Editing History of Missouri (section)

===Women, family and society===
In the early nineteenth century, Missouri had two divergent family styles—the French and the American. The French placed the mother at the head of the house; the Americans treated the mother as little more than a fellow-worker who often took second place to the men in the family.<ref name="giffen478-504">Giffen (1971), 478–504.</ref> Most of the immigration to Missouri in the nineteenth century was of families, and women left diaries, letters, and memoirs documenting preparations for the journey, the nerve-wracking Atlantic crossing, and the long train rides from New York City to St. Louis<ref>Before the Civil War, most sailed to New Orleans, then took riverboats to St. Louis.</ref> and their final destinations. Most came from Germany, as well as Ireland, Bohemia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe. The largest groups were Catholic, Lutheran, and German. Once arrived, the women—mostly in their twenties—coped with the problems of daily life in an unfamiliar and occasionally hostile environment, with a limited network of kinfolk available to help.<ref name="burnett2005">Burnett and Luebbering (2005).</ref> The normative standard for [[German American]] women was to be good, diligent, submissive, and silent housewives. The historical records show more variety, with many being cantankerous, complaining, and unwilling to subordinate themselves. These nonconformists exerted a greater influence on the community scene than they could by strict conformity to generally accepted behavior.<ref name="pickle291-312">Pickle (1985), 291–312.</ref>

====Modernization====

Throughout the century most rural families lived traditional lifestyles, based on male dominance. Efforts to modernize rural life, and upgrade the status of women, were reflected in numerous movements, including Public schools, women's church activities, temperance reform, and the campaign for woman suffrage. Reformers sought to modernize the rural home by transforming its women from producers to consumers. The Missouri Women Farmers' Club (MWFC) and its management was especially active.<ref name="montgomery159-178">Montgomery (2010), 159–178.</ref> The great majority of women were full-time homemakers, whose labor created materials and clothing, food, agriculture and basics of life for their families. After the Civil War some women became wage earners in industrializing cities. It was common for widows to operate boardinghouses or small shops; younger women worked in tobacco, shoe, and clothing factories. Some women helped their husbands publish local newspapers, which flourished in every county seat and small city. In 1876, women began to attend the Missouri Press Association's meetings; by 1896 the women formed their own press association, and at the end of the century, women were editing or publishing 25 newspapers in Missouri. They were especially active in developing features to entertain their women readers, and to help women with their housework and child-rearing.<ref name="vaughan289-305">Vaughan (1970), 289–305.</ref>

====Schooling====
Before the Civil War Missouri followed the southern pattern that downplayed public schooling, as well-to-do families patronized local private academies. Ambitious but poor parents pooled their resources to hire part-time teachers for their children. During Reconstruction, the Radicals in power strongly favored modernization through the rapid growth in public schools. Their 1865 Constitution, and numerous state laws, called for a large network of public schools, including ones for black children. The plan was to require four months terms of schooling every year for children. Under the aggressive leadership of state superintendent of schools Thomas A. Parker, the number of public schools jumped from 48,000 in 1867 to 75,000 in 1870, as enrollment grew from 169,000 to 280,000. The 1870 totals included 9100 black students. About 59 percent of the eligible white children attended school annually in 1870, along with 21 percent of the eligible black children.<ref>John W. Hunt and Linda C. Morice. "Caught in the crossfire: factors influencing the closing of Missouri's black schools, 1865–1905." ''American Educational History Journal'' 35.1/2 (2008): 233.</ref> Parker built up organizations of teachers at the county level, as well as the state level, holding numerous clinics to provide the pedagogical education the teachers lacked. New normal schools, to train teachers, were opened at Kirksville<ref>David Clifford Nichols, ''Founding the Future: A History of Truman State University'' (2007).</ref> and Warrensburg in 1870. The all-black Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City opened an education department to train black teachers. A new state university was founded in Columbia, with land-grant federal aid. However it had to share some of that aid with the new school of mines at Rolla. The public school system across the state was heavily oriented toward providing the three Rs of elementary education. High schools were rare outside the major cities. Families that could afford to have children attend school rather than hold a paying job patronized 45 academies in 1870, most of which were attached to the 37 small private colleges. Most were run by religious denominations. St. Louis, under the leadership of [[William Torrey Harris]] as superintendent of schools 1868–1880, developed one of the nation's outstanding public school system, complete with the first public kindergartens. Once the conservatives returned to power in 1872, however, public schooling became again a low priority matter in rural Missouri.<ref>Parrish, ''Missouri: The Heart of the Nation'' (1980) pp 202–5</ref>

====Ozark traditionalism====
{{Further|Ozarks}}
In highly traditional, remote parts of the Ozark Mountains there was little demand for modern medicine. Childbirth, aches, pains and broken bones were handled by local practitioners of folk medicine, most of whom were women. Their herbs, salves and other remedies often healed sick people, but their methods relied especially on recognizing and ministering to their patients' psychological, spiritual, and physical needs.<ref name="allured20-31">Allured (1992), 20–31.</ref> Traditionalism and [[Hillbilly]] themes have become a money-making enterprise in the 21st century Ozarks, as [[Branson, Missouri]] is a major tourist attraction featuring traditional folklore.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ron W. Marr|title=Explorer's Guide Ozarks: Includes Branson, Springfield & Northwest Arkansas (Second Edition) (Explorer's Complete)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSZCwfgbH1IC&pg=PA18|year=2012|publisher=Countryman Press|page=18|isbn=9781581577907}}</ref>

====Women====
Before the war the police and municipal judges used their powers to regulate rather than eliminate the sex trades. In [[History of the United States (1789–1849)|antebellum]] St. Louis, prostitutes working in orderly, discreet brothels were seldom arrested or harassed—unless they were unusually boisterous, engaged in sexual activities outside their established district, or violated other rules of appropriate conduct.<ref name="adler737-735">Adler (1992), 737–755.</ref> In 1861 St. Louis passed a vagrancy ordinance, criminalizing any woman who walked on the streets after sunset. In 1871 the city passed a law forbidding women from working in bars and saloons, even if the women were owners. These laws were meant to keep prostitution at a minimum, but adversely affected women who were legitimately employed.<ref name="romeo22-33">Romeo (2004), 22–33.</ref>

Middle-class women demanded entry into higher education, and the state colleges reluctantly admitted them. Culver-Stockton College opened in the 1850s as a coeducational school, the first west of the Mississippi. Women were first admitted to the normal school of Missouri State University at Columbia in 1868, but they had second-class status. They were shunted into a few narrow academic programs, restricted in their use of the library, separated from the men, and forced to wear uniforms. They were not allowed to live on campus. President Samuel Spahr Laws was the most restrictive administrator, enforcing numerous rules and the wearing of drab uniforms. Still, the number of women students at the school grew despite the difficulties.<ref name="lee373-386">Lee (1993), 373–386.</ref> When the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy opened at Rolla in 1871, its first class had 21 male and six female students. Well into the 20th century, the women who attended the school were given an arts and music program that was little better than a high school education.<ref name="christensen 1988 17-35">Christensen (1988), 17–35.</ref>

[[Josephine Silone Yates]] (1859–1912) was an African-American activist who devoted her career to combating discrimination and uplifting her race. She taught at the Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, and served as the first president of the Women's League of Kansas City; she was later president of the [[National Association of Colored Women]]. Yates tried to prepare women for roles as wage earners in Northern cities. She also encouraged black ownership of land for those who remained in the South. Since whites judged blacks by the behavior of the lower class, she argued that advancement of the race ultimately depended on working-class adherence to a strict moral code.<ref name="kremer 1996 199-215">Kremer and Mackey (1996), 199–215.</ref>