Society & Museum Origins

The Museum’s website is a cornucopia of key local history, including this description of the group’s beginnings:

“On June 17, 2005, a group of 30 interested citizens met in the Arnold Library to organize the Arnold, Missouri, Historical Society. Jack Underwood agreed to serve as President for one year. He signed the Charter as did Jim West and Bonita Owen. Allen Flamm was elected Vice President, Bonita Owen, Secretary, and Bernie Wilde was elected Treasurer. By August 2005, a Constitution and Bylaws were adopted.

“Jack discussed the need for a museum with Arnold City Officials. The City offered free use of a small trailer in Ferd Lang Park at 1838 Old Lemay Ferry Road. Jack worked tirelessly to get 501(c)3 tax exempt status. Several members donated money to begin the setup with necessary items. Artifacts came primarily from local people who had saved treasures from the past.”

Bernie Wilde and her husband Roy, who is retired from Ameren Electric Co. and served for 37 years on the City’s Planning & Zoning Commission, have been involved with the group in various roles since its origin.

“In the early days Roy and I would go out almost every weekend to search for artifacts and contact every older person we could think of to ask if they had antiques, or photographs, or historic items they didn’t need any more to help build the museum’s inventory,” she says. “We also contacted businesses for commercial artifacts.

“Many women gave us, or loaned us, collections of beautiful antique dishes, and men often gave us antique farm implements – Arnold started, you know, as quite a large farming community.

“We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and we receive no funding from the city, the county, or the state. Donations are tax-deductible. Our current membership is about 75 people.

“We have received a wide variety of different donations – for example, an antique bed with corn shucks as mattress stuffing, a World War Two bayonet, an ancient tomahawk, and dozens of arrowheads from local native American Indian tribes,” says Wilde. She adds, “Roy’s family owned a farm and every time they plowed the fields Indian arrowheads would turn up.”

Indeed, before the Federal Government’s Indian Removal Act (1830) which relocated many native tribes to outside Missouri, there were eight known Native American tribes living in Missouri, including:

• Chickasaw
• Illini 
• Ioway 
• Otoe-Missouria
• Osage
• Quapaw 
• Sac & Fox
• Shawnee

The oldest trailway in Missouri was often used by Missouri’s Native American tribes in the late 1700s. It was called “El Camino Real” by the Spanish or “Rue Royale” by the French, both meaning “ Royal Road” or “The Kings Highway.” The trail ran from New Madrid and Sainte Genevieve over the region that become Arnold, and then to St. Louis. The trailway road and a ferry across the Meramec River were built by a French entrepreneur named Jean Baptiste Gamache, who was commissioned by Spanish King Charles III and paid handsomely. Gamache is believed to have been this region’s first settler.

Portrait of a Shawnee Native American Indian Chief in Missouri, circa 1825

L to R: Allen Flamm, Vice Chairman; Bernie Wilde, Treasurer; Jackie Howell, Vice President and Secretary; Warren Pflantz, President

Covid-19 Impact

Due to Covid-19, Society board members early last year elected to close the Museum and cancel or postpone many events and fundraising activities until the pandemic was no longer a threat. Until then, the Society and Museum participated in 15 or more fundraising events per year. Many local nonprofit groups have experienced financial pain due to the pandemic and, like those organizations, the Society’s operating budget has been severely impacted.

Wilde admits, “Many original members of the Society still volunteer to help sustain the Museum’s mission, and we occasionally get some assistance from a few Girl Scouts and citizens, but that doesn’t mean we’re not dealing with new challenges these days.” She adds. “Some of our long-time members passed away since Covid began. Our efforts to recruit new members has slowed down quite a bit.”

Allen Flamm until recently served as Society Secretary and, also, Vice-Chairman of the City’s Historic Preservation Commission. His ancestors settled in the Arnold area in 1836 and began planting apple orchards. Well known in the area, Flamm has been a Society volunteer since 2005. He cannot deny that the Society is now experiencing its share of tough times.

“I got involved with the Society because my family were pioneers here and I believe it is extremely important to preserve and promote the history of our entire community. I believe that understanding the past is essential for helping to build a meaningful future. In my opinion, any type of history is important when it sheds light on who we are, where we came from and where we might be going,” Flamm asserts. Wilde adds, “Right now we are working to increase donations to help pay monthly bills, and we are looking for new ways to attract younger members.”

Museum Reopening on Saturday, May 1, 2021

The good news is that the Society Museum will reopen on Saturday, May 1 to celebrate the birthday of Louisa Frederici Cody and the grand reopening of the Museum after being closed since last year. Relatives and friends will gather at the Museum at 1 pm to display a banner celebrating Arnold native Louisa Frederici (1844–1921), who married William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody on March 6, 1866, on her family’s farm in Arnold.

The couple met when Cody served at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis as a U.S. Army private during the Civil War, years before he gained fame as a buffalo hunter, frontier scout and Wild West showman. Cody often referred to his wife Louisa as “Lulu.” The couple sustained a rocky romantic relationship for 51 years until Bill Cody’s death in 1917. Louisa died in 1921 and is buried next to her husband on Colorado’s Lookout Mountain.

Louisa Frederici of Arnold as a young woman before she married William F. Cody

Local Resident Bob Flamm as Buffalo Bill Cody

Admission to attend the birthday celebration and grand reopening of the Museum is $5.00; masks and social distancing are requested. Call 636-282-2828. After May 1, new Museum hours will be Friday and Saturday, 12-4 pm. For special appointments, call 636-464-9256. During May there will be a display of all items collected by a Buffalo Bill Cody look-alike, Bob Flamm.

At the museum, many historic documents and books feature contributions by Arnold men and women who played major roles in the area’s early progress and expansion. The hardbound book “Historic Arnold,” features many interesting essays and photos donated by dozens of residents published in a handsome volume covering 1876 thru 1986.

It is available with other books including a new, 220-page edition of the history of Richardson Cemetery that dates to 1867; a history of St. John’s Lutheran Church dating to 1848; and a history of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church dating to 1840. All books sell for about $20 each; a portion of the price supports the Museum. A 50-year anniversary book about Arnold is reportedly in the works.

Mayor Ron Counts observes, “The Arnold Historical Society and Museum is a valuable cultural asset. It celebrates Arnold’s hard-working pioneer spirit by showcasing artifacts and lifestyles of settlers who built our community and whom we respect with enduring pride. It should be enjoyed by everyone.”

For more information, visit Arnold Historical Society and their Facebook page.

Story by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

Arnold Branch of Jefferson County Library

Since March is “National Reading Month,” it seems appropriate to honor Lang, who spent much of her adult life as an author and library volunteer in Arnold, High Ridge, and other local communities.

Except for small book collections at churches and private homes, there were no public libraries in Jefferson County until Lang and her friends created an all-volunteer library in donated space. They really wanted a tax-supported public library to serve all of Jefferson County, but getting one like that would take years of effort.

“I knew Della very well; she was the backbone of Jefferson County’s volunteer library organization,” says her friend Betty Ingram, a retired middle school English teacher. “Della worked very hard to write and sell her own books to raise money to help the volunteer effort,” says Ingram, who also volunteered for the cause. “She was really motivated; you might say she worked harder than anyone,” Ingram adds.

Busy Author

Books that Lang researched, wrote, published, and sold to raise money for the volunteer library include:

• Along Old Gravois
• Country Schools, Jefferson County, Missouri 1806-1952
• The Best of Reflections: Pioneer Families of Northwest Jefferson County
• The Legend of House Springs
• River City: The Story of Fenton, Missouri
• On the Road to History (a sequel to Along Old Gravois)

To write her books, Lang interviewed hundreds of county residents and wrote dozens of articles for Reflections, her self-published magazine. Her husband, Bill, working with a publisher, helped with printing.

Della Lang at a Book Signing Event

 Jefferson County Library Northwest Branch

In May 1978, Lang became founding member of a dedicated group of twelve women, including Ingram, who established the Community Library Association to provide library services to much of Jefferson County. Two months later in July 1978, the area’s first informal public library opened in a building on High Ridge Boulevard. Ingram later told a reporter for the Jefferson County Leader, “By September, there were so many donated materials that the library had to move to larger quarters.”

Library Launch

Three years later, on November 23, 1981, the Jefferson County Library District was formally established by the Jefferson County Commission when three County judges appointed five citizens to the inaugural Jefferson County Library Board of Trustees.

That first Board included Della Lang of High Ridge, Ralph Sippel of Arnold, Martha Dodson of Crystal City, Robert Miller of Hillsboro, and Elizabeth Mueller of De Soto. The library did not begin operations until 1989, however, when voters in the Northwest and Fox-Windsor library sub-districts approved a twenty-cent tax levy to support library services in those sub-districts.

The Association was sustained by additional volunteers, donations, fundraisers, sales of Lang’s books, and a small annual membership fee for users. It operated for 12 years – from 1978 to 1990. In that time the Association raised $169,316 in cash for expenses, volunteered 101,294 hours, and circulated 237,293 books.

“ ‘Friends of the Library’ volunteers maintained a space where we stacked new and used book donations to sell at low prices,” Ingram says. “At one point we had a space for storage that caught fire, but luckily we got everything out and moved before it was damaged,” she recalls.

Lang’s dedication was instrumental in establishing tax-supported library services in Jefferson County; she participated in tax levy campaigns in 1981, 1982, 1988, and in the 1989 campaign that successfully established a twenty-cent tax levy to support library services in the Northwest and Fox-Windsor sub-districts of the Jefferson County Library District.

In 1991, a sub-library opened in the basement at Arnold City Hall. In May 2005, the first official Arnold Branch formally opened at 1701 Missouri State Road next to the Arnold Recreation Center and Arnold campus of Jefferson College.

Della Lang Genealogy Room

After more than 15 years of organizational groundwork, Lang and her volunteer team achieved their dream of establishing a high-quality public library serving all of Jefferson County. Lang continued to volunteer in Jefferson County schools to help kids and adults enjoy books before she died in 2017 at age 84.

A loving wife to her husband, Bill Lang, and mother of their three children – Tony, Tina and Terry, Della was a busy member of the Northwest Friends of the Library, and also the Jefferson County Genealogical Society. She was, in addition, a Charter Member and Past President of the Fenton Historical Society.

Library Legend

With a smile, Ginger Brickey, associate at the Northwest Library Branch, says, “Della Lang’s photo hangs on the wall near my desk. It is almost like the boss is still around. Della was a VIP around here who set high-quality standards. She was instrumental in not only creating the library itself, but also in developing its history department and the genealogy department.”

Today the Della Lang Local History and Genealogy Rooms at the Northwest Library Branch, named in Della’s honor, welcome local and global genealogy researchers. Free genealogy classes and access to genealogical databases and collected reference materials are available there for new and experienced researchers.

Betty Ingram says, “I never thought we’d get the tax issue passed and never thought we’d have such beautiful library buildings. I almost get tears in my eyes when I walk into those buildings. I feel proud of what we accomplished by working hard as volunteers. We owe a lot to Della for her inspiration, her motivation, and her hard work. I will never forget her.”

Remember that March is “National Reading Month.” Visit your local Jefferson County Library. Some of Della Lang’s books are available for review, and others are available for supervised research.

Photos courtesy of Jefferson County Library District

Written for the City of Arnold by Jeff Dunlap

Bill Clinton

On July 17, 1993, President Bill Clinton with Vice President Al Gore and other members of Clinton’s cabinet met with governors of flood-damaged Midwestern states to promise that his administration would continue to support them when the water receded. The meeting occurred at Arnold’s Fox High School at a “flood summit” that President Clinton and Vice President Gore hosted that morning after touring Arnold and metro St. Louis via helicopter to view the colossal flooding.

“We are here to deal with basically two giant issues,” Clinton said as he opened the conference. “One is, what are we going to do right now, while everybody is up to their ears in alligators? And the second is, how are we going to keep this effort going over the long run … so that we can see these areas through to full recovery?”

