USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 87
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Florence Fight .- In the battle near Marshall, in October, 1863, between the Union forces under Generals Brown and Ewing, and the Confederates under General Jo Shelby, the Confederates were divided and driven from the field in two bodies, one under
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FLORENCE VILLAGE-FLORY.
Shelby going west toward Waverly, the other, under Colonel Hunter and Major Shanks, retreating east. The latter body managed by traveling all night to effect its escape. Crossing the railroad near Syracuse, they advanced on Florence where they were received in the darkness by a volley of musketry from a small body of Federals; but, charging through the streets with a yell, the Confederates shot down all whom they encountered, and departed, leaving a dread- ful picture of death and lamentation behind them.
Florence Village .- A village, then ad- jacent to St. Louis, laid out by James S. Watson and Samuel D. South, April 20, 1853. It is now a part of the city, on the west side of Garrison Avenue, between Thomas Street and Cass Avenue.
Florida .- An incorporated village in Monroe County, twelve miles east of Paris and seven miles from Stoutsville, the nearest railway point. It was settled in 1831. The plat of the town was the first one filed in the county recorder's office. The village has the distinction of being the birthplace of Samuel L. Clemens, better known as "Mark Twain," the author. At one time Florida was the competitor of Paris for the county seat. It has a public school, two churches, a bank and about a dozen business houses including stores and shops of different kinds. Popula- tion, 1899 (estimated), 200.
Florissant .- The first settlement at Florissant-or, as it was called in early rec- ords, "Fleurissant"-was made soon after the first settlement at St. Louis. A Jesuit mission was established there by Father Meurin, and in 1793 a special lieutenant, with the military rank of captain, was appointed by Baron de Carondelet, Governor of Louis- iana, to act as military commandant at that place. In 1829 Florissant was incorporated as a town, but the charter was after a time allowed to lapse. It was again incorporated in 1843, and in 1857 was chartered as a city, under the name "City of St. Ferdinand." St. Ferdinand was the name given to the place by the Spanish colonist who drew the orig- inal plan of the village, and while "Florissant" is the name by which it has been commonly known, the corporate name of the city per-
petuates the intent of the founder as to its name. An Indian school was established there under the auspices of Bishop Dubourg, of the Catholic Church, in 1824, and the school thus established by the Jesuit Fathers, who came there from Maryland, was parent of the present St. Louis University. The novitiate of St. Stanislaus and other Catholic educational institutions have given Floris- sant more than local renown, and it is noted also as the burial place of many of the fathers of the Catholic Church in Missouri.
Florissant Valley Club .- This or- ganization was incorporated March 28, 1899, by the following named gentlemen: Arthur Lee, William McBlair, George W. Niedring- haus, George F. Steedman, Francis D. Hirschberg and Wilson P. H. Turner. The object of the club is to furnish its members a country home, convenient to St. Louis, where they may enjoy rural life and sports. The location of the clubhouse is admirably designed for its purposes, being situated on the old Lucas homestead, at Normandy Heights, in St. Louis County, just beyond the city limits. The old mansion has been re- modeled and made into commodious club quarters, while adjoining it the association owns some fifty acres of high, rolling meadow land. On this is located a fine golf link, a polo course and a large barn for the horses.
Flory, Joseph, railroad and warehouse commissioner, and late· candidate for Gov- ernor of Missouri, was born June 19, 1856, on a farm near Logansport, Indiana. His parents were Nathan and Elizabeth (Cuppy) Flory, who settled on government land in the State of Indiana about the year 1848, and continued to reside on the farm thus brought under cultivation until the death of the father, in 1866. The elder Flory was born near Dayton, Ohio, in 1824, and descended from a French family, planted in this country by three brothers, who came to America at an early period, one settling in Maryland, one in Virginia, and one in Pennsylvania. Jo- seph Flory belongs to the Pennsylvania branch of the family. His grandfather, whose name was Emanuel Flory, was born in Lancaster County, in that State, in 1775, and there married a Miss Kaggy, who was a native of Germany. Mr. Flory's mother,
Jour Juseph Flory
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whose maiden name was Cuppy, and who still resides in Indiana, was born in Tippe- canoe County, in that State. Her father was a native of Ohio, and her mother, whose maiden name was Oiler, was of Scotch ex- traction. Until he was seventeen years of age, Mr. Flory lived on his father's farm, and he obtained his education in the public schools of Cass County, Indiana. When he was seventeen years old he began his career as a railroad man, as brakeman on a freight train, running between Fort Wayne and La- fayette, Indiana, on the Wabash Railroad. After three years of training in this capacity he was promoted to conductor of a freight train and filled that position until 1883. In 1882 he was transferred to the Wabash line in Missouri, and the following year he was made a passenger conductor. From that date until 1894 he ran a passenger train on the Wabash road, between St. Louis and Kansas City, and when he resigned his posi- tion to enter upon an important political campaign he had been twenty years in the service of the Wabash Company. These had been years of faithful and efficient services, which had gained for him the high regard, not only of his superiors and associates in the operation of the Wabash road, but of the traveling public in general. His popularity as a railroad man, and his knowledge of rail- road affairs, caused him to be nominated, in 1894, for member of the Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners of Missouri by the Republican party, of which he has been a loyal and active member since he cast his first vote. It was to meet the demands thus made upon him that he resigned his po- sition with the railway company and entered upon a vigorous and effective campaign. For the first time in more than twenty years the ensuing election brought victory to the Re- publican party of Missouri, and Mr. Flory enjoys the distinction of being the only Re- publican ever elected to the office of railroad and warehouse commissioner in this State. As a public official he has been no less pop- ular and efficient than he was in the business to which he devoted all the earlier years of his life, and during the six years of his term of service, now drawing to a close, he has made an enviable record as a capable and faithful guardian of public interests, and a servant of the people whose integrity and up- rightness can not be questioned. A capable
business man, a genial gentleman and an ef- fective public speaker, he took an active part in political campaigns during his incumbency of the office of railroad and warehouse com- missioner, and some time before the political conventions for the year 1900 were held in Missouri he came to be regarded throughout the State as the strongest candidate the Re- publican party could nominate for Governor. When the convention of that party met in Kansas City, in May of that year, it paid him the very unusual compliment of nominating him for that high office by acclamation. The campaign which ensued was a memorable one, and one of the most hotly contested in the history of the State. Against Mr. Flory was pitted one of the ablest and most pop- ular Democrats which Missouri has pro- duced within the last quarter of a century, and one who had had large experience in public life. With an overwhelming majority to overcome, Mr. Flory determined to spare no effort to lead his party to victory, and he at once entered upon one of the most vigor- ous and judicious canvasses which has been made by any candidate for high office in the history of the State. He visited every por- tion of Missouri, met and mingled with the people, and discussed the issues of the cam- paign in a most forcible and convincing man- ner. The enthusiasm with which he was received by the masses of the people has hardly been equaled in any former campaign, and many incidents of the canvass will long be remembered by the people of the State. When the returns of the election were re- ceived it was shown that he had made large gains in nearly all the rural portions of the State, and that he had reduced the Demo- cratic majority from 43,000, in 1896, to 29,- 000, in 1900. A result more gratifying to Mr. Flory and his friends could not reason- ably have been expected, because the Demo- cratic majority was too large to be over- come, and the defeat of the Republican ticket was inevitable. This result showed, however, that Mr. Flory had made a most convincing appeal to the country people of the State, who favor good government and honesty in the conduct of public affairs, and indicated that under such leadership as his the Repub- lican party might look hopefully to the future. Mr. Flory's home is in St. Louis, and he is an active member of the Delmar Avenue Baptist Church of that city, as is
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FLYNN-FOLK.
also his wife. He is still a member of St. Louis Division, No. 3, Order of Railway Conductors, and is a past chief of that organ- ization. He is also a member of Lafayette Lodge, No. 15, Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Lafayette, Indiana, and affiliates with Masonic bodies as a member of Tuscan Lodge, No. 360; Kilwinning Chapter, No. 50 of Royal Arch Masons, and St. Aldemar Commandery of Knights Templar, all of St. Louis. On the 20th of June, 1876, he was married, at Lafayette, Indiana, to Miss Emma Johnson, who was born at Pittsburg, Indiana, in 1856, and is of Swedish descent. Of five children born to them, two sons and one daughter were living in 1900.
Flynn, Michael M., merchant and farmer, was born June 3, 1850, in Washing- ton County, Missouri, son of Michael Flynn, who came to this country from Ireland. His wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Missouri. The son was reared in his native county, and obtained a good practical business education in the pub- lic schools. All the earlier years of his life were passed on a farm, and he has always continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits. He has, however, been interested to a considerable extent with his brother in mercantile enterprises, and during the years 1898-9 was actively engaged in this business at Richwoods, Missouri. Since then, how- ever, he has devoted himself exclusively to his large farming interests, and his home is on a farm, of which he is owner, in Rich- woods Township, of Washington County. This is one of six fine farms belonging to Mr. Flynn, and he is numbered among the emi- nently successful agriculturists of southeast- ern Missouri. In all his farming operations he has given careful and intelligent attention to the conduct of a business which can only be made to yield proper returns through in- dustry, systematic effort and close calcula- tion. His methods and various experiments which he has made in different lines of farm- ing have not only contributed to his own success, but have been of great benefit to his brother farmers, and it is the feeling of his neighbors and friends that scarcely any man in Washington County would be so much missed as would Mr. Flynn, should he be re- moved by death or leave the county. He has always been a large employer of labor, and
in his intercourse with those sustaining this relation to him he has been courteous and considerate, and mindful always of their wel- fare. Kind to the poor, generous and open- hearted in his dealings with neighbors, he is in all respects a much esteemed and useful citizen. The extent to which he enjoys the friendship of all classes was demonstrated in 1892 and 1894, when he was elected county collector of Washington County on the Re- publican ticket, notwithstanding the fact that the majority of the voters of the county affili- ate with the Democratic party. While he has always been a member of the Republican party, he takes the common sense view that politics should cut little figure in filling local offices, and his support has usually been given to those whom he deemed best quali- fied to fill the office for which they were can- didates, regardless of their political affiliation. His influence has been far-reaching in the county in which he has passed all the years of his life, and his support of a candidate for office has usually insured the election of such candidate. In religion he is a Catholic churchman. Mr. Flynn was married to Miss Lavinia Vivian in 1878.
Folk, Joseph Wingate, circuit attor- ney for the city of St. Louis, was born Octo- ber 28, 1869, at Brownsville, Tennessee. His parents were Henry B. and Martha (Estes) Folk, both of Virginia ancestry. The father, a native of North Carolina, was an early set- tler in Tennessee, and was for many years a prominent lawyer at Brownsville, in that State. The mother was a native of Tennes- see, and a daughter of a large planter in Vir- ginia. Their son, Joseph W. Folk, began his education in the common schools of his na- tive State, and afterward pursued a liberal literary course at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. He completed his legal studies in the law department of Vanderbilt University, and was admitted to the bar in 1890. He was engaged in practice at Brownsville, Tennes- see, until 1892, when he located permanently in St. Louis, Missouri, and entered upon practice in civil and corporation law, which soon became large and important, and in which he represented leading commercial and financial firms of St. Louis. An active and uncompromising Democrat, he rose to prominence in the councils of his party, and was put forward as one of its most capable
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FOLK LORE OF MISSOURI.
and forceful exponents on the platform in Missouri and adjoining States. In 1898 he was elected to the presidency of the Jefferson Club, the most influential political organiza- tion in the West. In 1900, in the movement of a large element of responsible men who sought reform in the administration of local public affairs, through the nomination of an unexceptionable ticket, without solicitation upon his own part, he was nominated for the position of circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis. He was elected at the November election, and entered upon the duties of his office with fearlessness and a determined in- tention to effect, as far as he might, a prompt and impartial administration of law; and one of his first official acts was to procure the indictment of misdoers of the higher class, rather than of those less conspicuous in so- cial and political affairs. He is a member of the Second Baptist Church, and of the orders of Freemasons and Knights of Phythias. Mr. Folk was married, November 10, 1896, to Miss Gertrude Glass, daughter of Thomas E. Glass, a leading business man of Brownsville, Tennessee. She was liberally educated at the college in Brownsville, her native town.
Folk Lore of Missouri .- No country is as rich in folk lore as the United States, comprising, as it does, in its population, citi- zens and denizens of all nations and all clim- ates, of all religions and shades of religious belief. To this statement may be added an- other, that no State can claim superiority over Missouri in the abundance and variety of this material so precious to the ordinary student of human nature, as well as to his more scientific brethren, the ethnologist and anthropologist, who, of late years, have broadened the scope of their investigations and classified themselves as "folk-lorists"- collectors of the lore of the "folk." These "folk," eager for freedom and ambitious for prosperity, and guaranteed both by the State's wise laws, and variety of climate, soil, mineral and vegetable products, have come, literally, from the "four quarters of the globe." Beginning, after the red man had departed, with a population mainly French, Irish and English, with a dash, now and then, of Spanish and Indian blood, by de- grees were added German, Scotch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Swiss, Italian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Austrian, Russian,
Welsh, Japanese and Chinese inhabitants, each bringing with him the legends, songs, stories, superstitions and peculiar customs of his own land, while the negro, whether slave or free, spread the lore of his country among the white children, and the wandering Syrian and Gypsy lingered long enough in each community, and grew confidential enough over packs of cheap wares and palms crossed with silver, to leave at least as much of a mark as do the emigrants who carry in their garments the seeds of a wild flower from the meadows by the ocean, and leave them to bud and blow on the banks of a river of the plains.
"But all this is of a time long passed," it has been urged. "With the enlightenment placed in reach of all, by the public schools, by the railroads which really put it out of the power of the individual, or the community, to remain isolated, narrow, archaic or provin- cial, superstition and other beliefs in the supernatural have been remanded to the age that burned a witch or two every time a man's nerves were tweaked with neuralgia and a woman's gave way in hysterics under the stress of hardship, loneliness and home- sickness."
Can one rely on this statement ?
The matter-of-fact man of affairs, who be- gins to dress the right foot before the left, from invariable habit, and does not finish with the one before partly covering the other, may not be aware that he is perpetuating a "survival" of his black nurse's artless propi- tiation of the little demons (she calls them "booggers") of ill fortune ; but the fact is none the less a fact that he is, and his annoyance when he had to return for something after he had crossed the threshold of his door is not to be explained by the loss of a few sec- onds of time. It is also a survival of a "luck" superstition. He smiles indulgently when he observes the Italian fruit-vender at the cor- ner stand the leaden image of St. Joseph on its head when custom has been poor, and is equally lenient with the Chinese laundryman, burning a tissue-paper square, stamped with the outline of a pig, to appease any wander- ing devils that may be near. He excuses them to himself because they are recent ar- rivals. Perhaps he would not be so indulgent to his daughter, who is counting white horses and wagonloads of hay, or to his son, who is "divining," by a charm as old as Rome-
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FOLK LORE OF MISSOURI.
that is, by spitting in the palm of his hand and then smiting it with his thumb-which way his ball has flown among the weeds. Remembering his own youthful experiences, he might excuse the son who sells his warts, and the little girl who has her ring put on with a wish. He has already forgotten that
night before, to cure his sore throat by bind- ing around it the sock taken from his foot; that his Southern cousin insisted that a skein of red sewing silk should be used instead of the sock; that his French mother-in-law would fain have brewed him a tisane of herbs, boiled in rainwater caught on Easter Sunday. So great is the indifference to accustomed things that he paid no heed, in the morning, when his wife made a wish as she turned the garment she had accidentally donned wrong side out, and his sisters did likewise when they made the same remark simultaneously. As he steps into his car he jostles the gam- bler who walks four times 'round the table to change his luck, and the "curb-stone broker" who has a rabbit's foot in his pocket. He pays his fare to a man who turns silver in his pocket when he sees the new moon, and sits opposite the old lady who feels faint if she sees the new moon over her left shoulder, through brush, or through glass, but who asks aloud for " peace and plenty and the grace of God," if she views it over her right shoulder. As he steps from the car a pick- pocket flees from him because he has a slight case of strabismus. He orders lamb chops of a butcher who "hates to kill while the moon is waning, because the meat shrinks in the cooking and never gives satisfaction." At the door of his place of business he meets . a beaming office boy, who has touched a hunchback and expects a promotion in con- sequence. His clerk picks up a pin, saying, under his breath :
" See a pin and pick it up,
All that day you'll have good luck."
He finds that certain freight has been in- jured, and does not dream that the railroad employes are saying: "I told you so. A dying man was laid in that car. It's hoo- dooed." His colored porter has a twinge of rheumatism and complains to another porter that an enemy has "cunjered" him. A bore wastes our business man's time talking of the weather, and the two are agreed on but one point : both knew the past winter would be
severe, the corn husks were so unusually thick the season before-a weather sign bor- rowed from the Indians. Fortunately, the man was not present who forecasts the storm and shine from the breast bone of the wild goose-another Indian "dumb prophet."
In his mail is a bill from a carpenter who his New England cousin besought him, the ' knows that posts rot when set in the light of the moon ; boards spring from their places when nailed under the same unfavorable cir- cumstances, and shingles must be put on when Luna's horns are down; a bill from a dressmaker who will not cut out anything on Friday ; another from a milliner who will not alter anything on Monday; a note from a farmer tenant who plants tomatoes and all vegetables that have their harvest above ground, in the light of the moon, and pota- toes, turnips, and such as have their harvest under ground, in the dark of that over- worked luminary.
He goes home early because he has prom- ised to attend a wedding, where he will throw rice and old shoes, like an East Indian, mindful that rice-throwing means plenty for the new home, and unmindful that the old shoe typifies the subjugation of the bride, as does the whip at a Tartar bridal.
His wife knows, if he does not, that the bride should wear
Something old and something new,
Something borrowed and something blue.
and complete her toilet after she has given a last glance at the mirror, as did her Scotch ancestresses.
As the lady's family have Scotch forebears, it is probable that the house will not be set to rights as soon as the bridal party has de- parted. To sweep anything out of the house after dark is to sweep out prosperity for a year. For the same reason, the Irish house- maid will be careful not to throw out water after twilight.
Our business man was pleased, like the other guests, that the day was fair. "Happy is the bride that the sun shines on," is the oft quoted proverb he does not acknowledge he has respect for, though he owns he fears a bride's spirits may be affected by it. Perhaps he recalls the other line, "Happy is the corpse the rain falls on," and his thoughts stray back to a night through which he watched by the bier of a friend. Does he ask himself why he kept vigil with the inanimate clay in a room safe from all
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FORBIS.
intrusion? We can answer him. Because wakes and watchings are a survival of the outward expression of the belief, not of Gaelic nations only, but of others still more primitive as well, that the soul tarries near its unburied body, and devils lie in wait for an opportunity to carry it away and must be frustrated by the vigilance of friends.
The above examples of current supersti- tion might be multiplied, one is tempted to say, indefinitely; but, though interesting, they are not the most interesting branch of our subject, and, like the poor, we have them always with us, while swift and easy methods of transportation ("ye travell whych makes ye smoothe man with ye corners rubbed away"), the school curriculum which replaces the few lines of thought with the many, cheap and abundant newspapers, cheap theaters, the whole machinery of what we are accus- tomed to term cosmopolitan, is stamping out the myth, custom and ritual, the song, story and legend of strongly individualized peo- ples.
One class only of legends seems destined to endure, that which relates to apparitions. Every community has its haunted house, al- most every family has at least one member who owns privately, or publicly, to an expe- rience known physical laws can not account for. A belief in les revenants belongs to no time, no creed, no nation; it is as wide- spread as the world, as old as death and grief ; it seems destined to last till the obso- lete passions shall be remorse, horror, an- guish and yearning unspeakable.
For the touch of a vanished hand, The sound of a voice that is still.
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