Embedded Files
A Brief History of Liberty
A Brief History of Liberty
Most of the settlers who came to Missouri in the early nineteenth century were Southern in origin. In 1821, when Missouri became a state, approximately 2/3 of the population living along the Missouri River were born in Kentucky, Tennessee, or Virginia and this region was called, “Little Dixie.” Even by 1850, 36% of the people living in Missouri were born in those southern states.
The Liberty area settled by mostly people from the Upper South had a distinctly southern culture. These early pioneers were mostly farmers who brought with them agrarian traditions that included a slave-based economy and grew tobacco and hemp plants. Clay County was partitioned off from Ray County in 1822 and was named in honor of the Kentucky statesman, Henry Clay, who was instrumental in the Missouri Compromise. Liberty was the earliest town in the county and the county seat.
Liberty’s original boundary covered one square mile. (Image courtesy State Historical Society of Missouri, from An Illustrated Historical Atlas of Clay County, Missouri, 1877, p. 24, retrieved from https://digital.shsmo.o rg/digital/collection/pl at/id/1071)
Historic buildings on the main square in Liberty, MO constructed between 1877 and 1885, photgraph by Marie Goeglein, April 2022.
The history of Liberty was impacted by the establishment of Fort Leavenworth in Kansas in 1827. As commercial activities expanded, not only did the fort mean a demand for materials, but supplies and labor also increased as well as establishments such as taverns and hotels. John Chauncey Green (Cordelia Green Drumm’s maternal grandfather, she was named after her maternal grandmother, Cordelia Francis Chauncey) established the third tavern in Liberty in 1832. The Green Hotel, established by Squire Boone Green, (Cordelia’s father) was built on the north end of the east side of the square and was a popular retreat in the 1830s for military men on leave as Liberty was the closest town to the east. Liberty offered a gentile atmosphere compared to the conditions at the fort.
Liberty offered refinement which separated it from what laid to the west. There were a large number of publications which not only played a significant role in the settlement of the west but added to the sense of civic pride in the Liberty area. The reputation of Liberty was further enhanced by numerous early schools which also led to an increase in businesses and residential development.
As early as 1822, Liberty had a log school house, and it had a school township in 1825. Most of the early schools were not free public schools, but were instead academies and private institutions. Liberty became particularly known for its female education institutes. Most of them were located in residential buildings, and many students boarded in nearby residences. The first was the High School for Young Ladies (1828), then Liberty Female Seminary (1838), High School for Young Ladies (1840), “Female School” (1844), Liberty Male and Female Seminary (1841), William Jewell College and Academy (1849), Liberty Female Institute (1852) and Clay Seminary (1855).
The quality and emphasis Liberty placed on education played a major role in attracting new residents. Liberty had a cultural appeal. Cordelia Green attended Clay Seminary with the daughters of lawyers, merchants, doctors, county clerks, and judges. Most of these households owned or hired slaves but did not live on stereotypical plantations with large numbers of slaves.
The Civil War (and the decade before with the fighting between slave holding and free-soil states, particularly in Kansas, not far from Liberty) had a great impact on the citizens of Liberty. Missouri was a border state, and citizens and students in Liberty had to navigate times of great uncertainty and violence.
"Hearts around Kansas City" off of the Liberty square, photography by Marie Goeglein, March 2022.
The Jesse James Bank Museum, the former Clay County Savings Association, is now operated by Clay County as a museum, photographs by Marie Goeglein, April 2022.
There were two major actions during the Civil War in Liberty itself. The first was on April 20, 1861 (eight days after Fort Sumter in South Carolina) when the Liberty Arsenal was raided. Approximately 200 secessionists attacked, captured, and seized the Arsenal. It was held for a week while the stores and munitions were removed and given to “minute men” in Clay and surrounding counties. The second came later that year. On September 20, 1861, the Battle of Liberty took place.
Liberty was plagued before, during, and after the Civil War with guerrilla violence while economic growth and construction slowed. Some of its infamous residents gave it a temporary reputation for lawlessness. The most known of these events came right after the war when the first daylight bank robbery during peacetime occurred on February 13, 1866 at Clay County Savings Association on the northeast corner of the square; the robbery was attributed to the Jesse James Gang.
This had to have been a tumultuous time to live in Liberty. Cordelia Green Drumm kept in her Liberty collection, which she had stored until right before her death, an entire box of newspaper clippings and copies of poems which included an extra edition of a proclamation by Major General Sterling Price (former governor of Missouri and later officer of the Confederate army) asking for 50,000 men to join his forces.
In the 1870s and 1880s, Liberty once again became known as a commercial center for the surrounding countryside. It was known for its emphasis on education, religion, journalism, culture, and even temperance for a short time. There were five saloons around the square in 1873 when the County Court voted to no longer grant saloon licenses. By 1880, all of the taverns in Clay County were gone. Carrie Nation, a famous leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, had been a student (known then as Amelia Moore) at Clay Seminary in 1864-1865.
Clay County Court House in Liberty, Missouri with statue of Susan B. Anthony, photograph by Marie Goeglein, March 2022. Susan B. Anthony spoke in Liberty in April of 1876.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse