Bill Eddleman
Host, Tales from Days Gone ByBill Eddleman was born in Cape Girardeau, and is an 8th-generation Cape Countian. His first Missouri ancestor came to the state in 1802. He attended SEMO for two years before transferring to the University of Missouri to study Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. He stayed at Mizzou to earn a master of science in Fisheries and Wildlife, and continued studies in Wildlife Ecology at Oklahoma State University.
Bill’s professional interests were in ornithology (the study of birds) and wildlife management. Upon earning his Ph.D., he worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation, did postdoctoral research at the University of Wyoming, and then joined the Natural Resource Sciences faculty at the University of Rhode Island in 1988. He moved back to Cape Girardeau to take a similar position in the Department of Biology at SEMO in 1995. He continued in the Biology Department and several administrative positions until retiring in 2016.
Bill has always had an interest in local history and genealogy. His familiarity with Southeast Missouri history was the primary reason he became Associate Director for the State Historical Society at its Cape Girardeau Research Center in 2017. At the center, he promotes donations to their manuscript collections, provides history-themed programs for groups in their 15-county coverage area, and assists patrons with research. His own historical research interests include mainly 19th-century Southeast Missouri history, especially the Civil War era and early settlement period.
In his spare time, he serves as president of both the Missouri Birding Society and the Missouri State Genealogical Association. He and his wife Hope also reenact Civil War era history, and are active members of the Friends of Fort D in Cape.
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The Rev. Timothy Flint left an 1820 account of the Dutch or Bollinger Settlement, 1st to 3rd generation German immigrants who came to Missouri starting in 1800. His book, Recollections of the Last Ten Years, includes details on Missouri in 1815-1822. Thousands of Missourians trace their ancestry to the Bollinger Settlement, so it is well-worth discussing his observations. -
A number of Missouri counties found it necessary to move their county seats early in their history. Often, the goal was to find a central location so residents would not have to travel as far to conduct public business. In the case of Shannon County, the destruction of the county seat during the Civil War doomed the original site.
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The Scripps family was notable in Cape Girardeau in the early 19th Century. William Scripps, head of the family, was born in England in 1749, married Grace Locke, and worked as a shoemaker. The couple were parents of 19 children, 5 of whom lived to adulthood.
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In southeastern Butler County, Missouri, along the east side of Black River, is the site of the former community of Carola. The location is along Missouri Route N, 2 ½ miles southwest of Oglesville and 3 ½ miles north of the Arkansas border.
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Over a dozen indigenous tribes inhabited Missouri in 1800. The Osage occupied the largest area, but in eastern Missouri the Shawnee and Delaware predominated.
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European settlers in southern Missouri sometimes encountered a large woodpecker in bottomland forests. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was larger than any other woodpecker, including the Pileated Woodpecker which is still common today.
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The Civil War was a tragic event, resulting in the death of over 700,000 people. It is easy to forget that the dry statistics of deaths often masks the tragedy of each individual story. The story of the death of one Iowa soldier in Cape Girardeau in a tragic accident is one example.
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Governor McNair signed the bill selecting the site of the new state capital on December 31, 1821. Missouri is the only state to have a capital founded solely for that purpose.
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Governor McNair signed the bill selecting the site of the new state capital on December 31, 1821. Missouri is the only state to have a capital founded solely for that purpose.
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Imagine a Christmas with no Christmas tree, no Santa Claus, no Christmas stockings, no holiday cards, no gift exchanges, no poinsettias, and in some communities, little recognition of the day at all.
