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1 b M E A C H A M P A R K : A H S T O R Y >-> ;

2 c > PROLOGUE Ths Bref Hstory of Meacham Park ends n Snce that tme there have been many changes, both n the lves of resdents and former resdents, and n the communty as a whole. Ths hstory was the wsh and desre of one man. The communty of Meacham Park and ts people were always foremost n hs mnd and he worked for ther beneft n many ways. Through the publcaton of ths book he hoped to gve the people and communty a sense of hstory, to draw them together, and gve them prde n ther hertage. NMEMORAM Wllam J. Jones L > * Rest n Peace, Bll Lonne Speer Garnet Thes / "V....»-

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4 b MEACHAM PARK: A HSTORY l by Lonne R. Speer n collaboraton wth Bll Jones & Garnet Thes appled for, 1998 Wedged among St. Lous County's southwest suburbs s a totally unque communty that has struggled snce the 1890s to preserve ts own hertage. 1 0 Bounded by the muncpaltes of Krkwood on the north and west, Crestwood on the east, and Sunset Hlls on the south, the communty of Meacham Park has been one of the few predomnately black communtes n hstory to resst urban renewal. ts strong ethnc dentty has been preserved and renforced through the years as other muncpaltes have ncorporated around t. n

5 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS / "A ntroducton Chapter 1 Early Hstory and Frst Resdents The Begnnng Early Black Settlers 1 Meacham Park's Founder 3 Meacham's Educaton 4 Busness Ventures 4 Meacham Famly Hstory 4 Namng of Meacham Park's Streets 10 Chapter 2 The Educaton Hstory The Communty's Schools 15 Some Notable Teachers 21 Communty's mpact Upon the Naton 22 Chapter 3 The Years of Growth s Growth of the Communty 28 Chapter 4 The Depresson Years to World War Mr. D.M. Powell 32 X Starts Baseball Team 33 Chapter 5 Early Cvc Clubs and Organzatons Needlework Guld 38 Women's Communty.Club 39 Meacham Park Fre Department 39 The Meacham Park Polce 40 The Amercan Legon 41 Chapter 6 Tmes of Change W.W. to the 1960s Communty Contnues to Buld 42 Problems ncreased 42 The Cleanup Campagn 43 The Gateway Center 44 Slowly, Progress Comes to the Communty 44 Meacham Park Clnc 45 Chapter 7 Meacham Park's Newspaper n Our Opnon Meacham Park's Communty Newspaper 46 Chapter 8 Sports n Meacham Park Professonal Boxng 47 L, Communty Boxng Team & Golden Gloves 47 Communty Represented n Many Sports 48 Drag Racng 48

6 Chapter 9 Later Cvc Programs and Organzaton SPROG,nc. 49 dub \_y Amvet Post #69 51 Crown Royals 52 Slowly Movng Forward 52 Chapter 10 Vetnam and ts mpact Upon Meacham Park The "Vetnam War 54 The Death of Udell Chambers 54 The Death of Robert L. Rodgers 54 Chapter 11 Modernzaton Arrves The 1970s and Beyond Progress Becomes Realty Housng Noted Cvc Leaders Dorothy Wallace Wllam J. (Bll) Jones Communty Contnues Movng Forward Chapter 12 Eplogue Pearce A. Dupree Wllam Speckert Bblography K J o XV 1

7 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 1 The Begnnng ^ The land whch would later became known as Meacham Park was orgnally owned by a ^ / John McLaughln, of St Lous, n the 1870s. By 1878, McLaughln had two buldngs on the 150- some acre area, but later sold t all. By 1892 the acreage, stll consstng mostly of farm land, had been splt n ownershp between two St. Lous famles: Chas. A. Baker and hs wfe, Mary; and Henry B. Seammel and hs wfe, Martha. On July 8,1892, the Bakers and Seammels sold ther land, totalng acres, to a real estate speculator by the name of Elzey E. Meacham, a 45 year old whte man who had just arrved n St. Lous from Memphs, Tennessee. Meacham and hs wfe, Lula, pad $33, for the ste. Meacham establshed a real estate offce at the rear of 1019 Chestnut Street n St. Lous and soon began to sub-dvde hs newly purchased west county land nto 25-foot lots wth a crsscross pattern of streets, provdng the street names hmself. On September 16,1892, the followng was recorded n the St. Lous County record books: " adopt ths as my subdvson 'Meacham Park', beng the S.E. quarter of Secton 12, Townshp 44, North Range of 5-East, n the County of St Lous and State of Mssour... sgned, Elzey E. Meacham." Today the orgnal plat drawng of the sub-dvson sgned by Meacham s on fle at the Engneer's offce n Krkwood Cty Hall, on whch Meacham proclamed "to henceforth be known and referred to as Meacham Park." Meacham began sellng lots on September 20 of that year. He sold two lots to Anne Byrne of St Lous County for $64 and two more lots to Anne Trent Leahy of St. Lous County for $60. He went on to sell lots to George F. Fares of St. Lous, Joseph LaMotte of St Clar County, llnos, Peter Byrne of St. Lous County, Phlp OToole of St Lous County, Jacob Schwegel, Jr. of St. Lous, Herman Bernds of St. Lous, and Catherne Ganley of St Lous. Others who quckly settled n the area were B.H. Laux, Lous Gardmann, Frederck Heland, and James and Edward Carr. Although Meacham sold a few lots to Whtes, most were sold to Blacks. n fact, t could be argued that He sub-dvded hs property nto smaller-than-usual lots n order that t could be more easly afforded by Blacks at that tme. Some lots were orgnally sold for $50. but the average prce was $15. A few, lke that sold to George Fares, went for as lttle as $10. Early Black Settlers One of the frst Blacks to settle n Meacham Park and to stll have descendants n ths area was Sandy Spears. The Argus Drectory of St Lous County of 1896 lsts Spears as a farmer resdng along Bg Bend Road n Meacham Park at Krkwood. u Spears rased ten chldren n ths communty. Accordng to hs daughter, Bertha Evans, Sandy was also a real estate broker for many years. n fact, the famly home that s located at New York and Shelby streets today was bult by money that Sandy made n hs real estate dealngs.

8 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 2 " remember growng up wth whte famles n Meacham," Bertha recalled, "and my father sold mlk to a lot of them. Everybody was very frendly then. We grew up together, black kds and whte kds. There were a lot of whte famles n Meacham then. remem- U ~. ber a whte famly named Rogers, and we played wth ther kds. Sure, we had fghts, but we always made up the next day. We used to go swrnrnng together n a creek n the summer, and n the wnter we'd skate on a nearby pond." Meacham Park was stll manly surrounded by open felds and forests at the turn of the century. ts streets were no more than drt paths and the area was sparsely populated. Another early resdent durng ths tme was Ed Smth and hs wfe, Molly. They, too, stll have descendants n the area. Ed Smth, whose nckname was "Tallow", was descrbed often n the wrtngs of George F. Heege n hs artcles about local hstory that appeared years later n the Krkwood Messenger newspaper. Smth was Heege's father's constant huntng companon, and keeper and caretaker of Heege's huntng dogs. The hounds were kept n a pen at Smth's home n Meacham Park. Ed Smth was descrbed as beng black, partally bald, havng a stocky buld, a cheerful dsposton, and beng a wonderful story teller. Heege wrote: "He would st for hours n the ktchen wth us chldren and descrbe a chase, a fox hunt, a coon hunt, a poltcal rally, or how, one tme when the tran faled to stop at south Krkwood, he hopped off and fell, dggng hs arm nto the cnders." Smth owned a mule team and an old wagon and was often hred by Krkwood resdents to haul away trash. He also rased hogs at hs place. Q Hs wfe, Molly, was descrbed as appearng much younger than Ed, lght colored, slm, and as havng kept ther two-room cabn n Meacham Park neat and tdy. Smth often accompaned Heege to poltcal meetngs and county conventons. About Smth, Heege wrote, "... he was observant to a degree that approached a scence. He could descrbe personaltes, catalog characters, and... (although he could not partcpate)... predct electons wth uncanny accuracy." Ed Smth, accordng to Heege, was well-known and well-respected wthn all of the communtes surroundng Meacham Park. He remaned a popular fgure n ths area for many years. 1 g Sara Ann Walker Campbell and her husband, John, were also well-known early g resdents of the area. Sara was born n March of 1865 n Cole County, Mssour. She mar- J red John Campbell n 1903 and n that year they began to buld a house n Meacham Park. Ther home was bult on a hll at Tolstoy and Chcago streets and ths area soon became f known as Campbell Hll. J ^ j For many years the chldren of the communty were qute famlar wth that hll. t became a place for sled rdng n wnter and nut-pckng n the fall. Meanwhle, Mrs. Campbell often handed out cookes to the chldren who gathered there. a l

9 c EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 3 Many years later, Sara worked for the H.M. Young famly, long-tme resdents of Krkwood, and remaned n ther employment for qute some tme. Although her husband ded many years before, Sara ded n Aprl, 1969, just short of her 94th brthday. She had enjoyed qult makng and embrodery for many years, and today many of her creatons have become przed possessons by many resdents throughout St. Lous County. When the Campbells moved here t was a rural communty and farmng was the general rule. They began by rasng hogs, chckens, and plantng gardens. Chances are John and Sara knew Ed and Molly Smth as well as Sandy Spears and hs famly. Many others who lved n ths communty as farmers at the tme ncluded Moses P. Spears, Lott and George Baley, and Georga Brown. Other early resdents who came to settle n the communty ncluded George Allen, Austn Davdson, the Hannah, Ellngton, and Yancy famles, and Bobo Walrys. Meacham Park's Founder As settlement of Meacham Park contnued, and urbanzaton of the surroundng communtes began to crowd ts borders, nformaton about the founder became lost n hstory. Controversy and confuson about the actual founder and hs background contnued untl recent years. Now after several years of research we can set the record straght. Q Elzey Eugene Meacham was born November 20,1848, on the old Meacham estate n Memphs, Tennessee. He was the son of M.L. Meacham, a poneer cotton factor and wholesale merchant n Memphs, and Martha Galbreath Meacham. Elzey was one of four chldren. He had one brother, Majors Lous Meacham, and two ssters, Anne and da. Hs brother, M.L. (Majors Lous) Meacham, marred the former Emma Fontane, a member of a well-to-do Memphs famly. Her parent's home, The Fontane House, has been restored n Memphs by the Assocaton for the Preservaton of Tennessee Antqutes. t can be seen at Vctora Vllage, a cluster of restored nneteenth-century homes on Adams Avenue n downtown Memphs. The Fontane House, a French Vctoran manson bult n 1870 and furnshed wth perod antques, s one of three homes open to the publc at the Vllage, but s the only one rumored to be haunted! People have reported the feelng of someone or somethng unseen walkng up and down the stars behnd them n the Fontane manson. Curators of the house also clam that often an upstars bedroom suddenly becomes unnaturally cold and the bed there appears as f someone has been lyng or sttng on t. O Elzey Meacham's sster, Anne, marred a Mr. McCallum and was sad to have been very beautful. On the occason of a vst to Memphs by Brtsh author Oscar Wde, t s sad that he referred to her as "the magnola of the South." da Meacham marred Wllam Stewart from Londonderry, reland. Mr. Stewart

10 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 4 was frst cousn to the owners of what was once known as "Hstorc Oak Alley" n Memphs. da's father bult a house for the couple next to the Meacham famly home and gave t to da and Wllam as a weddng gft. ^ / The Meachams and Stewarts lved on Unon Street. The neghborhood, then called the "Slk Stockng Ward," was a secton of magnfcent homes n the exclusve resdental area of town. Ths area, where many sad "houses were spacous and the lvng was gracous," was occuped by the most wealthy, nfluental famles of Memphs. Today, however, as so often happens as tme passes by, these homes have been gradually razed over the years and the area s now referred to as "automoble row" where car dealershps are abundant. The da Meacham Stewart home survved untl When the sale of the house was made, for demolton, a clause provded that da's daughter, Martha, who was stll lvng n the home at the tme, could reman there "untl the rose garden bloomed once more n the sprng of that year." Meacham 1 s Educaton Elzey Meacham receved all or a porton of hs educaton at the Kentucky Mltary nsttute, whch s no longer n exstence. Col. James Darwn Stephens, presdent and curator of the nsttute's records, KM, nc., has advsed that over the years, a total of fve fres at the school destroyed many of the records pror to the year He can, however, confrm that Elzey E. Meacham dd attend the school n 1867 and s Bographcal sketches obtaned from the Memphs Publc Lbrary and the Memphs \*> tess-scrntar smply state that he was "educated at the Kentucky Mltary nsttute. " Busness Ventures Meacham went nto busness wth hs father around 1869 and s lsted n the Mem- phs cty drectory of that year as a clerk wth the company of Meacham and Tread well. Upon hs father's death years later Meacham went nto the real estate busness and was mmedately successful. Lce many men of ths era, he amassed a small fortune specu- latng n undeveloped land. Meacham, however, was one of the frst men to become nterested n suburban development and speculaton, creatng several of what are now subdv- f sons n south Memphs. 1 n fact, Meacham used many of the same street names n south Memphs that he later used n Meacham Park. These nclude Saratoga, New York, Orleans, and Aldrdge. And smlar to Meacham Park, the subdvsons are located a short dstance from ralroad * tracks wth streets lad out n a crsscross pattern. 1 Meacham Famly Hstory / > Meacham marred a socalte debutante, Mss Lula Glchrst, from Panola County, \ J Msssspp. Lula was the granddaughter of John S. McGehee, one of the orgnal poneers

11 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 5 of the county. The town of Panola no longer exsts today, but ts orgnal ste was one mle north of Batesvlle, along the Tallahatche Rver just nsde the county of Panola. ^ / Lula was ten years younger than her husband and she remaned actve n ther socal lfe and n the busness world untl the brth of ther frst chld, a son named Malcolm, on August 9,1884. Shortly thereafter, they left Memphs for Lousvlle, Kentucky, where Meacham was agan successful n suburban real estate speculaton. t was after the Lousvlle venture that Meacham proceeded to St. Lous to do the same. Here he purchased the acreage later to be known as Meacham Park as well as a tract of land that s today located on the west sde of Lndbergh just north of Hghway 40 n Frontenac. t, too, s a predomnately black neghborhood. Whle he was n the St. Lous area, Meacham lved and worked from a small offce at the rear of 1019 Chestnut Street n St. Lous, contnung to mantan hs permanent resdence n Memphs. By 1899, probably hs last year n St. Lous, he was workng out of an offce at the rear of 1021 Chestnut but resdng at the Hotel Beers, whch was located on the northwest corner of Grand and Olve. ^^/ By 1900, Meacham had left St. Lous leavng very lttle documented nformaton about Meacham Park after that. t has been handed down for generatons that a whte man named George Angles appeared n the area sometme between 1900 and 1904 representng hmself as a real estate broker, buyng and sellng unttled land to Blacks for a whle before the truth was dscovered. Research has been unable to confrm or deny that story. What s known s that the orgnal street names plotted out by Meacham for hs subdvson are stll n use today, except for four: Meacham Street was orgnally named Brooklyn, Aldrdge Street was orgnally Arcada, Handy Street was orgnally named Frscoe, and Spears was orgnally Boston Street. One d the area's s few remanng orgnal documents bearng the sgnature of Elzey E. Meacham was possessed for many years by long-tme resdent Luclle Johnson. The sgnature was on a deed for the property at 341 New York Street Meacham sold ths lot on July 17,1894, to Frederck Heland, a German, who later sold the property to a Herman C Darkow. Years later, Darkow sold the lot to a Mr. and Mrs. Hubert. Ths property was purchased from them by Luclle Johnson n Although ths property has a long hstory traceable by ths deed, today t s a vacant lot n the 300 block of New York Street. Asde from ths, few documents exst explanng any hstory of Meacham Park between the 1900s up to the 1930s. The founder, on the other hand, can be traced. ^ Sometme between 1900 and 1903, Meacham and hs famly, whch now ncluded a teenage son, gave up ther resdency n Memphs and moved to New York. Meacham's name appears n the 1903 yearbook of the 5th Avenue Presbyteran Church there, along

12 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 6 N wth hs wfe, Lula, and son, Malcolm. Later, n 1926, Meacham transferred to the Collegate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church n New York. There s no reason gven for the transfer n membershp; however, there s speculaton that he may have been nterested n Dr. Danel A. Polng, mnster of the Collegate Reformed from 1923 to Dr. Polng founded the Chrstan Endeavor Movement. Dr. Polng's son, Dr. Danel K. Polng, advsed that the name of Elzey Eugene Meacham s famlar to hm, but there s no record of hm n hs father's papers. n New York; Meacham establshed the real estate frms of E.E. Meacham and Son and the Meacham Realty Corporaton. The famly lved at 320 Central Park West n New York Cty and later moved to 830 Park Avenue, whle developng many propertes n the New York Cty suburbs, partcularly n Long sland and New Jersey, agan plottng hs streets out n a grd pattern and usng names famlar to Meacham. Meacham s sad to have orgnally gone to New York wth Memphs fnancer, Barron Coller, and together they nvested heavly n south Florda real estate. (J Coller had been born n Memphs on March 23,1873, and was later nvolved n the advertsng busness n the cty untl n that year he left for New York and wthn a few years was lsted n "Who's Who n Amerca" as a captalst, but he was a man of many nterests. Coller was prmarly known to the publc as a leader n the feld of street-car advertsng, a dstncton he held from 1900 untl hs death n 1939, after he came up wth the dea of placng advertsng placards n streetcars and, later, subway cars. He later had fnancal nterests n hotel chans, ralroads, bus lnes, several banks, newspapers, a telephone company, a steamboat lne, varous farmng operatons, and he owned Luna Park at Coney sland, Brooklyn. He and Meacham both had wnter homes n Florda, and Coller became promnently dentfed wth the development of the lower west coast secton of the state. Coller' became the largest land owner n Florda, possessng thousands of acres n Coller County, whch was named after hm n 1923, and s beleved to have encouraged Meacham to purchase land n that area also. By dranng swamp land n the Everglades, Coller developed much of the Florda property and encouraged others to nvest n hs ventures. He bult country clubs and resorts on many slands off the coast Present-day Goodland, Florda, n fact, was orgnally named Coller Cty. Upon Coller's death n March of 1939, hs Horda nvestments alone were estmated at over $16,000,000. j Because of Coller's nvestment ventures n the area, and of hs encouragement of others to do the same, the nterest n Florda's Everglades land exploded all across the * country. By the md-1920s, the trustees of the Glchrst admnstraton, whose very name may well have been nfluenced by Meacham hmself, n honor of hs wfe's maden name, boasted that where there had once been only twelve land owners, there were now 15,000. m One of those s beleved to have been E.E. Meacham. 1 w ' t s known that Meacham spent consderable tme n Florda and had a wnter (

13 EARLY HSTORY ahd FRST RESDENTS, pg. 7 home n Mam. t s beleved that because of hs close relatonshp wth Coller, Meacham nvested to some extent or another n the swamp land projects. Coller had been nstrumental n the constructon of the famous Tamam Tral, that great roadway project that ran across the Everglades from Mam to Tampa, whch took fourteen years to complete. Although Meacham's name s not mentoned n any hstorcal accounts of the buldng of the Tamam Tral, hs descendants clam he was nvolved wth ts endeavor. Research does ndcate, however, that Meacham was probably fnancally nvolved wth that project and owned land along ts route. n fact, as late as 1937 there was a town named Glchrst n south-central Charlotte County, just north of the Lee County lne. Today, Glchrst s a ghost town and approxmately one mle south of t, just nsde Lee County, the actual town of Tamam once exsted. The Tamam Tral, by the way, was qute an nterestng accomplshment. t was frst conceved by Captan J. E Jaudon, a developer havng land holdngs at several dfferent locatons n south Florda. A rough road was begun n 1916 that extended west from Mam for about sxty mles, but the project had to be abandoned when World War began. After the war, Barron Coller became nvolved. He lned up fnancal backers for the project, advanced money of hs own, and encouraged everyone to complete the route. o Semnole ndans had to be used as gudes for the frst surveyors. Slowly they hacked ther way wth axes and machetes whle crews lad gravel n layers to buld up a roadway upon the bedrock that was uncovered beneath the swamp muck. Lttle by lttle the new roadway contnued to stretch across Florda's Everglades n nearly a straght lne. Wth enough good days, the roadway progressed at a rate of two mles a month. t wasn't unusual for ther heavy machnery to snk out of sght n the mud. Workers ded from snake btes, fever, drownngs, and dynamte explosons, but fnally, n 1928, at a cost of 13- mllon dollars and 3-mllon pounds of dynamte, the route between Mam and Tampa was completed. t has been haled as one of the most remarkable engneerng feats ever. Today, U.S. Hghway 41 out of Mam follows the route of the orgnal Tamam Tral, poneered by a host of nvestors ncludng Elzey Meacham. That road, of course, greatly ncreased the value of everyone's land holdngs n the area and made possble all future development as tme went on. But Meacham soon learned that beng born nto wealth and lvng an affluent and successful lfe was no armor aganst loss and gref. Two of hs chldren ded n nfancy. A son, Eugene Elzey, baptzed on Aprl 6,1889, ded on September 24,1889, as dd a daughter around Both are bured n the famly plot at Elmwood Cemetery n Memphs. On March 23,1920, Meacham's wfe, Lula, ded after a bref llness. She was 61 years old. Ther only survvng chld, Malcolm, met a tragc death at the age of 44. c Malcolm had graduated from New York Unversty n 1907 pror to gong nto the realty busness wth hs father. They had a realty offce at 15 Park Row n New York and another offce n Florda. n addton, Malcolm had a fre-nsurance sales offce at 30 Madson Avenue n New York, was a vce presdent of the Palm Beach Natonal Bank and a

14 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 8 member of the Everglades and Palm Beach Yacht Club, n Florda. n January 1925, Malcolm had marred the former Dorothy Hurt, daughter of Mr. % and Mrs. Harry A. Hurt of 124 West 55th Street n New York. To ths unon a daughter, c Marjore, was born. Malcolm contnued to prosper n the real estate and fre nsurance busness, but n early 1929 he became ll and began sufferng from dzzy spells. Durng the early mornng hours of March 13,1929, Malcolm was found dead on the sdewalk n front of 55 East 72nd Street. New York polce attrbuted hs death to an accdental fall from hs apartment on the eleventh floor of that buldng. Hs wfe, Dorothy, and ther three year old daughter, were asleep n the apartment at the tme and were awakened by polce wth the shockng news. Durng the nvestgaton, polce learned of Malcolm's ll health and the dzzy spells. They determned by the evdence present, that Malcolm, sufferng from one of these spells, went to the wndow for fresh ar and lost hs balance. (Years later Meacham's granddaughter, Marjore, would suffer through another tragedy. She marred a Mr. Dunn, to whch three chldren, two sons and one daughter, were born. One son, Elzey's great-grandson, drowned off Peacock Pont, Long sland.) Deeply saddened by the loss of hs wfe and then hs son, Elzey hmself began sufferng ll health and moved to Mam where he lved n retrement He ded there, at the Kellogg Sanatorum, on February 10,1931, at the age of 82. Hs nece, Martha Stewart, was f x wth hm at the tme of hs death and accompaned the body back to Memphs on the ^ / Frsco Ralroad for bural. On the followng Frday, February 13, funeral servces were held n Memphs for Elzey Meacham at the home of hs sster, Mrs. da Meacham Stewart, on Unon Street. He was bured at the famly plot n hstorc Elmwood Cemetery, alongsde hs nfant son and daughter, wfe Lula, and son Malcolm. The entre Meacham famly had always been nvolved n communty affars. Along wth hs other fnancal nterests, Elzey Meacham's father, M.L. Meacham, had founded the Unon and Planters Bank and Trust Company of Memphs and had been deeply nvolved n hs church. He went on to nspre nterests of cvc concern and nvolvement n hs chldren and other generatons of the famly that followed. Elzey's brother, Majors Lous Meacham, was well known for hs nterests and nvolvement n the development and buldng of Memphs, and for hs deep love of anmals. n fact at one tme he was referred to as a "one-man humane socety" of the cty. Majors ded on December 11,1936, just a lttle over a month after sster, da, ded on November 4, Mrs. Catherne Meacham, wfe of Elzey Meacham's nephew, Fontane Meacham, for many years was the Fashon Edtor of the Memphs Press-Scmtar. Her communty con- cern was evdenced by her contnued nterest and support n the LeBonheur Chldren's Hosptal and the Los Passees Treatment Center for Cerebral Palsed Chldren. ^ ^/

15 c EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 9 Another tem of nterest s that Elzey Meacham's great-granddaughter was named "Debutante of the Year" when she was presented to New York socety n md-1970; an honor equal to that receved by'her great-grandmother, Lula, many years before n Panola County, Msssspp. Elzey Meacham hmself was qute nvolved n communty affars. Whle he prospered n the realty busness, Elzey Meacham bult more than twenty churches out of hs own generosty, even provdng the frst few years of the mnsters' salares and other church expenses from hs own pocket. He was also known to have bult churches of several dfferent denomnatons n some of the same subdvsons. At the tme of hs death he was stll supportng three churches whch he had bult on Long sland. Elzey Eugene Meacham was a lfelong Presbyteran. Hs former daughter-n-law Dorothy, who has snce remarred several tmes, wrtes that Elzey was n hs late 70s when she marred hs son Malcolm n 1925, and she never had the opportunty to meet hm. However, she was aware that Elzey was very much nvolved n church and was a deeply relgous Scotch Presbyteran who was very sympathetc to black people and ther problems. The Namng of Meacham Park's Streets G Elzey Meacham named the streets n Meacham Park when the sub-dvson was platted n Knowng that he had a great nterest ard concern for Blacks, and gven the fact that the sub-dvsons he developed n other ctes are also predomnately Black, t appears as though he had some knowledge of Black Hstory and the contrbutons they had made n Amerca up to that tme. n some cases the street names relate drectly to Black Hstory whle n other cases the names relate ndrectly, n a somewhat abstract manner. Of course there are no wrtten records to substantate ths, so n the ndrect cases we are only speculatng what could have been n Meacham's mnd when he gave the streets ther names. The crsscross pattern of streets marked out by Meacham wthn hs sub-dvson created an area eleven blocks long and four blocks wde, thus the sub-dvson he created contaned thrteen streets (orgnally). An nterestng fact to consder s that when the Unted States was created t contaned thrteen colones. That fact seems nothng more than concdence untl realzng that Meacham's frst east-west street south of Bg Bend has a name derved from the Revolutonary War. Attucks s the name of the frst east-west street south of Bg Bend Road. Created after Meacham's orgnal plat drawng, t was probably named n trbute to Crspus Attucks, the frst man to fall n the Amercan Revoluton. O Attucks s beleved to have been a runaway slave from the Framngham, Massachusetts, area around He later took to the hgh seas as a salor on a whalng vessel. But, around 9:00 P.M. on March 5,1770, hstory found Attucks n the foreground

16 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 10 G of an angry crowd whch had assembled n front of the Custom House n Boston. Members of ths crowd yelled at and threatened the Brtsh solders who were statoned there. As the crowd became more angry, the "red coats" lowered ther bayonets and at once were pelted wth snowballs, chunks of ce, and an array of stcks and stones, durng whch the order to "FRE" was gven. The frst to fall was Crspus Attucks, undoubtedly one of the few Blacks n the crowd. A whte man named Samuel Gray ran to Attucks' ad and was, hmself, shot and klled. By the tme the Brtsh solders wthdrew, fve "rebellous Bostonans," as they called them, were dead, and a half dozen others had been wounded. Attucks, klled by a Brtsh bullet n what became known as the Boston Massacre, was the frst man to de n the cause of Amercan freedom! New York, today south of Attucks, was orgnally Meacham's frst east-west street south of Bg Bend. Ths street name mght possbly be n trbute to the fact that New York was where a Frenchman named Elas Nau establshed the frst school for Negroes n t was also where the frst Afrcan Free School was opened on November 1,1787, and was the frst state to abolsh slavery, on July 4,1827. Meacham, of course, s named n memory of the founder, Elzey Meacham, but the orgnal name for ths street when platted n 1892 was BROOKLYN and may have been n trbute to Brooklyn, llnos, one of the frst "Negro towns" n the Unted States, havng been platted n O Because of the ncrease n ctscrrnnaton, some Blacks sought a measure of ndependence and self-government by formng ther own towns. Ths town was orgnally platted as Brooklyn by fve whte men n 1837 but the name was changed to Lovejoy, n honor of the martyred aboltonst edtor, Eljah P. Lovejoy, when the town was ncorporated n The town name was soon changed back to Brooklyn but the post offce has been known as the Lovejoy branch ever snce. By 1900, Brooklyn's populaton had grown to over 1,900, only ffty of whch were whte. 1 m Saratoga s the next east-west street and s beleved to have been named n honor of a major battle n the Amercan Revolutonary War n whch black solders partcpated and, n many cases, were honored heroes. Out of a total combat force of 300,000 men, approxmately 5,000 black solders saw servce n ths war. n fact, enlsted Blacks represented each of the 13 colones..- {_ There were several Blacks honored as heroes at Bunker Hll and at Stony Pont, as well. Generally they fought n ntegrated unts but there were a number of all-black regments such as those n the Battle of Rhode sland on August 28,1778, when 400 Blacks held off 1500 Brtsh solders. And a hghly decorated unt of Revolutonary War solders known as "The Black Regment" dsbanded on June 13,1783, at Saratoga, New York. _ J

17 c EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 11 Alsobrook s the next east-west street, south. The sgnfcance of ths name to hstory or to Elzey Meacham s unknown but Meacham used t several tmes n hs suburban developments, ncludng the frst one n what s today south Memphs. The name does, however, appear several tmes n the Memphs cty drectory and may have been chosen as a street name by Meacham n honor of some poneer black resdent n one. of hs frst sub-dvsons or was someone he knew n some other way. Electrc s the next block south, and although the electrcal age was n ts nfancy n the 1890s, Meacham may have known about Lews Howard Latmer, a Black who worked wth Thomas Edson. Latmer was born n Boston n 1848, served n the Gvl War and afterwards worked as as offce boy n a company of patent lawyers. He rose to the poston of chef draftsman for the frm. By 1876 he was an expert electrcal engneer, held varous jobs, and n 1884 joned the engneerng saff of the Edson Electrc Lght Company. Latmer worked for Edson for many years, becomng the only black member of the famous Edson Poneers. L } Aldrdge s the next block south and was orgnally named Arcada by Meacham. Arcada smply means a regon of smple, quet contentment and probably referred to what Meacham had n mnd for hs newly-formed subdvson. Later ths street was renamed Aldrdge n honor of ra Frederck Aldrdge, a black Amercan actor who was very popular and enjoyed great success n Europe n the md-1800s. He was one of the great Shakespearean tragedans of hs tme. Aldrdge was born sometme around 1805 n New York Qty, the son of a freed slave who had become a preacher. n preparaton for an actng career, Aldrdge studed n England at the Unversty df Glasgow and made hs debut n Othello n 1826 at the Royalty Theatre n London. He went on to make appearances n Dubln, the Englsh and rsh provnces, Germany, Swtzerland, Sweden, the Unted States, and made many other tours. He remaned qute popular well nto hs career, as late as 1867, when he ded on tour n Russan Poland. Chcago s the next east-west street and s so named to gve trbute to the fact that Chcago, llnos, second largest cty n the Unted States, was founded by a Black, Jean Baptste Ponte DuSable. Cj' DuSable was born n St. Marc, Hat, of mxed French and Negro parentage. Hs father was a prate and hs mother was a stolen slave from a Dansh plantaton n St. Crox. DuSable's parents had settled n Hat where hs mother could reman free.

18 u EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 12 DuSable attended school near Pars, France, and later left to seek hs fortune n the New France of the New World, Lousana. Whle n New Orleans DuSable became fearful of becomng mstaken for a slave, so he ventured nto the nteror of ths new land and eventually arrved n St. Lous. For a tme DuSable lved wth the llnos ndans, learned ther customs and lfe style, and proceeded north to the shores of the Great Lakes, workng for a tme for the Brtsh governor of the regon. m DuSable then met a beautful ndan grl of the Potawatom trbe, marred her, and settled n an area of unsettled wlderness that the ndans called Eschkagou, or sometmes smply Chkagou. DuSable bult a tradng post, and slowly t prospered. Then he bult a new fve-room house at the ste whch became the area's frst permanent home. Hs marrage produced the frst recorded brth n the new settlement. Soon, through DuSable's efforts and the fact hs tradng post became known as the best between St. Lous and Montreal, a lttle cty grew around hm whch n tme became the second largest n the U.S. t s sad that for a long tme the ndans n the area were known to often joke, "The frst whte man n Chkagou was black."' DuSable, by the way, returned to the St Lous area years later where he remaned untl hs death n He s bured n St. Charles, Mssour. V Memphs s the next block south. Meacham was qute partal to hs home town of Memphs where he was born and rased. Undoubtedly the street s named, at least n part, n honor of that cty but also recognze that durng the Cvl War the Unted States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) were actve n many battles, one of whch was the Battle of Memphs where several Blacks won the Congressonal Medal of Honor. n all, over 200,000 Blacks fought wth Unon forces n the U.S. Cvl War. n addton, Memphs, Tennessee, s the locaton of the Beale Street Baptst Church, the frst Negro Mssonary Baptst Church n Amerca. t was bult between entrely by black labor and was the locaton that Ulysses S. Grant used to delver a speech after the Cvl War ended. Memphs was also the home town of the frst black mllonare, Robert Church. Handy s the next block south but was orgnally named FRSCOE after the ralroad n whch frends of Meacham had fnancal nterests. Handy, of course, was named n honor of W.C. (Wllam Chrstopher) Handy, the famous black Amercan band leader, cornetst, and songwrter who composed the song 'St. Lous Blues'. Handy was born on November 16,1873. Around 1905, after several years wth a mnstrel show, he went to Memphs where he formed hs own band and began composng " and performng the "blues" that made hm famous. Pror to the 'St. Lous Blues', wrtten n m 1914, Handy wrote 'Memphs Blues'. [^ From the 1920s untl hs death n 1958, Handy was a musc publsher n New York

19 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 13 Cty and s consdered the most successful poneer of the blues as a form of Amercan popular musc. u > Spears s the last east-west street and was orgnally named Boston when set out n Meacham used ths name for a street n hs frst sub-dvson n Memphs as well. Boston, as stated prevously, was regarded as the "seat of the revoluton" n the 1770s and s where the frst colonst, a black man, was klled by Brtsh gunfre. A statue of Crspus Attucks stands near the ste, today. The street was later renamed Spears n honor of the frst black resdent n Meacham Park. Sandy Spears was a farmer who lved n Meacham Park along Bg Bend Road. Shelby s the frst north-south street, east of what was orgnally called Denny Road (present-day Krkwood Rd.). Shelby s beleved to have been named n trbute to the county wthn whch Meacham's hometown of Memphs s stuated, Memphs beng ts county seat. Shelby County, Tennessee, was named for saac Shelby who served n the Revolutonary War and the War of 1812, was governor of Kentucky and a member of the North Carolna legslature. u Mlwaukee s the name of the next north-south street. Ctes such as Mlwaukee, Memphs, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Boston, and New York are all synonymous wth the urbanzaton of Blacks n Amerca after the Emancpaton Proclamaton went nto effect January 1,1863. Many, over a perod of tme, went to these ctes to fnd jobs and to buld a new lfe. t was n these settngs that ragtme, blues, and later jazz emerged and became the musc of black Amercans and later, all Amercans. Orleans s the last north-south street created wthn Meacham Park. The name s probably derved from another war n whch black Amercans played a major role, the War of Ths speculaton s made because Meacham appears to have named a street n honor of each war that was sgnfcant to black hstory up to the tme the streets were marked out. Blacks served n the Revolutonary as well as the War of 1812, but by the 1842 war wth Mexco, army regulatons had been changed to exclude Blacks specfcally. Then by the 1860s and the erupton of the Cvl War, thngs changed agan. Over 200,000 black solders served on both sdes. Durng the Spansh-Amercan War, Blacks served n the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry and other unts. But that was n 1898, years after Meacham had named hs streets and left St. Lous. o n the War of 1812 Battle of New Orleans, the thrd war beleved to have been honored by Meacham n the namng of hs streets, General Andrew Jackson defeated 8,000 battle seasoned Brtsh solders n a decsve battle on January 8,1815, wth two battalons

20 EARLY HSTORY and FRST RESDENTS, pg. 14 of black solders. On January 18,1815, Jackson ssued a proclamaton to the black troops at New Orleans tellng them how great they dd and how they had "surpassed all of hs hopes!" u n that battle, n less than thrty mnutes, 2,000 Brtsh solders were klled or wounded compared to the Amercan loss of a total of 13 men. What's more, Andrew Jackson and most of hs troops were, lke Meacham, from Tennessee. Although we are only speculatng n some cases what was behnd the namng of the communty's streets, t s nterestng that all of them correlate n some way wth the part that Blacks have played n the formaton of the Unted States and the hstory of Amerca. Local government documents were recently uncovered whch reveal how the addton of a street and the name changes of those four others actually came about. Although not one of Meacham's orgnal streets, what s known today as Attucks was orgnally no more than a wagon path extendng nto Meacham Park from the curve at Bg Bend Road. As tme went on, resdents referred to ths path as Orchard Street presumably because t passed by one but no street sgn ever exsted. Street sgns of four desgnated streets (Brooklyn, Arcada, Frscoe, and Boston) deterorated or dsappeared wth tme, causng ther actual names to be forgotten. u Pror to World War mal delvered to Meacham Park resdents was formally lsted as "Route #12; Krkwood, Mo." Each famly was then assgned a box number. These rural mal boxes were posted along Krkwood Road near the corner of each ntersectng street out of Meacham Park (.e.- New York & Krkwood Rd., Chcago & Krkwood Rd., and on down the lne). t wasn't unusual to see as many as ten or twelve mal boxes posted at each of these corners. Through the efforts of varous communty groups such as the Women's Communty Club, the Amercan Legon, and the Volunteer Fre Department, the U.S. Post Offce Department agreed to begn house-to-house mal delvery on Aprl 1,1941. Snce no street sgns exsted for Orchard as well as the other four prevously named, and those names were forgotten, postal authortes assgned the present-day names to those streets when door to door servce began. These partcular streets Attucks, Meacham, Aldrdge, Handy, and Spears have been offcally known by those names ever snce. u

21 ' c - Chapter THE EDUCATON HSTORY l g

22 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 15 The Communty's Schools o Whle the person who created ths communty was prosperng n real estate n the East, the people he left behnd were strugglng for an educaton. Snce the begnnng, Meacham Park has been part of the Krkwood school dstrct Black chldren were requred to attend the Booker T Washngton School on Adams Avenue near Geyer Road whle whte chldren attended Jefferson School located on Jefferson St. between day and Harrson Streets. n 1908, concerned resdents lvng south of the Frsco Ralroad tracks met wth the school board. They requested that a school be bult closer to ths area to prevent small chldren from havng to walk the hazardous route nto Krkwood, 21/2 mles away. Wthn three weeks of that meetng, the Krkwood School Dstrct establshed the Meacham Park School, a small house rented for $150. per year from a Mr. Phelm O'Toole. Ths house was located about 400 feet south of the entrance to Oak Hll Cemetery and, after a few alteratons, opened on October 12,1908. Mss Alce Alter was hred as teacher. Ths school, however, was for the whte chldren of Meacham Park. Black chldren contnued to walk the dstance to Booker T. Washngton School. O On October 3,1908, black parents of the area agan approached the Board, and a petton was presented by Charles Lttlejohn requestng that a closer school be establshed for black youngsters. The petton stated there were 52 black chldren lvng south of the Frsco Ralroad tracks who attended the all-black school at Adams and Geyer n Krkwood. The new school establshed n ths area had been for 14 whte chldren. No acton was taken by the Board at that meetng. n ts November meetng, however, t advsed the resdents that because $1000. had been spent on recent mprovements at Booker T. Washngton, another buldng for black students could not be afforded. The Frst Baptst Church n Meacham Park offered ts buldng for use as a school but that, too, was turned down by the Board. n August of 1909 and agan n December of 1910 a delegaton of black parents from Meacham Park went before the School Board requestng the establshment of a grade school for ther chldren. The Board dened ther request but apparently formed a commttee to study the possblty because on September 8,1911, the followng report was gven: C Your commttee vsted the ste and buldng proposed to be used by the colored chldren for a school n Meacham Park and found that the buldng had been put n pretty far condton, requrng only a cstern and prves, together wth a coal shed. The buldng s offered to ths board at a monthly rental of $5. All money expended on the buldng or premses to be deducted from ths rental. The Meacham Park ctzens reported that they had two teachers n vew, ether one of whch s accept able to them. Your commttee recommends that the Krkwood Board of Educaton gve to the Meacham Park colored ctzens the best educatonal facltes possble under the present crcumstances and wth the understandng that f same shows proper progress for one year, a just endeavor wll be made to greatly mprove same.

23 v C THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 16 The recommendaton was accepted. On September 19,1911, the Meacham Park School of Negroes was opened. Alce J. Jones was hred as ts frst teacher. Although longtme Meacham Park resdent Arthur Jones, no relaton to Alce, attended Booker T Washngton because he lved at Rose Hll and Harrson at the tme, he remembers the orgnal Meacham Park School. "t was a small brown, possbly shnglesded, one-room house located at the east end of New York Street," he says. "Today, a twostory house stands on the ste." Other teachers hred for the school sometme between 1911 and World War ncluded Mrs. May Crawford followed by Mrs. Auveln Arnold, but overcrowdng and other unsatsfactory condtons began to plague the Meacham Park school by A "portable" two-room buldng was beng used at the elementary school on Jefferson to releve overcrowdng there. By November of 1914 the new Ptman School was completed, and the Board planned to move that "portable" to Meacham Park. A fre, however, broke out at the Booker T. Washngton School n December, causng the Board to make the decson to move the portable. / \ The unsatsfactory condtons at the Meacham Park School contnued to worsen. Records ndcate that sometme durng W.W. the Meacham Park School was closed and, agan, the black chldren were walkng the dstance to Booker T. Washngton. A detaled lstng of the Krkwood School Dstrct facltes for 1921 reveals only one school n the dstrct for black chldren, and that was B.T Washngton - "a four room portable on West Adams Avenue, between Van Buren Avenue and Geyer Road." Each year graduaton exercses were held for those completng ther eght-grade educaton at Booker T. Washngton. Records, however, were never kept on those graduatons untl June of n that year fourteen graduates were recorded n the offcal records of the Krkwood School Dstrct: Cecl Brown Bennett George Harold Brooks Elsa May Davs Gladys Lesle Jenkns Edna Mae Merchant Mary Elzabeth Mng James Henry North Randolph Mack North Theron August Perkns Prntes Edward Randall Ezel Mose Rodgers Olver Wendell Spears Myrtle Lee West nez Lllan Wrght Beyond the eghth grade though, black chldren, whether from Meacham Park or Krkwood, had no place to contnue ther educaton. No formal arrangements were made to educate them beyond that level they were on ther own. Arthur Jones s a prme example of one who wanted a hgher educaton durng those tmes. After graduatng from B.T. Washngton, Jones entered an all-black hgh school n St., -^ Lous by gvng a false St Lous address. After one month school offcals notced the V*/ dscrepancy and Jones was expelled. Hs parents made a plea to the Krkwood School Board, but t refused to provde or even help wth the St. Lous tuton costs. "Tmes were

24 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg-17 hard," Jones recalled, "but my father was determned that should have a hgher educaton. don't know how, but he dd t." V Jones' father struggled to send hs son to the all-black Lncoln Unversty n Jefferson Cty, Mssour. At that tme the school ncluded a boardng school for black students to contnue ther hgh school educaton before gong on to college. Today, Arthur Jones, n hs eghtes, s a retred postal employee. Hs parents also struggled to provde hs sster, Emly Jones Harrs, wth a hgher educaton. She went on to become a teacher for over thrty years, n that same school system whch had expelled her brother many years before! Lke the Jones's, many parents found themselves n the same predcament. After vocng ther concern and gettng no results, several Meacham Park famles traveled to the state captal n Jefferson Qty n 1918 to appeal for help n gettng black chldren nto hgh school. The possblty was dscussed but no mmedate acton was taken. u \ The League of Women Voters n the Krkwood area became nvolved n August, n ther concern they encouraged black parents to send ther chldren to hgh school. They found that many parents wanted to but couldn't afford tuton costs for St. Lous schools, the only dstrct n the area havng hgh schools for blacks. The League and other concerned ctzens made an appeal to the Krkwood Board of Educaton on February 9, 1920, pontng out that everyone would beneft from a better educatonal system n the communty. The Board ponted out that no funds were avalable. By July 19,1920, though, the Krkwood Board of Educaton relented and set asde $400. "as a fund wth whch to assst payng the hgh school tuton n St. Lous for the colored pupls of ths dstrct who wsh to attend." On November 8,1920, the Board authorzed the payment of $40. to the St. Lous publc schools "to pay tuton for four colored pupls for one quarter." Tuton was pad to ether Sumner Hgh School n St. Lous or Douglas Hgh School n Webster Groves. Both were all-black schools at the tme. But even wth tuton pad by the Board, many famles deprved themselves n order to pay the cost of daly streetcar (and later bus) transportaton to ther chosen school. Here agan, chldren were requred to walk from Meacham Park to Krkwood's Woodbne and day Streets to board the streetcar bound for ther school. Later, the School Board began ncludng streetcar fare n the appropratons. Each student was pad $.20 a day whch covered the cost of transportaton to and from the school. The School Board's acton represented real progress, but the arrangement wasn't wthout problems. Some resdents can remember tmes when the school board neglected or postponed tuton payments to Sumner or Douglas and the student was expelled untl -> the tuton was pad. G n Aprl of 1921 a delegaton of black parents met wth the School Board to dscuss

25 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 18 ( J the possble ste for a new elementary school. The voters of the dstrct had recently authorzed a new school to be bult for black students. After much dscusson, the board voted "that the new Booker Washngton School be bult n Meacham Park (and) that ths be made a four room eghth grade school." The board also decded that the school for "Negro chldren" on Adams Avenue would be kept open for chldren lvng north of the ralroad tracks. n March of 1922 the archtect, a Mr. ttner, presented plans for the new Meacham Park School, even though the exact ste hadn't been chosen. Controversy erupted and contnued for several years concernng the ste for the new school. Several groups opposed the dea that the school should be located n Meacham Park. Others smply wanted the new school bult on the Booker T. Washngton ste. Meanwhle, a study determned that more blacks from Meacham Park attended Booker T. Washngton than from Krkwood. So land was purchased, and the school board proceeded wth plans for the constructon of the new "Negro elementary school" n Meacham Park. Notces nserted n the local newspapers requested sealed proposals for "a four-room frame school buldng to be erected at Saratoga and Mlwaukee." On February 7,1924, the contracts were awarded for the work to begn. ( J Controversy contnued though untl t was decded to make mprovements at the Booker T. Washngton School as well. t was fnally decded that "at the Booker T. Washngton School, nstructon n the frst sx grades wll be provded for all colored chldren resdng n Krkwood and n the School Dstrct east, west, and north of the Krkwood cty lmts. At the Meacham Park School nstructon n the frst sx grades wll be provded for all colored chldren n the School Dstrct south of the Krkwood cty lmts. Seventh and eghth grade nstructon for all colored chldren n the School Dstrct wll also be provded at the Meacham Park School." Work contnued on the school throughout that year. n September, 1924, two rooms were equpped and opened to students pror to the entre buldng beng completed. John Ben Davs, better known as J.B. Davs, was hred as the frst prncpal. Davs, born near Plot Knob, Mssour n 1875, had graduated from Lncoln Unversty n Jefferson Cty. Before comng to ths area he had taught n Fredercktown, Poplar Bluff, DeSoto, and St Marys. He became a very popular teacher n Meacham Park and was qute dedcated to hs work. He was often known to vst hs pupls' homes at the end of hs teachng day. An actve P.T.A. soon grew out of the Mother's Crcle Organzaton establshed n Mrs. Retta Logan was the group's frst presdent. Records do not ndcate names of all teachers employed at the Meacham Park School but one of the frst was Mrs. Qothlde Bass, better known as Mss Alexander. Mrs. Bass was a resdent n the communty and, n later years, became deeply nvolved n the efforts to brng mprovements to Meacham Park through the Women's Communty dub that she helped organze. (J Many detaled records, n fact, are lackng, but upon combng several sources, the

