anchored to the same landscape tied to Union Hill.

Fraternal and Religious Connections

George was a member of the Masonic Order and was buried with Masonic rites. African American Masonic lodges—most commonly Prince Hall lodges—were pillars of Black civic life in the late nineteenth century. Membership reflected moral standing, financial stability, and leadership within the community.

His obituary in the Arrow Rock Statesman (February 2, 1906) described him as “well-to-do and highly respected.” The Marshall Republican called him “industrious, honest and in good financial circumstances.” It also noted that he left two children and a brother, Rev. Isaac Mills of Marshall, further tying the Mills family to religious leadership in Saline County.

Conclusion

George Washington Mills died on January 29, 1906. He was buried at Union Hill Cemetery, across from the land he once farmed. His wife Nancy rests there as well, and his mother Fannie—born enslaved in Virginia—lies in the same ground. At least one child, Jasper, is also buried there. He passed in 1931.

Together, their lives tell a Reconstruction-era story built in the shadow of slavery’s end.

02/28/2026

Today I took a trip to Saline County, Missouri. Slightly Northwest of Arrow Rock is County Road 127, which cuts north towards Highway P, which travels into the remnants of Old Saline City.

Today this is wide open. There are few houses...the landscape having vastly changed from 130 years ago. I would like to draw your attention to the transparent box overlay that is on the satellite image. This area was once known as Union Hill. The plat map displayed is from 1896. The southern most part of the box on the satellite image once contained five properties and an African-American Church and burial ground. Today, the burial ground is still visible in the brush and copse of trees just south of the box.

I am going to see about doing some digging (note: researching) and if I am able to tell the story of this place, as - aside from the cemetery - it has vanished into history. The cemetery is overgrown but visible if you slow down and look hard enough.

At the crossroads to the North is St. Paul's Lutheran Church. It was a crystal clear day when I took the pictures - you could see for several miles in either direction. I'll tinker with some research on this as time allows.

Have a great day!

02/22/2026

A Season of Revival in Boonville (March 1904)

Beginning in mid-March 1904, the First Baptist Church of Boonville became the center of a sustained religious revival that continued through the end of the month and drew significant public attention.

The meetings were led by evangelist Rev. Josiah Hartwell Dew, assisted by the local pastor, Rev. C. P. Gott. Services were held daily at 3:00 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m., a demanding schedule that reflected both the seriousness of the effort and the level of interest within the community. Contemporary accounts noted that attendance remained strong throughout the revival and that interest increased as the meetings progressed.

Newspaper coverage emphasized the character of Rev. Dew’s preaching. Rather than relying on emotional display or the “high-pressure” methods often associated with revival work, his sermons were described as plain, simple, and helpful, marked by sincerity and restraint. Reports stressed that there was no effort at spectacle or forced eloquence, yet that his preaching was at times genuinely powerful, attributed to his trust in the work of the Holy Spirit rather than technique.

The revival produced measurable results. By the time the meetings concluded near the end of March, approximately fifty new members had been added to the Baptist church, many of whom were received by baptism. One summary noted simply that “much good was done,” a phrase commonly used at the time to convey both spiritual renewal and moral improvement.

Music played an important supporting role in the services. Mrs. Dew, identified as a soprano singer, was repeatedly mentioned for the contribution her singing made to the meetings and to the reverent atmosphere of worship.

Rev. Dew, a native of South Carolina and a graduate of Furman University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, had come to Missouri roughly two years earlier under the direction of the State Mission Board to engage in evangelistic work. Following the close of the Boonville revival—reported in the April 1, 1904 issue—Rev. and Mrs. Dew departed for New Franklin, where a similar series of meetings was already underway.

The Baptist revival of March 1904 offers a clear glimpse into the religious life of Boonville at the turn of the twentieth century, when multi-week revival meetings, daily services, and public professions of faith were a normal and widely reported feature of community life.

Newspaper Source
Boonville Weekly Advertiser (Boonville, Missouri), mid-March–April 1, 1904

02/01/2026

My little corner of the interwebs his another milestone tonight.

01/31/2026

On This Day in History: The Ex*****on of Lawrence Mabry

Today marks the anniversary of the ex*****on of Lawrence Mabry which was carried out in Boonville, Missouri, on January 31, 1930. The event carries layered significance in Missouri’s legal and social history.

The events that led to the gallows began nearly two years earlier, on a winter night in Sedalia. William Busch, a young law student and well-known figure in the community, was confronted during an attempted robbery. When Busch tried to flee, he was shot. Though he initially survived the wound, complications followed, and he died days later. Mabry and an accomplice were arrested shortly afterward. Mabry admitted to firing the shot.

Tried in Cooper County, Mabry was convicted of first-degree murder. Appeals delayed the sentence, but ultimately the courts affirmed the verdict, and the responsibility for carrying it out fell to the Cooper County sheriff.

Mabry’s ex*****on is often described as the last hanging in Missouri. That requires some care.
It was the last officially public hanging conducted under Missouri’s county-based system, carried out locally rather than under centralized state control. It was not, however, the final hanging in the state. That distinction belongs to Roscoe "Red" Jackson, executed in 1937. Mabry’s ex*****on instead marks the closing years of an older system—one in which death sentences were administered by local sheriffs and treated, at least in law, as public acts.

At the time of the crime, Mabry was seventeen years old, just days short of his eighteenth birthday. Although nineteen when executed, he was legally a juvenile offender based on his age at the offense. For decades, his case stood as a stark anomaly.

Mabry’s ex*****on did not pass without controversy. Public unease was evident at the time, and the Boonville Daily News addressed it directly with an editorial pointedly titled “Why Execute a Boy?” For much of the twentieth century, Mabry remained the only person in Missouri executed for a crime committed as a juvenile. That distinction held until Frederick Lashley was executed in 1993 for a crime he committed at age seventeen—this time by lethal injection rather than the gallows.

The ex*****on of Lawrence Mabry sits at the crossroads of several transitions in Missouri history: from public to increasingly concealed punishment, from county authority to state control, and from a legal system willing to execute juveniles to one that ultimately rejected the practice.

Which raises a question worth asking on this anniversary: would there be interest in telling the fuller story of Lawrence Mabry and the murder of William Busch—carefully, completely, and in context?

Drop a comment below and let me know. 👇👇👇

01/28/2026

My apologies for having been absent without posting. It's still in the school year - and - while not coaching this year, apparently I still have time to be incredibly busy. That being said, I have something that I wanted to share.

While sorting through old papers - we historians can sometimes be hoarders - I came across something that I did not realized I still had in my possession. In April 1999, I was a 17-year old junior at Boonville High School. At that point in time, American History was still a course reserved for juniors. We were given an assignment of interviewing an individual who was a survivor of the Great Depression.

At the time, my dad was the pastor of Prairie Home First Baptist Church, and one of his deacons was named Ewing Knorp. I have so many fond memories of Ewing - especially his stories of Prairie Home from what seemed like a completely different world. I asked Ewing and his wife Elaine if I could interview them. They were more than happy to oblige me. What I expected to be a half hour interview turned into a multi-hour life changing dive into the distant past of the rural Missouri landscape of the Great Depression, World War 2, and even into Vietnam.

Ewing called my dad and said I'd be later. Elaine fed me. And we talked. And talked. And talked some more. It was my first foray into local history - something that has obviously come to define a good portion of my interests as an adult. I was distinctly aware that I was listening to history...that people like Ewing and Elaine were disappearing from the landscape.

Ewing was 81 or 82 when he granted me this interview. He passed away in 2021 at the age of 102. I remember the last time I saw him was at Wal-Mart. Though short, the visit was good - Ewing had a great deal about which he might be sad or by which he might be burdened. But he still found a way to turn the discussion to me, and the positives of the world - and indeed - a conversation that occurred back in April 1999.

This week, I used that assignment in my classroom. It served as a guided reading exercise for my students. If you'd have told me in April 1999 that this paper would have been used in a high school lesson in 26 years, I'd have laughed at you. If you'd have told me I'd be the teacher doing it...I'd have called you warped and delusional. But it happened and I hope at least some of them have appreciated it. I've had a good time revisiting the assignment....though the memories are bittersweet. Ewing's generation is now gone. But I'll be forever grateful for the conversations we had, and carry them with me as long as I live. If you have people to whom you can speak and learn from the past...do it before it's too late. My biggest regret is that I did not talk to him, and so many others, more than I did.

Below, I've attached a picture of Ewing and Elaine found on Find-a-Grave as well as the photograph from Ewing's obituary. He and his wife were very special people and a fixture of my youth and my personal walk of faith. They watched me grow up, and taught me lessons through their words that I will never forget.

Eric, M2 Historian