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Arnold’s Incorporation in 1972 Boosted Big Business

Arnold Mayor Ron Counts praises the city’s business growth since incorporating in 1972: “With incorporation, Arnold became better positioned to improve community services, attract new businesses, new jobs, cultural and recreational amenities, and we qualified to apply for more federal and state grants for civic programs and improvements. Our population of successful big businesses reflects Arnold’s workforce strengths.”

Major companies with  operations near Tenbrook Industrial Park now include Arnold Defense & Electronics; Browning Arms Company; LMC Industries, Inc.; Medart, Inc.; Sinclair & Rush, Inc.; Unico, Inc.; Warren Sign Company; and Metal Container Corporation – the Anheuser Busch/InBev can manufacturing operation that is the nation’s largest. In addition, the U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency’s 34 acre headquarters is in Arnold.

“Each of those companies employs highly-trained people who work a good job for good pay,” says Mayor Counts. “These companies are important local contributors with good-paying jobs and taxes. We invest in companies that invest in us. It is obvious that Arnold is ‘Open for Business.'”

Here are some of Arnold’s leading corporate citizens:

Metal Container Corporation – https://www.anheuser-busch.com

Metal Container Corporation plant in Arnold … Copyright St. Louis Labor Tribune

Metal Container Corporation, founded in 1973, is a subsidiary of Anheuser Busch/InBev located at 42 Tenbrook Industrial Park in Arnold. Since then Metal Container Corporation (MCC) has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in production expansion projects at its Arnold facility. The company manufactures metal cans, lids, bottles, and other packaging materials, supplying more than 45 percent of the brewer’s beer cans and 55 percent of its lids for the U.S. market. The operation also produces cans and lids for major U.S. soft drink companies, including PepsiCo. and Monster Beverage Corporation. MCC makes more than 25 billion cans and 27 billion lids annually with plants in Arnold and six other U.S. cities. Arnold plant expansions were made possible through a property tax abatement program in collaboration with the City of Arnold and Jefferson County.  The bond program encourages business recruitment and expansion, provides incentives for different industrial projects and helps generate new jobs.

LMC Industries, Inc. – https://lmcindustries.com

LMC ARNOLD photo aerial view of LMC Industries in Arnold

With two plants on its corporate campus in Arnold comprising more than five acres under roof – one for plastics operations, one for metal stamping/tool and die – LMC Industries successfully serves medical, electrical, electronics and consumer products industries in addition to automotive, agriculture and more. The family owned firm conducts a large amount of business with agriculture and automobile industries. LMC manufactures products such as headlight housings, accelerator pedals, brake pedals, and seat belt components, metal and plastic, for every type of vehicle. For agriculture industries, LMC makes feeder housings for poultry and swine among many additional products for farm and home. It manufactures parts and components in virtually every category, from toys to office supplies to military hardware components. More than 250 employees design, build, maintain and operate metal stamping dies, plastic injection molds, jig guides and fixtures to create top quality products. Many trained at Jefferson College as part of Missouri’s Certified Work Ready Community initiative, which increased efficiency and productivity, and many have worked at LMC for more than 20 years.

Medart Engine – https://www.medartengine.com

Mike Medart CEO of Medart Engine

Medart Engine is a wholesale distributor headquartered in Arnold that represents more than 100 manufacturers in the engine industry. Founded in 1912 in St. Louis, its six distribution locations across the nation now have more than 40,000 different part numbers in stock covering a huge range of products. Medart’s deep selection of products can meet the needs of every customer. J.R. Medart started with the company in 1925 by selling automotive parts and delivering them on his Indian motorcycle with big leather saddlebags. Today, Medart’s more than 240 fulltime associates offer value solutions to every customer. In 1995, Mike Medart became CEO and President. He moved headquarters to Arnold from St. Louis by building two facilities totaling 121,000 square feet. “Being in Arnold has been a positive for our company,” Mike Medart says. “A number of capable and skilled people who live in this area have joined our workforce. The community is a good place to live and work. Our most important goal is customer satisfaction, and we believe that commitment is one reason why we have been an industry leader for more than a century in business.”

Sinclair & Rush – https://www.sinclair-rush.com

Sinclair & Rush CEO Bradley Philip

If you visit a Lowe’s or Home Depot store, many if not most rakes and shovels have grips on them made by Sinclair & Rush in Arnold and sold nationwide. Big home and garden stores are just one of numerous industry sectors for Sinclair & Rush. The company’s full line of complementary processes and products positions Sinclair & Rush as one of the world’s leading multi-processors of plastic components. What began in 1950 as a small molding company in St. Louis making vinyl products is now a global operation with manufacturing and distribution operations on four continents supplying more than 20,000 customers. Three brands currently operate under the Sinclair & Rush name: StockCap, VisiPak and GripWorks. In 1994, the company built and moved into a 125,000 square foot headquarters at 123 Manufacturers Drive in Arnold that is being expanded by 45,000 square feet where employees work in manufacturing, sales, customer service and financial operations. In addition, the firm recently took over the 111 Manufacturers Drive building for manufacturing. Sinclair & Rush now has 470 employees in the U.S., 670 employees worldwide, and wants to hire more says President and Chief Operating Officer Bradford M. Philip. He was previously Executive Vice President and General Manager. How many Sinclair & Rush products are in use around the world today? “Billions.”

UNICO, Inc.  https://www.unicosystem.com

UNICO headquarters

Unico, Inc., founded 1985 by Joe and Sharon Intagliata, comprises two manufacturing facilities with more than 150,000 square feet of manufacturing and storage space with sales distribution in North America, Europe, Africa, Central and South America, India, and China. Unico  is a global leader in Small Duct High Velocity (SDHV) heating and cooling systems that are popular space saving solutions for custom homes and historic preservation. In 2004, Unico led the effort to get SDHV air conditioner systems approved by the U.S. Department of Energy as a unique class of product. In 2007, Unico opened its metal fabrication division SGI Manufacturing, which provides metal parts for its blower and coil cabinets and parts that go into each unit. Today, SGI also manufactures parts for other large companies.  In 2018, Unico moved its corporate offices into the SGI facility after a $2 million expansion to the property.

Warren Sign Company, Inc. – https://www.warrensign.com

Retired CEO of Warren Sign Company David Warren

Warren Sign, established in 1929, moved to its modern Arnold headquarters production facility in 1998. With more than 40,000 thousand square feet of space, Warren Sign is the largest and most experienced sign company in the metro Saint Louis area. The company is known for the loyalty and stability of its customer base and new clients seeking top quality products that are designed, manufactured, installed and serviced by skilled union craftsmen vested in pride of workmanship. Warren Sign’s  passion, management style and dedication to top quality service helped fuel its growth for more than 90 years. The company’s skilled experts design, manufacture, and install all types of illuminated electric and non-illuminated signs for all types of business and organizations. Its capabilities include computer aided design, CNC machines; vinyl cutters; aluminum and steel welding; channel letter building; low-voltage energy efficient LED lighting; neon bending and repair; spray paint booths; custom paint mixing stations, high-rise boom trucks; and truck bays for shipping and receiving large cargo. Recycling and energy efficiency are priorities at Warren sign, whose top quality signs are backed by a worry free warranty.

Mayor Counts asserts, “Arnold is a municipality where people enjoy life, work, and play. The presence of major corporations like these and others in Arnold enhances  our commitment and distinguishes our reputation as a business-friendling city.”

Story for the City of Arnold by Jeff Dunlap.

News Commentator Paul Harvey Loved His Jefferson County Farm

Local radio listeners protected his family privacy

Radio newsman Paul Harvey was one of the nation’s most beloved broadcasters. His twice-a-day broadcasts reached an estimated 24 million people every week thru 1,200 ABC News stations, 400 Armed Forces stations, and columns in 300 newspapers.

PHOTO Paul Harvey in his ABC Radio network broadcast booth. The Atlantic Magazine.

He became the undisputed voice of America’s heartland starting in the 1950s, opening every broadcast with his upbeat greeting: “Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey… Stand by for news!”

He was the voice that stopped people spinning the radio dial. For millions, Paul Harvey was part of their daily lives.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, he descended from five generations of Baptist preachers. His father, a policeman, was murdered by thieves. Yet Paul Harvey’s distinctive voice was always upbeat, friendly, and clever. He captured peoples’ attention like no one else. On April 1, 1951, the ABC Radio Network debuted Paul Harvey News and Comment. Every day he rose at 3:30 a.m. at his Chicago home to scan national wire reports for unusual, humorous  or heartwarming reports he could re-kindle for his national broadcasts.

Cheery comments such as, “I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is” and “Tomorrow has always been better than today, and it always will be” favored him with advertisers and listeners. His enormously popular feature “The Rest of the Story” preceded his show-closing catchphrase, “Now you know The Rest of the Story. I’m Paul Harvey. Good Day!”

The Reveille Ranch

1938 Nash Lafayette Custom similar to one enjoyed by Paul and Lynne Harvey . (c) Barrett-Jackson

For decades he owned a farm in Jefferson County nicknamed The Reveille Ranch. He and his wife Lynne, whom he always called Angel, visited on weekends from Chicago. Their son, Paul Harvey, Jr., owner of two additional farms in Missouri, often accompanied them.

Paul Harvey, Jr., told Missouri Life Magazine in 2017, “My dad met my mom in St. Louis in 1940 when they were both working for radio station KXOK. She was a well-known radio broadcaster and personality, and my dad came on to KXOK as program director. They actually met on the elevator and my dad, thinking fast, asked if she could give him a ride to the airport. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say but agreed and they stepped into her 1938 Nash Lafayette Coupe. On the way to the airport, she asked Paul, ‘What time does your flight leave?’ and Paul replied without a hitch, “What flight?’ They were married within the year, in June 1940.”

Angel, formerly known as Lynne Cooper, grew up in University City and was a Washington University graduate. When they met, Harvey was attracted by Lynne’s white 1938 Nash Lafayette coupe. They maintained it in mint condition throughout their marriage. The Harveys could often be seen driving that car on Arnold’s Highway 61 as local phone lines burned with chatter that the famous couple was cruising around town.

PHOTO Paul and Lynne Harvey . (c) National Radio Hall of Fame

In 1998, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described Paul Harvey’s 350 acre farm a few miles south of Arnold as “raising soybeans and cattle. It was situated down a winding country road, past a trailer park, an ill-tempered spotted dog, a collection of small houses and pickups, and then, the massive entrance gate. It is a collection of well-kept white buildings in the rolling green countryside. The bluffs of the Illinois shore, across the Mississippi River, are in the distance.”

Paul and his Angel often worked together on his scripts, and he typically credited his success to her influence. She was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1997, seven years after her husband. Paul Harvey, Jr., joined the creative team to help his mom and dad prepare scripts for “The Rest of the Story” as they grew older. In 2001, Paul Harvey, Jr., was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, too.

Protecting Privacy

Many Jefferson Countians met or saw the Harveys during the flood of 1993. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote in 1998, “Some of them haven’t forgotten the day Paul Harvey, in his yellow Cadillac, drove over big hoses pumping water out of a flooded village. He did it twice. It gave the National Guard fits…”

“No one, it seems, claims to know for certain just where the Harveys’ place is. They’ll give clues, but to hear them tell it, they just don’t know for sure. It’s a wonderful, small-town conspiracy of silence. But just about everyone has a Paul Harvey story,” wrote Post-Dispatch reporter John M. McGuire.

For example: Mary Hostetter, of the Blue Owl Restaurant, said Paul Harvey loved the Blue Owl’s fresh rhubarb pie. “When he’s here, we don’t give away his identity or whereabouts,” she said. “But then he talks, everybody knows. During the flood, he came here in a boat and shouted, `Hi, Mary! Got any pies left?’ He’s just a neat man.”

Carl Bossert told McGuire that when the Harveys are at Reveille, “everyone knows because of the big, black limousine that cruises up and down the road. I like to listen to him on the radio, I love the homespun yarns,” Bossert said.

Reveille is where Angel Harvey stored her Nash Lafayette Coupe and, also, an antique fortepiano hand-made by the famed Conrad Graf of Vienna in the 1840s, whose pianos were played by Beethoven. It was discovered in the 1950s at a central Missouri farm.

PHOTO 1998 Canary Yellow Mercedes-Benz Kompessor SLK 230 convertible like Paul Harvey had (c) ClassicChrome.net

Paul Harvey’s only child Paul Jr., who as an adult used his father’s real surname, Aurandt, was a concert pianist after graduating from Chicago Musical College. Then, for more than 25 years Paul, Jr. was a big part of the family business, helping to write scripts for “The Rest of the Story.”

“`The Rest of the Story’ is because of my mom,” he told the Post-Dispatch in 1998. “She saw the value of that as something separate from other features in the news.”

When broadcasting for ABC Radio Network from downtown Chicago, the Harveys lived near each other in River Forest, an affluent suburb infamous as home  for some of Chicago’s well-known crime bosses dating to the Al Capone era. Paul and Angel’s River Forest mansion was where Paul, Sr., rose before dawn for a bowl of oatmeal with vitamins before typing his scripts on yellow copy paper.

The 1998 Post-Dispatch story noted that the Harveys used limousines liberally. “Angel Harvey also has a white car parked in the River Forest garage. It’s a Rolls Royce. Next to it is Paul Harvey’s newest toy – a 1998 canary yellow Mercedes-Benz Kompessor SLK 230 convertible. License plate ABC PH. “This is something I drive when I don’t want to attract attention,” Paul Harvey told the reporter, laughing about the sexy Kompessor that Harvey claimed to drive “only on days when the sky is clear and birds aren’t flying.”

PHOTO President Bush gives radio broadcaster Paul Harvey the Medal of Freedom. White House photo

A British newspaper, The Independent, wrote, “Harvey earned his money the old- fashioned way: By doing everything himself. He chose the stories for his shows, wrote his own scripts, and read the commercials on air, insisting that he only endorsed products he believed in. The items he selected had to pass an ‘Aunt Betty Test,’ named after a typical Missouri housewife (in fact his sister-in-law). If the story was unlikely to interest her, he wouldn’t use it.”

Harvey was known as an arch conservative yet there were limits: in 1970 he urged Richard Nixon not to expand the Vietnam war into Cambodia. “Mr. President,” he said on the air, “I love you… but you’re wrong.” In 1982, he announced his support for the Equal Rights Amendment because it would mandate equal rights for women.

“’There are places in the world where women are conspicuously and forever second class,” he said on the air. “But none of those places is any place you or I would want to live. The American legal system forgives criminals, embraces illegal immigrants and kowtows to the gimme-gimmes. Any hophead can get a free ride through three layers of jurisprudence demanding his ‘rights. Without the Equal Rights Amendment, women don’t rate as high as those sleazy night crawlers,” he said. When the Amendment was passed by the U.S. Senate, some pundits said Angel had influenced his opinion. Yet it was never added to the Constitution due to historic political arguments that continue today about women receiving equal pay, serving in the military, and other gender issues.