26 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 19 followng nformaton somewhat reveals the school's development over the years: ( J After the census of 1925, authorzaton was gven to employ a thrd teacher and equp a thrd room at the Meacham Park School. Class of The frst eghth-grade class to graduate from the Meacham Park School was the Plannng for the future and realzng expanson would be needed some day, the School Board purchased an addtonal fve lots surroundng the Meacham Park School n May of n September, 1931, n an effort to releve over-crowdng at Booker T. Washngton, all ffth grade chldren n the dstrct were assgned to attend the less-crowded Meacham Park School. Shortly after that, black resdents asked the Krkwood Board of Educaton for the name of the Meacham Park School to be changed to the "J. Mlton Turner School," n honor of the Mssour man who rose from slavery to serve n the Unon Army durng the Cvl War, went on to be the founder of Lncoln Unversty n Jefferson Cty, and later was apponted mnster of the Unted States to Lbera. The request was approved by the Board of Educaton n Aprl, 1932, and J. Mlton Turner became the offcal name of the communty's school. u n 1933 the government announced that federal funds could be obtaned to assst n the constructon of new schools. After makng addtonal land transactons around the. dstrct, an applcaton was made for a federal grant. Studes determned that expanson would be needed at the Meacham Park School as well as at several other locatons throughout the dstrct. Voters approved a bond ssue n November of 1936 n the hopes that federal assstance would be obtaned. n October, 1937, the announcement was made that a substantal grant would be awarded the Krkwood School Dstrct to assst n the cost of constructng three new school buldngs, one of whch would be a new brck buldng at the Meacham Park ste. Constructon began, and n 1938 the new brck Turner Junor Hgh School was completed The orgnal wood-frame buldng remaned attached to the brck buldng, along the east and a porton of the south sde, for the elementary grades. That year, J. B. Davs retred. He was succeeded by Wllam Young, who headed a staff of twelve teachers. n 1942, a cafetera and a new sx-room elementary school, constructed of brck, were added to the junor hgh school buldng. The orgnal wood structure attached to the buldng was elmnated. c Durng the followng years the Booker T. Washngton faclty contnued to detero-

27 u THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 20 rate. On August 29,1949, the Board met wth black resdents to dscuss the possblty of elmnatng the Washngton school. The Board was reluctant to replace the buldng but couldn't elmnate t because black resdents of Krkwood nssted that t be kept open to prevent ther chldren from walkng the long dstance to Turner School n Meacham Park. Fnally, on June 12,1950, the Board decded to abandon the school and conduct classes for Blacks at the J. Mlton Turner School only. The board gave the followng reasons for ther decson: 1. The playground area was nadequate. 2. The school buldng tself was obsolete. 3. The number of students n 1950 and the number antcpated n the future were nsuffcent to keep t open. 4. Consoldaton of the Washngton and Turner schools would offer educatonal advantages. 5. Contnued operaton of the Washngton school would lower the school dstrct's standng wth the State Dept. of Educaton. 6. Closng of the Washngton school was recommended by the State Dept. of Educaton. At the openng of the school year n September of 1950, all black students n the dstrct began attendng the J. Mlton Turner School. Wthn a short tme, the Booker T. Washngton School was razed. o Over the years, other prncpals at Turner School, after Davs and Young, ncluded Mrs. Wnford Brown, Wllam Wynn, and Olle Mack. n 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court decson outlawng segregaton n the schools prompted the Krkwood School Dstrct to become one of the frst to absorb black students and teachers nto ther regular system. The all-black Turner School became part of the predornnanty whte Krkwood School system for many years. Then, durng the school year, Turner was closed and the student body was moved to Robnson School located at Couch and Rose Hll Streets n Krkwood. The reasons for closng Turner were much the same as the reasons for closng Booker T. Washngton nearly 25 years before. What the School Board ddn't say was that the school probably represented a "system" of educaton that the Board wshed to forget. Even today, the J. Mlton Turner School buldng stll stands, albet slowly deteroratng, much lke the nsttuton for whch t stood: segregated educaton. When the buldng was sold by the School Board n June, 1980, Wllam Jones, longtme resdent and edtor of the communty newspaper n Our Opnon, wrote n an edtoral, "Now he stands lke an old slave, who has carred a burden for years and now he s tred hs burden has been a much heaver one than the whte schools. The Turner buldng has done everythng he possbly could durng hs tme when dscrmnaton was at ts heght he has educated he has entertaned, and he has served a black communty." u

28 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 21 Some Notable Teachers o Teachers at Turner School who were also Meacham Park resdents ncluded Mrs. Clothlde Bass, Catherne Lucas, Elma Webb, and Alma Powell Jones. Alma was the only daughter of D. M. and Arsella Powell. Strong belevers n educaton, they encouraged her to complete her schoolng n the Krkwood system, and she went on to graduate from Sumner Hgh School. Afterwards Alma attended Stowe Teachers College n St. Lous and later obtaned her Masters Degree at the Unversty of llnos. She began workng n the 1940s, teachng at Turner School. n later years she was transferred to Ptman School and then to Hough. Alma retred after thrty years n the teachng professon. Another popular teacher at Turner was Lewellyn "Mke" Smth, the Physcal Educaton teacher for 37 years. "Hs heavy voce commanded attenton and hs 6' 6" physcal frame demanded respect," wrote Bll Jones n an ssue of n Our Opnon. Smth attended hgh school n Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was an outstandng basketball player. After completng hs college undergraduate work n Oklahoma, Smth attended Hampton nsttute n "Vrgna. He graduated from the all-black nsttuton n 1938 wth a degree n Physcal Educaton and Bology. o n late 1938 Smth was contacted by the Superntendent of Schools, who persuaded hm to come and teach at Turner School. Acceptng the poston, Smth began teachng at Turner n January, Shortly after hs arrval he met Estelle, the grls' P. E. nstructor. She had just started teachng at Turner four months before, n September, Estelle also taught Home Economcs and Art. Soon, a frendshp developed between them and eventually Mke and Estelle were marred. Mr. Smth taught Boy's P.E., ndustral Arts, and Scence at the school. He became a resdent of Meacham Park and later attended Washngton Unversty n St. Lous. He receved hs Masters Degree n Physcal Educaton there n When the school dstrct was ntegrated n the md-1950s, Smth was transferred to Npher School. By that tme he had taught at Turner for 15 years. Mke Smth retred n January, 1976, after teachng at Npher for 22 years. As Bll Jones later wrote, ".. the name Mr. Smth was sad wth much prde by the youngsters and t was ther desre to be lke hm. Upon movng to Npher Junor Hgh, Mke Smth carred wth hm the same mage. Hs fan club grew from the black students to the whte students as well." o Smth served for several years on the Krkwood Parks and Recreaton Commsson and has contnued to mantan an avd nterest n the welfare of the communty's chldren. t

29 <J THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 22 One of Smth's former students, Qeo Lewrght, later returned to Turner School as the P. E. nstructor. Lewrght remaned n that poston for many years whle Smth was stll nstructor at Npher. Sad Lewrght: "Mr. Smth helped and turned me towards my athletc career. God Bless hm." Today, Mke and Estelle Smth resde n the 900 block of South Harrson n Krkwood and have remaned actve throughout ther retrement. Communty's mpact Upon The Naton Some people who lve outsde of Meacham Park have formed a negatve opnon of ths communty over the years. Problems of crme, lack of educaton, poverty, and contnued ad for ts poor often come to mnd. But n realty, ths communty s no dfferent than any other. Meacham Park has produced many professonal Blacks wthn ts borders who have gone on to become qute successful on a local, state, natonal, and even nternatonal level! And these accomplshments were made, n some cases, n spte of the many obstacles thrown n front of them. To quote the current slogan of the Unted Negro College Fund: "A mnd s a terrble thng to waste." The followng are jusf a few who have proved that the struggle for equalty n educaton that ths communty has fought for n the past was well worth the effort: o Dr. Russell Harrson One of the frst resdents to rse up from the communty to go on to a professonal career was Dr. Russell Harrson. Harrson attended Turner School and, because of the segregated Krkwood School system, attended and graduated from St. Lous' Vashon Hgh School. He went on to Stowe-Teachers College and later served n the U.S. Army. After hs servce Harrson completed a medcal educaton and graduated from Meharry Medcal College n Tennessee. Hs nternshp was completed at Homer G. Phllps Hosptal n St. Lous. Today Doctor Harrson, a specalst n radology, has offces n East Oakland and San Francsco, Calforna, and also does radologcal work for the U.S. Government. Alce Campbell Phllps Alce Campbell Phllps s the daughter of John and Evelyn Ewng, early settlers who came to Meacham Park around As she grew up n Meacham Park, Alce went through the segregated grade school system of Krkwood and went on to graduate from St. Lous' Sumner Hgh School. Soon after, she began tranng at St. Mary's urmary n the laboratory and nursng facltes, and then went on to serve n the Army Ar Force for three years. After returnng to cvlan lfe, Alce worked at Homer G. Phllps Hosptal where she fnshed her educaton as a laboratory techncan. She later became employed by the Jefferson Barracks Veterans Hosptal for eght years and then spent twenty-fve years as a Lab. Tech. for the Physcan and Surgeons Medcal Corporaton n Krkwood. Today Alce s an nstructor at the Md-West Medcal nsttute servng Krkwood and St Charles, Mssour. u Aramnta Smth Aramnta, the second daughter of Magge and Sylvester Smth and the granddaugh-

30 1 THE EDUCATON HSTORY; pg. 23 ter of saac and Mnne Hale, all early poneers n the Meacham Park area, was educated n the segregated Krkwood School system and went on to graduate wth a Masters Degree. Aramnta went on to become an Assocate Professor of Socal Studes at the Unversty of 7 Mssour at Columba, Mssour. She was the frst black tenured professor at M.U. and was ^ conferred Professor Emertus n Aramnta Smth s now Drector of Socal Servces wth the Natonal Benevolent Socety, Socal and Health Unt of the Chrstan Church, Dscples of Chrst. Thelma Red Wllams Thelma Red Wllams, Aramnta's sster, attended Lncoln Unversty n Jefferson Cty and went on to McKendree College n Lebannon, llnos. After attanng a B.S. Degree n Elementary Educaton, she went on to graduate work at St. Lous' Washngton Unversty. Later she taught n the elementary school systems of New London, Mo., Lovejoy, 111., and Golden Garden, H. Presently Thelma s n her thrty-second year of teachng readng and musc at the Dunbar Elementary School n East St. Lous, llnos. She s also actve n her church, the Chrst Memoral Baptst Church, where she holds the poston of panstorganst. G Dr. Edward Eugene Felds Edward Felds was born n Meacham Park on June 24,1918, and was the second of sx chldren born to Archbald Sylvester Felds and Sarah Young Felds. Edward attended the segregated elementary school system n the area and later commuted the daly 38-mleround-trp requred to attend Sumner Hgh School. Felds-graduated n June 1936 and went on to attend Stowe Teachers College n St. Lous from 1936 to n 1940 he completed hs B.S. Degree at Lncoln Unversty n Jefferson Cty. By 1947 he had earned a Masters Degree at Kansas State Teachers' College n Pttsburgh, Kansas. Felds also attended the Unversty of K.C., Mssour Unversty, and New York Unversty. By 1959 he receved the Doctorate of Educaton Degree from the Unversty of Kansas at Lawrence. Felds' professonal career n educaton began n 1938 when he became an nstructor at Lncoln Unversty. Wth the arrval of W.W. he served n the U.S. Navy Cvlan Corps and returned to teachng n Snce then hs career has ncluded elementary, secondary, and college teachng; elementary and secondary prncpalshps; central offce admnstraton, ncludng specal drector, compensatory program; drector, career and contnung and vocatonal-techncal educaton; Assocate Superntendent, nstructon; Assocate Superntendent, School Facltes Dvson; Assstant Superntendent, Emergency School Ad Act and Staff Development Dvson; Actng and nterm Superntendent of Schools; and nstructon, supervson, and employment actvtes for youth and adults for the federal government and ndustry. Hs last poston wth the School Dstrct of Kansas Cty, Mssour: Assstant Superntendent, ESAA Programs and Staff Development Dvson. Felds retred from the K.C. School Dstrct n June 1979, after 34 years of servce. Over the years, Felds has been lsted n Who's Who n Amercan Educaton. Who's What and Why n Mssour: Personaltes of West and Md-West. Outstandng Educators n Amerca, and Who's Who Among Black Amercans. G n addton, Dr. Felds s an ordaned mnster and s currently pastor at Allen

31 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 24 Chapel AME Church n Kansas Cty, Mssour. Hs wfe, Marshan Felds, who s also an ordaned mnster, s a Dagnostc Team Member of the Specal Educaton Dvson of the K.C. School Dstrct. They have two chldren, a son and a daughter. G Atkns W. Warren Atkns Warren was born and rased n Meacham Park and served n the U.S. Coast Guard from 1943 to n 1948 he joned the St. Lous Metropoltan Polce Department and worked n vrtually all operatons dvsons, rsng to the rank of Leutenant Colonel n charge of nternal Affars, nspecton and Evaluaton, and Watchman Dvsons. Durng that tme he also contnued hs educaton, acqurng a B.A., Cum Laude, n Socology at Webster Unversty as well as a Master of Arts degree n Publc Admnstraton. n 1980 he became Chef of Polce n Ganesvlle, Florda, and served n that capacty for four years. n 1984 Atkns became a member of the U.S. Department of Justce, as a Natonal Admnstraton of Justce Specalst, based n Chevy Chase, Maryland. n ths capacty hs dutes ncluded: consultaton, advce and gudance on polce-communty relatons programs; staff-prson relatons programs to reduce racal tenson and crme n the naton's communtes and prsons; consultaton on ssues nvolved n Cuban-Hatan refugee resettlement; nter-agency consultaton wth the U.S. State Department on polce communty relatons tranng and human rghts ssues n Central Amercan countres; and techncal assstance to polce departments n the U.S. Vrgn slands and Puerto Rco on polce relatons tranng and human rghts ssues n Central Amercan countres; and techncal assstance to polce departments n the U.S. 'Vrgn slands and Puerto Rco on polce relatons topcs and cvl unrest. G Today, Atkns Warren s Assocate Drector of the Communty Relatons Servce of the U.S. Department of Justce n Chevy Chase, a suburb of Washngton, D.C. LeRoy W. Harrs Jr. Meacham Park s represented n the feld of musc by the talented LeRoy Harrs. Born on February 12,1916, Harrs's uncle, a musc nstructor at St. Lous's Poro College, gave hm voln lessons from ages fve to eleven. At age twelve, Harrs began playng the alto sax and clarnet. By the age of thrteen, Harrs was playng professonally wth St Lous's own Chck Fnney Band and contnued to do so for about a year. LeRoy went to Chcago n 1930 and played n the bands of Burns Campbell untl 1932, Ray Nuance untl 1936, and at Chcago's "5100 dub" wth Edde Cole's Band. Earl "Fatha" Hnes hred LeRoy to play wth hs orchestra, durng whch tme he traveled on many road trps, and he played wth other bands such as Horace Henderson, Lull Armstrong, Erskn Tote, Dave Patton, and Walter Dyette, before beng drafted nto WW. There he played n the Navy "A" Band from 1943 to G Returnng to cvlan lfe, LeRoy went on to play n such bands as Bll Doggett's Orchestra drected by Wlle Bryant at the Savoy Ballroom n New York Cty, Colerdge Davs' Band n Atlantc Cty, whch took a Larry Stelle show on the road, and, stll later, the Bll Martn Band n Chcago. By the early 1950s, Harrs was playng road dates wth Clnt Weaver's Four Tons of Rhythm Band.

32 o V THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 25 n Aprl 1952, LeRoy Harrs returned to St. Lous and marred Lola Wallace, an artst n her own rght n the cosmetology feld. Durng that year, Harrs joned Ben Thgpen's Band and n 1954 returned to Earl Hnes' Orchestra to play road dates wth the Harlem Globetrotters. By 1956 Harrs returned home and joned Arche Burnsdes' Band for a year. Then he joned Edde Johnson's Tro at the Kng Brothers' Club and played there untl the late 1960s. From about 1967 untl he retred n 1980, Harrs served the Meacham Park area as an Employment Counselor for Metroplex but remaned actve n the musc feld. Today, at the age of 73, Harrs stll remans actve as a member of Sngleton Palmer's Band and as a member of the Gateway Festval Orchestra of St. Lous. Lola Wallace Harrs Graduatng from Sumner Hgh School, Lola Wallace began preparng for a career n cosmetology. After completng cosmetology courses at the St. Lous Board of Educaton's newly establshed Carr Lane Techncal school, she began her apprentceshp under the drecton of Beulah K. Allen, a poneer n the feld of beauty culture. Lola contnued to strve for excellence by takng advanced nstructons at several nsttutes ncludng Madame Carange's School and L' Ec'ole Eugene n Pars, France, and at the House of Yardley n London, England. G By the 1950s, Lola owned and operated her own shop and snce that tme she has receved several awards. Artcles by and about her have appeared n numerous magaznes and news-papers; she has traned at least ten young women who are now successful owners of ther own beauty shops; and she has taught numerous courses on cosmetology at both the college and hgh school level. n addton, Lola s a professonal consultant to such natonally known frms as Helene Curts, Clarol, G.W. Godefroy, Gllette Company, and Ardell nc., among others. Marred to LeRoy W. Harrs Jr. snce 1952, Lola has advsed, counseled, and desgned styles for exceptonal and problem cases, natonal celebrtes, and many clents through-out the Md-West, ncludng some who travel long dstances for her servces. Her shop, known as "Lola's - Creatve Har Stylst," s located at 1025 North Grand, n St. Lous. Maron Holmes Maron Holmes was born and rased n Meacham Park and attended the local schools. He was told by hs school counselor that he wasn't college materal. Holmes refused to accept that opnon and became more determned than ever. He went on to graduate from the Unversty of Mssour at St. Lous as well as attend the School of Commerce and the George Washngton Natonal Law Center. \ Maron worked for a tme as an nternal Revenue Agent and Tax-Law Specalst at St. Lous and at the RS Natonal Offce n Washngton, D.C. From there he went on to be

33 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 26 employed by Ernst & Whnney n Washngton, D.C., and Cleveland, Oho. Some tme later he became Drector of Tax for the Cummns Engne Company n Columbus, ndana, and then went on to Bausch & Lomb, nc. n Rochester, New York, as Drector of Tax. G Maron Holmes has been a member of the Board of Trustees for the Colgate Rochester Dvnty School, past natonal presdent of the Natonal Assocaton of Black Accountants (NABA), on the natonal board of drectors of the Tax Executves nsttute, and a member of the advsory group for the Commssoner nternal Revenue Servce. He s lsted as a dstngushed black CPArole model n the February 1988 ssue of the Tournal of Accountancy and s currently on the board of drectors of the nternatonal Tax nsttute. Today, wdely known and hghly respected n hs feld, Maron Holmes s Drector of Corporate Tax for the PHH Group, nc., a Baltmore-based fnancal holdng company. Luckly many years ago, he refused to accept hs counselor's opnon and went on to determne hs own fate! Dr. James Edward Mcntosh Dr. Edward (Swanky) Mcntosh s one of the chldren of Rev. Edward Sr. and the late Mrs. Tny Mcntosh. Dr. Mcntosh, known as " Swanky" to the communty graduated from Turner Elementary School, Npher Jr. Hgh and the Krkwood Sr. Hgh. He receved hs premedcal degree from the Unversty of Mssour n Columba and hs medcal degree from Meharry Medcal Unversty n Tennessee durng the 1960s. G As a sophomore dental student at Meharry, he was selected to attend the Students' Dental Research Conference n Washngton, D.C., as the only representatve of hs school. Mcntosh was chosen by the faculty commttee onthe bass of hs profcency. Dr. Mcntosh dd hs nternshp at the Sybenben Hosptal n New York. Sybenben was closed around the same tme that Homer G. Phllps was closed n St. Lous. At that tme. Dr. Mcntosh held several debates wth the New York Mayor n an attempt to prevent the Sybenben Hosptal from closng. n October 1987, Dr. Mcntosh receved Fellowshp nto the Amercan Academy of Dentstry, and he has also been named n the Who's Who of Amerca. Today, Dr. J. Edward Mcntosh s Drector of the Dental Program at the Harlem Hosptal n New York. Randy J. Shed * Randy attended the Krkwood schools and proceeded to work on hs B.S. Degree at Mssour Unversty at Rolla. He receved hs B.S. Degree n Cvl Engneerng n July, fl Randy s currently a Cvl Engneer ntern and wll be a journeyman engneer by _ August J He lves n Rolla wth hs wfe LaTonya Wllams Shed who, untl recently, was a

34 o 1 THE EDUCATON HSTORY, pg. 27 dspatcher n the Rolla Polce Department. The famly attends the Frst Chrstan Church n Rolla where Randy s a deacon, a Sunday School teacher for the hgh schoolers, and regularly preaches. The lst could go on and on. t's plan to see that Meacham Park has contrbuted to nearly every professonal feld. Because tme and space does not permt, the lst doesn't even nclude the contrbutons ths communty has made n provdng ndvduals to the average work force n any gven area: the contractors, the laborers, the factory workers, the store employees, the surroundng cty' s employees, and the lke. f people lvng outsde ths communty knew the truth, an average cross-secton of those born and rased n Meacham Park are no dfferent than an average cross-secton of people born and rased n any communty. Except... maybe, for those born here to get where they are, t took an above-average struggle! 1 0 o

35 (J Chapter 3 THE YEARS OF GROWTH s ~\

36 YEARS OF GROWTH pg. 28 Growth of the Communty 1 n the cycle of every communty's development, once the settlers arrve, the estab- / lshment of a church s never far behnd. Meacham Park was no excepton. Nearly a year ^* before obtanng a school was dscussed, the Frst Baptst Church of Meacham Park was organzed. The frst servces were held under a brush-arbor and for a number of years the church remaned the center of the communty's socal lfe As the years passed, what had began as a farmng communty slowly grew nto a small self-supportng communty. By 1912 George Cabness, one of the communty's whte resdents, wth the help of 17 others, opened the frst store n Meacham Park. n 1919 the frst black-owned store, a grocery, was opened by Mr. D. M. Powell at the southeast corner of Meacham and Shelby streets. n 1922 Patrck Mullns opened a store and laundry combnaton, becomng the second oldest black-owned busness n the communty. Other busnesses establshed shortly thereafter ncluded Schwenkers, a whte-owned store on New York Street at Krkwood Road, Rev. Weaver's store, black-owned, at the northwest corner of Meacham and Shelby, and Mr. Norman's confectonery. Mr. Norman, a black resdent, ran hs small confectonery n the basement of hs home on New York Street. The house had a ground-level sde entrance to accommodate customers. Durng ths tme the streets remaned mostly drt, rangng from dusty to muddy dependng upon the weather, but a few were cnder covered. Water was suppled n most homes by csterns whch were flled on a regularly scheduled bass by a water supply servce. Grady Wade came to the communty n Over the years he has worked as a meat packer, a cab drver, and has been presdent of the Meacham Park Fre Dstrct, but Grady has some vvd memores of hs frst years n Meacham Park: " came to Meacham Park when the town was stll n the horse-and-buggy days. f t raned, you were stuck. The streets were mud... t's somethng to lve n a town wth no streets, and no lghts, and just outdoor plumbng. When frst came to Meacham, couldn't get water from anywhere except my cstern, and a man from Valley Park came every week to fll t." There was a well on Chcago Street for publc use, but of course the water stll had to be carred to the resdents' houses. o Homes n Meacham Park were heated by wood or coal. Area resdents used horsedrawn wagons to haul the coal to ther own houses, or to ther neghbors', because the coal company, located where Hll-Behan Lumber Company s today at Krkwood Road and the Frsco Ralroad tracks, refused to delver n the Meacham Park area. However, the company dd delver to the whte resdents n Krkwood, located two mles north of the tracks. Long-tme resdent Gertrude Johnson remembers the sght of horse-drawn coal carts

37 YEARS OF GROWTH, pg. 29 n the communty. Her famly moved to Meacham Park n 1914 after the famly home burned n the Osage Hlls area. That house was next door to Qunette Cemetery at, ^ present-day Bg Bend and Ballas Roads. t was her grandfather's tract of land, and he Lj lved wth them. Gertrude's parents were Charles Johnson, who was n constructon busness, and Mary. Mary's maden name was Burl, and she had grown up n the Washngton, Mssour, area. When her famly arrved n Meacham Park, Gertrude was sx years old, and she remembers how the coal loads often bogged n knee-deep mud: "Everybody n Meacham had wood or coal stoves, and f you ddn't have your fuel n for the wnter by November, you were n real trouble. can remember the wagons snkng down n the mud, and the men would have to unload three or four tons of coal to get them out. Then they'd have to put t rght back on to contnue ther delveres." There were very few telephones n Meacham Park untl after the Depresson. Gertrude, who remembers walkng to Booker T. Washngton School wth chldren from some of the frst famles who settled here such as Spears, Beck and Crawford, further related, "There was a phone at Schwenker's Store and everybody n Meacham Park reled on that phone for ther messages n the early days. When we came home from school, we'd stop by and brng any phone messages home to our famly. Schwenker's was the message center." u Although busnesses were bult at several locatons around Meacham Park, the center of the busness dstrct, the man scene of actvty, was orgnally at the ntersecton of Shelby and Meacham streets. Ths area ncluded Powell's Grocery and gas pump. The pump, by the way, was of the 'gravty' style. Gas was manually pumped up nto the glass dome at the top and then gravty took over to dran the gas nto the hose, and thus nto the vehcle. After several addtons were added to ths store, Powell later bult a large two-story store and home closer west to ths ntersecton. Just down the street, to the east, was Powell's outdoor move theater. Weaver's store, a small confectonery was located on the northwest corner of Meacham and Shelby. The Toledo Hall, also bult by Powell, was on the southwest next to Moses' Pool Hall, and Benne Wrght's Tavern was west of the pool hall. Drectly behnd the Toledo Hall was Sloppy Joe's (a tavern and restaurant) whch later became the Amercan Legon Post. Although the Post s the only orgnal buldng stll standng at ths ste, t s nterestng to note that the 'old tmers' of the communty stll gather at ths locaton, on the lot where the Toledo Hall was once located. There, they st on chars and make-shft benches to chat and pass the tme - and probably talk about the 'old days'. They refer to ths ste, today, as "Moses Park." U "Many of the resdents n ths area," says Gertrude Johnson, "were self-suffcent back then. They rased ther own vegetables n gardens and rased chckens and pgs for

38 YEARS OF GROWTH pg- 30 meat Several people n the area had ther own cows for mlk and butter." Gertrude's parents ddn't have a cow, but they bought ther mlk and butter from an old j German lady who lved up on Bg Bend. n fact t was the Germans lvng a block away, on Bg Bend, who brought news to the communty about Armstce Day on November 11,1918! Gertrude recalls that on that day the Quernhem famly, who had two sons, Harry and Elmer, all rushed out nto ther back yard, turned large washtubs over, and began beat ng on them makng a terrble racket. Later a plane flew over the area, a rare occurrence back then, pullng a banner declarng: "Peace Declared." The Johnsons, as well as many others n the area, weren't sure what was gong on. There was no such thngs as T.V., and they ddn't have a rado or daly newspaper delvery. Gertrude's mother ran out and got a newspaper. t was then that they learned the detals as to what was gong on. The Germans had surrendered and the Quernhems were celebratng that World War had Of the ended. large number of Blacks who served n World War, there s no record of any resdents from Meacham Park havng lost ther lfe. c By the end of "The Great War" the communty was stll nterracal. At the close of the war addtonal Blacks settled n the area rght alongsde of the whtes One of these newcomers, n fact, was Mr. D. M. Powelt who would work to beneft the communty n so many ways. By the late 1920s, twenty to thrty homes n Meacham Park had ther own phones. Other mprovements were beng made by ths tme too, as furnaces began replacng coal and wood burnng stoves. But soon, all mprovements came to a screechng halt as the Depresson ht the area full force!, C

39 YEARS OF GROWTH, pg. 31 C SARATOGA 04K. 3«tK *"Kt** _ Sx's) 1 Aw<«- A*r//'5 1* 5^»»-fc r+vrelt 's TLn-SL-j «*-<. *. ««,«. a: C/ WCACHf\f* The "hearf' of the Meacham Park busness dstrct, crca 1920s to 30s L>

40 1 V Chapter 4 DEPRESSON YEARS To WORLD WAR c u A

41 DEPRESSON YEARS to WW, pg. 32 Mr. D. M. Powell Durng the Depresson many of the resdents were on relef because of the lack of ( j jobs. Food, clothng, and fuel was provded, to some extent, by the welfare servces of St. Lous County and the cty of Krkwood, but the communty of Meacham Park was able to struggle through and survve ths perod, n part because of the communty sprt created by D.M. Powell. n 1930, Powell organzed a communty baseball team that challenged other teams all around the St. Lous area. n a short tme, the Meacham Park ball club became the prde of the communty. n retrospect, Powell was probably one of the most nnovatve, energetc, and communty-mnded ndvduals to ever lve n Meacham Park. He was born n 1892 n Yazoo Cty, Msssspp, where he later worked for the ralroad and owned a pressng busness. After servng n World War, Powell moved to the St. Lous area, around 1919, to work n the packng houses and for a tme, ran a restaurant at 3202 Chouteau Avenue n the Cty, Before long he and hs wfe, Arsella, purchased land n the county, Meacham Park, and bult a house. Powell also worked as a nght-watchman at the courthouse n Clayton and was soon able to open a store n Meacham Park. Ths busness, a grocery, soon grew nto other busnesses as well. For nstance, he opened an ce cream parlor that also served lunches. As tme progressed, t was remodeled nto a tavern. Powell also bult Toledo Hall and arranged for / bands from St. Lous to come n and play on weekends. At other tmes the hall served as a ' ^^ move theater. There, moves were shown n the days when projectors served only to project the move and records were used to produce the sound. Stll later, Powell bult a summer open-ar move theater farther down the street. Powell was always a hard workng famly man who seemed to possess a neverendng source of energy. By all accounts, gven any one or a combnaton of hs busness ventures, he probably could have became rch beyond magnaton but he preferred, nstead, to put hs profts back nto the communty, evdently so hs frends and neghbors could reap the benefts. t seems that everythng that Powell dd was n the nterest of the communty and never for personal gan. Many resdents remember, as chldren, gong nto Powell's store and beng allowed to pck out nckel candy for whch they were only charged one cent. Others remember Powell gvng long-term credt throughout the Depresson. As a chld, Frank Robnett remembers hs father, Lesle, losng hs job at the steel company durng the Depresson to someone wth more senorty. f > V^/ Before that, the Robnetts had been able to place large orders for groceres at Powell's on a weekly bass. Wth the Depresson, however, the elder Robnett had trouble obtanng a good, full-tme job. Stll, each week Mr. Powell drove up and delvered the regular order of groceres, sayng as he drove away, "Pay when you can." 1

42 DEPRESSON YEARS to WW, pg. 33 Starts Baseball Team t was durng the Depresson that Powell came up wth another commumty-mnded ( ^ venture - a baseball team and here he put the greatest part of hs energy and personal fnances. Resdent-hstoran Catherne Lucas once wrote that Powell started the ball team to help the communty through the depresson. To some extent that's true. He dd, n fact, pay the players on the "Powell's Grocery" team. They sometmes splt a take at the gate. More often than not, though, a hat was passed among the crowd. The wnnng team got 60%, the losers 40%. The money dd help out a lot of famles. More than that, the team drew the communty together and created a sense of prde durng some very hard tmes. But research has snce shown that for Powell t ran much deeper than that. He created the team out of a deep, passonate, love for the game tself. He was a good fsherman and a great hunter, ownng hs own huntng dogs, but baseball was hs real passon! And those who joned hm as players dd so, not for the money, but out of an equal love for the game as well as a chance to travel and see other communtes. Powell started the ball team wth twelve players n He dug nto hs own pockets to equp and promote t. He furnshed hs players wth everythng they needed. Hats, unforms gloves, shoes, bats and balls were all furnshed, but he ddn't stop there. Powell went on to buld a stadum, too. The ballfeld was located behnd Father Dckson's Cemetery off Sappngton Road n f what s now Crestwood. The ste was then known as "Sprng Bottoms" because of several ^* natural sprngs n the area. t was accessble by a lttle road that ran south off Bg Bend, along the "Sappngton Spur" ralroad tracks. At ths ste, behnd the cemetery and along the ralroad tracks, Powell bult a ball damond surrounded by a large wooden fence and a grandstand seven to ten seat-rows hgh. Ths was the team's home feld for ther Sunday games. The team played away games as far north as Hannbal, Mssour, and as far east as Unon Cty, Tennessee. Mssour towns that they played ncluded Valley Park, Black Jack, Knloch, Moberly, Hllsboro, Cedar Hll, Maxwell, Jedburg, Potos, Salem, Tmbrook, and Bonne Terre. n addton, many company teams were played such as Sculln Steel, and several llnos teams, ncludng Staunton, Jerseyvlle, and East St. Lous. The team's unforms were whte wth red letterng and the basement of Powell' s Grocery served as ther "locker room." When the team was organzed n 1930 the orgnal twelve players were: Chester McCrary, left feld, Wllam Buckner, center feld, and Rchard James, rght feld. Lester Johnson served as an extra all-around outfelder. O second The nfeld conssted of James Jones, thrd base, Fred Stanley, shortstop Arthur Jones, base, Al Zamper, frst base, Jesse Woods, catcher and sometmes ptcher, George Walker, catcher and sometmes thrd base, Harold Frazer, ptcher and Austn Massey, ptcher.mr. Powell was owner and coach, wth Arthur Bell, assstant coach.

43 DEPRESSON YEARS to WW, pg. 34 Other players who came along later ncluded ptchers Elmer Buckner, Elmer Hll, Rogers Ford, Junor 'Doc" Savage, and Qeo Lewrght, thrd baseman Carl Cables, and shortstop Andy Grggs, among others. c The team was good. Each season they won more than they lost. n fact, most seasons the team saw no more than one or two losses. The communty of Meacham Park turned out n force to watch and support ther team. The games became an event, a favorte pastme for Sunday afternoons. Frank Robnett was only eleven, maybe twelve, years old when he started sellng hotdogs at the team's ballfeld. t was around 1932 to 1934, and hotdogs sold for a nckel; soda water sold for a nckel, too. He remembers that the local team was one of the best. "Sculln Steel (of St. Lous) had the best ball team n the area at the tme, but they couldn't beat the 'Powell's Grocery' team," he recalls. East St. Lous had an excellent team too. Ther ptcher, George Glass, had yet to be beaten the day the team arrved at "Sprng Bottoms." Frank remembered watchng that game from the stands whle he sold hotdogs The East St. Lous team was gvng the local team bg problems, and t looked as though they would leave ths area undefeated. But Powell had been studyng the stuaton throughout the game and was soon convnced there was only one way that Glass could be beat. o Manager Powell called hs team together and nstructed hs players on how they could do t. The Meacham Park team went to bat, and when the dust had fnally settled, East St. Lous had been beaten wth BUNTS! The crowd, went wld! The players have fond memores of those baseball-playng days, too. Rchard James recalled an ncdent that occurred n a game aganst Cedar Hll, Mssour, n 1938 or 1939: Elmer Buckner was a good fast-ball ptcher wth a lot of control. However Cedar Hll had a batter who would crouch real low and lean over the plate. At one pont n the game the batter leaned too far and the ball smacked hm square on the sde of the head, bounced, and rolled toward thrd base. Thrd base-man, Carl Cables, playng t strctly as an attempted ht, felded the ball and fred t to frst! Another ncdent nvolved left-felder Chester McCrary durng a game played n Jedburg, Mssour. Ths communty, whch no longer exsts today, was orgnally located between present-day Lone Elk Park and Eureka, along the north bank of the Meramec Rver. G The ball damond n Jedburg was n. good condton but the outfeld was lterally a cow pasture, covered wth tall grass too tall, n fact, on the day of ths game.

44 DEPRESSON YEARS to WW, pg. 35 At one pont a long fly ball was smashed nto left feld as Chester gave pursut. When the ball came down, Chester was so far out, and the grass was so tall, that no one feld could see hm. o The umpre ruled the ball a ht untl a spectator, who had been sttng on a pck-up out n the pasture, came drvng n at full speed and nformed the umpre that the leftfelder had, ndeed, caught that ball! Short, thn, wry andquck, Chester McCrary s sad to have been the Ozze Smth of hs day. He an excellent felder and an extraordnary htter. Durng one out-of-town game, McCrary came to bat and was nterrupted by a spectator out of the stands. The spectator, an old whte man, lad a dollar-bll (a lot of money durng the Depresson) on home-plate, looked up at Chester and sad, "... f you ht the ball out of the park; you keep the dollar." The frst ptch came and BAM the ball saled out of the park. On McCrary's next turn at bat, the same spectator came out, lad a dollar on home-plate, and agan sad, "... (Mster), you do t agan; you keep the dollar." Wthn moments a ptch came and BAM~out of the park! (J McCrary was begnnng to look forward to hs tmes at bat more than ever before. When the tme came, he fooled and fddled around outsde of the batter's box, watng for hs tormentor to show up. After several mnutes of delay, a voce fnally came from the stands, "Hell wth ya. Play ball. Ya an't gettn' no more of my money!" Chester caused a lot of exctement for the ball team. Each Sunday mornng before a home game one of hs responsbltes was to attach some old bed sprngs to the back of Mr. Powell's Model-A Ford truck and drve around the ball damond to prepare the feld. One Sunday McCrary was n a hurry because he was runnng late. He notced that the truck needed gas so he quckly drove down to the servce staton on Bg Bend. As an advertsng gmmck ths partcular staton had a large man constructed of Quaker State ol cans on the corner of the lot. As Chester drove away n haste, he accdentally struck the ol-man, scatterng ol cans everywhere. McCrary arrved at Powell's Grocery just as the staton was on the telephone wth Mr. Powell, yellng that "your player ran over my ol man!" The players came runnng out of the store, all excted, accusng Chester of runnng over someone, and t took several mnutes to get the stuaton straghtened out before Chester could go "drag" the feld. o Several players remember a game that was nterrupted n Hllsboro, Mssour, by a man who drove up along sde the frst-base lne n a pck-up and stopped. The bed of the

45 DEPRESSON YEARS to WW, pg. 36 ' W f truck was full of beer, all ced down. The umpre called "tme out" and everyone gathered around and drank the beer. After they all had ther fll, the truck drove away, the umpre yelled "play ball," and the game resumed rght where t had stopped. Ptcher Elmer Hll was sad to be a hard-throwng fast-ball ptcher, but just how fast no one was sure. There were no radar guns then to measure speed. Team member Rchard James, though, recalled an ncdent durng one game n Potos, Mssour, that mght gve some ndcaton of Hll's great throwng speed. Hll usually had good control wth hs throwng, but durng ths game he unntentonally ht a batter. The ptch struck the guy n the chest and he collapsed mmedately. The players all ran to hm, and upon pullng up hs shrt found a brght red, round bruse whch even ncluded the mpressons from the sttchng on the ball! Wth that, one of the players asked, "Are you all rght to play?" To whch the batter repled, somewhat groggly, "'ll play - but an't baton' no more!" Although the players had many wonderful, as well as humorous, memores of ther ball-playng days, there was also another, ugly, sde, one that came wth playng the small-town, all-whte, ball teams of the 1930s and 40s. However, even some of those were comcal: After gettng off the team bus n Salem, Mssour, the town's chldren gathered around the players, looked them up and down and walked all around them, starng. The players stood stll lookng at the chldren, not sure what was gong on untl one of the parents standng nearby remarked, "Pay no attenton to 'em, they've never seen black people before." But other ncdents were just down-rght scary: Powell's team once receved an nvtaton from a small town southwest of here whch stated, n part, "Come play our town's team. We've only lost one game ths season." mpressed, Powell's team practced hard, then went there only to fnd out they'd never played more than one game! As ths game progressed, "Powell's Grocery" had a bg lead that ncreased wth each nnng. And, as each nnng passed, the opposng players and the hometown crowd became more and more angry, a feelng they weren't tryng to hde. Fnally, as the last nnng approached, Mr. Powell remarked, '7 don't lke the looks of ths. We better get out of here." He nstructed some of hs players to pack up equpment and start the truck. Just as the last "out" was called, the team scrambled to the bus and was drvng away from the ballfeld as the crowd poured onto the feld lookng for revenge. L End of an Era At the end of each season the team traveled to Unon Cty, Tennessee, where the St.

46 DEPRESSON YEARStoWW, pg. 37 (J Lous Cardnals had a farm team at the tme. Here they spent three days, Frday, Saturday, and Sunday playng baseball. The team would then attend a large pcnc afterwards and return home to Meacham Park on Monday. These exhbton games were well attended, and the players looked forward to ths trp each year. But f t can be sad that the baseball team was born out of the Depresson, then t was brought to an end by World War n. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941, many of these ball players were called to serve ther country. After the war, some returned to playng ball for a few more years, but for the most part, the team was broken up by the md-1940s. The last games were played n Many of these men were as good, or maybe better, than those playng n the modern-day major leagues but, unfortunately, segregaton forced the races to play n separate leagues durng ths part of the naton's hstory. The Negro Amercan League and the Negro Natonal League were completely separate from the all-whte organzatons n the major-league competton. Jacke Robnson fnally broke the color barrer when he was the frst Black to be sgned-on to the Brooklyn Dodgers' all-whte mnor league farm club team n Montreal n He went on to be sgned onto the Brooklyn Dodgers team tself on Aprl 11,1947, pavng the way for others to follow. o Unfortunately, by the tme Blacks were fnally ncorporated nto the "regular" major leagues, t was too late for most of Meacham Park's men. Age had become a factor. A few of the younger men dd go to Kansas Cty and try out for the all-black professonal Kansas Cty Monarchs, the team that Jacke Robnson orgnally played for. One of these was shortstop Andy Grggs, and he made the team. Rogers Ford ptched for the Chcago Gants n the Negro League, and ptchers Cleo Lewrght and Junor "Doc" Savage played for a wh;.* for the Negro League's Memphs Blue Sox. Stll others, such as Chester McCrary d Harold Frazer, stayed around the St. Lous area and played ball on the Matthews Dckey team for a tme. D. M. Powell, on the other hand, contnued hs busness nterests n Meacham Park for a number of years, after whch he retred and went to Wentzvlle, Mssour. Stll actve n retrement, he establshed the Frendly Neghbors Club whch organzed actvtes such as fsh fres and other communty efforts, ncludng the buldng of a chldren's playground. u Damon Powell ded just a few weeks short of hs 90th brthday n Hs lfe greatly nfluenced the communty no matter where he went, but especally that of Meacham Park and ts people. To ths very day Chester McCrary, who was close to hm, and Frank Robnett, who knew hm well, both agree that D. M. Powell was "one hell of a remarkable man."

47 Chapter 5 EARLY CVC CLUBS AND ORGANZATONS o u

48 EARLY OVC CLUBS AND ORGANZATONS, pg. 38 Needlework Guld The Krkwood Branch of the Needlework Guld of Amerca was founded n 1893, a / year after the Meacham Park communty began. The "Guld" was an organzaton of a W welfare nature that made and dstrbuted clothng tems to many St. Lous and St. Lous County nsttutons. These nsttutons ncluded Bethesda Home, the old Folks Home, Koch Hosptal, Cty Hosptal, the Salvaton Army Rescue Home, the St. Lous County Juvenle Court, and the Krkwood Welfare Assocaton, among others. O n December, 1919, a new dvson of the Guld, composed of thrty black women lvng n the Krkwood area, ncludng Meacham Park, was organzed. The three drectors of ths dvson were Mrs. F.M. Carper, Mrs. Mssour Hayden, and Mrs. Pearl Sngley. The thrty charter members were: Mrs. Nelle Bbbs Mss Volet Hayden Mss Vola Blanton Mrs. H. Henry Mrs. John Brggs Mrs. L. D. Jones Mrs. Mary Brooks Mss Luclle Jordan Mrs. Cable Mrs. Mame Mng Mrs. S. Cannon Mrs. Adde Posturn Mss Angelne Davs Mrs. Denver Powell Mrs. Charles Davs Mrs. Beatrce Reed Mrs. Wllam Davs Mrs. Suse Reed Mrs. Emma Elkns Mrs. Emma Rens Mrs. James Falker Mrs.-Sam Sngley Mss Aurela Hayden Mss Sopha Sngley Mss Florence Hayden Mrs. R. Steele Mrs. Howard Hayden Mrs. Dasy Watson Mrs. Robert Hayden Mrs. Chrstna Woods n addton to members who made garments. Mss Vrgna Lnder, Mrs. C. Alexander, John France, Burt Hayden, and Abraham Jackson often contrbuted money for the purchase of materal. Durng the frst year of ts exstence, ths dvson made seventy-two garments that were dstrbuted to needy chldren at the Booker T. Washngton School. Accordng to June Wlknson Dahl's book, A Hstory of Krkwood, Mssour , the complete hstory of the Needlework Guld has never been found, so the detals concernng the "negro dvson" and how long t exsted s not known. n fact, over the years a number of organzatons began and ended n Meacham Park. Some of ther records have been lost or dscarded makng ther complete hstores uncertan. ^J N For nstance, a lttle nformaton s known about the Women's Communty Club, the Meacham Park Volunteer Fre Department, and the Meacham Park Polce, but no nf ormaton exsts concernng the Republcan Club, the Crusaders, the Sunshne Socal Club or the Cvc dub, all of whch exsted durng the 1920s and nto the 1930s. These black-run

49 EARLY CVC CLUBS AND ORGANZATONS, pg. 39 groups performed valuable work n ther tme, but today ther hstores are lost except for a menton n some form or another regardng ther partcpaton n an event. o Women's Communty Club On February 23,1925, several Meacham Park women gathered at the home of Mrs. * Qothlde Bass, a retred teacher, to dscuss the need for a women's club n the communty. On March 2 of that year the Women' s Communty Club was permanently organzed. ts orgnal founders ncluded Lla Mullns, Eula Ellngton, Evelyn Ewng, Mae Howell, Estelle Anthony, Ada Bell, Retta Logan, Elzabeth Bell, and Luvena Cunnngham Koen. Over the years ths club became nstrumental n obtanng needed changes n Meacham Park. Each of these mprovements was an enormous undertakng that took many years to accomplsh. For nstance, Mrs. Qothlde Bass pad for the frst water man to be brought down her street, the 400 block of Saratoga, from Krkwood Road. That accomplshment alone greatly benefted the entre communty by makng the ntal cost of hookups less for many others n the area. However, gettng the proper sewer systems for the area took many more years to accomplsh. As tme went on, the club, along wth several other communty groups workng together, acqured such benefts as street lghts, house-to-house mal delvery, and much more. o Meacham Park Fre Department n 1936, the Meacham Park Volunteer Fre Department was organzed, formed by the Cvc dub under a perpetual Charter wth the Rev. Leon Hannah as presdent. ndvduals pad ten dollars to become a charter member, and the organzaton acqured a used fre truck from the Glendale Fre Department. n the md-1940s, the volunteer fre department was reorganzed by an ndependent organzaton started by resdents B. L. Ewng and L. V. Rodgers. Rodgers was desgnated as the fre chef and Ells Wlls was apponted as the only pad volunteer. Wlls' duty was to stay wth the truck at all hours and to be ready for an emergency at a moment's notce. Dan Garrett served as the alternate pad volunteer, who, n later years, took over the hll-tme poston. Ths organzaton rased $500. wth a carnval and the followng year rased $1000. n proceeds from a second carnval. After that, several more carnvals were held on a yearly bass, the proceeds of whch went to the operaton of the fre department. These carnvals enabled the group, by the 1950s, to purchase a new fre engne, because the orgnal one had become mechancally unrelable, and to buld a hrehouse. L> Pror to havng a frehouse, the truck had been kept at the Arthur Bell resdence on New York Street.

50 EARLY CVC CLUBS AND ORGANZATONS, pg. 40 The number of volunteers on the fre department averaged between 12 to 15 men throughout ts exstence ~ nto the md-60s. C ' ~ \ The frehouse, bult at Mlwaukee and Electrc, served a mult-purpose functon for many years. t was often used for pcture shows, dances, and other socal gatherngs. The Meacham Park Polce n the early 1930s, law enforcement n Meacham Park was handled by two constables: Orange Ford Sr. and Sd Massey, both resdents of the communty. They wore no unforms but ther appontment to uphold and enforce the law was well-known and wellrespected by the resdents. No dfferent than most communtes at the tme, doors n Meacham Park were seldom locked n the early days. One-tme resdent Wllam Slaten recalls that as a chld he doesn't remember there ever beng a key to hs house. Slaten should know. Hs father, besdes runnng an undertakng establshment out of the famly home at 232 Attucks, was the frst Black to be apponted to the St. Lous County Sherffs Offce. Around 1937 or 1938, Fred "Pop" Slaten was apponted Deputy Sherff to patrol and enforce the law n Meacham Park. Hs son, Wllam, often drove for hs father. They used a 1938 Ford for polce work and a LaSalle or Packard for ther funeral servce. C As deputy, Slaten had the power to arrest anyone, but often found resstance to that power only along the outskrts 6f the communty. Wllam recalled one ncdent when he and hs father notced a car weavng badly down Bg Bend Road one day. They jumped nto ther Ford to pursue the car and check t out. Upon pullng the car over, "Pop" Slaten walked up and notced the drver was whte and extremely drunk. "Hey, you can't arrest me," the drver protested as he jumped out of the car. "Why not?" Slaten asked. "Cause you're a ngger!" came the reply. And wth that, hand Calmly, Slaten walked up to hm, "You don't thnk so, eh?" cuffed the guy and drove hm to the courthouse n Clayton. Lke hs predecessors, Orange Ford and Sd Massey, Slaten, too, had the respect of the ctzens of the communty. There were no major crme problems n Meacham Park - nothng lke the problems occurrng n Knloch durng ths perod - but stll Slaten found plenty to do. He kept an eye on the pool hall on Meacham Street. He knew t was a "gamblng jont." When the patrons would see hm approach, someone would yell "Here comes Pop Slaten!" and everyone would scatter! Then, too, when he needed nformaton, he knew where and to whom to go to get t. { j At the start of World War, Wllam Slaten went nto the servce. Lttle dd he realze he would never help hs father enforce the law agan.

51 EARLY CTVC CLUBS AND ORGANZATONS, pg. 41 u On a March day of 1943, "Pop" Slaten was hurryng to a dsturbance call at Saratoga and Mlwaukee Streets. Whle southbound on Mlwaukee, no more than a few blocks from hs home, a car came through an ntersecton strkng "Pop's" car broadsde, kllng hm nstantly. Other appontees to the St. Lous County Sherff's Offce and assgned to Meacham Park were resdents Booker Lemme, who served as deputy sherff for several years, and Jasper Gray, who had served as a volunteer under "Pop" Slaten untl he was apponted deputy. The Amercan Legon The buldng located on the northwest corner of Saratoga and Shelby orgnally housed Sloppy Joe's a bar owned and operated by resdent "Bg Joe" Ells. Ells had become well-known n the Krkwood-Meacham Park area as a bartender at a club located along Bg Bend Road. Years later the buldng was purchased and converted nto an Amercan Legon Post for veterans of the Frst World War. t served as the hub of socal actvty n the communty for many years. Ths Post, Amercan Legon Post #269, was named n honor of Jack Mng. u Mng was a resdent of Meacham Park who enlsted at Manla, Phlppne slands, on Aprl 9,1915. He served wth the 24th nfantry Servce Company, reachng the rank of corporal, and was honorably dscharged from the servce at Columbus, New Mexco on May 21,1919. He then reenlsted for three more years and was fnally dscharged at Camp Shamon Hachta, New Mexco on May 21,1922. The orgnal charter for the Jack Mng Post was drawn up and submtted on September 4,1936. t was legally granted on September 16 of that year. t began wth seventeen charter members, all but four of whom lved n Meacham Park. The members were: D.M. Powell Lesle Robnett Anderson Slvers Luther Gooch Robert Pearl Sdney Massey Sam Coleman Sam Sheppard Lev Brady Ray Ford Monroe Farar Albert Bernard Ben Perkns The four other charter members were Wllam Wlls of 220 Boyer n Krkwood, Wllam H. J. Wllams of Overland, Frank Hayes of Overland, and Sam Futrell of Webster Groves. o The present-day Adjutant for the Post s Ernest Wllams.

52 o Chapter 6 TMES OF CHANGE W.W. to the 1960s C 1

53 TMES of CHANGE, pg. 42 Communty Contnues To Buld L Although a number of Meacham Park resdents served n the armed servces durng World War, as far as records ndcate, none lost ther lves. After the war ended, more Blacks settled n Meacham Park. By the early 1950s, the Women's Communty Club bult ther own club-house at 143 Electrc Street to hold ther meetngs and actvtes as well as other communty functons. n 1955, the Meacham Park mprovement Assocaton was organzed. Ths group organzed n the home of Mrs. Laura Brassfeld at 317 Meacham Street. These two clubs, along wth the Legonnares, banded together and organzed to seek mprovements n the areas of water, lghtng, sewers, and road mantenance wthn ther communty By ths tne, Blacks owned and operated fve grocery stores, fve beauty shops, two servce statons, a cleaners, an auto repar servce, a rado & TV. repar shop, and a trash dsposal servce wthn ther communty. n addton, there were sx churches n Meacham Park The Frst Baptst Church, the Church of God, Church of God n Chrst, the Catholc Msson, C.M.E., and St. Mary & the Pentecostal. The cvc organzatons havng ther own buldngs, besdes the Women's Communty Club, ncluded the Volunteer Fre Department, the Legonnares, and the Republcan Club. The populaton stood at 1,365 people, ncludng about three-hundred whtes. Regardless of race, they all struggled hard and worked together to buld and mantan ther communty. Durng ths tne several resdents of Meacham Park volunteered and were accepted n the Krkwood Polce Department auxlary polceman program. The frst tranng class graduated n June, 1953, and ncluded Meacham Park resdent Clarence E. Spears. The second class graduated n December of 1956 and ncluded Rufus Harrs, Davd A. Mtchell, and George Kettles. Others nvolved n the program were James Mosley and T.D. Bell. All of these men proved to be of great value and much help to that department over the years. Harrs, by the way, contnued to serve on the auxlary force untl 1985! - But the 1950s also proved to be the most dffcult for Meacham Park. Accordng to a paper prepared by resdent Catherne Lucas, whch was publshed n the Krkwood Messenger newspaper n March 1959, "An nflux of mgratons from the South took place n the early 1950s and the communty was not as homogeneous as before. Many of the communty's long-tne resdents no longer knew everyone on ther block nor those who gathered on the corners to talk... causng socal deteroraton." Problems ncreased G What took place outsde of Meacham Park n the name of "progress" sometmes took ts toll wthn the communty, too, durng ths perod.

54 TMES of CHANGE, pg. 43 ^ ^ n 1957 the cty of Krkwood annexed a 100-foot strp of commercal property from Meacham Park along Krkwood Road, from Bg Bend southward, and along Bg Bend Road, from Krkwood Road eastward. These strps had contaned nearly all of Meacham Park's commercal area by ths tme, and because of ths annexaton many resdents began to harbor a dstrust for Krkwood. n , constructon on the new nterstate-44 began, takng a swath of land out of the southeast corner of Meacham Park. ts path severed all of Spears Street from the rest of the communty and elmnated half of Handy Street. What's more, after the buldng of the Venture store on South Krkwood Road n the late 1960s - early 70s, storm water poured nto Meacham Park. Sad the June '71 ssue of n Our Opnon, the communty's newspaper: "The water that was formerly absorbed by the grassy ground that exsted before the huge hardtop parkng lot was fnshed now pours (durng heavy rans) nto Meacham Park n such amounts and so fast as to cause water seepage n many basements, cracked foundatons, and generally damagng gardens and propertes. Amd these problems, others surfaced: homes were abandoned or quckly rented out old cars and other dscarded tems were abandoned out n the open, crme ncreased, and some resdents became dsllusoned wth the future. O But durng the 1960s there were a few persstent resdents who pushed and worked for changes. Slowly me communty worked toward stablty. By 1966, through the prde, hard work and dedcaton of the resdents, the communty began to make a comeback Several hard won mprovements were fnally realzed as streets were paved for the frst tne and an all-out effort was made to upgrade and mprove the communty through the removal of derelct cars and dlapdated houses. The Cleanup Campagn There had been a tme when every resdent n ths communty mantaned great prde n ther homes and property. Yards were fenced and always well-kept, no matter what condton the roads were n at the tne and, n fact, some resdents recall when drt paths to the houses were even kept clean and swept. But durng the early 1960s trash and debrs had begun to accumulate n many parts of the communty. By ths tme, too, there were several vacant lots n the communty whch mght have prompted the dumpng of trash. There was, however, some controversy as to whether the dumpng was actually done by resdents or by people from out-lyng areas and surroundng communtes. o Whatever the case, n June 1966 Meacham Park resdents ntated a large communty-wde cleanup program, recevng help and cooperaton, ncludng trucks and drvers, from the County of St. Lous and the Cty of Krkwood.

55 TMES of CHANGE, pg. 44 c Ths entre project was conceved by the Gateway Center organzaton through the efforts of the program developer, Mrs. Ruth Washngton, councl charman, Wllam J. (Bll) Jones, and County coordnator, Mrs. Georga Rusan. To help promote the program, przes were presented to all who partcpated. Specal przes went to those who gathered the most pounds of trash. That frst prze, a wrst watch donated by Blust's Jewelers, went to George Thornton, who gathered over 500 pounds of trash along the roadsdes and dtches n the area. Other przes gven out ncluded transstor rados, pen & pencl sets, games, toys, and fve camper-scholarshps donated by varous organzatons, allowng the young wnners two-week vacatons at camp. The Gateway Center The Gateway Center was part of the County Dstrct's Human Development Corporaton that had been n operaton snce June, The purpose of the center was to create programs drected toward helpng people help themselves n the ares of employment, housng, health and welfare, the elderly, and general socal servces. 1 O Georga T. Rusan became the frst County Coordnator of the poverty program that year, and her frst responsbltes were to establsh sx local Gateway Center substatons n or near areas to be served, fndng a sutable staff from the area, and developng a workng relatonshp wth the communty. One of these centers was establshed n Meacham Park, at Bg Bend, and a communty Advsory Councl was set up. The councl's responsblty was to determne and advse the H.D.C. on the prortes of the communty. Meacham Park's councl members were Rev. Lawrence Cannon, Wllam J. Jones, Charles Runnels, and saac Russel. Many others, such as Emly Bell and Charles Ells, were nvolved as staff members for employment, housng, Head Start socal servces, general socal servce, health ads for Head Start chldren, and Neghborhood workers. n addton, Mrs, Anne Brown was the senor ctzen's OASS worker. Because of the Advsory Councl's mandates, Mrs. Rusan became nstrumental n obtanng needed mprovements for Meacham Park. Slowly, Progress Comes to the Communty Sadly, the problems faced by Blacks n ths communty were typcal of black Amercans natonwde. L> After World War H, the county of St. Lous had become more affluent but the communty of Meacham Park had not. Untl the 1960s, outhouses and rundown wooden homes were common here. The medan famly ncome of the communty was less than half that of the countywde medan, and many households were lvng below the federally

56 TMES of CHANGE, pg. 45 desgnated poverty lne. A survey n 1966 found that there were 1,501 people lvng n Meacham Park, of whch 13 were whte. t also revealed that of the 396 homes n the communty, 222 stll had outhouses as ther only tolet facltes. o Roads n Meacham Park were nothng more than wde drt trals. Many had become completely mpassable, and others were often blocked by wrecked or abandoned cars. n July, 1966, St. Lous County Supervsor Lawrence Roos addressed the ctzens of Meacham Park at a mass meetng held at Turner School. He announced some proposed programs for the communty under the Nelson's Amendment. Ths amendment provded that the county would match funds advanced by the Federal Government so mprovements could be obtaned n certan areas. The programs ncluded health and santary projects, the buldng and equppng of two playgrounds and, most of all, road mprovements wthn the communty. t was the realzaton of the dedcated and hard-workng efforts of the members of Mr. Roos' panel, whch ncluded Mrs. Georga T. Rusan and Wllam J. Jones and many other resdents who had worked so hard behnd the scenes. t seemed, for a tme, that all would go well for Meacham Park. However, n the mdst of all these mprovements, the wnter of 1966 also brought tragedy to ths small communty. A fre broke out n a home at a tme when the fre truck was broken down, and fve chldren pershed. Deeply saddened and upset by the loss, the volunteer fre department dsbanded soon afterward, and the communty began to contract for fre protecton servce through the cty of Krkwood. The Krkwood Fre Department has provded servce to Meacham Park snce that tme. The Meacham Park fre truck was sold to a prvate ndvdual lvng n the Shrewsbury area, and the frehouse was later remodeled so that on Aprl 5,1967, t was opened as the Meacham Park Clnc. Meacham Park Clnc The Sster's of Mercy, St. John's Mercy Hosptal, opened the medcal clnc n the remodeled frehouse at Electrc and Mlwaukee through the efforts of Wllam J. Jones, presdent of the Meacham Park Advsory Councl, John Cuts, Frank Ells, Mrs. Buford Cole, and Ray Pror, charman of the Meacham Park Fre Commttee. Resdents n the area, such as Hoyd Manse, Bertram Ewng, Rufus Harrs, "Alex" Alexander, Rufus Gates, Oscar Booth, and others worked on a voluntary bass to prepare the buldng. These volunteers remodeled the frehouse by puttng up parttons, pantng, etc. " U Later, Mrs. Grace Davs, school nurse at Meacham Park, met wth the Ssters to help outlne polces, procedures, etc., for the clnc. Several years later, a new Meacham Park Health Center was bult at 1150 Mlwaukee.

57 Chapter 7 MEACHAM PARK'S NEWSPAPER: TN OUR OPNON,<J

58 MEACHAM PARK'S NEWSPAPER, pg. 46 Meacham Park's Communty Newspaper n the mdst of all that was gong on n the late 1960s, resdent Bll Jones created a { newspaper for the communty. Named n Our Opnon, t was frst publshed n September % * QAft t averaged twelve pages an ssue, and each month the paper's 2500 copes reached beyond the borders of Meacham Park, nto the communtes of Krkwood, Webster Groves, and other areas of the county and the cty. The paper wasn't always well-receved though, n those outlyng areas. Front pages depctng Santa Qaus as a Black or showng a black Jesus Chrst on the crucfx sometmes generated hate mal. At tmes so dd the edtoral copy: "You have told your chldren we are a lazy people and we hate to work. Why don't you tell them we have farmed the lands, helped buld the ralroads, cleaned your houses and yards, attended your chldren, and cooked your food? We have helped buld Amerca (but) we have always been the underprvleged and underpad." "We were somewhat mltant," Jones remembers. "But t got us some attenton. t gave our people a voce for the frst tme, and t was (after all) 'n our opnon. 1 One of the thngs t dd was gve us some vsblty and t helped put us n touch wth some whte people n government who could work wth us on some of our problems. For that reason alone, the newspaper dd an mportant job." The whole endeavor kept everyone nvolved workng very hard; but for the most part, Jones and the others remember the newspaper wth fondness. The staff conssted of Jones as the Edtor, Qeo Lewrght and Adel Allen as Assstant Edtors, Gaynelle Jones, Henry Hall, and Gerald Hll as Junor Edtors, Andy Greer as Staff Artst, and Patrck Jones as Staff Photographer. n addton, the paper's Executve Councl conssted of Rev. Larry Cannon as Charman, Dorothy Wallace as Co-Charman, Matte Berry as Secretary, and Luclle Krby as Treasurer. Mechancal producton was handled by Garnet Thes and the Messenger Prntng Co. The man purpose of the newspaper was an effort by the Executve Commttee of the Meacham Park Communty Councl to nform the ctzens of the events, programs, opnons, and other nformaton about what was takng place n and around the communty. Although n Our Opnon was orgnally a 81/2" x 11" pamphlet-style paper, n June 1980 a newspaper-type format began wth Jones as Edtor, Rebecca Coleman and Jennfer Gordon as School Reporters, Tracy Cannon, Socal Events, Bernce Taylor, Communty and Organzatons, Mary Wllams, Senor Ctzens, Dorothy Wallace, Housng, and Sandra Watts, Church and Obtuares Reporter.

59 1 Chapter 8 SPORTS N MEACHAM PARK 1 0 L

60 1 SPORTS N MEACHAM PARK, pg. 47 Professonal Boxng L Meacham Park has had representatves n other sports besdes baseball. One of these was Art Cooper, sad to be one of the outstandng lghtweght boxers n the country durng the late 1930s and early 1940s. Cooper won the Golden Gloves Novce Crown n 1935, and n 1937 won another Golden Gloves ttle n Cleveland, Oho. Agan n 1939 and 1940 he won Golden Gloves ttles n St. Lous and the Mssour State Crown n Whle servng n the South Pacfc durng World War, he won the New Zealand Lghtweght Boxng Champonshp as well as the South Pacfc Champonshp n n 1946 Cooper fought Solbertello n the Featherweght Champonshp Of The World, but lost. He contnued to box professonally untl n the 32 professonal bouts of hs boxng career, Cooper lost only eght. Communty Boxng Team & Golden Gloves n 1955 a boxng program was organzed wthn the communty by Bll Jones, a onetme C..A.A. mddleweght champ at West Vrgna State College, and Les Tatum, a former pro boxer. Jones was asssted by Wllam Hayden, another former college boxng star, and Henry Carter. l o The team was sponsored by the Y.M.C.A., whose Meacham Park branch, located n the Legon Post buldng at Saratoga ard Shelby, was drected by Wllam Hayden one year and George Ellott durng the next. Spencer Gould, Presdent of Relable Lfe nsurance Company, along wth Bob Dunkle, dd a lot to make boxng a successful project n the communty. Gould encouraged Jones to provde the boxng team wth the proper equpment and provded the fnances n that effort. Boxng shoes, trunks, gloves, and headgear were obtaned and the team began workng out at the "Y", at Turner School, and at the audtorum of the Catholc Msson. Jones organzed a team of twenty young boxers and began a rgorous tranng program. The St. Lous Globe-Democrat ran an artcle descrbng a unque tranng angle developed by hm called "rng frght" where the boys were taught to endure three-mnute rounds nstead of the typcal one- or two-mnute ones. "We fnd that most young boxers need endurance tranng more than anythng else," sad Jones durng the newspaper ntervew. On January 23,1956, the team exhbted ther sklls n ther frst communty exposton. James Waters served as referee, Robert Red was tme keeper, and Jackson Wllams was the announcer. Some of the best featherweght boxers were sad to be Lloyd Bbbs and John Cutts, as well as Clarence Mtchell, 'Wndy' Bbbs, and Jmmy Abrams., 0 On February 7, 8, and 10, of 1956, several of Meacham Park's best were entered n the 17th Annual Golden Gloves Champonshp held at Kel Audtorum. Those entered, and who paved the way for other teams n the followng years, were Elroy Stanford n the

61 SPORTS N MEACHAM PARK, pg lb. class, Davd Parker n the 155-lb., James Abrams 126, Lloyd Bbbs 125, John Cuts 110, James Greer 98, and Clarence Mtchell n the 95-lb. class. o Nneteen-year-old Elroy Stanford was an outstandng member of the team and was also on the Volunteer Fre Department. Just a few weeks before the tournament, he cut hs hand whle fghtng a fre. He was, however, able to make the tournament. n later years some of the partcpants n the Golden Gloves competton ncluded Orlando Holmes, James Glover, Lee Lawrence, John Stewart, and James L. Frankln, among many others. One member, "Sluggo" Sylvester Jackson, went all the way to the semfnals at the Arena. Communty Represented n Many Sports n addton to boxng, Meacham Park has been represented n n a wde range of professonal, semprofessonal, and amateur sports throughout the years. ncluded s everythng from track and held, to baseball, basketball, and even to ths very day, the sport of auto racng. Drag Racng G As lnes of compettors, many makng last mnute adjustments, form n the stagng area, a throng of excted car enthusasts and race fans crowd along the fences to watch the acton of the frst par of hgh-powered machnes that pull up to the begnnng of the quarter-mle strp of concrete. Wth engnes rumblng and ther adrenaln buldng, the drvers st posed, watchng ntently as the 'lght-tree" begns ts countdown. Suddenly, the green lght appears! Wth a mghty roar and a tral of smoke, the two machnes jump off the lne and charge down the strp n a thunderng process of elmnaton. The cars are loud, powerful, and potentally dangerous. The awesome power of these thunderng machnes can be felt by the spectators all the way to the top of the stands. t s ths knd of exctement that Bll "Cat" Jones, Jr. experences tme and agan each and every year. nvolved n drag racng almost snce the age of sxteen, "Cat" Jones currently runs a hgh-powered 1967 Chevy Camaro on the professonal strps of Mssour and llnos. Hs car, lght weght wth a small-block 366 C.. Chevy engne, can top-n at mph n a quarter-mle run. Jones can be seen at the St Lous nternatonal Raceway at Grante Cty, 111., the Wentzvlle Raceway near Wentzvlle, Mo., and the Pevely Raceway near Pevely, Mo. throughout the summer. Whenever possble, take the opportunty to see the '67 "'Cat' Jones Engneerng" Camaro as t roars down the concrete! > U

62 L Chapter 9 LATER CVC PROGRAMS AND ORGANZATONS

63 LATER CVC PROGRAMS and ORGANZATONS, pg. 49 SPROG, nc. L n the late 1960s, Wllam Jones, nvolved n many of the communty's mprovement projects, and Cleo Lewrght, a teacher at Turner School who had been rased n Meacham Park, saw a need for some type of program to help the area's youth. The lack of job opportuntes as well as a lack of approprate lesure actvtes gave the youngsters too much dle tme, whch often resulted n juvenle delnquency, problems. n the wnter of 1967 Jones and Lewrght came up wth the dea of "The Sponsors" program. The dea was presented n a talk n front of the Chrstan Socal Relatons Commttee at Krkwood's Grace Epscopal Church n March, On that day, three church members, Mrs. Garnet Thes, Mrs. Anne Scharon, and Mrs. Ann Cook, sat n the audence and became mpressed by the depth of the two men's concern for the boys and the urgency of the appeal. nspred, they asked to help some of the boys who needed gudance. The group worked together to develop and organze the program, donatng a lot of tme and hard work. The women drafted a letter to prospectve employers and another to prospectve sponsors. They, along wth Jones and Lewrght, labored over the ntroductons, explanatons, ndoctrnatons, and personal contacts requred to get the program "off the ground." By Aprl, 1968, the program had became a realty! Desgned to help problem youngsters between the ages of 15 and 20, an adult would accept a youngster to work wth on a one-to-one bass. The Sponsor, usually a male, provded counselng and gudance, and together they would attend recreatonal actvtes, have lunch together at least once a week, attempt to fnd a job for the youngster, and develop a relatonshp wth the employer. f problems developed on the job or f the youth got n trouble n the communty, the Sponsor and the youth worked together on these problems. Beng a Sponsor nvolved a lot of hard work and long hours. t nvolved beng concerned, understandng, and extendng a helpng hand. Sometmes t nvolved gettng up at all hours for a youngster n trouble, pavng the way for a job, seeng that the youngster got to work, and helpng hm adjust to condtons of employment. He program helped the Sponsor and the youngster establsh an understandng and mutual respect for one another. As tme went on, there was an occasonal falure, but there were many, many successes. One prme example s that of Marvn Hale Wllams. Marvn was among the frst youngsters to enter the Sponsors-Program and was sponsored by H. Robert and Garnet Thes. Through ther gudance, and that of hs parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Wllams, Marvn went on to graduate from Krkwood Hgh School n June, Through the Elot Chapel Scholarshp Fund, he entered Southeast Mssour State Teachers' College the followng September to pursue the feld of physcal educaton. Today Mr. Wllams s a coach and teacher at Parkway School. f ^ / The Sponsors Program remaned hghly successful and stayed n operaton for over fve years. V&thn two years the youngsters who were beng helped by ths program came up wth the dea of helpng chldren between the ages of 6 and 15 so they could avod some

64 LATER CVC PROGRAMS and ORGANZATONS, pg. 50 of the problems experenced by those who were helped out by the Sponsors Program. u Thus the organzaton as we know t today, called SPROG, was born. The name s derved from the words: Sponsors Program. An organzaton n Jefferson Cty, Mssour, usng the name Sponsors Program was already n exstence, whch made t necessary to alter the local program ttle before ncorporaton papers could fled. SPROG, a not-for-proft organzaton, was ncorporated on October 28,1970. SPROG s prmarly a preventatve program whch provdes such thngs as counselng, gudance, recreatonal programs, and an opportunty for socal growth. n effect, t carres out a program desgned to gve black youngsters a head start wth socety. The chldren are grouped accordng to age. These groups, n turn, are under the leadershp of teenage ades. They partcpate n sports, crafts, creatve skll, dancng, and other actvtes reflectng ther wants and nterests. Grls were added to the program, drected by Mrs. "Kat" Mng, n The frst SPROG center was located at 118 W. Madson, across from the Krkwood Polce Department. When that house was leveled for a parkng lot, Bll Jones approached the head of the the. Grace Church congregaton, the Rev. Arthur Stedemann. Thereafter SPROG has been headquartered n the lower east wng of Grace Epscopal Church at 514 E. Argonne n Krkwood. o From 1970 through 1974, the program was funded by the Mssour Law Enforcement Assstance Councl. n 1973 the chldren of SPROG, upon learnng that government fundng was comng to an end, helped put a colorng book together n the hopes that copes could be sold and the proceeds used to keep the organzaton gong. The result was the "Famous Black Amercans Colorng Book." The chldren chose and researched the subjects to be used and, under the sponsorshp of the Western Ltho Plate Company, Mr. Don Holmes sketched the pctures and dd the layouts. n 1975 the chldren developed the "Famous Black Amercan Women Colorng Book" n the same way Both projects were qute successful. Snce January 1,1975, SPROG has contnued through smlar projects, n addton to the donatons from churches, corporatons, and ndvduals. The orgnal SPROG staff conssted of Bll Jones as drector, Mrs. Garnet Thes as secretary and fscal offcer, and the orgnal ades were Dave Walker, Son Abernathy, Blly Roberts, and Larry Robnson. Later, Dave Walker became ade and advsor as a new group of ades was establshed. They were: Shannon Wrght, Garrett Nash, Henry Stewart, Kenny Gordon, Ellott Kng, Ladonna Wrght, and Kat Mng. Assstant ades at that tme were Charles Wagner, Harold Newton, and Herbert Rchardson. o Kem Mosley was drector from 1974 to n 1981 he was elected Executve Drector and hs wfe, Karen Mosley, became drector.

