This article was originally published in our July/August 2021 issue.
Lee M. Cullimore, 312 pages, nonfiction, Friends of Arrow Rock, hardcover, $24.99
Imagine someone is writing your biography more than one hundred years after you’ve died. What resources would they consult to construct a narrative of your life? Did you leave behind a diary? Is there someone significant in your life who would have a large collection of letters from you? This was the challenge Lee M. Cullimore took on in To Make a Fortune in Missouri, his new biography of Meredith Miles Marmaduke, which Missouri Life had a small hand in creating (more on that in a moment).
Of course biographers of contemporary subjects would more than likely have access to a treasure trove of social media posts to help fill in the blanks in our life stories. In the case of Meredith Miles Marmaduke, who was born in 1791 and died in 1864 after having served as Missouri’s twenty-fifth governor, among other achievements, there was no such digital archive, nor was there a journal collection left behind, at least not one that spanned the entirety of the subject’s life. In order to tell the story of Marmaduke’s life, Cullimore had to assemble what he could based on a scant collection of letters, news items, and legal documents.
Readers will find early on that Cullimore was more than up to the task. In fact, the biography in some ways ends up serving double duty as a portrait of life in early US history, because Cullimore frequently adds in anecdotes and writings from contemporaries of Marmaduke’s to help add color and context to particular chapters of his life. The result is something a touch broader in scope than a traditional biography.
As the title suggests, the bulk of the book focuses on Marmaduke’s time in and around Missouri, where he spent the majority of his life and where he did, in fact, make his fortune. Because Marmaduke’s history is so intertwined with the community, it seems only fitting that Friends of Arrow Rock published the biography, and we here at Missouri Life are proud to have been involved with the book’s design and creative direction.
The Missouri history buff will recognize characters who loom large in our past, such as Clairborne Fox Jackson, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and Dr. John Sappington (who would one day become Marmaduke’s father-in-law). If you usually shy away from historical texts, give To Make a Fortune in Missouri a second look; it’s a lively, digestible read that could lend you a newfound appreciation of our state.
The biography begins by exploring how the Marmaduke family arrived in the country, then follows its subject from his early days in Virginia to his emigration to Missouri, and from there, out as far west as Santa Fe as he sought his fortune as a trader. Cullimore takes care to couch Marmaduke’s story in the context of broader historical trends and events, enhancing the reading experience. Cullimore is also careful to include the tertiary characters in this story, including the slaves Marmaduke owned and brought with him to Missouri. This willingness to zoom away from the primary subject again enhances the understanding gained by reading.
During Marmaduke’s adventure on the Santa Fe Trail, he actually did keep a journal, which is one of the only points during his life’s journey when the reader is offered a more in-depth glimpse of the subject’s thoughts and feelings. It gives this section of the book a more intimate feel, but not so much as to be jarring when it goes back to constructing the narrative through more circumstantial source material.
To Make a Fortune in Missouri is a biography of a seemingly esoteric character whose life was characterized by so many of the key events of our nation’s formative years that it could almost serve as an early American History textbook. Any reader with an appetite for engaging and informative writing will find something to admire here.
To buy the book, visit the Friends of Arrow Rock in that town or MissouriLife.com.
More Great Reads
Forged in Gold, Larry Gragg, 297 pages, nonfiction, Missouri University of Science and Technology, hardcover, $49.99.
This coffee table book, about 9.5-by-12.5 inches, presents a comprehensive history of the school that started as the University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy in 1871 and is now 150 years old. The book documents notable “Miner” students, faculty, staff, social life, athletics, Miners at War, and also pranks and scandals.
Henry Lightner and the Birth of the Star-Spangled Banner, Kelly Rees, 96 pages, historical fiction. Acclaim Press, softcover, $9.95.
The author, originally from Holts Summit, researched original documents to tell the story of a sixteen-year-old drummer boy in the War of 1812, who signaled the start of the Battle of Baltimore and the unveiling of the Stars and Stripes, weaving his lesser-known story into those of the seamstress who created the flag and Francis Scott Key, who wrote our national anthem.
