Draper-McClurg Family, Papers, 1838-1981 (C3069)
.2 linear feet and 134 folders on 5 rolls of microfilm
MICROFILM
INTRODUCTION
Correspondence, Civil War information, and stories from the Philander Draper and Joseph W. McClurg families. Information on Missouri politics; California gold rush; lead and iron works; orchards; farming; education; the Dakota Territory; housekeeping in a soddy; clothing; and economic conditions, work, and travel in the American West is also included in this collection. Photographs of farm life, vacationing, school, and of family are also included in this collection as well as various playbills for the Elk Minstrels.
DONOR INFORMATION
The Draper-McClurg Family Papers were loaned to the University of Missouri for copying by Emma Phillips on 4 February 1987 (Accession No. 4761). An addition to the papers was made on 19 July 1989 (Accession No. 4916). Other additions to the collection were made on 8 February 1990 by Emma Phillips (Accession No. 4945), 20 April 1992 by Lynn Morrow (Accession No. 5163), and on 16 June 1997 by Arthur Draper (Accession No. 5723).
Philander Draper. From collection
C3069 folder 145. For information
about obtaining copies of images
contact whmc@umsystem.edu.BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Philander Draper, the son of Daniel and Susannah Gibbs Draper, was born in Tennessee in 1811. The family moved to a farm near Auburn, Lincoln County, Missouri, in 1816. Philander joined his brothers Edwin and Daniel as a partner in Edwin Draper and Brothers at Louisiana, Missouri. In addition to a general mercantile business, the brothers expanded into port packing, lumber, sawmills, building, shipping, and real estate. The business was dissolved in 1861.
Philander married Eliza Ann Clark in 1835. Their son, James (1836-1873), worked in foundries in St. Louis. During the Civil War he helped build ironclads for the Union navy. Eliza died with her infant in l838. Philander married Sarah Fentem in 1839. They were the parents of four sons and six daughters. At least one daughter was educated at the ladies' seminary in Danville, Missouri, and attended classes in St. Louis. Letters indicate the daughters taught school in rural Missouri, operated a store in Louisiana, traveled, and cared for their parents.
Sons Daniel and Charles served in Missouri during the Civil War. Daniel commanded a cavalry unit. After the war he was elected state auditor. He then tried several business ventures, eventually following his brother Edwin to Colorado where he worked for railroads.
Charlie was fifteen when he joined the Missouri Home Guard and became a clerk and errand boy. These tasks brought him to the attention of Governor Thomas C. Fletcher who engaged Charlie as private secretary. Fletcher convinced the state legislature to make the position permanent and allocate a salary. When, in January 1869, Joseph W. McClurg became governor he retained Charlie in the position of secretary. McClurg left office in January 1871. In October Charlie married Frances Ann "Fannie" McClurg who had acted as hostess for her father.
Joseph Washington McClurg was born in Missouri in 1818 but at the death of his parents returned to Ohio. He was educated at Oxford, Ohio, then taught school in Louisiana and Mississippi. In 1839 he moved to Texas where he studied law and was clerk of the circuit court in 1840. He returned to Missouri and married Mary C. Johnson (c. 1819-1861) in l841. They were the parents of eight children. Joseph W. McClurg was a prominent merchant at Linn Creek, Missouri, prior to the Civil War. He represented Missouri in Congress for three terms, then was drafted into the governorship of Missouri, serving from 1869 to 1871. He was an intensely religious man, as most of his writings reflect. While he was in Washington D.C., rebel raiders destroyed his store in Linn Creek, causing financial reversals from which he never recovered. Upon leaving public office in 1871 McClurg entered into several business ventures with his sons-in-law, including lead prospecting, mining and smelting operations, and the building and operation of the Emma, a steamboat. McClurg's daughter Emma married Marshall W. Johnson. Johnson was open to many business ventures proposed by his father-in-law and also entered into partnership with Charles Draper. Johnson and Charlie Draper were partners in an unsuccessful farm and orchard.
At some time in the early 1880s Johnson and his sons Jodie and Thad homesteaded in Dakota Territory. Fannie McClurg Draper went with her father, her brother Joe, and her children to homestead near the Johnsons. Charlie stayed at Lebanon, Missouri, working as a bank clerk to support the venture. The enterprise failed and all parties returned to Missouri.