65 LATER CVC PROGRAMS and ORGANZATONS, pg. 51 Kem Mosley, who was born and rased n Meacham Park, s hghly qualfed for hs poston, havng a Masters Degree n gudance and counselng. Karen Mosley, too, s hghly qualfed, havng been a teacher for many years. n addton, she worked closely wth Kem C ; whle he was drector and has been nstrumental n the development of the program. Throughout the years SPROG has contnued to functon and grow, provdng the chldren wth a wder world n whch they have become concerned, responsble resdents of ther communty. Club 44 Although the organzaton actually began n 1951, t ddn't become a promnent communty organzaton untl the 1960s. n fact, much of the neghborhood clean-up and fx-up work durng the '60s, and snce then as well, was accomplshed through the efforts of dub 44. Club 44 s a youth organzaton founded by Joe Cole wth the help of the Krkwood YMCA. Through Club 44, many of Meacham Park's youth, and even senor ctzens who have become nvolved, have taken on some very ambtous endeavors to help make ther communty a better place to lve. Cole moved to Meacham Park n For several , he served as Communty Servce Offcer for Krkwood Polce Department. ' T *^^ n 1951 the organzaton was formed to provde transportaton for area youth to attend swmmng lessons. Because the bus beng used would only hold 44 people, the organzers humorously referred to the group as "Club 44." By 1957 though, the group expanded ther communty servce roll and elected to keep the name. By then the sgnfcance of that name, the members all agreed, stood for "workng together 4 God and 4 country." They also accepted "Love" as ther club theme. The organzaton's frst headquarters was establshed at Turner School from 1951 untl For a short tme they had a club house at Meacham and Tolstoy Streets. Between 1969 and 1971, Club 44 had ts headquarters at the Krkwood YWCA. Snce 1971 ts headquarters has been at the hstorc lttle cottage at 126 E. Washngton Street, n Krkwood. Over the years, the club has engaged n numerous programs to help clean up the Meacham Park communty, such as tearng down condemned houses, cleanng off vacant lots, and pantng houses and other buldngs, as well as general cleanup work. AMVETPost#69 For several years the communty had an AMVET Post, located on Bg Bend near Krkwood Road. Ths Post was named and dedcated n the honor of H. Francs Cochran f " on October 17,1962. Herbert Francs Cochran was born n Meacham Park on March 12, W He was educated here and attended Douglas Hgh School n Webster Groves.

66 LATER CVC PROGRAMS and ORGANZATONS, pg. 52 He was qute nvolved wth the area's youth, beng presdent of the frst young men's club called the Paysans. Cj Francs entered the servce n September 1950 and served n Company "A", 5th Cavalry Dvson. n 1951 he was wounded whle servng n Korea and ded three weeks later n Japan. Today, he s bured at Jefferson Barracks Natonal Cemetery n south St. Lous. Francs was the son of Mrs. Sarah Johnson. Another son, Lous, also served n Korea and n 1952 was returnng home after sxteen months n the Servce when he was klled n an automoble accdent. When the Post was frst founded, t was under the Commander-shp of Ots Stanford and Vce-Commander Robert Wllams. Today, under the Commandershp of Earl Turner, members meet n the varous veterans' homes. Crown Royals One of the most recent socal clubs to be organzed n the communty s the Crown Royals motorcycle club. ^ >, On August 30,1975, the club was founded, begnnng wth seventeen orgnal charter members, and a clubhouse was establshed at 215 Alsobrook. Wthn a short tme the club grew to a membershp of nearly forty members. Snce then, the club has contrbuted n many ways to the communty ncludng organzng dances and other socal affars, contrbutons to the Meacham Park Day Care Center, provdng baskets of food to senor ctzens durng the holdays, and workng wth the Club 44 youth group on numerous communty projects. Slowly Movng Forward n 1968 the Metropoltan Sewer Dstrct and the St. Lous County Water Company began nstallng water and sewer lnes n Meacham Park. A federal grant from the Department of Housng and Urban Development (H.U.D.) assured that the communty would receve a complete santary sewer system. Ths culmnated several years of efforts by the resdents. n fact, Dorothy Wallace, a long-tme communty leader, and all of the communty's cvc clubs, had been campagnng for a proper sewer system snce The water man was frst completed to Spears Street around March, The frst resdent to complete a contract to have run the water lne from the man to ther house was Mrs. Dxe Chappe. j Leadng members of the Meacham Park water commttee were: Mrs. Dxe Chappe, Mrs. Luclle Krby, Tom Chappe, Wllam J. Jones, and several others.

67 B LATER CVC PROGRAMS and ORGANZATONS, pg. 53 Cj Meanwhle, the Metro Sewer Dstrct began layng trunk lnes. As tme went on, a map of the area was dsplayed at the Gateway Center offce to keep resdents nformed of the progress of the sewer system. Twce a week the contractor came n and marked the area that had been completed wth red nk. o

68 c Chapter 10 VETNAM AND TS MPACT UPON MEACHAM PARK c, u

69 VETNAM and TS MPACT upon MEACHAM PARK, pg. 54 The Vetnam War B Far away Vetnam had a dramatc and personal mpact upon ths small communty. Tn addton to beng touched by the Korean conflct, Meacham Park made the "supreme sacrfce" agan nearly two decades later n the Vetnam War. Of the 274,937 Blacks who served n the mltary between 1965 to 1974, 5,681 were klled n combat. Two of those 5,681 young men had been born and rased n Meacham Park. Udell Chambers Prvate 1 st Class Udell Chambers served n the 1 st nfantry Dvson of the U.S. Army as an assstant gunner n the howtzer secton. On June 21,1968, he was statoned at a fre support base ten klometers north of Tan Uyen n War Zone D. At approxmately 9:40 P.M. that nght, hs camp was subjected to an ntense rocket and mortar attack, whereupon Chambers rushed to hs poston and began adjustng hs howtzer for a counterattack. Suddenly, wthout warnng, an enemy rocket came n and made a drect ht on Chambers' poston, kllng hm nstantly. t 1 o Among other medals, Chambers was awarded the Bronze Star for herosm because, "... Hs example of selfless courage and ntatve nspred hs comrades to contnue fghtng vgorously untl the hostle attack was halted. Prvate Frst Class Chambers' outstandng dsplay of aggressveness, devoton to duty, and personal bravery s n keepng wth the fnest tradtons of the mltary servce and reflects great credt upon hmself." Udell Chambers was born February 22,1948, to Mr. and Mrs. Chambers of 318 Chcago Street, Meacham Park. He attended Turner, Npher, and Krkwood Hgh School and was an outstandng basketball and baseball player. Tn fact, whle playng Communty League baseball, he was scouted by the Atlanta Braves and sent to Sarasota, Florda. There he spent one season wth the Farm team before beng drafted by the Army n September, Robert L. Rodgers Robert Rodgers entered the mltary servce n the Sprng of 1968 and receved nfantry tranng n Texas. He was then statoned at Fort Gordon, Georga, where he completed hs hgh school educaton and was traned as a medc. Upon completng hs medcal tranng, he receved a thrty-day leave, after whch he was sent to Fort Lews, Washngton, to prepare for Vetnam servce. On December 27,1968, SP5 Rodgers arrved n the Republc of Vetnam as part of the 3rd Battalon, 47th nfantry, 9th nf. Dvson. Durng ths tme he was descrbed by hs commandng offcers as a fne, devoted solder, who possessed great ablty and sprt. Whle on reconnassance operatons n Ken Hoa Provnce on the afternoon of Aprl / 16,1969, Rodgers was fatally struck by enemy small-arms gunfre that suddenly broke out ^* wthout warnng.

70 VETNAM and TS MPACT upon MEACHAM PARK, pg. 55 Robert L. Rodgers was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Theopols Rodgers. He was born n Meacham Park on October 20,1948, and attended Turner School, Npher lunor Hgh School, and Krkwood Hgh School. c? Both of these young men had promsng futures, but lke many men ther age durng ths perod, ther lves were nterrupted and eventually cut short by the Vetnam War. Today ther names can be seen engraved on the Vetnam Memoral Wall n Washngton, D.C O u

71 Chapter 11 MODERNZATON ARRVES g THE 1970s AND BEYOND L>

72 MODHRNZA'ON ARR1VHS, pg. 56 Progress Becomes Realty c The 1970s saw progress slowly nch ts way nto Meacham Park. t would become the decade n whch resdents would fnally see some mprovements n ther communty. As 84-year-old resdent Grady Woods commented to a St. Lous Post-Dspatch reporter, "No longer do resdents carry two pars of shoes one for traversng rutted, muddy streets and another for walkng on sold ground." Modernzaton arrved n other forms as well. The fnal lnk n the sewer trunk lnes was completed n Aprl, Then constructon began on lateral sewer lnes to ndvdual homes, although some lateral lne-work had been done as early as September, Once the cost and work of the artery (trunk) lners were completed, the actual hookng up of ndvdual homes (lateral lnes) to that system became a concern. n order to better facltate that, the Frst Presbyteran Church of Krkwood, n cooperaton wth the Commerce Bank of Krkwood, establshed a "Homeowners Assstance Plan" n early Tn ths "Plan," resdent property owners who met reasonable requrements, qualfed for a sewer nstallaton loan at a very reasonable rate of nterest from the Commerce Bank, as guaranteed by funds deposted by the church n that bank. Over the years the Frst Presbyteran Church n Krkwood has had a contnual nterest n the betterment and welfare of the Meacham Park comrnunty and has often acted out of /-N that concern. Ths beng no excepton, t made t possble for all resdents to' be hooked up ^f to the new system by the Fall of Housng The Meacham Park Development Corporaton was formed and elected offcers on January 19,1970. Rev. George Sebree of the Frst Baptst Church of Meacham Park was elected Charman of the Board, Wllam J. Jones was elected Presdent of the Corporaton, Mrs. Wllmena Cooper was elected as Secretary, and Arche Brrnkley was elected Treasurer. Under the gudance of James E. Hurt, presdent of Vangard Bond and Mortgage Company of St. Lous, the new not-for-proft Corporaton began to help rebuld Meacham Park and mprove the housng condtons. Housng plans for the area became a realty wth the approval of a 80-unt, 400 resdent complex bult under the Turnkey Housng Program. The Turnkey H project was a method by whch low ncome famles could secure a resdence wth the help of the local housng authorty. Constructon of the complex, bult on a seven-acre ste bounded by Tolstoy, Chcago, Orleans, and Electrc Streets, began on September 15,1970, and was ready for occupancy by -^ March, The complex conssts of one, two, three, and four bedroom apartments, a small ^J play area, parkng, and a communty-center buldng.

73 c MODERNZATON ARRVES, pg. 57 Hans were also approved for buldng thrty or more new one-famly homes on lots at varous locatons throughout Meacham Park under the "235 Program." The "235 Program" s derved from Secton 235 of the new housng laws under the Department of Housng and Urban Development. Under ths program, H.U.D. would assst developers, nvestors, and prospectve buyers, so that elgble people could buy a modest home wth a small down payment. The frst "235" home bult n Meacham Park was constructed by the E. L. Coleman Constructon Company at 339 Electrc Street. t was a splt-level, three-bedroom home bult for the Harry Mng famly, completed around March of communty Also durng ths tme, the constructon of sdewalks was takng place throughout the Noted Cvc Leaders Back n 1910 to the 1920s, there was a natonally famous black stage actor named Bert Wllams who was makng $ a week but wasn't allowed nsde the local Press Club unless he was accompaned by a whte person. So, each evenng that Wllams desred a drnk after hs show, he had to wat outsde the Press Club door untl a whte person came along who would agree to escort hm nsde. ( J About ths, Wllams once remarked, "Ya know, t's no dsgrace beng a black man, but t sure can be nconvenent." And so t was n Meacham Park! Each accomplshment and every modern convenence obtaned for the communty ddn't come wthout a lot of hard work, deterrnnaton, dedcaton, and strugglng through mountans of governmental "red tape. " Whle some resdents were nclned to gve n and throw ther hands up n frustraton, there were several whose drve and determnaton made those dreams come truepeople such as Rev. Larry Cannon, Rev. George Sebree, Luclle Krby, Cleo Lewrght Ardel Allen, Anne Brown, Carolyn Felds, Charles Ells, Matte Berry, Emly Bell, and many, many more. There are, however, two addtonal people specal recognton. Tt was ther devoton to and the amount of tme and effort they nvested that helped encourage others to become nvolved, to nstll confdence n others that changes and were possble when everyone worked together. As Napoleon once sad, "A leader s a dealer n hope" and t was hope that Dorothy Wallace and Bll Jones gave to ths communty. U

74 1 MODERNZATON ARR VES, pg- 58 Dorothy Wallace E C roads E Few whte people can comprehend what t would be lke to dream of sewers and for ther communty. n fact, few whte people have ever had to set the obtanng of such thngs as ther lfe-long goal. After all, hstorcally for them, such thngs have come n tme and are easly taken for granted -so t's hard to understand. For Meacham Park, the tme for the natural arrval of such thngs had come and passed. Resdent Dorothy Wallace knew ths, and whle the world outsde the communty was flushng tolets, turnng on faucets, and drvng on streets that ran ddn't turn to mud, she became determned to brng such necesstes to her communty. t wasn't the "future" she was demandng n Meacham Park, t was the "present!" So for her such thngs as sewers became her dream her lfelong goal. Dorothy was born n Meacham Park on January 10,1922. She was rased n the communty and educated n the area's schools. She later marred Arte Wallace and by the 1960s began to emerge from wthn the communty to lead n ts struggle to survve. The decade of the 1960s, many mght remember, developed nto some strange and turbulent tmes. t may well have been one of those "100-year-cycles" n hstory, for the 1860s, too, nearly tore ths naton apart and n both nstances cvl rghts and Black equalty were at ssue. Although the 1960s ddn't see'ah all-out war as n the 1860s, t dd see many ndvdual acts of volence all across the naton. A number of people, both black and whte, who emerged to lead n the struggle for equalty and justce, or smply for mprovements, were qute often slenced by volent means. Such was the case n many parts of Msssspp and Alabama, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, and n Memphs. So, t was n these tmes that Dorothy Wallace decded to take a stand and get needed changes for her communty. Fortunately, nothng tragc occurred n ths area, but Dorothy, and others who banded together to work for change n Meacham Park, had no such assurances when they began. From 1960 on, Wallace campagned for major changes such as a proper water system, a santary sewer system, and adequate housng, when others thought t was mpossble to acheve them. Later, when others gave up n dsgust, Dorothy refused to let t le. When Presdent Nxon sought to save money by cuttng back on housng funds, Wallace came out fghtng even harder for the ssue and got results. She sacrfced much of her lfe toward mprovng her communty by attendng meetngs, sttng on commssons, and contactng numerous poltcal leaders. She became nvolved wth the Clean-up program and was always nterested and wllng to workwth any group whose nterest was mprovng the communty Slowly over the years, she saw her dreams materalze. Through her efforts, and the efforts of others workng wth her, the communty ganed the modern water system, the

75 MODERNZATON ARRVES, pg. 59 santary sewer system, the paved roads, the housng, the sdewalks, and many other mprovements. / Very few people n ths world are fortunate enough to be lad to rest after havng ^ ^ realzed ther dreams and attanng ther goals. Dorothy Wallace was one of these fortunate few. Her work done, she ded on June 26,1982. n lookng back, t's sad and unfortunate to thnk that whle some people of ths great naton can dream of wealth and opportunty and are able to fnancally succeed, others are left to dream and wsh for the necesstes of lfe. Dorothy Wallace probably thought t was sad and unfortunate too, but nstead of wallowng n sorrow, she dealt wth t as a fact of lfe and met t head on. As Amercan journalst Murray Kempton once wrote, "t s a measure of the Negro' s crcumstance that, n Amerca, the smallest thngs usually take hm so very long, and that, by the tme he wns them, they are no longer lttle thngs: they are mracles." No one could know ths better than Dorothy Wallace. Wllam J. (Bll) Tones O Another person who has became a part of Meacham Park' S hstory and development s Wllam j. Jones. n addton to the boxng team, Jones' ablty and gft of leadershp has splled out nto the corrlmurty n many other ways snce hs arrval here n n fact, he has been nvolved n one way or another wth every major mprovement that has ever been accomplshed n the communty, and he contnues hs work to ths very day. He marred Alma, the daughter of D. M. Powell. Now t's possble that Jones was nfluenced to some extent by hs father-n-law's dedcaton and nterest n the cornmunty, but t could never be sad that Bll Jones ever stood n hs father-n-law's shadow. Jones cast the lght of hope for ths communty n hs own rght, h fact, t mght be that Alma was orgnally drawn to Bll Jones because she saw the same qualtes n hm that she recognzed n her father! Jones has made many sacrfces. Smlar to Powell, Bll Jones has gven hs t -an/"! of hmself for the beneft of the communty and the people he cares for. Hs energy, UU1V too, VtJ-LV^t has ruatro"?een for personal gan, but for the communty. Nearly everythng sad about Dorothy Wallace could be sad about Bll Jones, except that Jones s stll fghtng. ^ / He worked close!v wth Wallace n obtanng the communty's ""oals. He soent many of hs evenngs attendng meetngs, sttng on commssons, and meetng wth poltcans and communty leaders.

76 MODERNZATON ARRVES, pg. 60 Jones has been dedcated to ths communty snce the day he arrved. Whle operatng the grocery and meat busness at 200 Meacham Street, he employed area youngsters and taught them checkout procedures, meat cuttng, and dsplay. c By the early 1950s he was totally nvolved wth the communty. He organzed the frst young men's club n the Meacham Park area. The club, called the "Paysans," gave the frst, largest organzed dance to feature a black DJ. n the St. Lous area. Around 1953 he became a full-tme postman wth the U.S. Post Offce but he stll put every non-workng moment nto hs communty. nl955 he organzed the Meacham Park Golden Gloves Boxng Team and coached that program for fve years. By the 1960s hs nvolvement n the communty accelerated. He became Charman of the frst Meacham Park Advsory Councl n 1963 and remaned n that poston untl he resgned n Durng hs term, many programs came to the communty such as Head Start, an array of summer recreatonal programs, and a camera club wth ts own dark room facltes. Jones was also a member of the advsory board of the Communty school and helped ntate ts begnnng. He was an electve member of Metroplex, a county governng board of the poverty program, Presdent of the Meacham Park Development Corp., the organzaton that brought new housng to the Meacham Park area, and was an appontee to the St. Lous County Supervsor's PartdpatonGommttee n u Jones was also co-founder of the Sponsors Organzaton (SPROG) and has snce been elected ts Charman, the founder of the Meacham Park communty newspaper n Our Opnon, and the man drvng force behnd collectng and publshng the hstory of Meacham Park. As f ths wasn't enough, snce hs retrement from the Postal Servce, he has done volunteer work at the St Lous County Juvenle Dvson. t would seem that Jones s blessed wth an ncredble amount of energy. He has been able to draw from deep wthn hmself all of the strength and drve that was necessary to accomplsh hs communty's needs. The stamna he portrayed has been beyond belef. Durng the 1960s to the 1970s, Jones be-came nvolved to the pont that f he wasn't n a meetng -he'd just returned from one; f he wasn't begnnng a major project he had just fnshed one or maybe was n the mddle of one! Jones saw what had to be done and he dd t. However, n the begnnng some people rdculed hm. They thought he was foolsh to "knock hmself out" to seek changes that would never came; to meet wth whte poltcal leaders who would never help; or try to save a communty that was "destned to decay." u Those who weren't amused were angry. They called hm, as well as Dorothy Wallace, "Uncle Toms" for tryng to work for changes through the whte power structure.

77 MODERNZATON ARRVES, pg. 61 At the same tme, poltcans were angry at hm, or feared hm, because of the pressure he appled to get thngs done. There were probably tmes when Jones wondered f he wasn't out there all alone. Except for a handful of people n the begnnng, there were probably tmes that he was. As Cleo Lewrght once wrote: "Ths s a man who only wants for hmself and the people of Meacham, young and old, a place n the manstream of Amercan socety." Bll Jones, wth the help of others, was able to brng that to hs communty n hs own lfetme. As the changes n the communty slowly came about, he probably realzed that the angush, frustraton, anxety, and dsllusonment he had gone through was well worth the effort. Although Edgar Guest's poem, t Couldn't Be Done, oversmplfes the tme and work that Jones put nto hs communty, ts sprt stll apples: Somebody sad that t couldn't be done, But he wth a chuckle repled That "maybe t couldn't" but he would be one Who wouldn't say so ' tll he'd tred. o So he buckled rght n wth the trace of a grn On hs face. f he worred he hd t He started to sng as he tackled the thng That couldn't be done, and he dd t. Alma, Bll Jones' wfe, helped out n many of these projects over the years. n addton to workng the grocery busness together, they also had the dstncton of beng the propretors of one of the frst Black-owned motels n the St. Lous area. Named Fox Creek, the motel was located along old Hghway 50 at Fox Creek, just west of where Sx Flags s today. t had twelve unts, a restaurant, a swrnmng pool, and a pcnc area. Bll and Alma Jones have two chldren. Bll Jones, Jr. and Gaynelle Jones Evans. Gaynelle, ncdentally, s a reporter for the natonal news-paper USA Today and was chosen to partcpate n that publcaton's Buscapade tour of the Unted States and, most recently, ts Jetcapade tour of the world. Both assgnments resulted n not only specal reports for the newspaper but contrbutons to ther books about the tours as well. Bll Jones was fnally recognzed for hs dedcaton and servce to hs communty n That year he was named "Ctzen of the Year" by the Human Development Corporaton. The Mssour House of Representatves, n turn, recognzed the honor by ssung a resoluton on December 18,1973, and presented Jones wth a copy. u n lookng back, though, f Jones s to be recognzed for hs servce to the communty, he should have receved an award each year snce 1945!

78 MODERNZATON ARRVES, pg. 62 Slowly Movng Forward n 1968 the Metropoltan Sewer Dstrct and the St Lous County Water Company began nstallng water and sewer lnes n Meacham Park. A federal grant from the Department of Housng and Urban Development (H.U.D.) assured that the communty would receve a complete santary sewer system. Ths culmnated several years of efforts by the resdents. n fact, Dorothy Wallace, a long-tme communty leader, and all of the communty's cvc clubs, had beenn campagn- 1 ng for a proper sewer system snce The water man was frst completed to Spears Street around March, The frst resdent to complete a contract to have run the water lne from the man to her house was Mrs. Dxe Chappe. Leadng members of the Meacham Park water commttee were: Mrs. Dxe Chappe, Mrs. Luclle Krby, Tom Chappe, Wllam J. Jones and others. Meanwhle, the Metro Sewer Dstrct began layng trunk lnes. As tme went on a map of the area was dsplayed at the Gateway Center offce to keep resdents nformed of the progress of the sewer system. Twce a week the contractor came n and marked the area that had been completed wth red nk.

79 L ( Chapter try 12 EPLOGUE

80 EPLOGUE, pg. 63 Ths s but a bref account of the hstory of Meacham Park. As one can see, t s full of men and women who have worked hard to succeed, sometmes havng to overcome unbelevable odds. l o To quote the St. Lous Post-Dspatch of : "Some mages n Meacham Park call to mnd a black verson of Man Street, U.S.A. There are the happy schoolchldren who run along Electrc, Chcago, Attucks, and New York Streets ~ along blocks lned wth suburban-style frame homes.... Many resdents greet vstors wth a wave and a smle... The small-town way of lfe n Meacham Park has exsted for generatons. Many resdents populaton estmated at 980, today know each other well, n part because ther famles have lved here for decades." There are many ndvduals n Meacham Park who have led nterestng lves, have nterestng stores, or possess many years of experence and knowledge. n addton, ths communty has been the home of several who have enjoyed unusual longevty. Today, the dstncton of beng the oldest resdent n Meacham Park belongs to Mrs. Sarah Johnson. n her eghtes, Sarah's parents moved here n 1905 when she was fve years old. But other resdents, lke Joe Ells and Arte Wallace, just to name two, are also n ther eghtes and there are many other four-score resdents who lve n the area. Meacham Park, n fact, was once the home of the oldest resdent n the entre Krkwood School dstrct area a Centenaran! Hs name was Pearce A. Dupree. Mr. Dupree's lfetme spanned the years from the assassnaton of Abraham Lncoln to the assassnaton of John P. Kennedy; from the Emancpaton Proclamaton to the Cvl Rghts movements. G Dupree came to Meacham Park n 1930, at the age of 67, and n later years moved across the road onto Reardon Street n Krkwood. But even then he was frequently seen back on the other sde. Dupree was born n the mdst of the Cvl War, on August 18,1863, n St. Andrea Parsh, Lousana. He remembered as a chld playng n the rubble remans of the Confederate South. Hs most valuable "toy," n fact, was found among the rubble a par of army feld glasses that once belonged to a Confederate offcer. Dupree could also remember slavery and how a plantaton owner had held hs mother, grandmother, an uncle and a nece n abject poverty untl long after the Cvl War. n the prme of hs lfe, Dupree stood 6' 4" and weghed 225 lbs. n hs md-twentes he could lft a 500-pound bell that was a landmark whch sat n front of an old New Orleans frehouse. At one tme, $28,000. was put up by the plantaton owners n and around New Orleans to send Dupree to England to fght the well-known prze fghter Peter Jackson, but the trp never materalzed. Throughout hs long lfe Dupree had eeked out a lvng pckng cotton, worked as a sawmll hand for $1.50 a day when hs board at the tme was $.65 a day, and also worked as a drayman and a tmber-floater.

81 EPLOGUE pg. 64 j He was pckng ten bales of cotton a day on a sharecropper's farm near Watson, Arkansas, before he moved to the Meacham Park to lve wth hs daughter, Mrs. Leafha Jackson. Durng the Krkwood Centennal celebraton of 1965, Dupree receved an award as the oldest ctzen n the Krkwood School Dstrct, and an artcle about hm appeared n the St. Lous Globe-Democrat of August 4,1965, just before hs 102nd brthday Although Mr. Dupree s no longer wth us today, there are many resdents of ths comrnunty whose lfe-stores are worth preservng. t s the hopes of the authors of ths work that others, ether as a school project or smply for personal enlghtenment, wll be nspred to do addtonal research nto the lves of those mentoned n the text, or others n the communty who have played such a vtal role n Meacham Park's hstory. As any hstoran wll tell you, t s only by knowng our past that we are able to properly plan our future. C

82 EPLOGUE Speckert, pg. 65 The followng narratve was recorded by Garnet A. Thes, at Orchard House L ) n Webster Groves on January 23, The narrator s Wllam Speckert. Also present was Gene Speckert, whose husband was Mr. Speckert's nephew. Because the "Hstory of Meacham Park" covers black famles lvng n the Park, we feel.t mportant to state that Mr. Speckert was whte. "What was t lke to lve n Meacham Park?, Wm. Speckert was born n the Park June 7,1905, and was rased there, stayed there tll May 27,1923. t was a good place, but we were prmtve, no water, electrc, burned coal for heat and coal range for cookng and bakng. Mud streets tll later, then county br jught n cnders from boler factores and green houses, anybody who burned coal, they would brng t by the carload and put t on the sde tracks at the Frsco Staton. c "Now there was a man who lved across the track, who at one tme was mayor of Krkwood, whose name was Mr. Knyon (sp?). He was mayor for years. And along that road he had where they would set a carload or two of coal, and a man would take your order and they would delver wth bg horses, everythng was done by horse. n the Fall of every year you had the coal shed flled up otherwse you wouldn't have any fuel. Everyone had a coal shed. Mr. Knyon took care of that, he also sold ce. And at tmes they had carloads of manure, sheep manure. And that was used by Mr. Rowe, he had 21 greenhouses. n those days when you wanted flowers for a weddng or a death, there were no exotc flowers, you went to the greenhouses. Each greenhouse was 300 feet long and each had 4 or 5 beds of flowers, carnatons and mums. After the planes came n, the greenhouses dsappeared, because they could buy flowers from the slands, Calforna and Florda, all over. had a frend who worked for the St. Lous Flower Assocaton, and every day he would go down to the arport. "We had outsde prves, two holes, some had three holes, we used to call them chck sales. Some had a moon on the door, some had a star. After a tme we would have to put lme on them. After a tme we would have to clean them out. Now you can't put human waste n one ple because t wll never dsntegrate, because we are meat eaters, t s full of bactera and gets full of maggots and thngs. We could put t n a bg barrel, put water n that and lquefy t and put t on the garden. Now we had the paper to contend wth, catalogs lke A.J. Chlds, Sears and Sawbuck (Sears and Roebuck). remember the grls, we were so far away from everythng, at nght my sster, Anna, and sster Louse had to do the dshes. Seemed to me Anna would do the washng and Louse would do the dryng, but just about tme she would get a bg ple to dry she would have to go to the rest room, and would hear Anna callng "Momma, she's out there n the tolet and won't come n". Louse would be out n the tolet lookng through all the catalogs. n the wnter we had a commode nsde, summertme we went outsde to the outhouse. b "Everyone rased chckens, geese, ducks, some rased hogs and made ther own sausage. Many had cows and sold mlk and butter, everyone had a large vegetable garden. Sometmes we put up as much as 100 jars of beans and tomatoes.

83 EPLOGUE, Speckert pg. 66 Most people had a cstern or a well for ther water. Everythng came n a barrel, C j apples came n a barrel, not so much peaches, but we used a lot of dred fruts, prunes, aprcots, apples, whch we would store n tns. And every Fall we would 100 lbs. of flour and 100 lbs. sugar and we. would put that n tns. Durng the wnter men would be out of work, because most of the work was out n the open. Those who had factory jobs downtown were fortunate. We had one factory that made furnture. t was rght as you come south off the ralroad tracks n Krkwood. They dd ther own stanng and all that sort of stuff. t was a bg place. One nght t caught fre and was completely demolshed, from all that nflammable stuff. Now Mr. Brown, he owned from Bg Bend Road south to Vanney Hgh School. A brck manson back there was Mr. Brown's. He hred a lot of people and he would say people would stay there untl they ded. One of them was Mr. Bopp, and Mr. Krautmann (sp?) and all the kds went to school. They took care of the estate. He rased deer and many thngs, and he and Mr. Shaw were good frends and they used to vst each other n bugges and hgh-sprted horses. Of course, we never got nto that, they were on one sde of the road and we were on the other. We lved about half a block off of Lndbergh whch was then Denny Road. t ran from the arport whch was just a trckle of a road all the way to Gravos. Now that was the road that was paved wth quarry rock, and they put ol on that. And after t dred t became a hard road lke our roads here, but very slck. That was the only hard road we had through there. t W' We lved south of Bg Bend on a street called Alsobrook. There was a creek runnng through there. t was an off run from-mr. Brown's woods. t was a nce crk. Had a bg place n t about as large as ths room, we kds used to catch crawdads. We'd go up to the butcher man, Mr. Loucks, and ask hm for some lver or somethng and we'd te that to a strng and catch crawdads. We had lttle buckets and we'd buld a bg fre and bol the crawdads and eat them. t was a lot of fun, just kds. And of course n those days we ddn't have a lot of playthngs as they do today. We made our own games, we made our own ball damonds, we were half black and half whte. They were good Blacks, they worked n dfferent places, they were knd of red-sknned blacks, they worked for Scullns Steel, most of them worked n constructon, they were hod carrers for brcklayers, hod carrers for plasterers and they worked on constructon work And when anybody was out these people would take qare of you. My sster, Mnne, would get off at mdnght and get off at Woodbne and Krkwood Road (Denny) about the tme the Blacks would get off from Scullns Steel. They would always see that she got home. She knew them, they knew her. They were nce people. And then of course we kds would get up there and play ball, and we'd have some arguments, we never had any fst fghts, but we'd play football or play baseball. We'd make some knd of ball, wrap some tape around somethng, and get some knd of a bat, maybe somebody had gotten one ( > for Chrstmas. And we all carred pocketknves, Keen Kurters, you got one for ^ ^ Chrstmas. And you could cut up stcks and whatnot and make dfferent thngs.

84 c : o EPLOGUE Speckert; pg. 67 We would play a game called Tppy. t had a round rng and t had a pece of wood marked off n 6 comers, had Roman numerals to V. And on the edge t would stck out, and you would get yourself some-knd of a paddle* a barrel stave, or whatever you could get, and you had a rake. So you would throw ths pece of wood out there and whatever number comes up you got that many cracks at t. You would ht that edge and t would fly up and you would ht t. And after you ht t you would have to measure t and you would have to say well can make that n four jumps, a hop and a step. And the others would be there wth ther paddles and f you ddn't make t you got paddled all the way back to the rng. And then we played a lot of marbles. We'd take our marbles to school. Now Krkwood was a wealthy place. They had some wonderfull people, college people, doctors, lawyers - merchants and theves called them. They bought ther kds some fancy marbles. We kds were some fancy marble shooters and we'd slck those kds out of some of those fancy marbles. And then we had a game we used to call marble peg. You'd take your knfe n your hand and you'd throw t up. Well, frst, you'd get n lne to see who was frst and then you'd take your knfe by the blade and you'd throw t, and whoever made t stck he was one of the frst ones. So we played ths game and we'd all be around and each one got hs turn. You'd pck up the knfe and make t flp and you'd put t on the back of your hand and make t flp and you'd put t between your fngers and flp t and you had to do t three tmes. And the guys who couldn't do t would have to do what we called "root the pg". Someone would put a lttle stck n the ground lke a-toothpck and you would have to root that out wth your mouth. You'd get a mouthful of drt. And we dug holes and shot our marbles n there. Outsde of gettng the crawdads and gong through the woods, there were so many beautful trees. They had these two trees, they used to call them stepladder trees. don't thnk we had many hardwood trees, we had a lot of oaks. But on one of these lots that Mr Brown owned, there was a bg elm tree. t took four men together to put ther arms around that tree, t was a monster. And sometmes n the summer people would gather and maybe brng a gutar, and play a lttle musc, and some of them sang. o Garnet - "How many famles lved n that area?" Mr. Speckert - "Well, let me name them for you". On the left sde, that's where Mr. Brown's estate was, was a tavern, they called t a saloon. Then there was a great bg wooded place on up the hll, there was all woods back n there. And then across the road was a bg manson, a southern home, that belonged to Mr. Brown and housed some of hs caretakers. He lved on up near Vanney. Now don't know f Mr. Brown's home was n Meacham Park or not, but he was an awful nce man. So we start South. There were some vacant lots, a lot of vacant places around there. Places where people would drve n wth ther horses and stop. There was the Kuhn famly, they were plasterers, panters and bulders. They bult 4 bungalows between Bg Bend and the ralroad tracks. And on the corner there was a man by the name of Schmdt, who was also mxed n wth Kuhns, that was South of Bg Bend. Schmdt had a store and there was also a barbershop, on Bg Bend and Krkwood (Denny) Road. They're all gone now. And then t went down to Oakhll Cemetery, took n Oakhll.

85 EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg. 68 c We're crossng Bg Bend now. On the corner there was a tavern run by a rmn named Tommy Fuchs. Durng my tme they voted n the Volstead Act whch prohbted the use of ntoxcatng lquors. There was qute a few lttle bootleggers would crop up there. There was one lttle saloon down there, Sngenger, thnk was hs name. Between hm and Frank Wess, the sherff, and a few other law-totng folks had lttle bootleg gangs. You belonged to the cartel or you would be n jal. That's the way the ball bounced. Well 1 never pad much attenton to that because later on one of my best buddes who happened to be a Schmdt and belonged to the Kuhn famly, he was xmnng a saloon for one of hs oldest brothers and know every once n a whle he would get thrown n the pokey. So then we go on up the street where there was people by the name of Engel. Mr. Engel worked over at the Clayton Courthouse. He would go around and tell everybody ther taxes were due and they had better get them pad up or ther property would be sold on the courthouse steps. And everybody would be mad at hm because they'd say they just pad them. Nobody kept any records. Of course Mr. Engel kept ths on court records. Well, they'd gve Mr. Engel the money and he'd pay the taxes for them, or else they'd go over and pay t themselves. Whether he got a lttle compensaton don't know. o And then as you cross the street there was a man by the name of Mr. Schwentker, who owned a grocery store, bg store. He delvered your sugar, your flour, all the other bg commodtes. And we used to have to help the kds get n the 100 lb. sacks. All that had to be put n tns to keep the weevls and all the other bad thngs out, sugar, flour, sometmes rce. He was. the god saver of the people n Meacham Park. He saved many a famly from starvng to death. 'd often heard t sad that Mr. Schwentker was owed $200 and $300 from every famly durng the wntertme. They would pay hm off n the summer when the work opened up. He had a lovely home next to hs busness. He had a daughter and a son. Mr. Schwenker also sold shoes, tobacco, coal ol, whatever a general grocery store sold. You name t, he had t. But then when the bg store, lke Kroger, came n to Krkwood, Mr. Schwentker 's busness dwndled. don't know how long he lved, but he was a wonderfull man. We pcked our own hckory nuts and walnuts n the Fall of the year for cookng. c Now at the end of hs property you go up another street and on one sde there was the people by the name of Steutzel, and Mr. Aselman. Mr. Aselman ran a blacksmth shop on the corner of Saratoga and when we came home from school and durng the summer tme when he had the door open we'd gather around hm wth hs leather apron and he would be shoeng horses. The farmers from all over the area brought ther horses there. These horseshoes would be red hot, and he had a blowng thng, and we thought that was just great. He'd stck them n the water and the steam would come out. Sometmes for half an hour we'd st there and watch Mr. Aselman. He had two boys, one was called Mushe, they went to the

86 EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg. 69 Lutheran School. They were nce people. don't remember who else lved there. c Near Mr. Aselman's shop there lved a man by the name of Mr. Hoytel. He was n the concrete busness. He and hs wfe had a daughter. The wfe and daughter both worked. They had a bg lot where he rased all of ther vegetables for the wnter. They never bought anythng outsde of flour and a few commodtes. They had a Ro tourng car. He wouldn't buy any lcense n the wnter because he sad he couldn't use the car because t would freeze up. Cars were just cornng out and everythng was new. He'd wat untl further nto the year and get t for half prce. That's when lcenses went nto effect for automobles. He would go out to get t started and put the hood up, and we'd walk around and admre the car. Sometmes you'd have to push the car to get t started. The Schmdt and Kuhn famly, they had cars. We'd push them down Saratoga Avenue through the gully and up the hll to try to get them started. You'd have 14 kds pushng a Model T Ford tryng to get t started. t was great sport. Near where Mr. Aselman had hs blacksmth shop they had a buldng whch they used to call the "meetng buldng", and a man came along and opened a pool hall. They had one table and a barbershop. Them years you could do that. On the south sde of Saratoga, old man Kuhn, he had all these kds, two story house, and he had a bg pant shop. He dd all the work for the Gresedecks; they lved out there, and out to Fenton where there were bg homes. c O And down a lttle bt further there was the Black neghborhood. And now we're back to 1900 and that's a long ways back. On the corner, a Mrs.'Calvert, she had a store, a Mom and Pop store. They also had a bakery. They baked every day, coffeecake, doughnuts, and what not. My mother decded could be a baker so she went to Wll Calvert, Mrs. Calvert's brother-n-law. Mr. Calvert worked downtown, Wll's father had ded, and he had a bunch of. kds lvng n Wellston, some of them lved wth the Calvert's. They had a large place; they had a horse and a wagon, and that's how they delvered bakery goods, sometmes got to drve. My tme n the bakery busness was short-lved. One of the thngs had to do was cut up a half a load of hard wood, oak, for the furnace n the bakery. Well, ddn't thnk that was beng n the bakery busness. The dough had to be kneaded for the bread, the doughnuts and the coffeecake. And then got to knead the bread. That just about wore me out, ddn't lke that too much. Well, then Wll sad "you can see how the doughnuts are gettng along." So we'd roll these doughnuts out and we'd have a cutter to cut them, and we'd put them on a stck and we'd have a bg round kettle that was full of grease that was very hot. And 'd ask f the grease was hot enough for the doughnuts. He chewed tobacco, and he'd spt nto the grease, and that would pop out, and he'd say "Well, anytme you drop water n and t spts out t's ready to go." People weren't as partcular n those days, but they were good doughnuts. Then 'd put the stck n wth the doughnuts and when brown 'd turn them over and then take them out and lay them n sugar, then lay them real fancy on the tray and take them nto the bakery and they sold lke hotcakes. And they had lots of rats.

87 EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg. 70 Cj because rats wll come anywhere, but they had lots of food around there. So we'd set traps, and Mrs. Calvert had a rat terrer dog. They had a place between the bakery shop and a store that was gong to be a dry goods store, but t never materalzed. They mostly used t for storage. They'd have the rat n a cage and on Sunday afternoons, men, most of them chewed tobacco, whte and colored men, they'd block every hole n that store and then they'd turn the rat loose and let the dog get hm. t was a gruesome mess. ddn't care much for that knd of sport. But soon got tred of cuttng wood for the baker. But dd lke delverng bakery goods wth the lttle horse she had. Over the weekend sometmes when they ddn't use the horse for delveres, she would ask me to rde the horse to gve hm some exercse. 'd rde the horse around. There were no automobles to worry about and 'd talk to everybody. s ^J Well, on the South sde of Saratoga, Wllard Fuchs lved there. And there were some people by the name of McNamara or McDonald. They rased bees, they had hves and hves of bees. They had a son, and he was a college man. He was a smart boy. He never dd anythng wth college, he rased bees. don't know where the Mc's got ther money from. Later on he and worked together dong pantng. n the Sprng of the year these bees would leave the hve, the queen would fly out and there would be a bg cloud of bees. And everybody would cry out "the bees, the bees" and get tn pans and bang on them. Fnally they would get the queen settled down and Mrs. Mc would come out. She had a thng over her head, to see where the queen bee was lyng on a branch. Now the queen bee would be about as bg as your thumb, and she'd ht that branch wth a stck, boom, and she had a regular lttle house and as soon as the queen bee fell n there they'd go around and spray sugar water and all the bees would go n the lttle holes. Sometmes we got stung, but bees wll not stng you unless you molest them. And bees don't lke anybody who has perfume, or tobacco; they'll get you every tme. That was ther occupaton- Now there was some people by the name of Schuttler lved there. Mr. Schuttler (sp?) worked for a seed company. He would always brng out a lot of seeds n the Fall of the year- beans and thngs. He was a nce man, but he had to do the washng every Sunday, because hs wfe had a bad back. She'd also lay around and gossp. And as we go down further, George Dole lved there. He chewed tobacco, hm and hs wfe, had a bunch of hound dogs. Had a pcket fence around hs house. don't remember who else lved there. Blacks were startng to move n. O Then we come down to Alsobrook, that's where the crk comes through. Mrs. Calvert would always have ducks or geese. She was great on anmals, had a large place. And the ducks and geese would lke to come down to that area and swm. She had some beautful geese. Every tme you would come by the old gander would hss, hss at you, wth hs head stuck out, and f you ddn't watch out he would nal you. threw a rock at one one tme and accdentally klled hm. used

88 Cj EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg. 71 to take off my shoes and socks and take my basket and walk through the crk and pck up ther eggs. Dd you every see a goose egg? They're 3 tmes bgger than a chcken egg. 'd brng them to my mother and she used to use them for bakng. Between that, and my dog, and the crawdads, t was a pretty decent lfe. t was a wholesome lfe. After we went on down our place there was a lady by the name of Grsham (sp?), who lved n a lttle house. Comng further up there was a two-story house whch my brother, Charle, lved n for a whle when he frst got marred to Jenny. have to take that back, thnk at frst they rented Mrs. Fuchs' horse after she moved from there. And Charle always had to have huntng dogs, everybody had huntng dogs. Charle and Jenny had a baby that ded n nfancy. Then they moved up on our street nto the two-story house. My brother, Charle, was a sheet metal woker; he worked for Mr. Welch. He would have to go down at 2 o'clock n the mornng to work. He worked hard he lved up nto hs 80's. Then you come to our place. As we go further down to the next street, we owned, don't remember the name of the street, the crk ran down there and went underneath the culvert, and there were people there. They had two grls. The wfe worked for Mrs. Calvn (sp?) and she got pneumona. She sold soda water, they kept t n ce water, and when you bought a soda she would have to reach nto the cold water, and, she got pneumona and ded. She left the two grls. There was a man by the name of Mr. Loucks, hs son ran the butcher shop. They had a bg place. They had a horse and a cow and rased a lot of vegetables. He had a scoop that was used to scoop out ground for makng a basement for a house. He'd cut out a bg area, put n gravel, then wheat straw, lots of wheat straw, then when vegetables would come n he would lay them n there, rutabagas, cabbage, potatoes, then cover them wth drt, and then n the wnter take a pck ax and dg them out He had a cow and every evenng my sster, Mn, and had a lttle pal and we would go to get mlk, walkng barefoot on the dusty road, wearng shoes n the wnter tme. They had dogs and they would come to meet us, barkng. Mrs. Loucks was a portly woman, weghed closer to 300#. We would walk through the H meadow and get Besse (the cow). Sometmes she would come and sometmes she»* wouldn't. One day a colored gentleman came along and asked what we were dong. We told hm we were tryng to get Besse up to the barn so Mrs. Loucks could mlk her; sometmes would mlk her. He sad, "Wlle, you go up to the barn and there» s a barrel up there full of bran and there's a cup there, so you get the bran and when you get to Besse you let her lck the bran." So we dd that and Besse would follow rght along. So one tme we got to Mrs. Loucks and she had us get two buckets, one for mlk and one wth water so we could wash her udder, and she sad, "Wlle, would you mlk Besse tonght?" They had a three legged char and you would st 1 on that and put your head up aganst the cow and mlk her. One day Mrs. Loucks O broke a leg on the char when she sat down, and she rolled down the hll and she couldn't get up. We got Mr. Baley, a colored man, and some other men, and they

89 EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg. 72 C / had a tme gettng her back on her feet. t wasn't too long after that Mrs. Loucks passed on. t took eght men to carry her. Of course, they were all great eaters. They rased hogs, made pork sausage, mettwurst, all the goodes you can thnk of, sauerkraut; they ate well. They were all bg, but Mr. Loucks was tall and thn, he never seemed to get fat. He had two boys, Bll and Frank. Frank ran the butcher shop and Bll went nto the servce, World War. 'd see Mrs. Loucks cryng and would ask why she was cryng and she would say poor Joe, he's gotta go fght them Germans, and he's gotta cross that ocean, and he can't swm. G We had paths we walked through, tall weeds, sometmes kds walked along and you couldn't see them. One mornng along came Joe, he drove a truck for the nternatonal Shoe Co., Washngton, Mo. When asked hm how he was dong he told me he was gong over to fght those Huns. He asked me to go to the staton wth hm as he had nobody to go wth hm. So we walked down to the troop tran and they all got on the troop tran, full of hundreds of boys. And these boys would toss envelopes out of the wndow and ask us to mal them. When we sad we had no money they would toss nckels and dmes to us and we would spend maybe half an hour pckng up the money. We would take the money and envelopes to the Krkwood Post Offce and the man would see that each envelope had a stamp on t. We always dd that when the troop trans came n. You know, we never kept a penny of that money. We were patrotc. Well, the war was over and Bll (Joe) came back. He got to drvng ths nternatonal Truck and sometmes he would keep t n Mr. Aselman's place, whch was a garage. He had Pete Conrad who was one of the best automoble mechancs. 'd go to ths garage and there was the truck wth a canvas, they ddn't have closed trucks n those days. And 'd get n the truck and Pete would tell me to put my foot on the accelerator and when she starts just knd of jggle t a lttle and he would have to crank t up. And they carred chans for the wheels n case they got stuck some place. asked hm how long t would take to get to Washngton and he sad about a day and a half f he ddn't get stuck. Don't ask me why they ddn't use the ralroad. So tme went on. ddn't get to go to school much, because there were eleven n the famly and was second to the last. My sster, Anna, got marred, had a kd, Charlotte. They moved downtown, she had marred a man who worked n a shoe factory. She got sck and she needed somebody to take care of her and my mother elected me to go down there and take care of Anna and that was the end of my school. So when came back from her got a job at W, A. Rowe, for the grand sum of 13-1/2 cents an hour. G But before went nto that used to cadde at Sunset Hlls. That was a better payng job because you had your regulars. used to cadde for Mr. Busch, Mr. Anheuser, Carlton, Blumeyer, bg, mportant people. got to know a lot of

90 EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg- 73 ^ wonderful people. And then the women took up golf. The men ddn't lke t, but they gave n and let the women play golf on a Monday mornng, untl 11 o'clock. So here come all those bg, fat socety women, now they belonged to the 400 n St. Lous, and they wore bloomers. Now f you wanted to see a sght on earth, that was t. My buddes and used to get behnd them and laugh. And they all came out after World War and got modern; they smoked. Some of them used cgarette holders, and cursed. thought knew qute a few curse words, but they put me to shame. My buddes used to say, they're supposed to be college people, where dd they learn that stuff? And tell you, the Number 2 hole was a pond, and a lot of people just couldn't get that ball across there. Well, 've always cadded for Mrs. Anheuser. She had an electrc car, looked lke a buggy, had glass all around t. She used to pck me up on Bg Bend, or somewhere around there. The car ran lke a sewng machne, you could hardly hear t. t had sold tres. She'd pck me up and off we'd go to Sunset Hlls to the golf course. We got a tournament gong and between our caddes and ther caddes you never heard so much cheatng n your lfe. Anyway, Mrs. Anheuser won the tournament. And she was so excted. We used to get our paychecks, they had a stop watch, and they would brng t nto the club house and that's how we got pad. t was 30 cents a round, about 4 rounds, $1.20. f you ddn't get a tp you wouldn't want anythng to do wth those people after that-at least get a quarter a trp. We won ths tournament and you never heard so much exctement. Well, Mrs. Anheuser forgot to sgn the tcket, so the next day after the dust settled she came back agan and told her "you forgot to sgn my tcket". She sad "'m so sorry" and she wrote on there a $25. tp. tell you was a rch man, me and Rockefeller. 'd never seen so much money, my mother was elated. G My godfather worked on the ralroad and they lved down on Second Street and he used to walk all the way to our house, once a year, wouldn't take a streetcar, Mr. Wnters. So he sad to my mother one day, "where does that young fellow work?" And my mother sad "he caddes out at Sunset Hlls". "And what does a cadde do?", he asked. She repled "he carres golf stcks". Well, Mr. Wnters was from Germany and he ddn't know nothng about golf stcks. He was what was called a gandy dancer, he worked on the tracks. "Well," he sad, "does he make any money?" My mother told hm sometmes he comes n wth a dollar, sometmes wth a dollar and a half. Sometmes he works 2 rounds, -sometmes 3 rounds. And Mr. Wnters sad "Now, Wlma, don't you le to me, there's no kd makes that knd of money". n those days people lke hm were only pad two dollars or two and a half dollars a day. He wouldn't beleve my mother, sad agan "don't you he to me". Well, we dropped that. 'll never forget that. On the next street there were some people named Kostedt. And there were some people by the name of Wachter(sp?). They had a boy, a Down Syndrome boy. On the next street were some more people, Mr. Crum. He worked at the greenhouse for Mr. Brown, he was all crppled up. They sad he had rheumatod arthrts. They

91 EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg. 74 G sad t was from the tobacco he had to blow on the orchards. That was the story, but don't beleve that. Hs famly had bg lots and had what was called flatbeds. They had cabbage, tomatoes, kohlrab, anythng n plants whch they sold n the Sprng. They also had a bg strawberry patch. Next to them were the Strngers. They were nce people, don't know where they worked, but they went downtown. They had a grl they called "Toots". Then they had a dog and they called hm Toots" too. Ths made Mrs. Sprnger awful mad. And a lttle bt farther down were some people named Quarnhem. There was Elmer, he went to the World War, and Frank, he ddn't go. don't remember Mr. Quarnhem. And from then lost track of that sde of the street. Some people came from Holland and they had a large place, and they also had cows, a horse, and they all wore wood shoes. And she would walk around that horse and stable n wood shoes. She'd come to the house n wool slacks. G Mr. Nenhaber was a small man, and he worked for Anheuser-Busch. Now how Mr. Nenhaber got to work, don't know, but he had more beer tops than ever saw n my lfe. He sat on the steps n the summer tme and drank beer, but never saw any bottles around there. Mrs. Nenhaber had a grl, pretty grl, and they used to delver mlk. Mrs. Nenhaber had a yolk and so dd Nelle, whch they would put on ther shoulders wth buckets hung on ether end wth mlk n them, and take to ther customers n the neghborhood. So, one day Nelle ddn't show up. So Mrs. Nenhaber delvered the mlk and we sad "Where's Nelle". Well, you know how these foregn people are, they speak foregn and what not. Nobody knew anythng about ther busness, they were afrad. Well, next day she sad Nelle's not feelng so good today, and the thrd day, no Nelle, and by that tme people started to get alarmed, they went to see them and there was no Nelle. So they went to talk to Mr. Nenhaber and ask where Nelle's at. She just dsappeared. So they thought that at Mr. Brown's property, rght after you come off of Memphs Street, and up from the pond, there was a lttle road n there and some people seen some people changng a tre n there. And somebody sad Nelle went n there to see what they were dong. And she dsappeared. And they swore up and down a man by the name of Hoss Davs klled her. Now they all got a hold of Mr. Davs, he was a nce old man, had a horse and a rckety old wagon, he'd plow up your garden n the summer. And they went under ths old elm tree and had a rope around hs neck and had hm on a wagon and they sad well he klled Nelle Nenhaber, you know these damn nggers, yah, yah, yah, you know how t s, we're gonna hang hm. Well, they ddn't know whether he klled Nelle or not. Well, they were about to kll hm when someone came up and sad, "Wat a mnute you're not gonna hang that ngger," and somebody sad, "Who says we're not?" And he sad " am", and he pulled a shotgun and sad, "Put hm down, or 'll blast you guys out of here." So they cut hm down and cut hm loose. He wouldn't kll a fly, he was a fne, old man. G And there was a man named Mr. Mason. He was also colored and he always had one leg wrapped up, don't know what was wrong wth hm. He smoked cgarettes and he could hardly talk. And he sad Hoss wouldn't kll a fly. Well thnk you can go to the lbrary and some woman wrote a book about that. Well that

92 EPLOGUE, Speckert, pg c took care of Nelle, nobody knew anythng about Nelle any more. A closed chapter. So then n 1923 was workng for Mr. Rowe, and he also had a greenhouse n Krkwood on Woodbne and Harrson. We rased smleax. Don't know f you know what they are, long green thngs. We had a lot of varety of flowers we rased. Mr. Krueger and worked there. We fred the bolers, Johnny was the foreman, Johnny Wnters. Took care of the needs of the flowers. We used to have smleaxes n the square. We'd have poles n the ground, make squares, put a wre down there and he would be on one sde of the bed and me on the other untl we have the whole place squared. The flowers grow up untl they were as hgh as the greenhouse. Then at some pont we had to cut them off and put them n the long box. And Mr. Meyer who drove the truck would take them down to the flower house. So one day come home, my Uncle George was there, he was sttng there talkng to my mother, and my mother says to me, "How would you lke to go to Oklahoma wth George?" Well, beng sxteen and workng ten hours a day n the greenhouse and they took all your money and gave you 25 cents for Saturday nght, you'd be so tred you'd go to bed and not come out of there untl Monday, you'd have to go back to work at 6 o'clock agan. Anythng to get out of the mud, sure 'll go anywhere. So went to Tulsa wth Uncle George, learned the pantng trade. We had a bg busness, 18, sometmes 20 men. Tulsa was an ol town. A lot of people, New York bankers, they bult homes, 100 at a tme, they were sold as fast as they could buld them. And they were farly decent homes, bungalow types, all wood, everythng was wood, roofs and all. Fnally fre code came n and they couldn't use wood roofs anymore, to keep them from burnng down. Garnet - "Do you remember who your famly bought your property from? Was t called Meacham Park when you lved there?" "Well, t happened had a sster, Mn, and she marred a man by the name of Haley. They had 2 chldren. Then Pop got sck, rght n the depresson n the 30's. Nobody workng, so my sster, Mnne, she had no place to go, so we made a deal, Mnne and her husband take the house, we moved out. They were supposed to take care of Pop and Mom. Pop ded n the 30's he was 70 odd years old. He ded at the St. Lous County Hosptal. We were so poor, everybody was so poor. Thousands and thousands, 13,000,000 people out of work. t wasn't funny. L Garnet - "Do you have any dea who your mother and father bought the property from?" "No, when was born, my Uncle George told me when they were out at the cemetery buryng my Uncle Bll, on June 7 that they had to get a horse and buggy to take Mom back to Meacham Park, because Uncle Bll was bured at St. Lucas Cemetery on Denny Rd. thnk there was a Reverend Kruse there at that tme. They had to get back so could get borned and that's why was named after Uncle Bll, born on June 7. was there, but have no memory." grew up wth Aunt Hlda's kd, Johnny Norton, we were lke brothers.

93 EPLOGUE, Speckert; pg. 76 G So they sold the property to the Haleys. He was the knd of guy who would tear somethng down and never rebuld t, typcal rshman. Bll Haley sold t to some colored people. saw the old homestead about 7 or 8 years ago, had just moved here (Orchard House) and my son came to pck me up and took me to my daughter's house for Chrstmas. So sad "Jm, do me a favor, let's go by to see what the old house looks lke." And was so unhappy and so sorrowful that t just spoled my day. The house was n tatters, debrs all around, front porch almost gone. And sad "Such a beautful home that we had, t wasn't a manson, but t was a home, t was clean, pcket fence around t." could have sat down and cred. wsh had never got the dea (to go back) t hurt me so bad. Of all the wonderful days had n Meacham Park are some of the best thoughts n lfe. Course the Browns, all the other kds played wth, some of them went to war, t as a wonderful lfe. Course you must realze we had no water, we had no gas, we had no streets, but we could go down to the Meramec Rver and fsh, or we'd fnd a crk someplace and go for a sknny dp. We always found a pond, or we always found an apple orchard, guarantee you that, or a peach orchard, and we helped the farmers pck strawberres. We had everythng we needed, but we worked for t. We had to get the coal n every nght for heatng. We had a bg beautful coal stove. We had to shne that all up, take the ashes out and have enough coal for Mom for the day for the ktchen range. We had the outhouse, but n the wnter we had the commode, but n the mornng you had to empty the commode. We always wore long underwear n the wnter and we probably got one or two baths a month. n the summer we had these bg #10 wash tubs and setthose outsde to take a bath. My father and mother both were concerned about beng clean, beng from Germany. Wonderful lfe. ********************************************************** At ths pont must express my grattude to my frend, Gene Speckert, whose husband was Mr. Speckert's nephew, for arrangng to have me meet and record the recollectons of ths delghtful man. t was whle Gene was generously usng her computer sklls to put the Hstory of Meacham Park n ts present form that she remembered that Mr. Speckert had lved n that area n hs early years. When she spoke wth hm about recallng memores of hs younger days, he expressed an eager wllngness to talk wth me because, as he sad, "t was a wonderful lfe." Garnet A. Thes 1554 E. Swan Crcle Brentwood, MO C

94 BBLOGRAPHY pg. 77 BBLOGRAPHY n addton to personal ntervews, the followng documents and prnted sources were / used n preparng ths work: r Documents St Lous County Record Books #61-65 Recordngs of Warranty Deeds and Deeds of Trusts Entres of Publc Land Records varous maps and records, Plat Book #3, pp M.S. Offce of Recorder of Deeds, St. Lous Cty Hall; St. Lous Cty * Lbrary regardng acres of Townshp 44, No. Range 5 East, S/E of secton 12 Records of St. Lous County Cty of Krkwood; Engneer's Offce; 1892 Plat Map. Orgnal sgned proposal on fle at Krkwood Buldng Commssoner's Off. Elmwood Cemetery (Memphs, TN.) Regstry records and Meacham Famly graveste. MAPS o Ptzman's Atlas, St. Lous Cty and County, Mssour 1878, A.B. Holcombe & Co., Phl., PA Johnson Atlas of St. Lous County, Pub. by C.R. Black, Clayton, MO 1893 Memphs (TN) Street Map, H.M. Gousha Co., San Jose, CA1986 CTY DRECTORES Gould's St. Lous Drectory: 1890,1892,1895,1896,1897,1899,1900,1901,1902,1919,1921 Argus Drectory of St. Lous County: 1896,1903,1904 Memphs (TN)Qty Drectory, R.L. Polk & Co NEWSPAPERS New York Tmes 3/24/ /14/29 20:3 f - 2/12/31 21:2-7 W 3/14/39 21:1 3/17/39 22:2

95 BBLOGRAPHY, pg. 78 St. Lous Post-Dspatch 7/28/71 West Co. Sec. 6/24/74 ( West County (St. Lous) Journal 7/17/ 74 Krkwood Messenger 5/15/52, pg. 4 2/26/59, pg. 6 3/5/59, pg.l n Our Opnon Varous ssues (Meacham Park) Sept July 1980 The Commercal Appeal 2/12/31 (Memphs, TN) 2/13/31 The Press-Scmtar 2/12/31 (Memphs, TN) Webster-BOrkwood Tmes 11/14-20/86, pgs /21-27/86, pgs. 3, /28-12/4/86, pgs. 14,22 2/12-18/86, pg. 6 O BOOKS The Amercan Negro by rvng J. Sloan, Oceana Pub. nc., N.Y Black Geneology by Charles L. Blockson, N.J Black Poneers of Scence & nventon by Lous Haber, Harcourt Pub., N.Y Eyewtness: The Negro n Amercan Hstory by Wllam L. Katz, Ptman Pub. Co., N.Y Great Negroes Past & Present by Russell L. Adams, 1964 The Hertage of Mssour by Duane Meyer, Rver Cty Pub. St. Lous 1982 The Negro Almanac, compled by Harry Plosk & Rowcoe Brown, Bellwether Pub. Co Story of the Negro by Arna Bontemps, 1955 The Everglades: Rver of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Rnehart & Co., nc. N.Y 1947

96 BBLOGRAPHY pg. 79 The Tennessee Sampler by Peter Jenkns & Frends, Thomas Nelson Publshers, Nashvlle,985! f ^ Tennessee Travel Gude, edtor: Mark Onan, Pub. by the TN. Dept of Tourst Development W llnos Gude & Gazetrer, Rand McNally & Co., Chcago 1969 W.P.A. State Gudes, Natl Wrter's Program Tennessee pg. 224 Msssspp pg. 382 THnof pg. 490 Prvately publshed booklet by George F. Heege (unknown year) Comprsed of artcles he wrote for the Krkwood Messenger newspaper durng the 1950's dealng wth Krkwood area hstory A Hstory of Krkwood Mssour by June Wlknson Dahl, Krkwood Hstorcal Socety, Krkwood, Mo O. O

97 o SARATOGA ' ' 04S. Tu/a-Sf.-y to "Toledo looses' Pool O tacacha m c

98 The Frst J. Mlton Turner School L 1 Meacham Park School Student Body, Late 20s Clotlde Alexander Bass, Teacher fts?? J, MLTON TURNER SCHOOL V /

99 P O W E L L G R Q f e. w d w U B A M PARK <w Meacham Park Baseball Team Under Powell's Grocery Co. Early 1930s

100 c c c The "Heart" of the Meacham Park Busness Dstrct Crca 1920s to 1930s

101 1 J- Mr. D. M. Powell Communty Leader Baseball Moves Dance Hall Tavern Grocery Store f c, o

102 L^her e. 4occh SOME CHARTER MEMBERS OF JACK MNG LEGON POST 269 Mr. Damon Powell

103 1 1 ^ 1 Gatherng at Powell's Tavern of Meacham Park Resdents Early 1940s Mss Edth Nchols Edth's Tavern

104 lw 1 J. Mlton Turner School Graduatng Class of 1934

105 4 l <»t.a m J. Mnto, Tun,,, s M, <«l l L Mr. John Carter Small Applance Repar

106 L Chor Frst Baptst Church of Meacham Park Rev. Buckner, Pastor Early 1940s t Frst Baptst Church of Meacham Park 1990

107 re MEACHAM PARK GOLDEN GLOVE BOXNG TEAM 1950s 1. - E X P E R T GLOVES PLOTS M O L D N G ll M E A C H A M P A R K two heads arc better than one, as clamed, then the Meacham Park YMCA should turn out a] superlatve Golden Gloves team, (Because, ts comparatvely small squad s headed by three expert coaches one former pro hoxer and two former collejje champons, j Tho pro s head coach Lea Tatum, who compled a good record a fen years back compagnng n the lghtweght dvson. And hs assstants are Bll Jones, one-tme CAA mddleweght champ at West Vrgna State College, and Wllam Hayden, a former college boxng star who, doubles as coach and program d-. rector of, the "V." HAXJF TO SEE ACTON About 20 Gloves hopefuls are j workng out at the "Y," and at! J the J. Mlton Turner School, whch serves as an extra tranng / *te on nghts when the "Y" has \^^ther functons, ^r "We'll only enter about half of the boys n the Gloves tourney," sad assstant coach Jones, "just the ones that we feel are really' ready, "Some of the best of those are : Lloyd Bbbs and John Cutts, a couple of featherweghts; Clar-1 ence Mtchell, who was runner-up n the 95-pound sub-novce dv-' son; 'Wndy* Bbbs, a 118-pound-, er, and Jmmy Ahrams, a 135- : pounder.** Although the rounds n Golden Gloves are one or two -mnutes Jong, dependng on the dvson, the Meacham Park Glovers are traned to work three - mnute rounds. "W«fnd that most young boxers need endurance more than anythng else," sad Jones, "and' we thnk ths gves them that lttle extra bt t takes to wn." PART OF BG SHOW Meacham Park's Glovers are a part of an army of amateur boxers who wll battle n the Globe- Democrat regonal Golden Gloves 1 tourney. Prelmnary and sem-fnal 'matches wll he held at Kel Audl- 'torum, Feb. 3, 4, 5 wth throe rngs n acton a)l the tme. The ' champonshps wll be fought at the Arena on Feb. 13. n one rng. Tckets are now on sale, and proplcte tcket nformaton s conned n the accompanyng box. M Mr. Lloyd Bbbs, 140 lbs., & Mr. Elroy Stanford, 160 lbs. n ^ Some of the Golden dove Boxng Coaches 1950s left S EcSSS?!!?*!*? «='«""««****' tng nclude, from Pet. GfcmdSwJr^d^pL"T7 1S r^brcmch RuS e11 ' Bud Cronk Ed ' D2atUk - L*» Tatum. SuoerWBobRljft % M^-ContM row: Larry Douglas, General Recreaton r W ^ T M M-' U? rester - M-Sgt. lames R. Kmber,?U Jones, Jm Whtesde dlrslz*? el30 T, a M Mm!, er 'T A^tt0n Sc0tt Sam ' Westbrooks, Gleron Newman, Tony An-' heads a selr^ S f ' * "" ** few CCSeS - eqch f the Coaches n the^o pdures ^ t ^ % l f : Z c a l uamng center for Gloves b *««a ls y ~f«. Z ^, &lob»-d»moero* Photo

108 FOUB SUCER. SfcWB P L & Y, E WH BG BANDS SA«G WTH Bl, s 0F THE 40 b " OF H. B. C. 19/

109

110 1 Jw f

111 Mr. Ben Davs Frst Prncpal of Turner School (or Meacham Park School)

112 PRNCPALS, J. MLTON TURNER SCHOOL J w. _ ^^.^"^r^^r-^-^wssswr-^^^"'** Mr. Wllam Young Second Prncpal of Turner School l c Mrs. Wntred Brown Thrd Prncpal of Turner School Mr. Olle Mack Ffth Prncpal of Turner School,^- Mr, Wllam L, V?ynn Fourth Prncpal of Turner School

113 L Mss Aramnta Lavelle Smth Assoc. Professor, School of Socal Work Unversty of Mssour Atkns W. Warren Lt. Col. St. Lous Polce Department Chef of Polce, Ganesvlle, Florda U.S. Department of Justce K Ms. Gaynelle Evans Journalst USA Today Producer-World Montor TV MR. DAVD L, THORNTON LAWYER 1989 *B*'4B* Mr. Andrew Greer Artst Dr-James Edward Mcntosh Drector of Dental Program Harlem Hosptal. New York Mr. Dexter Slvers Artst

114 Bfe. Lola Wallace Harrs Gves a Semnar to Young Teenagers Harstylng and Charm MRS. WORTHY WALLACE COMMUNTY & CVC. WORKER. SEWERS AND P0BLC HOUSNG

115 MEACHAM PARK, BEFORE 1970 <W Communty Water Faucet Raw Sewage C K j Outsde Tolets,)

116 MEACHAM PARK AMERCANS WHO GAVE THER LVES K PJP.C. Udell Chambers Republc of Vetnam PJP.C. Hubert Francs Cochran Republc of Korea f J SP-6 Robert L. Roc&ers Republc of Vetnam