Maye’s March for Women’s Votes, Amy Houts, 64 pages, children’s historical fiction (grades 3–6), Houts and Home Publications (owned by the author), softcover, $9.98.
The author relied on the 1913 diary of Vera Maye Shipps, a nineteen-year-old trombone player who grew up on a farm near Maryville and traveled to a suffrage parade in Washington, DC, as a member of the Missouri Ladies Military Band. Men block the parade route, but the women act fast.
Mulligan Runs for Office, Lonnie Whitaker, 27 pages, children’s fiction, Sassafras Lane Press (owned by the author), hard or softcover, $19.99 or $14.99.
The second book in the Mulligan/Poodlums series by the High Ridge author features the chili-eating tomcat in an election. Children too young to read should enjoy the colorful illustrations.
Missouri Innovators, Paul W. Bass, 368 pages, nonfiction, Acclaim Press, hardcover, $26.95.
Read profiles of seventy Missouri innovators in entertainment, fine arts, education and literature, business, science and technology, politics and military, sports, and others, even a few outlaws.
1961 Ozark Breakaway: The Year McDonald County Seceded From Missouri, Dwight W. Pogue, 186 pages, nonfiction, C. S. Pogue Graphics (self-published), softcover, $20.
When the author was sixteen years old, he had a front-row seat to McDonald County’s mock attempt to secede from Missouri in response to both a 1960 highway department decision and the failure to include all but two towns in the county in the official 1961 State Highway Map. Many newspaper clippings from the author’s family’s weekly newspaper and photos from the time enhance the tale.
Ready to Wear: A History of Footwear and Garment Industries in St. Louis, Valerie Battle Kienzle, 224 pages, nonfiction, Reedy Press, hardcover, $39.95.
With many historical images, this 11.5-by-9-inch coffee table book tells the story of the footwear and garment industry in St. Louis, and thus a big part of St. Louis’s history; Washington Avenue, nicknamed Shoe Street USA, played a central role.
STL Scavenger: The Ultimate Search for St. Louis’s Hidden Treasures, Dea Hoover, 192 pages, nonfiction, Reedy Press, softcover, $20.95.
Photos and clues in this spiral-bound workbook send you to find from twenty to twenty-eight destinations in each of seventeen neighborhoods from St. Charles to Edwardsville—a unique way to explore.
The Black Harvest: A Novel of the American Civil War, Daren Dean, 366 pages, fiction, Livingston Press, hard or softcover, $21.95 or $30.95.
The author, who teaches English at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, portrays the brutal violence, anarchy, and complexity of the war along Missouri’s western border by featuring a young man from near Glasgow who falls in with Quantrill’s and Bloody Bill Anderson’s bushwhackers after his father is hung by Jayhawkers.
The Names of John Gergen, Benjamin Moore, 360 pages, nonfiction, University of Missouri Press, hardcover, $50.
The author rescued from a dumpster 124 pages of schoolwork from a Catholic Hungarian immigrant boy born in St. Louis in 1908. Those pages inspired the story of John Gergen and the forces that shaped the lives of immigrants in industrial South St. Louis.
The Root of Everything and Lightning, Scott Alexander Hess, 184 pages, fiction, Rebel Satori Press, softcover, $16.95.
Originally from St. Louis, this author presents two novellas, one a tale about three generations of fathers and sons from Germany’s Black Forest who come to Missouri and experience the tragedy and triumph of life, and the other about a young man in Arkansas in 1918 whose passions include horses and another man.
Scenic Driving the Ozarks, Including the Ouachita Mountains, Don Kurz, 352 pages, nonfiction, Globe Pequot, softcover, $24.95.
With route maps and descriptions of attractions along the way, this guide includes thirty-five separate drives, twenty in Missouri.
Wildflowers of the Midwest, A Field Guide to Over 600 Wildflowers in the Region, Don Kurz, 408 pages, nonfiction, Falcon Guides, softcover, $29.95.
This guide includes both common and rare wildflowers and is conveniently organized by plant color and family.
