Confederate Memorial Park - Higginsville, MO - Missouri Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

County of Cemetery: Lafayette County
Location of Cemetery: E. Park Rd., inside Missouri Confederate Memorial State Historic Site, Jct. MO-213, busi. MO-13, & MO-20, 2 miles N. of Higginsville
Marker erected by: Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks

Marker text:
Confederate Memorial Park
This spot where you are standing was once a potato field farmed by the employees, and to a lesser extent, the residents of the Confederate Home. The Confederate Home Board requested the state legislature set aside 92 acres of the home's farm unneeded for food production as a memorial park dedicated to the valor of the Confederate soldier. Both houses of the legislature unanimously passed the enabling legislation.

Hillard Brewster, a landscape engineer from the State Penal Board, volunteered his time to help create the park. The response in the Higginsville area was profound. ON Feb. 28, 1925, the stores closed, the school dismissed, "...and after a parade through the main streets of the town bands of men and boys went on farm wagons, for the farmers were there too, dug up good big trees in the timber everywhere, for no body refused this privilege on their property. And some hundred trees were brought into the park, and planted on that rainy gloomy cold day."

"The spirits of every body were warmed, however, by the hot coffee and weiners, which the good women of the community had been preparing while the men toiled in the timber, and in digging holes for trees which were to be brought in."

Two generations afer the Civil War, a memorial park devoted to the valor of the Confederate soldier still evoked a powerful community reaction. Confederate Memorial State Historic Site today preserves this park as a continuing memorial to those Missourians and soldiers from other states who served in the cause of the southern Confederacy.

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[Newspaper clipping from the Higiinsville Advance March 6, 1925
Headline: MANY TAKE PART IN TREE PLANTING
Text too small fror me to reproduce]

[Newspaper clipping from Higginsville Advance, February 25, 1925]

HIGGINSVILLE INTO MOVIES
Farmers and Townspeople asked to take part in
Producing a Picture of the Town Friday in
Memorial Park Exercises   Friday, February 27, will be a gala day in Higginsville, as on that day, the town will break into the "Movies" in a manner that will give it the biggest piece of advertising it has ever enjoyed. Mr. Staston Wood, of the Pathe News, was here Tuesday making the necessary arrangements. The general idea is to have a reel showing every business house in the town closing and every one going in a body to Memorial Park where trees will be transplanted that will be brought from nearby woods. These pictures will be shown in six states, and there is a strong possibility that they will be shown nationally.
  Not only should citizens of the requested Friday morning, but farmers of the community are also requested to be here and take part in the movement. Farmers who can are requested to bring teams with wagons and hay frames for the purpose of hauling trees from the woods to the park. Every one with a team wh can should lend assistance.
  The camera man will commence working about 9:00 o'clock in the morning and will first take the Shoe Factory, showing all the employees leaving the building. Following this the Leaky Factory, the mill, then the [unreadable] School and will then begin with business houses at the south end of Main Street, showing the employees and population leaving their establishments and locking their businesses. The work will progress up the street, the crowd growing larger as the work progresses. The picture reel will, of course, show a continuous performance in the closing of the stores.
  From the business district the crowd will go to the Park where other pictures will be made during the day. Men are expected to don their work clothes, take picks and shovels with them and assist in moving trees, which have already been marked, from woods to the Park.
  A request has been made that no one park cars on Main Street during the hours the pictures are to be made, as the street will have to be kept free from cars.
  Every merchant is requested to display flags that day from the business houses. Many posses the large flags and all should display them.
  This is a great opportunity for Higginsville and every citizen should do his part in making the undertaking a big success, which it will be. Remember, that every citizen, and farmers from the surrounding country, are urged to be here and participate in the work and get in the picture.
  The Concordia Eagle will head a large delegation from that place and that hand will be here throughout the day and furnish meals.

Web link: [Web Link] History of Mark: In the decades immediately following the Civil War, Missourians expressed concern for the plight of their aging and ill Confederate veterans. In response, the Ex-Confederate Association of Missouri formed in order to build and maintain a Missouri Home for Confederate Veterans. They hoped to provide housing, food, and health care for Missouri’s Confederate veterans—a daunting prospect, especially considering they proposed to undertake the expense without the help of the state government. They felt that private funding would demonstrate popular “gratitude…and true sympathy” for the veterans without making “them a charge upon the public and a burden to the community.” Despite such idealistic rhetoric, the Ex-Confederates struggled to raise the funds necessary to begin work on the Home. In 1890, however, a group of women in St. Louis organized to adopt the project. They christened themselves the Daughters of the Confederacy and quickly launched an aggressive fundraising campaign on behalf of the Home. By hosting dances, picnics, and socials, they eventually raised $25,000—enough to purchase a site and begin construction. Thanks to the Daughters’ efforts, the Home formally opened on June 9, 1893. Nestled on prime Missouri farmland, the Home grew into a campus of thirty buildings, including dormitories, a chapel, and at least fourteen private cottages. There was also a cemetery and manicured park land. For the most part, however, the grounds remained open farmland, where the veterans raised crops and livestock. Not only did the residents produce their own food, but they also generated their own electricity and steam heat. In effect, the Home was an entirely self-sufficient community. Superintendent Capt. F. P. Bronaugh pronounced it “the grandest charity in the country.” Location below is the entrance to the park Additional point: N 39° 05.687 W 093° 43.128

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/20/2023 kJfishman visited it