Dr. 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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June 24, 1780, was a momentous day for settlers in the vicinity of Ruddell’s Station, Kentucky. Warnings of possible attack by British-allied Shawnee and other native people had moved them to take shelter in the fort constructed for such threats. -
The most tragic event of the time before the Louisiana Purchase in the southern part of Spanish Upper Louisiana was the murder of David Trotter.
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An overturned grave marker in Welch Cemetery near Summersville in Shannon County memorializes Peter Renfrow, whose life was profoundly altered by his crime and its aftermath. -
The story of one of the most notorious events occurring near Cape Girardeau during the Civil War began in St. Louis in the early summer of 1863. -
Two major European allies assisted the fight for American Independence: France and Spain. One of the consequences of the alliance with Spain was a more favorable view of Americans by the Spanish authorities in Louisiana. -
July 27, 1871, proved to be a tragic day in the small Wayne County community of Lowndes. -
The lure of riches has given rise to many historical events. Sometimes the promised boom happens, but often the lure leads to overly optimistic visions. One such event occurred in the late 1880s in Stoddard County. -
Reflecting on the upcoming 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, it seems unlikely that southeastern Missouri had any role. However, hostilities did directly affect those who lived in Ste. Genevieve. -
One of the most influential of Wayne County’s public servants in the late 19th Century was a Russian immigrant who came to the U.S. with his father in 1849. -
The period from May 25 through June 1, 1917, was one of the worst severe weather weeks in the history of southern Missouri. During that time, three low pressure systems in succession formed on the Plains and swept through the southern Midwest and upper South.