Lynne (Cooper) “Angel” Harvey died in May 2008. Paul Harvey, Sr., passed away nine months later, in February 2009.The Harveys deeply loved their Jefferson County hideaway. They escaped to it as often as they could. They loved the Jefferson County area and the people. That is obvious when you enjoy these two videos they created. One is a tribute to Jefferson County police officers, the other a tribute to local farmers.

Police Officer

Farmer

Story for the City of Arnold by Jeff Dunlap.  Good day!

Thousands of Osage Native Americans Called the Arnold Area Home

Osage men were tall and wore loincloths, moccasins, and leggings. Painting by George Catlin published by State Historical Society of Missouri.

Osage Native Americans lived along the Meramec, Missouri, Mississippi and Osage rivers in Missouri for thousands of years. At one time, eight different Native American tribes lived in Missouri. The Osage, with a Missouri population of at least 8,000, were fearsome and warlike. They migrated from the Ohio Valley in the 1500s, settling near the  confluence of rivers to find new areas for hunting buffalo.

Soon after launching the Corps of Discovery near St. Louis in 1804 to explore the Louisiana Purchase Territory, Lewis and Clark encountered a group of Osage traveling along the Missouri River. They noted in their journal that the Osage “are large in size and well proportioned, and a very warlike people.” The average Osage warrior stood more than six feet tall.

Lewis and Clark had little to fear. The Osage were the most successful fur-trading tribe in Missouri. With guidance from French traders including the Chouteau family in St. Louis , they had learned to make fur trade profitable and western exploration possible. That is why President Thomas Jefferson wanted to meet them. The Indians Lewis and Clark saw on the Missouri River that day were, in fact, 12 Osage chiefs traveling east for their official visit with President Jefferson, according to the State Historical Society of Missouri.

Presidential diplomacy aside, most Osage turned savage if they felt threatened. Until the Indian Removal Act of 1830, settlers in this area were often attacked by bloodthirsty warriors who considered pioneers interlopers. In many attacks, pioneer men, women and children were scalped and beheaded. Scalping was a sign of power celebrated before battles with  a “scalp dance” in  Osage villages for good luck fighting enemies. In the early 1800s, Osage tribes were constantly at war with other Missouri tribes.

Many ancient Osage arrowheads, tomahawk blades and broken war clubs have turned up on Arnold farms, such as these found by the Flamm family.

Osage villages were spread along Missouri rivers from Arnold to Kansas and beyond. The French called two of the tribes Great Osage and Little Osage – one group lived on a hill, the other on flat land. Artifacts indicate that an Osage village existed near the confluence of the Meramec and Mississippi rivers, downstream from where two salts licks were located, and where shards of human bone and crude pottery have been found. In addition, Arnold farmers have found many artifacts when plowing fields.

Allen Flamm, a local historian whose great grandfather Wilhelm Flamm settled here in 1836, says his family has found many arrowheads and tomahawk blades on their farm. Some are displayed at the Arnold Historical Society & Museum; Flamm also displays some at his home. Elsewhere in Jefferson County farmers have discovered burial mounds occupied by ancient human skeletons, stone tools and weapons, plus other Indian relics. “It is really interesting to think about how those Indians lived so long ago,” says Flamm.

Children of the Middle Waters

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service, the Osage Indians, a very spiritual people, were excellent hunters and brave warriors. Their beliefs were based on what they called Wah-kon-tah, meaning a great mystery spirit. “The Osages believed that the People of the Sky (Tzi-sho) met with the People of the Earth (Hun-Kah) to form one tribe: The Children of the Middle Waters (Nee Oh-kah-shkahn).” Living in villages near rivers, the Osage roamed between the Missouri River to the north, the Mississippi to the east, and the Arkansas to the south. Their western boundary stretched into buffalo territory on Kansas plains.

The Osage farmed, fished, hunted and gathered food to survive, and conducted two buffalo hunts a year – one in summer, one in fall.

President Andrew Jackson . Wikipedia

The summer hunt was to obtain meat and fat. The fall hunt was to get meat, but also thick fur for making robes, moccasins, leggings, breechcloths, and dresses. Only Osage men hunted; women did butchering, prepared meat, and tanned hides. Men too weak or disinclined to become warriors dressed as women and were ignored by the tribe.

When Jefferson Barracks opened in 1826 it became a vital  U.S. Army presence defending against Osage and other Native American raiders in this area. According to U.S. Library of Congress archives, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was approved and enforced by former U.S. Army General Andrew Jackson, elected President in 1829. The act forced removal of Native American tribes from their homelands to locations west of the Mississippi River to make westward expansion easier for colonists.

Jackson offered incentives to make relocation seem appealing. He promised financial compensation and protection by the federal government. Once the act was in place, Jackson did whatever it took to move tribes to assigned land. Many tribes realized they were no match for the U.S. government. Some federal incentives, promises and treaties were broken.

The U.S. National Park Service notes that by the 1830s more than 5,000 Osage were relocated west to “Indian Territory.” Other Native American tribes were relocated west of Missouri and Arkansas boundaries. Federal troops stationed in those “Indian Territories” helped keep the peace.

Osage warrior painted by artist George Catlin. This image published by the State Historical Society of Missouri.

War Paint

The famous artist George Catlin painted Indians from nearly 70 tribal groups in the 1830s. He described Missouri’s Osage as “the tallest race of men in North America, either of red or white skins.” Historian Ron Soodalter wrote an article for Missouri Life Magazine that noted, “Aside from their physically prepossessing appearance, the Osage were fiercely warlike, ready to fight with any tribal group that threatened their domain. Proficient in the use of bows and arrows, lances, knives, clubs, and tomahawks…The Osage waged various types of war, from the nonlethal to outright slaughter.”

According to the website www.PowWow.com, “The painting of a man’s face and body was said to be a form of mental conditioning. Warriors would paint themselves with personal protective designs and colors before they engaged in battle with enemies, inspiring the term ‘war paint.’ This paint would have been prayed over. It was believed that Indians’ prayers were put into the paint and, when applied, the power of the prayers was conveyed. Special songs might be sung when paint was applied. Some warriors applied the paint themselves; others preferred to be painted by a holy person or medicine man.”

This image of Osage Warrior who visited President Thomas Jefferson is shown at lewis-clark.org

Face painting was not always related to doing battle. Different designs signified membership in societies; participating in special celebrations; marks of achievement; and were used in mourning for the dead.

According to www.PowWow.com, “The oldest materials used in paint were derived from animal, vegetable and mineral sources, with earth or mineral paint being most common. White and yellow paint was obtained from white and yellow clays along riverbeds, and buffalo gallstones produced a different kind of yellow. Green paint was obtained from copper ores. One type of blue paint came from drying a certain type of duck manure. Some tribes would combine bluish mud and yellow clay to make green paint. Powdered charred wood and black earth were used for black paint. The base for red paints, probably the most commonly used color, was crimson-colored clay.”

Oil Rich

Chauffer-driven Osage automobile circa 1920. Published by PBS. (1)

Relocated by the federal government to a Kansas reservation in the 1830s, in 1872 the Osage were forced to move again, this time to Osage County, Oklahoma, where they wisely bought the mineral rights to their new property. PBS reports, “This land, it turned out, was sitting above some of the largest oil deposits then in the United States. To extract that oil, prospectors had to pay the two thousand or so Osage tribe members for leases and royalties. In 1923, these Osage received collectively what would be worth today more than $400 million. Many of the Osage lived in mansions and had chauffeured cars.”

As some of richest people in the world at the time, the Osage attracted plenty of attention. “Murders began when royalty checks started pouring in,” a journalist said. PBS reports: “In 1923, after the official death toll had climbed to more than two dozen, the Osage Tribal Council issued a resolution demanding that federal authorities investigate the murders. The case was eventually taken up by the Bureau of Investigation, then an obscure branch of the Justice Department, which was later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Newspapers described murders as the Reign of Terror, lasting from 1921 to 1926. Sixty or more wealthy, full-blood Osage Native Americans were reported killed from 1918 to 1931. Newer investigations indicate that other deaths during this time could have been covered-up murders, including people who were heirs to future fortunes. Law enforcement revealed extensive corruption among officials in the Osage guardianship program. Most of the murders were never prosecuted, but some men were convicted and sentenced…”

“Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” by David Grann became a best-selling non-fiction book in 2017. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DiNiro star in the movie of the same name, directed by Martin Scorsese, set for release in November this year.

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

Resources for this article include Allen Flamm, Arnold Historical Society & Museum; Britannica.com; Missouri Life Magazine; Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); U.S. Library of Congress archives; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. National Park Service; State Historical Society of Missouri;   www.PowWow.com; www.lewis-clark.org; Wikipedia.

Arnold’s Starling Airport Played Glorified Role in World War II

Young pilots trained to fly “Yankee Doodle” gliders

Yankee Doodle TG-4A at Starling Airport in Arnold . 1942 photo courtesy of Jack Abercrombie.

Arnold’s Starling Airport played a glorified role in World War II as a site for construction of military gliders for the U.S. Army Air Corps that were used during the D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944.

It is easy to imagine young pilots wearing leather flight jackets at the Starling airstrip just south of the Meramec River as orders arrive from headquarters and they dash to their aircraft to fight Nazis.

Glorified, yes, because it’s not true. History has a way of exaggerating as time goes on. In the case of Arnold’s Starling Airport, a little exaggeration has gone a long way.

Gliders known as the Yankee Doodle TG-4, built in south St. Louis by Laister-Kauffmann Aircraft Corporation in the early 1940s, were trucked to Starling Airport in Arnold where they were evaluated for the U.S. Army Air Corps. The government ordered at least 150 of them for active duty overseas, but none made it to Normandy for D-Day. In fact, few if any of those 150 gliders saw action because by the time they were built, the military had selected larger gliders from other companies for the war effort.

Going Glider

The Yankee Doodle TG-4 was designed to train cargo glider pilots. It was 24 feet long with a 50-foot wingspan, steel tube fuselage, wooden wings and tail, all covered with snug fabric. It seated a trainee and an instructor. Six months after the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack on December 7, 1941, the U.S. Army Air Force ordered 500 eight-seat gliders and 500 fifteen-seat gliders and called for 6,000 glider pilots.

TG-4A Yankee Doodle glider at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

If you saw the movie Saving Private Ryan, you know what happens when a military glider in action is shot down.

The Yankee Doodle TG-4 was ultimately rejected by the U.S. military yet grew popular for recreational soaring and sports use. At least 12 restored originals are on display at locations across the nation, including one at The Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum at Creve Coeur Airport in suburban St. Louis.

Nine months before Pearl Harbor, the Jefferson County Record newspaper dated March 6th, 1941, reported: “Jefferson County will have its first airplane factory soon, according to Murray Whitehead, general manager of the Whitehead Aircraft Corporation. This new Corporation plans to manufacture inexpensive ‘Starling’ planes at a rate of three a day.

“The Company’s factory is to be located at Starling Airport, just south of the Meramec River near Hwy 61 in Arnold. The boundaries are the railroad on the east, Bradley Beach Road on the north, Hwy 61 on the west and Starling Airport on the south.

“Whitehead, who was raised in Kimmswick, stated that his low-wing, two-place cabin monoplane would sell for under $2,000. . . The ‘Starling’ has a wingspread of 28 feet, a length of 20 feet 11 inches, and weighs 1,350 pounds. The fuselage is of steel tubing with combination metal and fabric covering. The wing is of spruce, plywood and fabrics. The seats are side by side. Powered by a 75-horsepower engine, the ‘Starling’ is expected to have a top speed of 145 mph and a six-hour cruising range. Flaps and a warp in the wing are designed to afford stability in landing at a speed of about 30 mph.”

A man named Murray N. Whitehead did, in fact, grow up in Jefferson County and owned the land where Starling Airport stood. People at the airport knew him well yet, for some reason, nothing substantial was published about Whitehead in Arnold after that newspaper story appeared. Whitehead Aircraft Corporation seemingly disappeared.

Perhaps that story was placed as a prank. How and why? A man named Gustave Albin Whitehead emigrated from Germany to the United States late in the 19^th century where, according to Wikipedia, he designed and built gliders, flying machines, and engines between 1897 and 1915. Controversy surrounded Gustave Whitehead because he claimed he flew powered aircraft successfully in 1901 and 1902 – predating the Wright Brothers’ first flights in 1903. His credibility was doubted.

Of course, Starling Airport was built in 1942 for pilots learning to fly the Yankee Doodle TG-4. Powerless flight occurs when a powered aircraft tows and then releases a glider into rising columns of air called thermals that enable the pilot to stay in the thermal, gain altitude and soar to the next thermal toward a safe landing.

Flying Stories

Aerial view of Starling Airport from the 1947 MO Airport Directory (courtesy of Joe Gurney)

A story in the Jefferson County Leader in 2012 revisited Starling Airport by probing the memories of local citizens, including Arnold resident Richard Simpson who recalled boyhood visits to the airport to watch planes and gliders.

“During World War II, they would bring gliders out there. They (the gliders) were built in different places in St. Louis, and they would come up to Arnold with two-engine airplanes that would have a long tow cable (for pulling the gliders), and they flew them out here. We could hear the two-engine planes, so would ride our bikes over to Starling Airport and watch them come in. The planes would release the gliders so they could practice landing at the airport,” said Simpson, adding that Starling Airport was quite primitive.

“It had a couple of hangars and a control tower. There were no concrete runways. They had these big trucks, like moving vans, and they would take the wings off the gliders and would push them into these trucks and haul them away.”

Simpson said the gliders played an important role in World War II. “They were used during the invasion of Normandy, France,” he said. “They used them because they could fly in quietly. They would just glide in.”

Sorry, Mr. Simpson. That statement was, and is, simply not true, even though a lot of people believed it after they read it in the newspaper. Now, here is a sad story about a VJ Day celebration – Victory Over Japan Day – recounted by the Arnold Historical Society & Museum:

“On VJ Day August 15, 1945, Randall Chapman, chief engineer for Laister-Kaufmann Aircraft Corp., a veteran glider pilot, was killed while stunt flying before a large crowd during an air show at Starling Airport. His wife, Margaret, was among the spectators.

Missouri Historical Society photo from April 6, 1962, shows developer David Randolph promoting his new Starling Estates subdivision featuring six model homes, county water, a swimming pool, a park area, and no closing costs. Arnold’s Starling Airport was previously located on the property.

“Chapman, 29, was flying a single-place ‘Yankee Doodle’ glider. One of the plywood wings collapsed when the plane was at 2,500 feet, throwing the craft into a vertical dive with a series of violent twists. The glider crashed in a shallow pond at the north side of the airport in full view of the crowd.” Oscar  Waters, who worked part time at the airport, said later, “Randy looked like he was getting out of the plane when he realized that the plane was heading for people who were watching him–including his wife. He repositioned himself in the seat and steered the glider away from the people toward the lake in Arnold City Park.  He died in the glider.”

A few years after that incident, Starling Airport closed forever. Owner Murray Whitehead reportedly sold the land to a man named Carl Stockstrom who, in the late 1950s, sold it to real estate developer David Randolph. Starling Estates subdivision soon replaced the airport’s two unpaved turf runways with scores of tract houses on residential streets named for aircraft and aircraft companies, such as Boeing, Cessna, Constellation, Convair, Douglas, Electra, and Piper.

Paul Freeman, an aerospace engineer and private pilot who lives in Ashburn, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., founded the aviation history website “Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields” (http://www.airfields-freeman.com/index.htm). With historic words, maps and photos it describes more than 2,500 former airfields in all 50 states, including Starling Airport.

Freeman observes, “The post-World War II period was the biggest boom in U.S. general aviation, with hundreds of airports opened, not all of which lasted.”

Only the memories do.

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

Information for this article was captured from the Arnold Historical Society & Museum; Paul Freeman, aerospace engineer & airport historian; the Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields website; the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum; Jefferson County Leader newspaper; Jefferson County Record newspaper; the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force; “Silent Wings – American Glider Pilots of WW II” video produced by Janson Media; Wikipedia.

Would You Drink Wine With Friedrich Münch?

Author, German Immigrant, Lutheran Minister, Missouri State Senator, One of Missouri’s Original Winemakers.

Friedrich Münch CoFounder of Giessen Emigration Society (1)

Today, 38 percent of Arnold’s population has German ancestral roots, and German is the number one claimed ancestry on Missouri census forms.

Within 100 miles of Arnold are dozens of vineyards and wineries. When spring arrives, visitors eager to enjoy good vino will gather for a delicious Missouri vin de table, of which there are many varieties.

If they raise a glass to toast German immigrants Friedrich Münch and his brother Georg, it will be appropriate. In the 1850s, the grape-growing Münch brothers helped launch the Show-Me State’s winery business. Today, it is a $3.2 billion annual industry.

Annette Alden, director of marketing for the Missouri Wine & Grape Board in Jefferson City, says, “We credit Friedrich and Georg Muench with attracting many German immigrants who chose to make Missouri their home, growing vineyards, making great wine and helping to establish Missouri’s world-famous wine industry.”

Friedrich Münch helped hundreds of Germans who wanted to immigrate to Missouri make the trip and he influenced thousands of others to do the same. Why…?

Germany’s ruling aristocracy was corrupt in the 1830s; the German working class was ruthlessly oppressed. A German journalist named Gottfried Duden visited Missouri. His published reports promoted this region as an idyllic Vaterland (homeland), with natural resources along the Missouri River similar to Germany’s Rhineland.

Knowing all of that, Friedrich Münch co-founded the Giessen Emigration Society to transport German citizens across the Atlantic Ocean to Missouri and create a utopia. In 1834, Münch helped 500 German settlers relocate. Those who sailed on the ship Olbers arrived in New Orleans on June 2, 1834. Those who sailed on the ship Medora, arrived in Baltimore on July 24, 1834.  From there they traveled down the Ohio or up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, then wagon-trained through Jefferson County to destinations west or created farms in what would become Flamm City. More Germans arrived by the thousands in years ahead.

Allen Flamm, a local historian, says it’s no surprise that 38 percent of Arnold’s population has German roots, according to the U.S. Census, and German is the number one claimed ancestry in the state.

He says, “In 1836 my great grandfather Wilhelm Flamm arrived from the village of Merseburg, Germany to farm here and plant fruit orchards Almost everything around was German. Church schools taught in German. My grandfather learned reading, writing and arithmetic in German.  Today, some members of St. John’s Lutheran Church still speak German to each other. So did my parents when they didn’t want kids to understand what they were saying. The German influence is all around Arnold – from cornerstones in old buildings dedicated in German, to gravestone epitaphs honoring dearly departed.”

Missouri Life Magazine points out, “No other immigrant group has had a greater influence on Missouri than the Germans. They influence our agriculture, our arts, our sciences, and our beer. Their passionate antislavery position helped keep Missouri in the Union during the Civil War. At the time, more than half of all immigrant residents here were from German states.”

Blumenhof Winery in village of Dutzow in Missouri Rhineland

Friedrich Münch’s life was focused on positive change for German people. As a young student, he actively protested what he considered a cruel and chaotic German aristocracy and government structure. As an author, pamphleteer and Lutheran minister, he promoted goals to establish a “new and free German State in the great North American Republic.” Münch’s dream of a new German nation-state did not materialize in Missouri, but new German communities successfully were created near Arnold and elsewhere.

Münch guided new immigrants to the town of Dutzow 45 miles from Arnold on the north side of the Missouri River where he built a 120-acre farm and vineyards. Others settled in the town of Washington on the south side of the river, 35 miles from Arnold. Still others settled in Hermann, 70 miles west of Arnold where Stone Hill Winery was established – the biggest in Missouri. By the 1850s, both sides of the Missouri River in those regions were called the Missouri Rhineland. (See Missouri German Settlement Map)

Map image of Missouri German settlement patterns. University of Missouri Press (1)

In her treatise “German Settlement in Missouri,” author Carolyn L. Wright Whitton noted that new settlers wrote home describing a place with “plentiful land, few taxes, few regulations, individual freedom of choice, and opportunities to achieve prosperity with hard work.”

Friedrich Münch was hired by railroads to write booklets encouraging Germans to immigrate. These were published before and after the Civil War (1861-1865) in big U.S. cities and in Europe.  He became known as “Father Münch,” the pioneer of German immigration into Missouri.

A new trend called “chain migrations” began to occur from Germany to Missouri, to the eastern seaboard of the U.S., the California coast, the upper Midwest such as Wisconsin and the southwest, notably Texas.

“In  1832, more than 10,000 immigrants had arrived from Germany. By 1854, that number had jumped to nearly 200,000 immigrants,” according to the U.S. Library of Congress.

Friedrich Münch (1799-1881)

As a Lutheran minister, Münch  preached most Sundays in a log church to promote humanism and tolerance; he baptized and confirmed children, performed marriages, and held funerals, according to The Missouri Encyclopedia.

Using the pen name “Far West,” he wrote for German newspapers across the U.S. as an expert on cultivating grapevines for winemaking.  His publication titled School for American Grape Culture was widely read. In addition, Münch  wrote an “immigrant guidebook” about Missouri and he served for many years on the Missouri State Board of Immigration.

He was a Republican delegate at the 1860 convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. A former Democrat, Münch ran for political office on Missouri’s Republican statewide ticket. In 1862 he was elected to a four­-year term in the state senate. Fervently anti-slavery, Münch’s  political cause was “radical emancipation for people of color.”

Friedrich Münch died on his Dutzow farm December 15, 1881, at age 82. He left his wife, six children, thirty-three grandchildren, and eight great-­grandchildren. One of his sons serving in the Union Army died in the Civil War Battle of Wilson’s Creek, near Springfield, in 1861. Friedrich’s brother Georg Münch had moved to Augusta, Missouri, where he founded Mount Pleasant Winery in 1859. Georg died in 1879.

Mount Pleasant Winery was founded in 1859 by Georg Münch

Missouri today has more than 425 grape growers and 130 wineries that sell 1.6 million gallons of wine annually to more than 875,700 tourists. Missouri vintners produce more than 40 different types of wine. The industry’s 28,000 employees earn about $1 billion in annual wages generating $ 218.5 million in federal taxes every year. Not all of Missouri wine is German. Villa Antonio is a beautiful Italian winery just south of Arnold in Hillsboro. The website https://mo-germans.com/ Is an excellent source of Missouri German history, events and useful programs. Glückliches Leben für Sie! (Happy Life to You!)

