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.