According to FEMA, more than a thousand levees in the Midwest failed or were overtopped as 1993 flooding exceeded “worst-case” design specifications. At 600 monitoring points in the Midwest, rivers were above flood stage during this event.

At his meeting with Arnold officials, cabinet staff, and the governors, President Clinton promised federal troops, short-term financial aid, and less government red tape immediately to help the area recover from the devastating flood waters.

While in Arnold, he announced that he was seeking $2.5 billion in disaster aid from Congress, an amount that he said unfortunately could not cover all damages and losses resulting from the monster flood. However, after seeing the destruction by air and hearing what officials in Arnold had to say, President Clinton approached Congress for more disaster funds, and on August 13 he signed into law $5.7 billion in emergency aid for the region.

Joe Biden

On October 30, 2008, just five days before the Presidential election that year, Delaware Senator Joe Biden settled a noisy crowd in the Fox High School gymnasium by offering encouraging words to the enthusiastic assembly. Before Biden arrived, Fox High’s Warriors Marching Band, in bright red and white uniforms, revved up the crowd as scores of Chrysler employees from United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 110 took the stage to stand in front of a giant American flag hanging on the wall.

The event was clearly a campaign visit to support the Obama-Biden political ticket in the upcoming election. Campaign signs raised by supporters read “Show-Me the Change,” “MO for Joe,” and “Yes We Can.” A group of voters held up square signs spelling out M-I-S-S-O-U-R-I.

“We’re back in the Show-Me state and you’re going to make us show you!” Biden proclaimed as he reached the podium. “You’re a state that wants to know!”

With that in mind, Biden proceeded to explain his and Obama’s plans for affordable, available health care for every American and their mission to end the war in Iraq using a timeline. He discussed their desire to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. He said that Obama had two major goals in running for office: To reclaim middle class America and reclaim America’s respect in the world.

On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, junior Senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, senior Senator from Delaware, won the national election.

Barack Obama

President Barack Obama visited Arnold for a town hall meeting on April 29, 2009 to celebrate his 100^th day in office. In the audience-packed event at Fox High School gymnasium, Obama spoke about the U.S. economy, national defense, and education before taking questions from the crowd.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, when Obama began speaking, he gave himself a grade of Satisfactory – with room for improvement. “On my 100th day in office,” he said, “I’ve come back to report to you, the American people, that we have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off. We’ve begun the work to remake America.”

As accomplishments of his first few months in office, Obama pointed to passing an economic recovery bill to clear away the “wreckage” of the recession; writing a new budget blueprint; working to open credit markets; and helping struggling homeowners stay financially intact. He said all that progress was good, but he emphasized that those achievements were just a prelude to what he believed needed doing.

“I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made, but I’m not satisfied,” Obama said. “I’m confident in the future, but I’m not content with the present.”

“The hundredth day might be a good time to reflect on where we are, but it’s more important to where we’re going that we focus on the future,” Obama said, “because we can’t rest until our economy is growing and we’ve built that new foundation for our prosperity.”

The economic recovery bill Obama talked about was a stimulus package enacted by the U.S. Congress that Obama signed into law in February 2009 to retard negative impacts of the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Joe Biden’s Second Visit

A delegation of voters from Arnold attended Vice President Biden’s second visit to this area to show their support in downtown St. Louis soon after he had won primaries in 11 states in 2020. The visit was March 9, 2020, one day before the Show-Me State’s March 10 Democratic primary election.

Biden encouraged the audience of thousands to get out the vote, and he highlighted his record as vice president in the Obama administration. He said, “I seek the office of President of the United States to restore the soul of America…To rebuild the backbone of the nation — the middle class. To make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home.

“It is the honor of my lifetime that so many millions of Americans have voted for this vision. Now the work of making this vision real is the task before us.

“It’s time to put away harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again. To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans.”

The next day, with Missouri hailed as a determining factor in the presidential campaign, Biden won the Missouri Democratic primary and got one step closer to the White House.

On Wednesday, January 20, 2021, Biden was inaugurated as President, and Kamala Harris as Vice President, of the United States.

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold