The Place:
From the Wikipedia page for Saint Joseph, Missouri:
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St. Joseph (informally St. Joe) is a small city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri, United States. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County, Missouri. Saint Joseph is known for hosting the Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp every year at Missouri Western State University. It is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Buchanan, Andrew, and DeKalb counties in Missouri and Doniphan County, Kansas. As of the 2010 census, St. Joseph had a total population of 76,780, making it the eighth largest city in the state, and the third largest in Northwest Missouri. St. Joseph is located roughly thirty miles north of the Kansas City, Missouri city limits and approximately 125 miles south of Omaha, Nebraska.
The city was named after the town's founder Joseph Robidoux and the biblical Saint Joseph. The city is located on the Missouri River. It is the birthplace of hip hop star Eminem as well as the death place of Jesse James; it is also the starting point of the Pony Express. St. Joseph is also home to Missouri Western State University.
St. Joseph was founded on the Missouri River by Joseph Robidoux, a local fur trader, and officially incorporated in 1843. In its early days, it was a bustling outpost and rough frontier town, serving as a last supply point and jumping-off point on the Missouri River toward the "Wild West". It was the westernmost point in the United States accessible by rail until after the American Civil War.
The main east-west downtown streets were named for Robidoux's eight children: Faraon, Jules, Francois (Francis), Felix, Edmond, Charles, Sylvanie, and Messanie. The street between Sylvanie and Messanie was named for his second wife, Angelique.
St. Joseph, or "St. Joe", as it was called by many, was a "Jumping-Off Point" for those headed to the Oregon Territory in the mid-1800s. These cities, including Independence, and St. Joseph, were where pioneers would stay and purchase supplies before they would head out in wagon trains. The town was a very bustling place, and was the second city in the US to have electric streetcars.
Between April 3, 1860, and late October 1861, St. Joseph was one of the two endpoints of the Pony Express, which operated for a short period over the land then inaccessible by rail, to provide fast mail service. The pony riders carried additionally, along with the mail, a small personal Bible. Today the Pony Express Museum hosts visitors in the old stables.
On April 3, 1882 outlaw Jesse James was killed at his home, originally located at 1318 Lafayette, now sited next to The Patee House. In the post-Civil War years, when the economy was down, the hotel had served for a time as the home of the Patee Female College, followed by the St. Joseph Female College up to 1880. James was living under the alias of Mr. Howard. An excerpt from a popular poem of the time is: "...that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard has laid poor Jesse in his grave."
The Heaton-Bowman-Smith Funeral Home maintains a small museum about Jesse James. Their predecessors conducted the funeral. The museum is open to the public. His home is now known as the Jesse James Home Museum. It has been relocated at least three times, and features the bullet hole from that fateful shot. St. Joseph is identified by the slogan, "Where the Pony Express started and Jesse James ended."
Among properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are the Patee House, a former hotel now maintained as a museum of transportation, and the Missouri Theatre, an ornate movie palace.
St. Joseph's population peaked in 1900, with a census population of 102,979. This population figure is questionable, as civic leaders tried to inflate the numbers for that census.[10] At the time, it was the home to one of the largest wholesale companies in the Midwest, the Nave & McCord Mercantile Company, as well as the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, and the C.D. Smith & Company, which would become C.D. Smith Healthcare.
The Walnut Park Farm Historic District near St. Joseph was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
My commentary:
St Joseph is the home to Missouri Western University, and it is the summer training home of the Kansas City Chiefs. Mt. Mora Cemetery is a premier resting place for the historical figures of St. Joseph and is well worth a visit. Jesse James was murdered here in St. Joseph - the house he was killed in can be visited.
The Person:
From the Wikipedia page for Saint Joseph:
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Joseph is a figure in the canonical gospels who was married to Mary, Jesus' mother, and was Jesus' legal father. Perspectives on Joseph as a historical figure are distinguished by some persons from a theological reading of the Gospel texts.
Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Anglicanism and Lutheranism. In Catholic traditions, Joseph is regarded as the patron saint of workers and is associated with various feast days. The month of March is dedicated to Saint Joseph. Pope Pius IX declared him to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a happy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. In popular piety, Joseph is regarded as a model for fathers and has also become patron of various dioceses and places.
Several venerated images of Saint Joseph have been granted a canonical coronation by a pope. In popular religious iconography he is associated with lilies or a spikenard. With the present-day growth of Mariology, the theological field of Josephology has also grown and since the 1950s centers for studying it have been formed.