John Stanard's Pictorial History Books Christmas Special - One Day Only!!!

"The Way We Worked" Exhibit @ the Library

Guest Speakers to Discuss Exhibit on Wednesday, September 25th at the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library

Two opportunities to join the conversation @ 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

"The Way We Worked" is a stunning, locally created exhibit focusing on the history of local Poplar Bluff and Butler County industry, commerce, and education. The story unfolds in striking pictures depicting how the river, railroad, cypress forests and agriculture shaped our community.

Join the Library for a meeting of memories, as Dr. Frank Nickell, retired SEMO History Professor, and John Stanard, retired journalist, author and local historian, discuss the exhibit and provide further insight and story behind the pictures.   

"The Way We Worked" is on exhibit at the Library now until Monday, October 7th.

New Books For Genealogy Reference On Display

What do you do at home with an oddball piece of furniture that just doesn't seem to "fit" anywhere or have a real purpose?  Throw it out?  Await divine inspiration? Keep moving it until its "out of sight, out of mind"?  Libraries have this same problem with furniture.  Fortunately, librarians can be a resourceful lot and re-purpose many things.

Such is the tale of the pictured bookstand.  It's moved all over the building for a number of years.  Yes, bookstands generally hold books.  But what books? And where?  Then it hit.  We should display new Genealogy/Reference books!!  We already do this for fiction, non-fiction, videos, audiobooks, etc., so why not in Genealogy?  A new book is easily overshadowed by all the other items in that collection and may go unnoticed for quite sometime because researchers believe they've seen all the books we have on a certain location or topic.  Just look at all the wonderful new resources that might have been missed but are now on display:

• 1890 Genealogical Census Reconstruction: Ohio Edition, Volume 1
• 1890 Genealogical Census Reconstruction: Mississippi, Volume 1
• 1890 Genealogical Census Reconstruction: Mississippi, Volume 2
• Blacks Found in the Deeds of Laurens & Newberry Counties, South Carolina: 1785-1827
• Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699
• Canary Islands Migration to Louisiana, 1778-1783. the History and Passenger Lists of the Islenos Volunteer Recruits and Their Families
• Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and Other Immigrants to Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776
• Index to Alabama Wills, 1808-1870
• Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Baltimore, 1820-1834
• Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Charleston, 1820-1829
• Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Philadelphia, 1800-1819
• Pioneers and Makers of Arkansas
• Some Alabama Pioneers
• State Census of North Carolina, 1784-1787

Genealogy books aren't cheap.  These 14 titles cost approximately $500!  Wondering where the funding for these new items came from?  Money generously donated to the library as a memorial by friends and family allowed these to be purchased in memory of the dearly departed.  We hope their gifts to the library benefit you in your research on your next trip to the library as well as future researchers in the the years to come.

1949 Aerial Photograph of Poplar Bluff

Have you visited the Genealogy Department lately and noticed a new photograph?  If not, take a look on your next visit!

This photograph was donated to the library by Mr. and Mrs. Harold Jackson of Poplar Bluff (former owners of Jackson Dodge).

What you are seeing is an aerial photograph of Poplar Bluff taken in 1949 as Butler County celebrated its Centennial of existence after being carved out of Wayne County in 1849.

This is a great example of how well the community had recovered from the devastating impact of the 1927 Tornado 22 years earlier.  You'll find familiar landmarks that help you orient yourself to the city's past.  Along the bottom of the photograph is Black River with the bridges of Pine and Vine crossing it.  Follow the right bridge (Pine St.) up to the top and you'll see the "dog-leg" curve with Sacred Heart Church and at the top is the "intersection" of Highways 60 and 67 along with the old water tower.

The library has had this photograph reframed with UV resistant glass to protect it from fading by sunlight and to preserve it for future generations to admire.

Summer Genealogy Society Meetings

For the months of June, July, and August, the Butler County Genealogy Society will hold their meetings at the First United Methodist Church at 500 N. Main St. instead of at the Twin Towers. Use the parking lot entrance and follow the posted signs to find the meeting room.  Meetings will begin at the regular 2 PM starting time on the fourth Thursday of the month.

If you're planning on attending, stop by and visit the library before or after the meeting.  After all, we're just a couple blocks away!

Opening the Ozarks

We're happy to once again bring to you, our loyal readers, a new resource in the Genealogy Department!  Opening the Ozarks will be a great help to anyone with roots in Missouri prior to statehood.  The publisher does an excellent job of describing the contents, so with that said, I'll turn the remainder of this posting over to them!

"As the oldest European settlement in Missouri, Ste. Genevieve was the funnel through which the eastern Ozarks (the 5,000 square miles beyond Ste. Genevieve’s location on the Mississippi) was established. A magisterial account of the settlement of this area from 1760 through 1830, Opening the Ozarks focuses on the acquisition and occupation of land, the transformation of the environment, the creation of cohesive settlements, and the building of neighborhoods and eventually organized counties.

"The study begins with the French Creole settlement at Old Ste. Genevieve in the middle of the eighteenth century. It describes the movement of the French into the Ozark hills during the rest of that century and continues with that of the American immigrants into Upper Louisiana after 1796, ending with the Americanization of the district after the Louisiana Purchase. Walter Schroeder examines the cultural transition from a French society, operating under a Spanish administration, to an American society in which French, Indians, and Africans formed minorities.

"Schroeder used thousands of French- and Spanish-language documents, including the Archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain, as well as documents from Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis to gather his information. He also utilized thousands of land records from the American period, including deeds of land sales and sales from the public domain, and plats from both the Spanish and American periods. In addition, Schroeder performed years of fieldwork and perused aerial photography of the area, interviewing residents and searching for vestiges of the past in the landscape.

"As the only study to deal with the cradle of Missouri and the first trans-Mississippi expansion of the Anglo-American frontier, Opening the Ozarks will be invaluable to anyone interested in America’s geographical history, particularly that of Missouri."

Until next time, good luck in all your research!

Stop and Smell the Magnolia Blossoms

Corner of 2nd St and Oak St

As Spring approaches, the area's landscape will be awash in a rainbow of colors heralding its arrival after the long, dark nights of Winter.  The magnolia tree sitting on the southeast corner of the block occupied by the library will be a part of this yearly ritual as it has been doing for over 80 years.

According to the marker placed near the base of the tree last year by the Poplar Bluff Garden Club, it was planted in 1930 upon the completion of the Poplar Bluff Hospital by Dr. H. M. Henrickson.

This historic tree has stood by seeing the rise of the original portion of the library (completed in 1936) and two major renovations while also outliving the Poplar Bluff Hospital building which was demolished in 1994 and the Henrickson Clinic that was also located on this block.

If you have family in Poplar Bluff or connections to the city's past, how many of them have walked or driven by this tree over the years?  Maybe they were visiting someone in the old Poplar Bluff Hospital and on a hot summer day enjoyed its shade.  Or possibly some energetic children were chasing one another around the trunk playing a game of tag or climbing the low limbs while waiting for their parents.  And who knows, maybe one Spring day they stopped to smell the blossoms just as you can on your next visit to the library.