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

Who Named the Meramec River?

Arnold’s first highway for trading and industrial shipping is the Meramec River. It has been crucial for life support since prehistoric times, and one of Missouri’s greatest recreational resources for more than 150 years.

Origin of the name Meramec is full of contradictions. Some say it means “ugly fish” or “catfish.” Some pioneers called it “The River of Death.” Its name is attributed to various Native American Indian tribes and, also, to early Jesuit missionaries and even British cartographers.

According to author H. R. Schoolcraft in his book “A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri,” the “Miaramigoua River” – known today as the Meramec — was discovered by a French Jesuit priest, Father Jacques Gravier, on his voyage down the Mississippi in 1699.

Missouria Indian in traditional Canoe

Father Gravier put into French spelling the sound that Native American Indians called the river. One of those was “Miaramigoua,” which Father Gravier’s journal showed he translated as “the river of ugly fish.”

Michael Mccafferty, author and Algonquian linguist, says the river’s name appears in a dictionary produced by 18^th century Jesuit missionary Antoine-Robert Le Boullenger, and that, in the Miami-Illinois Native American language, the name is “Myaarameekwa.” In Algonquian dialect, “Myaara” means ‘ugly’ and “meekwa” means ‘fish’.

Over the centuries, English speakers mutilated river names that French explorers transcribed. Translated into English, some names supposedly meant “Water of the Bitter Spring,” perhaps due to high sulfur content, or “Waters of Death” due to drownings. Early maps labeled the river “Maramig” and “Mirameg.” Its pronunciation became Marameg, and then finally Meramec, sometimes spelled as Maramec.

Fun Times

I wonder how many scholarly experts have climbed aboard an inflated inner tube or a canoe with a rope attached to a cooler full of supplies to spend a day – or weekend – floating merrily, merrily, merrily downstream with friends or family members?

View toward Arnold from confluence of Meramec and Mississippi rivers. Copyright Jo Schaper. Used with permission.

Dozens of different campgrounds, canoe liveries and rural resorts dot Meramec shorelines, especially along the Upper Meramec away from big communities. They attract thousands of fun seekers every year (although pandemic numbers may vary).

The term “downstream” for the Meramec means both north and south because with its twists and turns the river flows both ways and, direction wise, west-east, too. See map  https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/2021-12/200_2021_MeramecRiver.pdf .

Dan Drees of the Sierra Club-Missouri Chapter, wrote, “The headwaters of the Meramec River begin in the Ozarks near Salem, traveling 228 miles to join the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. The Meramec’s spring-fed waters have provided a summer haven for river recreation…the Meramec is also a haven for the greatest variety of aquatic life in the Midwest, giving observant explorers constant opportunities to discover the wealth of aquatic life it shelters.”

The Meramec drains 3,980 square miles in its journey to the Mississippi River near Arnold’s Flamm City Park. Native Americans living by the Meramec at various times represented some 20 different tribes including Delaware, Shawnee, Fox, Sauk, Kickapoo, Otoe-Missouria, and the fierce Osage. Some of those native peoples were subsets of Algonquin families that originated in Canada. Many died out after Europeans populated the colonies, or the U.S. government moved them to other states starting in the 1830s.

Ancient evidence of Native American tribes living near the Meramec ranges from flint digging tools and arrowheads, to shards of fabric, pottery, and teeth, to ancient graves uncovered by archeologists.

Moody Waters

Pacific resident Jo Schaper is an author, historian, poet, and secretary of the Meramec River Recreation Association. Its members include government officials, environmentalists, trail groups, and citizens promoting Meramec River activities with careful environmental stewardship. (https://www.facebook.com/MeramecRRA/).

Washing cars in Meramec River, circa 1920.

“The Meramec can be very destructive,” Schaper asserts. “It can be very beautiful. It has many moods.”

“The basin is blessed with springs, caves, and mineral resources, amongst them lead, zinc, iron, ‘glass sand,’ sandstone, limestone, and dolomite… The river flows between spectacular bluffs in many areas,” she says.

About 1820, a prospector named Thomas James discovered iron ore in Phelps County and built the Maramec Iron Works. “Such industries established upstream helped open up the river valley to settlement,” Schaper says. “The Meramec became a shipping route for pig iron, timber, and other goods on flatboats and shallow draft steamboats. Small towns arose settled by Germans, Scottish, Irish, English farmers, and businessmen, as well as settlers from Appalachia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.”

“The lower Meramec developed an extensive truck garden and farmer’s market trade with St. Louis merchants…River bottom farmers planted wheat, corn, and soybeans. The ‘glass sand’ industry grew, as did sand and gravel extraction for projects…shipped to rail points by barge, then by rail to places beyond.”

History aside, among fun-minded people today the Meramec River may be best known for camping, canoeing, cave exploring, fishing, hiking, kayaking, orienting, float trips, and environmental protectionism.

Towns with Meramec River access, and varying facilities, include Bourbon, Cuba, Eureka, Leasburg, Kirkwood, Pacific, St. James, Steelville, Sullivan, Valley Park and Arnold. In rainy seasons, each may have to deal with high water or dangerous floods.

Trout fishing in Missouri image copyright Missouri Outdoors Meramec Springs Trout Park.

Maramec Spring Park (alternative spelling) about 85 miles from Arnold in St. James, is one of many magnets for rainbow trout fishing, camping and recreation. It pumps 100 million gallons of fresh water a day, bubbling up from 350 feet below ground. The park is open all year. Missouri trout season is March 1-October 31. Camping season is February 28-October 30.  Catch and Release fishing is November-February. Visit http://www.maramecspringpark.com/

Bennett Spring State Park is another popular destination for camping, rainbow trout fishing, and hiking because of its powerful natural spring, convenient river access and central location near Lebanon. See https://mostateparks.com/park/bennett-spring-state-park.

Father and Son at Meramec Spring Park. Copyright Meramec Spring Park.

The Meramec is well known for rainbow trout, yet the river also has healthy populations of large- and smallmouth bass, perch, and catfish. On Facebook you’ll find the Lower Meramec Bass Club and Upper Meramec Bass Club. Based in Arnold, the Lower Meramec Bass Club hosts a tournament every Tuesday night, water depth permitting.

Trey Harpel has fished the lower Meramec for 15 years by launching his boat from Arnold’s Flamm City Park. He is a consultant for the Omega Custom Tackle company of Festus. ( https://omegacustomtackle.com/ ). “These days I go for bass at least once or twice a week, depending on how high the water is,” he says.  “I have the best luck fishing where small creeks enter the river. The Meramec also has white bass, a hybrid fish that can be big.” Harpel’s own fishing reel service and repair business serves professional fishermen and sportsmen.

Clean Up

Good times on the Meramec River come at a price: Garbage, water pollution, junk, and damaged habitats. The not-for-profit Nature Conservancy and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources are extremely concerned about the Meramec River’s health and welfare now and in the future.

Their studies show that the Meramec has been historically threatened by wastewater discharges, livestock mismanagement, mining slag runoff, stream bank erosion, urban and suburban development, sediment buildup, garbage, and pollution resulting in poor water quality and spoiled wildlife habitats.  (https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/the-meramec-river)

The Nature Conservancy-Missouri Chapter worked with 29 different ecological groups to produce a Meramec River Conservation Action Plan as a blueprint for concerned organizations to use as a guide to help resolve the situation. https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/meramec-river-conservation-action-plan.pdf. Projects such as the Growing a Healthy Meramec Project are having positive conservation impacts.

Brian Waldrop, Missouri Stream Team.