Charlie continued in banking at Lebanon, where he and Fannie lived out their lives and raised their three sons and three daughters. Arthur followed his father into banking at Lebanon. Joe and Jim worked in mining engineering, prospecting, and smelting, with a short-lived business in Joplin, Missouri. Mamie and Kate graduated from the Knox Conservatory of Music at Galesburg, Illinois. Kate taught music in schools in Oklahoma and Louisiana, then opened a music school in Lebanon, Missouri.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The Draper-McClurg Family Papers are arranged into three series:
Containing primarily correspondence, the Family Papers also include farm journals, accounts, Civil War records, and muster rolls. This series is in chronological order and comprises the bulk of the papers. Information on politics and business ventures is informally expressed in the correspondence. There are no political files, office papers, or business accounts. Care should be used in determining the writer. Family names were used over all generations in both families, and many letters are signed with initials. A genealogical chart is included.
Subjects include the Draper family mercantile business, a ladies' seminary in Danville, Missouri, the raid by Bill Anderson's men in October 1864, educational techniques, pupils' intelligence levels and home environments, salaries, clothing styles and dressmaking, a St. Louis iron foundry, wages, and the construction of armored boats during the Civil War. Information on the Civil War includes the Missouri Home Guards, skirmishes, and searches for bushwhackers. Daniel and Edwin Draper moved to Colorado following the Civil War and wrote home of Indian skirmishes, railroads, journalism, and living conditions.
Prior to the marriage of Fannie McClurg and Charles C. Draper in 1871 there is little material on the McClurg family. There are a few letters from Mary C. Johnson McClurg concerning daily events at Linn Creek and several letters by Joseph W. McClurg written from California during the 1849-1850 gold rush. During the 1860s McClurg wrote advice to his children, with occasional items of news from Washington, D.C. After 1871 the McClurg correspondence concerns business ventures in mining and milling, the profitability of various types of ores, and shipping costs.
Marshall W. Johnson and Charles C. Draper were partners with their father-in-law in most of these ventures including a farm and orchard. Correspondence concerns varieties of fruit, hops, livestock, farm buildings, and detailed written specifications for a barn. Letters during the Dakota Territory homesteading venture of 1886-1887 give detailed descriptions of daily living in a soddy. They note plastering, furniture arrangement, heating, weather, travel to town, availability and prices of food and merchandise, neighbors, education of children, water and wells, and health problems and remedies.
The correspondence of Fannie and Charlie Draper's children after 1900 constitutes another portion of the family papers. Their son Joe worked in mining, smelting and milling ventures throughout the West. His letters are insightful and descriptive.
The Stories, Essays, and Histories were written by family members. Joseph W. McClurg wrote religious and philosophical essays that may have been speeches. Philander Draper wrote accounts of farming in Missouri from about 1815 into the 1840s and accounts of the Civil War. Kate Draper wrote short stories and extensive biographical accounts of Joseph W. McClurg and Fannie McClurg Draper. Other writings in this section are unidentified by date or by writer.
Genealogy, Clippings and Photographs make up the remainder of the collection. This series consists of the followin subseries:
Due to the prominence of both families, their history is closely related to the history of Missouri--Linn Creek, Lebanon, and Louisiana especially. Few of the photographs are identified. Photographs from the Webb family stem from the marriage of Joe Draper to Minna Webb. Photographs in the recently added folders (f. 135-145) are unidentified, but contain excellent examples of farm life, life in a girls' school, and vacationing at the turn of the century. These photographs have been scanned and placed in the folders. The original glass plate negatives are stored separately. There are two numbers on each print: the number in brackets is the sequential number that was assigned to the print when the photographs were organized; the other number is the negative number. An appendix follows this inventory, which lists both numbers and a description of the print.
This section also contains playbills and a book from the Elks Minstrels in the early twentieth century.
The descriptions of the seven folders added to the papers in 1989 (f. 128-134) can be found where they would be interfiled if the collection were not on microfilm. For example an 1861 engineer's report is described with the other 1861 folders.
FOLDER LIST
Family Papers Series
f. 1 1838-1845 Memoranda. Philander Draper's notes on agriculture and recipes for medicines and dosages. Planting schedule, location, and variety descriptions of peach trees. f. 2 1839-1842 Tax receipts, legal and estate papers, and correspondence. f. 3 1843-1845 Medical expenses, receipts, correspondence, and list of lands. f. 4 1846-1847 Receipts for taxes, food, clothing, and tuition. Philander Draper's correspondence on debts, as agent for land deals, and withdrawal from race for clerk. f. 5 1848-1849 Business-related correspondence. f. 6 1850 Philander Draper appointed recorder and treasurer for Louisiana, Missouri. Joseph W. McClurg letter from California regarding disappointments and hardships. Mary C. McClurg letter with detailed information on home life at Linn Creek and the health of slaves. f. 7 1851-1855 Philander Draper correspondence as treasurer for Louisiana, Missouri. f. 8 1857-1858 Volume of miscellaneous accounts and trip expenses, rules and bylaws of Masons, and list of Louisiana town officials. f. 9 1858-1860 Letter on Draper family history, obituary for William M. McClurg, accounts, and commencement program from Illinois College. f. 10 1861 Discussion of war excitement in St. Louis, Missouri Home Guard, manufacture of gunboats, mechanics' wages, and war reports from Kentucky along the Ohio River to Columbus. Newspaper typesetting at the Danville Herald. f. 128 1861 "Engineer's Report of A Reconnaissance of the Louisiana and Missouri River Rail Road". Proposal for building and financing this local railroad to connect Louisiana, Missouri, and other communities with the Missouri River. Includes detailed cost estimates and possible routes with a map of Missouri. John B. Woods, engineer, accompanied by Philander Draper. f. 11 c. 1861 Receipt book for arms. 5th Regiment, Missouri State Militia, Home Guards, Philander Draper, paymaster. f. 12-14 1862 Dissolution of Edwin Draper and Brothers. Correspondence on the war in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Subjects include bushwhackers, arms and ammunition, gunboats, Missouri Home Guard, military life, elections, German soldiers, and servants. f. 15 1862 33rd Missouri Volunteers. Roll for Company D. f. 129 1862 Correspondence of Philander Draper with James O. Broadhead and Edward Bates regarding political appointments, February. Diary dated 17 July to 29 November. Entries concern Philander Draper's active duty service with Company D, 33rd Regiment, Missouri Volunteers, recruiting soldiers, joining with W.J. McKee to form a company, mustering in at Benton Barracks, and moving to Rolla for service in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. His diary concerns daily troop movements, activities, rations, living conditions, health, lists of camp expenses and equipment, and cash amounts provided for his family members. Draper resigned due to bad health in December. f. 16-18 1863 Subjects in correspondence include slavery, smallpox vaccinations, Missouri politics, the Osage iron monitor, Pilot Knob, the ironclad Chillicothe, Baron De Kalb, artillery, 33rd Missouri Volunteers, 3rd Arkansas Regiment (Colored), war in Mississippi, cotton, songs, children's games and toys, Danville Female Academy, emancipation, and the burning of J.W. McClurg's store at Linn Creek. f. 19 1864 Subjects include black soldiers in the Union army, guerrilla warfare, and Danville. f. 130 1864-1866 Charles C. Draper Diary, 24 October 1864-21 November 1866. Entries begin with names and addresses of Draper's lady friends and continue with a detailed list of tasks to perform in compiling reports for the Adjutant General's offices, both state and federal, including procedures for obtaining reports from other companies. Also included are lists of clothing drawn for Company C, 3rd Missouri State Militia, Cavalry. Following the Civil War are entries concerning debts and repayment and lists of income, expenses, and travel while working as a collector and tobacco inspector. f. 20 1865 Subjects include J.W. McClurg's ex-slaves, politics, elections, estate papers, U.S. Naval Academy, and education. f. 21 1866 Subjects include Washington, D.C., Ironton and Louisiana, fashions, education, Patee Female College, St. Joseph, and the St. Louis and Keokuk Railroad Company. f. 22 1867 Subjects include lumber prices and mills, Governor Thomas C. Fletcher, Jefferson City, Louisiana, and the return to peacetime life. f. 131 1867 Report of the committee appointed to determine what work had been accomplished on the Louisiana Rail Road "in the direction of the Missouri River." Includes legislative history and provision act for this railroad project. f. 23 1868 Subjects include legislation related to blacks, wages and conditions at the Broadway Foundry in St. Louis, politics and elections, Governor Thomas C. Fletcher, prospects for hops cultivation, and social customs. f. 24 1869 Subjects include Jefferson City social events, grape cultivation, hops, music theory and singing, the St. Louis and Keokuk Railroad Company, and Valentine's Day poetry. f. 25-27 1860s Missouri Home Guard. Written by Philander Draper with information on bushwhackers, Camp Jackson, Confederate sympathizers, the Harris Bill, Claiborne F. Jackson, Louisiana and Pike County, secession, slavery, and voluntary uniformed companies in the 1850s. f. 28 1870 Charles Clinton Draper's account book. f. 29-31 1870 Subjects include constitutional amendments and laws and legislation related to blacks, the Missouri General Assembly, railroad legislation, M. Clara Fletcher, grape cultivation, Hannibal, penitentiaries, and politics. f. 32-33 1871 Family correspondence with good wishes and advice on the marriage of Fannie McClurg to Charles Clinton Draper. Other subjects include iron and lead prospecting and mining in Missouri, Lewis College, St. Louis and Keokuk Railroad Company, teaching, and news about Louisiana, Missouri. f. 132 1871-1873 Charles C. Draper Diary, 6 January 1871-December 1873. Entries begin with a memorandum on the relations between the retiring governor, Joseph W. McClurg, and the new governor, B. Gratz Brown. Entries continue as Charlie leaves Jefferson City for Linn Creek, Missouri, with Governor McClurg and Joe McClurg. Diary contains notes and accounts concerning a mining business in partnership with Joe McClurg and with "2 silent partners" Records of work done, purchases, lead furnace capacity, employees, room and board, personal and family expenses. Charlie married Fannie McClurg in October 1871. f. 34-36 1872 Subjects include tariff reform and advice on mining and smelting from the South St. Louis Iron Company and the Meramec Pig Iron and Blooms, St. James. Assay reports on iron ore deposits with details on the properties, uses, and values. Descriptions of household furnishings, rag rugs, agriculture, and Linn Creek and Lebanon. f. 37 1873 Subjects include Missouri agriculture; iron ore properties, uses, mining, and smelting; quilts and quilting; and general news from Linn Creek and Louisiana. f. 38-39 1874 News of Lebanon, Linn Creek and Louisiana. Detailed information on varieties and cultivation of peaches, pears, plums, apples, blackberries, cherries, and other fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. Also details of a flower garden, general comments on Missouri agriculture, specifications for building a barn, and comments on poultry and iron ore smelting. f. 40-41 1875 Speech to "Brother Masons" by Philander Draper, comments on Christianity, plans for orchard, miscellaneous accounts, iron ore smelting, information on smallpox vaccine and descriptions of Colorado. f. 42-48 1876-1885 Correspondence re family news, measles, chicken pox, folk remedies, anti-Semitism, Christmas, Montana Territory, Colorado, railroads in the West, and Apache and Pueblo Indians. f. 133 1883-1885 Joseph W. McClurg Account Book for the "Steamer Emma." Purchases in account with F.G. Schoenen and Company from 19 September 1883-30 July 1885. A notation indicates that purchases for the Emma end on 19 June 1885. The last pages of the volume contain a cash account and list of stops and mileage for the Dakota Territory trip undertaken by McClurg, his son, Joe, his daughter, Fannie Draper, and her children. The journey lasted from 9 June to 16 July 1886. f. 49-56 1886-1887 The bulk of the correspondence is between Charlie Draper in Lebanon, Missouri, and Joseph W. McClurg, Marshall W. Johnson, and Fannie McClurg Draper in Dakota Territory. Subjects include overland travel; descriptions of wagon, tent, camp sites, food, and route to Dakota; life; living conditions in Dakota; sod house life; costs of goods and clothing; education of children; daily routines; Christmas; return of family to Missouri; family news of the Drapers; and Ute Indian War. f. 57 1888-1889 Description of a shivaree; earthquakes at Ferguson, Missouri; and education. f. 58-60 1888 Writings of Joseph W. McClurg on politics, religion, and temperance, with a history of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers, and origins of principles of democratic faith. f. 61 1890-1892 Information on training in wood carving, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the World's Fair Association and plans for the Missouri Building. f. 62-64 1892 Essays by Mamie Draper. f. 65 1893-1896 General family correspondence and program for the Lebanon High School, the Congregational Church, and the Knox Conservatory of Music, Galesburg, Illinois, where Mary (Mamie) McClurg Draper graduated. f. 66-68 1900-1904 Descriptive letter from Joe Draper in Nevada on Indians, Chinese, and living conditions. Letters at death of Joseph W. McClurg. Description of family Christmas in Colorado Springs from Edwin Draper. Prospects for mining in Alabama. f. 69-70 1905 Subjects include mining and smelting operations in Montana. Postcards of Clinton Spring, Louisiana, Missouri. f. 71-72 1906 Descriptions of Idaho and Montana which include mining and milling operations, hunting, and living conditions. f. 134 1906 Commemorative Booklet: 3rd Annual Meeting of the Pilot Knob Memorial Association on the 42nd Anniversary of the Battle of Pilot Knob, 26-28 September. Booklet contains lists of killed and wounded, map of the battlefield purchased as a national military park, list of contributors to the purchase, a tribute to Thomas Clement Fletcher, an address by Marion E. Rhodes, and a lengthy discussion of Confederate and Union losses. f. 73 1907 Draper family history; descriptions of Idaho, California, and Arizona, and Mojave and Chemehmoir Indians; family news from A.H. (Anna) Draper. f. 74 1908-1909 Descriptive letters from New Mexico; reference letters for Kate Draper upon graduation from Knox Conservatory of Music; Civil War reunion correspondence; and prospects for James and Joseph Draper, Draper Brothers Mining Engineering, Joplin. f. 75 1910-1913 Family news and mining information from Draper Brothers. f. 76 1914-1916 Subjects include McClurg and Draper genealogy. f. 77-78 1922-1929 Biography of Joseph W. McClurg, Draper family history, and news on Bagnell Dam, which caused the inundation of Linn Creek. f. 79-81 1930-1939 Biographical information on Fannie McClurg Draper by Kate Draper. f. 82 1941-1949 Kate Draper correspondence. f. 83 1950-1980 Hugh and Emma Phillips papers on land in Camden County. f. 84-86 n.d. Correspondence and fragments. Stories, Essays, and Histories Series
f. 87-88 Writings probably by Philander Draper, on temperance, morality, and legislation and amendments. f. 89 Writings by Philander Draper about Auburn in Lincoln County, Missouri, in 1840 and education in the 1820s. f. 90 "Farming in Missouri in Early Days" by Philander Draper. Descriptions of immigrants, hunting, tents, cabin construction, corn mills, tools, slavery, and peddlers, dating from c. 1815. f. 91 "Farming in Missouri in 1842" by Philander Draper. Similar to preceding folder. Information on living conditions, schools, tools, water sources, and stock raising. f. 92 Writings by Joseph W. McClurg on death, morality, and the literal construction of Biblical references. f. 93 Stories about a deformed orphan boy; "Uncle Tom, an old darkie"; and Grandma's ride on a baggage wagon. f. 94 "The Invisible Painter" by Angie Murdock. f. 95 "Battle of Pilot Knob" by Eliza A. Warner Praul. f. 96 "Generals I have Met" by Charles C. Draper. f. 97 "Dakota." A fictional account of Fannie Draper's 1886-1887 experience. C.C. Draper's record of Dakota land and list of improvements to sod house. f. 98 Charles C. Draper's comments on Jefferson City during the governorships of Fletcher and McClurg. f. 99 Linn Creek, Missouri, by Fannie Draper, 1910. Comparison of past and present after a visit. f. 100-101 Lebanon, Laclede County, Missouri. Post cards, clippings and typescript history with analysis of poverty, social conditions, schools, etc. Written after 1930; author unknown. f. 102 School paper--Emma Draper. f. 103 School papers--Kate Draper. f. 104 "Rearing a Family on Symphonies and Opera" by Kate Draper. f. 105 Governors and the Governor's Mansion of Missouri, by Kate Draper. f. 106 Statement by Kate Draper on the information she collected about her family and why. Tribute to her ancestors. Genealogy, Clippings and Photographs Series
Genealogy
f. 107 Obituaries and marriage announcements. f. 108 Draper family. f. l09-114 McClurg family. Includes information on Calohil Johnson (brother of Mary C. Johnson McClurg) family and biographies of Joseph W. McClurg. Clippings
f. 115-116 Joseph W. McClurg and Linn Creek. f. 117-118 Linn Creek and Bagnell Dam. Local history and post cards. f. 119 Clinton Spring, Louisiana, Missouri. f. 120 Pike County, Missouri. f. 121-122 Clippings and memorabilia, n.d. Photographs
f. 123 Fannie McClurg, late 1860s; Civil War carte de visite and portrait. f. 124 Family photographs. f. 125 Family photographs f. 126 Webb family. Joe Draper married Minna Webb. Photographs are of a ranch near Casper, Wyoming, and of Jamaica, British West Indies. f. 127 Cards for merchants, lawyers, real estate agents, and teachers in St. Louis, Louisiana, and Trenton, Missouri, and Iowa Point, Kansas, c. 1840s-1850s. Includes products and prices. f. 135-138 Farm Life f. 139-141 Vacation, Hunting, and Outdoor Recreation f. 142 Student Life, Girls', and Women's Education f. 143 Houses and Landscapes f. 144-145 Group and Miscellaneous Photos Elk Minstrels
f. 146 Playbills associated with the Elk Minstrels, and book: Snappy Black-outs, 25 revue sketches Addition
f. 128 located between folders 10 and 11 f. 129 located between folders 15 and 16 f. 130 located between folders 19 and 20 f. 131 located between folders 22 and 23 f. 132 located between folders 33 and 34 f. 133 located between folders 48 and 49 f. 134 located after folders 71 and 72 APPENDIX
INDEX TERMS
