Embedded Files
Image showing Brian Burnes' book, The Andrew Drumm Legacy: A Cattleman's Promise to Children, published in 2019.
State of the Historical Field
State of the Historical Field
There are extensive historical studies on female life in the frontier, female education in the frontier and the South, and life in the Liberty, Missouri area during this time. The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and the Plains by Glenda Riley (1988) analyzes all aspects of female life on the prairie which she considers western Indian, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and western/northern Missouri (this would be Liberty, Missouri and Cordelia’s life) to the plains which are the regions farther west. Frontier Women: “Civilizing” the West? 1840-1880 by Julie Roy Jeffrey (1998) focuses on the bonds of women, educational opportunities, and job opportunities in education in the west. Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War edited by Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber (1992) includes two chapters that provide a framework for understanding how going to school during this time in Missouri might have impacted Cordelia and her view of gender roles, and possibly how guerrilla warfare and uncertainty might have been reasons for her to wait until later in life to marry. The Education of the Southern Belle: Higher Education and Student Socialization in the Antebellum South by Christie Anne Farnham (1994) directly relates to the experiences of Cordelia Green at Clay Seminary. The education she received and was part of with Clay Seminary is most similar to Southern female education trends at this time in the United States.
Recently, Brian Burnes (2019) wrote a book, The Andrew Drumm Legacy: A Cattleman’s Promise to Children. There are sections of Burnes' book about Cordelia Green Drumm’s life. This website will be the first historical study of her life focusing on her education and the years between her graduation from Clay Seminary in 1862 to her marriage to Andrew Drumm in 1886. For twenty-four years, Cordelia lived in the Liberty area as a music teacher. This website will focus on the glimpses of her life in this time period provided by the letters in the Clay County Archive collection from 1864-1887.
Article found at Clay County Archives from The Liberty Tribune, 1936.
Methodology and Relevance
Methodology and Relevance
This project is a social history. The primary sources are a collection of over fifty two letters that Clay County Archives received in 2000 as a donation. Cordelia Green Drumm sold most of her Liberty items that she had held in storage shortly before she passed away in 1936. A local collector bought them and then it is a bit of a mystery where everything went. The person who donated the letters wrote that one of her relatives had the letters because he was a stamp collector, thus the letters are in relatively good condition with some fading from time, minus the stamps.
This is a local history that is relevant to the greater history of women in Missouri in the 1860s to the 1880s, particularly focusing on the influence of female education and the experiences of an unmarried woman at this time. This project will archive the letters of Cordelia Green Drumm, as well as numerous artifacts from her school and place of employment, Clay Seminary. By creating a website, this project will make the letters and experiences of Cordelia Green Drumm accessible to local residents and those that cannot physically visit the Clay County Archives.
Letter at Clay County Archives describing the collection of Cordelia Green Drumm's letters and donation to the archives, 2000.
This project furthers the legacy of Cordelia Green Drumm which is particularly important because her story has not been told. Her legacy is tied to that of her husband, Andrew Drumm and the Drumm Farm Center for Children. His story has been told and now a glimpse in to her life as a single woman in Liberty, Missouri will be documented for a greater audience, as well.
Lastly, this work is important because local archives such as Clay County Archives are supported and maintained by volunteer archivists. Projects such as this assist and validate their quest to preserve local histories.
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