If you talk with Brian Waldrop, you may think he eats, sleeps and dreams about saving the Meramec River from pollution while preserving its natural beauty. You wouldn’t be far wrong because, Waldrop says, “It’s a way of life.”

Waldrop is an Arnold native who oversees eleven counties and the city of St. Louis as the St. Louis and Southeast Regional Stream Team Assistant for the Missouri Department of Conservation. “If we see a Clean Stream problem, we go there to work with local ‘clean streamers’ to manage river clean-ups, conduct water quality monitoring, and manage other initiatives,” he says

To see Waldrop and other ‘Clean Steamers’ salvaging a 500-pound metal buoy at Cora Island near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers on January 16, 2022, click here https://www.facebook.com/arnoldstreamteam211. This video is an example of what Arnold Stream Team 211 volunteers set out to accomplish almost every month.

One of thousands on junked tires pulled from Meramec River. Copyright Arnold Stream Team 211.

“The Stream Team is a group of volunteers dedicated to cleaning up the Meramec River and its tributaries, and anywhere else we’re needed!” says Waldrop. He was hired by Missouri’s Department of Conservation in 1993 to help organize Arnold Stream Team 211 after floods in the 1990s left tons of garbage, junk, trashed mobile homes, broken road signs, thousands of old tires and other rubbish in the Meramec River Basin.

Saturday, March 5, 2022, is the Stream Team’s Annual Wintertime Cleanup, a day of hard work, volunteer achievement and fellowship. To help, sign in that day at 8:00 am at Arnold City Park for a cleaning assignment, t-shirt, gloves, and garbage bags. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. When Waltrop says “We’re having a cleanup” he means that volunteers, in one day, may salvage 500 old tires, 150 rusty barrels, a few sunken old boats, and tons of junk.

“At river cleanups, you’ll see Arnold Stream Team 211 with our boats, kayaks, canoes, wrenches, saws and pulleys to capture as much rubbish as we can,” he says. “Almost any weekend, you’ll find volunteers on the Meramec, chipping away at the watershed’s massive amount of trash.”

Jo Schaper observes, “The Meramec is considered a recreational river all the way to its confluence with the Mississippi, and though it is unlikely the lower Meramec will ever return to its pristine beauty, we can still strive to preserve, restore, and cherish what we have.”

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

ARNOLD HISTORY TIMELINE 1774 to 1972

1774 – John Hildebrand, German immigrant, arrives from Monongahela County, Pennsylvania. He is the first white settler in what is now Jefferson County. He develops the Meramec settlement rear Saline Creek with a protective fort.

1776 – French surveyor Jean Baptiste Gamache gains a grant from the King of Spain to build a Meramec River ferry and widen Indian trails into a road between St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve. He is also among this area’s first non-Indian settlers.

Photo from the May 31st, 2013 filming of DeSoto at Chickasaw Farms.
May 31, 2013
Photographer: Jacquelyn Sparks

1798 – John Clark, a Methodist preacher from Scotland, delivers the first Protestant sermon west of the Mississippi River. Protestant ceremonies are prohibited in the Spanish Territory, so Clark preaches from a boat on the Mississippi to pioneers on shore.

1803 – In the Louisiana Purchase that President Thomas Jefferson negotiated with Napoleon Bonaparte, the colonies acquire 828,000 square miles of unmapped land west of the Mississippi River, mostly inhabited by Native Americans.

1806 – French trappers call this area “The Missouri Territory.” The name Missouri is Algonquian for “people with canoes made from logs.”

1807 – St. Louis is called “Gateway to the West” as mountain men, adventurers, and pioneers head northwest following Louis & Clark’s Missouri River route to the new frontier, and trading along the Mississippi.

1812 – Fear of Native American Indian raids start to fade after the War of 1812. When the colonial army wins the war in 1815, the military begins to protect local settlements from hostile tribes notably the fierce Osage.

1815 – Lead, iron ore and zinc found in south- and west-central Missouri. The minerals are sent to St. Louis from Jefferson County on the Meramec and Mississippi River.

1817 – The Zebulon Pike, the first steamboat to reach St. Louis, labors up the Mississippi for its riverfront arrival on August 2. Hundreds of onlookers cheer it as new progress for the “Gateway to the West.”

1818 –The Missouri Legislature votes to divide St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve into a new county. The 657 square-mile county borders the Mississippi River and named for President Jefferson.

Jefferson Barracks Civil War

1818 – Jefferson County’s first county seat is at Herculaneum. The First Circuit Court for the Northern Circuit of Missouri meets in a cabin; it taxes owners of horses, mules, cattle, slaves, billiard tables, mills, tanneries, and distilleries.

1821 – Missouri enters entered the Union as a slave state after Congress votes to make slavery illegal in most territories, except Missouri. That legislation is known as the Missouri Compromise.

1824 – The community of Sandy Mines takes shape when lead is discovered in Jefferson County. Ownership of the small mine there changes several times in its 100 years of operation.

1824 – French families in St. Louis named Chouteau, Laclede and Soulard, buy huge tracts of land in Jefferson County for less than fifty cents per acre in a foreclosure sale. They profit by selling land to new immigrants.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Arnold archstl.org

1826 – Jefferson Barracks opens with six officers and 245 enlisted troops. It is a vital  U.S. Army  presence. Its first conflict is the Black Hawk War when soldiers push “hostile Indians” into Iowa territory.

1830 – Union troops begin relocating Native Americans to outside Missouri due to the federal Indian Removal Act of 1830. At the time, there were eight known Native American tribes living in Missouri, including the brutal Osage.

1833 – Two men in Germany form the Giessen Emigration Society to create a utopia with democratic freedoms they do not have under German aristocracy. In 1834, more than five hundred German settlers relocate to Jefferson County and nearby.

1838 – The Jefferson County seat moves to Hillsboro. Its first courthouse is a brick structure, measuring 50 by 33 feet, with a stone basement, four rooms on the first floor and a 31-by-37-foot courtroom on the second floor.

1839 – French immigrant Christopher Frederici sells a tract land to Father Joseph C. Fischer who builds the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, the area’s first formal house of worship.

1840 – Advancements in steam engine technology encourage availability of side-wheeler and paddlewheel steamboats on the Mississippi River. Shallow-draft steamboats with powerful engines will maneuver rough currents, logs, and snags, revolutionizing river travel.

Confederate General Jeff Thompson – The Swamp Fox https://commons.wikimedia.org/

1861 – The Civil War begins. Unionists dominate Missouri, not Confederates, because thousands of new immigrants come from nations including Germany where slavery is forbidden. Jefferson Barracks is a key Union Army stronghold.

1861 – Confederate General Jeff Thompson, “The Swamp Fox,” enters Blackwell Township to destroy the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway bridge across the Big River. He burns it down to keep Union troops stranded there.

1863 – Union army engineers build the Meramec River Suspension Bridge at the site of today’s Lemay Ferry Road. It is used by primarily by Union troops but also  by Confederate guerrillas known as “bushwhackers.”

1864 – St. Joseph Lead Company of New York buys 946.32 acres of land near Jefferson County at Bonne Terre. It slowly starts to mine lead but, by 1890, it is the largest lead smelter in the United States.

1864 –Jefferson County’s economy evolves when the Iron Mountain Railroad begins transporting iron ore, cord wood, and horses from Francois County and local dairies start shipping huge vats of milk, cream, and butter daily to St. Louis.

1864 – The Battle of Pacific on October 1 protects St. Louis from Confederate invasion. At dawn, a Confederate cavalry brigade torched every structure in town. After furious fighting for hours, the Union’s 16th Army Corps drove the Confederates out.

