Missouri History Timeline

1850-1899: Civil War, Reconstruction and Massive Growth

1850: Town of Kansas is incorporated. It became Kansas City.

1852: Anheuser-Busch founded in St. Louis.

1853: Kirkwood founded as first planned suburban community in Missouri.

1855: Gasconade Bridge train disaster near Hermann.

1857: U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision against Missouri slave Dred Scott.

1857: Boonville’s Thespian Hall begins operation.

1857: Work on the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis begins.

1859: Braille is introduced in North America at the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis.

1860: Pony Express starts running from St. Joseph to Sacramento.

1861: Battle of Wilson’s Creek near Springfield.

1861: Governor Claiborne Jackson pushes for Missouri’s secession.

1861: Neosho is named the Confederate Capital of Missouri.

1864: Carthage Burned to the Ground.

1865: Wild Bill Hickok’s quick draw shootout in Springfield.

1865: Slavery is abolished in Missouri before the end of the Civil War.

1865: Missouri’s second Constitution was adopted.

1866: Lincoln University in Jefferson City is incorporated as an institution for black students in Missouri.

1867: The Missouri Woman’s Suffrage Club founded in St. Louis.

1870 – M. Lemma Barkeloo becomes the first female lawyer in Missouri.

1871: Phoebe Couzins became the first female law school graduate in Missouri. She matriculated from Washington University School of Law.

1872: Governor B. Gratz Brown moves into the new Governor’s Mansion.

1873: The first public kindergarten in the United States opens in St. Louis.

1874: Eads Bridge opens across the Mississippi River.

1875: Grasshopper plague ravages crops across Missouri.

1875: Missouri’s third Constitution is adopted.

1881: Governor Thomas Crittenden offers reward for the arrest of Jesse James.

1882: Jesse James is killed in St. Joseph by Robert Ford.

1891: One of America’s first skyscrapers, The Wainwright Building, opens in St. Louis.

1894: St. Louis Union Station opens.

1894: The American School of Osteopathy is founded by Dr. Andrew Still in Kirksville.

1899: “The Maple Leaf Rag” is published by Scott Joplin.