People of Cole:

Native Americans, pioneers, politicians, athletes and leaders helped define the citizenry of Cole County and shaped the development of Mid-Missouri.

Native Americans, pioneers, politicians, trailblazers, athletes and leaders — Cole County has seen its share of variety among those who have called it home.

Before the first Europeans traveled this far east, the area was part of the Osage and Missouria tribes’ hunting grounds. And before them, the Mississippian and mound-builder people lived and hunted the forests and riverbanks.

The first white settlers in Cole County were 10 men and their sons establishing the Tennessee Colony in 1815. Later, they were joined by settlers from Virginia and Kentucky and Marion was born on the Missouri River near Moniteau Creek.

When people began settling Jefferson City in the 1820s, it had muddy trails for roads, modest log cabins for business, Indians for neighbors and wilderness out the back door. Water transportation was key and relied mostly on Indian canoes or keelboats. The average meal consisted of wild honey and proteins such as bear meat, venison, turkey and fish.

The first clergy to visit was Jesuit priest Charles De La Croix, who was aboard the first steamboat to pass the area in 1819, which stopped at Marion.

The first doctor, John Brown, was not a licensed practitioner and mostly patched the wounds caused by the liquor he sold at his place nine miles west of Jefferson City.

John Hensley, who settled north of Elston, was the county’s first tavern keeper and first senator. Daniel Colgan opened the first store in a stone house on the northeast corner of the present Capitol grounds.

Revolutionary War veteran John Gordon offered his log home at the northwest corner of Capitol Avenue and Jackson Street for county government meetings after the seat moved from Marion to Jefferson City in 1829. The carpenter was one of the three trustees to sell the first lots in the Capital City in 1823. And he was the owner of the first hotel, the Rising Sun.

Calvin Gunn opened the first newspaper, the Jeffersonian Republican, in town in advance of the first legislative session to gain the state printing contracts.

The first brick home in the county was built 1831-35 by Virginia settlers Dr. William and Sarah Bolton on Green Berry Drive overlooking the Moreau River.

German immigrants began arriving about 1840. Although Germans by far were the most naturalized in Cole County, the first were Canadians in 1835.

The county’s first murder trial that didn’t involve a guard at the Missouri State Penitentiary was in 1842. Didimus Burr, a 29-year-old carpenter, had fed his sick wife crushed glass.

During the Civil War, the county supplied about 1,200 Union troops, mostly home guards or state militia, and 600 Confederates, many because of the federal government’s illegal takeover of the state and not for secession. The county suffered about 400 casualties and about 250 deaths, including civilians.

Lincoln University, founded in 1866, drew prestigious individuals, like Josephine Silone Yates, future president of the National Association of Colored Women and the Women’s League of Kansas City, who joined the faculty in 1881. Nationally known thinkers Cecil Blue and Lorenzo Green were part of the Lincoln faculty in the 1930s. And Althea Gibson, the first African-American to win at Wimbledon in 1957, was tennis coach in 1954.

In 1867, Jefferson City had a population of 3,000, Russellville of 100 and Marion of 50. The county had 20 carpenters, 15 merchants, 12 each lawyers and physicians, 10 shoemakers and six blacksmiths.

Frank Miller designed the 1896 courthouse and was architect for its remodeling after the 1918 fire. As a partner with the Miller, Open and Torbitt firm, he also built the Greene County courthouse in 1909 and remodeled the Miller County’s in 1910.

Several community leaders emerged at the turn of the 20th century, as Jefferson City was threatened with the loss of the Capitol. English-Mormon immigrant Arthur Grimshaw was mayor and the first president of the Commercial Club while the first Missouri River bridge was built and then he was the first superintendent of the bridge company.

At this time, the county’s primary industry, after state government, was manufacturing, stock-raising, railroading, fruit-growing and general farming. Jefferson City also held five shoe factories producing 10,000 pairs a day, one of the largest publishing houses in the state and the largest saddle-tree factory in the world. The population was 80 percent white American, 9 percent immigrant and 11 percent black. About half of the people lived in the city and Russellville’s population was nearly 300.

The top crops in 1902 were corn, wheat and oats. And the highest livestock numbers were swine and cattle. At that time, Russellville and Centertown each had a newspaper, while Jefferson City had two English and one German-language.

Cole County lost 57 men and one woman in World War I. Harry Snodgrass, King of the Ivories, got his musical start as an inmate at the Missouri State Penitentiary performing in 1925 over the state’s WOS radio from the Capitol dome.

During the Spanish-American War, Cole County organized Company L of the 2nd Regiment Infantry Missouri Volunteers in May 1898, serving until March 1899.

The Carnegie Library, predecessor to the Missouri River Regional Library, opened in 1902. And the Cole County Medical Society formed in 1903. St. Mary’s Hospital, the first in the county, was dedicated in 1905.

The Jefferson City Mohawks black baseball team organized in 1921 and would sometimes play pick-up games with professional black teams traveling along U.S. 50 between Kansas City and St. Louis.

The first bridge to cross the Osage River from Cole to Osage counties was finished in 1922, 100 years after operation of Huber’s Ferry began.

During Prohibition, the Cole County sheriff made several raids, resulting in charges against law enforcement officers, a judge and a city alderman who were sent to Fort Leavenworth prison.

In 1924, the 42-acre Camp Maries was donated to the Boy Scouts by Charles Heinrichs and 4-H clubs were formed. The Girl Scouts organized the following year and Green Berry Acres campground was purchased in 1931.

The Cole County Home for Infirm, or the poor farm, began in 1925 and The Salvation Army arrived in 1928.

Missouri Highway 54 from Jefferson City to Eldon opened in 1930. And the Algoa Correctional Center opened in 1932.

In 1932, the Missouri State Penitentiary was the largest prison in the nation with 5,200 inmates. Musician Harry Snodgrass got his start playing in the inmate band, Boxer Sonny Liston improved his game as a prisoner in 1950 and James Earl Ray, who was convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr, escaped in 1967.

Although electricity came to Jefferson City in 1885, Three Rivers Electric Cooperative wasn’t formed until 1939.

Hometown athletes include University of Missouri Sports Hall of Fame basketball star Ron Coleman, PGA and British Open champion John Daly, and professional football players Mel West and Don Webb.

Lincoln’s star athletes include Harold Robertson, drafted to the LA Lakers, and Lorraine Graham, the first Jamaican woman to medal at the Olympics.

In 1984, the “City of Champions” erupted after Helias and Jefferson City high schools both won their state football division titles.

Today, the county population is nearly 77,000, up from 75,000 in 2010 and 71,000 in 2000.

Michelle Brooks is a former, award-winning reporter for the Jefferson City News Tribune. She enjoys telling the stories of the city’s past.