1865 – On April 9, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, formally ending the Civil War. Confederate “Bushwhackers” Jesse and Frank James begin robbing banks and trains.

1865 – April 14, stage actor John Wilkes Booth shoots Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, in the head by while attending the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

1865 – The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway begins to serve Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. “KT” is its timetable abbreviation and stock exchange symbol begetting the popular railroad nickname “The Katy.”

1866 –Margaret Louisa Frederici, a local girl whose grandfather helped establish the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, marries Union Army private William F. Cody, who later gains fame as “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The Codys stay married for 51 years.

1867 – Construction of Lemay Ferry Road to the suspension bridge the Union army built across the Meramec River boosts the economy by enabling farmers and merchants to reach more markets to buy or sell.

1868 – Miners discover that sand in Jefferson County is of the quality necessary for making plate glass. The American Plate Glass Company opens in Detroit. Jefferson County sand is shipped routinely to Detroit for plate glass processing.

1897 Dorris Dos-i-Dos Runabout Model

1870 – Local authorities announce conversion of dirt roads to gravel roads in Jefferson County. Mudholes, rocks, and tree roots delay everything. In 1913, the Missouri Highway Department is created, and more new gravel roads are built.

1874 – The Eads Bridge opens in St. Louis as a road and rail bridge across the Mississippi into Illinois, and vice versa. Commissioned by steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, it ends the heyday of riverboat industries, boosting railroad industries.

1891 – Anheuser Busch purchases the Cedar Crest Country Club on lower Tenbrook Road as an employee retreat. Soon it opens for public enjoyment. The grounds host picnics, ball games and other recreations near the Meramec River.

1898 – George Dorris and John French create the St. Louis Motor Carriage Co., the first St. Louis automaker. It produces automobiles from 1899 to 1924. French was one of only three drivers to finish a New York-to-Buffalo race in 1901.

Frisco Railroad locomotive chugging through Jefferson County

1900 – Frederitzi Hall is a popular spot for people miles around. Like a pioneer shopping mall, it has a saloon, general store, meat market, cream separator, hauling service, and a car-selling business called Anything on Wheels.

1901 – St. Louis is the auto industry hub west of the Mississippi. Many experimental models are granted patents. In addition to St. Louis Motor Carriage Co., manufacturers include Langan, Stanhope, and Moon. Walt Disney owned a Moon Roadster.

1902 – The St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, known as the Frisco, builds Tenbrook Station, hiring local workers to maintain tracks and pumps to fill the trackside water tower. The station lounge hosts a lively tavern for travelers and locals.

1902 – Jefferson County farmers purchase gasoline engine-powered tractors from the Weber Farm Implement Co. when it opens on Main Street in St. Louis near today’s Gateway Arch. George Weber, Sr. is proprietor.

1905 – The first dedicated gas station in St. Louis opens at 420 South Theresa Avenue. Called a “filling station,” it sells gasoline and oil for any type of gas-powered device, including cars, trucks, and tractors.

1908 – Horses, buggies, and wagons start phasing out as primary modes of transportation. The Weber Farm Implement Co. reorganizes as the Weber Implement & Automobile Company to add cars to its product lines.

1910 – Approximately 100,000 automobiles are registered in the U.S. Most are sold through a variety of channels, including mail order, department stores, and traveling salespeople. Many are sold by owners of gas stations.

1914 – World War I – 23 honored dead in Jefferson County paid the ultimate price. 1914–1918

1921 – The Missouri Highway Commission is created. It shifts highway building management from the local to state level. More than 1,500 miles of newly paved or graveled dirt roads soon help improve Jefferson County.

1925 – Auto dealerships expand. Dozens of U.S. manufacturers make cars; few will survive. The Weber dealership in St. Louis sells cars, trucks, parts, and warranties, and begins to accept “trade-ins” when someone wants a new model.

1925 – Ambitious businessowner Ferd Lang, Sr. builds a general store, tavern, and gas station on land he buys from a man named Louis Arnold. Lang names that land Arnold to honor him. When Arnold incorporates as a city in 1972, Lang’s son Ferd B. Lang, Jr. becomes its first mayor.

Biltmore Supper Club – Jefferson County Library

1926 – Auto sales explode when U.S. Route 66 is dedicated. The “Mother Road” covers 292 miles in Missouri, entering from Galena, Kansas, through  Joplin, Carthage, Springfield, Waynesville, Devils’ Elbow, Lebanon, and Rolla, through St. Louis to Illinois.

1929 – Lynn Warren creates Warren Sign in a paint shop that grows into a company at 2955 Arnold Tenbrook Road that is now one of the Midwest’s largest, specializing in all types of neon and plastic-faced signs.

1933 – Al Capone associate “Hickory Slim” Belford becomes manager of the posh Biltmore Supper Club. The building separates St. Louis County from Jefferson County. Belford moves liquor, poker tables, and slot machines from side to side to avoid raids.

1935 – The Telegraph Road Bridge is constructed to cross the Meramec River between St. Louis County and Arnold not far from what is called Flamm City to accommodate increasing motorized vehicle traffic.

1939 – Military veteran Ferd Lang, Sr., recruits 21 World War One survivors to charter Veterans of Foreign Wars Post # 2593 so veterans can share fellowship, exchange war memories, and manage charitable events.

1940 – Tesson Ferry Road Bridge, known as the Meramec River Bridge, opens to connect the Arnold and St. Louis areas. Engineer Howard Mullins says, “An effort was made to secure a structure of reasonable aesthetic fitness.”

1941 – The Rock Community Fire Protection District originates as the Rock Community Volunteer Fire Association. Money is raised from local business leaders to purchase a Reo Chassis Fire truck, 1,200 feet of hose, and assorted equipment for $1,650.

1941 – World War II – 89 honored dead in Jefferson County paid the ultimate price. 1941-1945

1945 – The first post office here opens to serve the public with general delivery until Harry Rohman becomes the area’s first mail carrier. When he retires in 1972, Flora Arnold becomes the first postmistress.

1948 – The Fox C-6 School District originated as five one-room schoolhouses that consolidated in 1948 to form the Fox Consolidated School District. Schools throughout the area were the Bowen, Seckman, Saline, Lone Dell, and Soulard Schools.

1950 – Korean War –Twelve honored dead paid the ultimate price. 1950-1953

1955 – Vietnam War – 34 honored dead paid the ultimate price. 1955-1975

1956 – Federal Aid Highway Act funds replace old U.S. Route 66 with new Interstate-55. Construction starts in 1957. A section of I-55 near Arnold’s Richardson Road cuts a farm in half. By 1975 it connects to Chicago.

First meeting of the Rock Community Fire Association http://www.Rockfire-rescue.org

1958 – Public Water Supply District Number 1, the first water district in Jefferson County, is created after citizens demand more water to serve the Fox C-6 school and for Rock Community Fire Department to put out fires.

1965 – Don Kozeny and Rich Wagner open Kozeny-Wagner Construction, Inc. with the motto “Building a Better Quality of Life” In 2018 it surpasses $1 billion in contract values since its origin.

1972 – The City of Arnold is incorporated. Arnold’s land was part of a Spanish land grant that Antoine Soulard and Auguste Chouteau, founders of St. Louis, purchased on the St. Louis Courthouse steps in a foreclosure sale on January 5, 1824. The price was $14,929.92 for 6,002 acres of land. New immigrants bought land for settlements. Some – Beck, Flamm City, Maxville, Old Town Arnold, Ten Brook and Wickes – incorporated in 1972 to form The City of Arnold. After the incorporation, business, cultural, educational, fraternal, healthcare, residential, social, and police services mushroomed.

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold