Sunday, May 10, 2020

Dr. John S. Sappington


Dr. John S. Sappington (1776-1856) = Author. Doctor. Store-keeper. Best known for creating a quinine pill to treat malaria.
He was born to Dr. Mark and Rebecca Sappington in Maryland on 15 May 1776. He was the third of seven children.
When John was nine, his family moved from Maryland. His father trained he and his brothers as physicians. Out on the frontier, they were in high demand.
In 1804, he married Jane Breathitt. The couple had nine children together, seven girls and two boys.  The future 15th Governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson (1806-1862), married three of their girls, Jane (1831; she died of the "ague" or malarial fever),  Louisa (1833), and Elizabeth (1838). 
In 1819, upon the advice of Thomas Hart Benton, a future US Senator, Sappington moved to Saline County, Missouri.
He established two stores, one at present day Napton and another at Arrow Rock. Once financially successful, Sappington experimented with the bark of a South American tree to create a chemical called quinine.  Malaria, scarlet fever, yellow fever, and influenza, diseases carried by mosquitoes, were pestilential along creeks and rivers. He wanted to use quinine to treat the fevers caused by these diseases, but eventually it was used to prevent the onset of malaria.
In 1844, Dr. Sappington wrote the first medical treatise west of the Mississippi River. It was called "Theory and Treatment of Fevers." Following a long illness, he died in 1856. An inscription over his grave reads: "A truly honest man is the noblest work of God. He lay like a warrior taking his rest."

Historical Note: George Caleb Bingham painted his and his wife's portraits in 1834. Click here and here to view.  

More to Read:
1. The Theory and Treatment of Fevers. By John Sappington. 1844. FREE Google e-book. 
2. Dr. John Sappington of Saline County, Missouri: 1776-1856. By Thomas B. Hall. Friends of Arrow Rock, 1975 
3.Claiborne Fox Jackson. By Christopher Phillips, University of Mo. Press, Columbia, MO; 2000.
4. "Historic Missourians," The State Historical Society of Missouri. 
6. Sappington's Papers
7. Panama Canal Online Exhibit; Clendening History of Medicine Library, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS , 2015.
8. Findagrave #11994.


Note: Infectious malaria is not caused by a bacteria or a virus, but by a tiny worm parasite that enters your bloodstream via a mosquito bite! To prevent the spread of malaria, it is best to drain standing water where mosquitoes breed, to use fine metal mesh screens on your windows and doors to keep them out and/or tuck in mosquito netting over your bed when you sleep at night in warmer climates. Spray insecticide on your clothing to ward them off if you must be out at dusk, their prime feeding time. 


Places to Visit:
2. Napton, Missouri Supplemental Route E, SE Saline County
3. The Missouri River
4. Dr. John S. Sappington Museum, 108 High Street, Arrow Rock.
5. Son, William B. Sappington's home called Prairie Park, 3 mi. SW of Arrow Rock on  CR TT. National Register of Historic Sites. (please respect the privacy of homeowners).
6. The Miller-Bradford House, Arrow Rock
7. Sappington Cemetery State Historic Site
8. Visit Missouri Sappington Cemetery, Route AA, Nelson

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Rose O'Neill



Rose O'Neill (1874-1944) = Self-taught Artist/Illustrator. Author. Free-Spirit. Poet. Best known for her Kewpie characters. Rose was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1874 to "Meemie" Alice and William Patrick O'Neill as one child of seven. She attended a Catholic primary in Omaha, Nebraska and taught herself to draw by looking at illustrations in her father's books.


The Kewpies first appeared in 1909 as cartoon characters in the Christmas issue of Ladies' Home Journal and were regularly featured in other women's magazines for the next twenty-five years, however by 1912, German porcelain doll makers were creating dolls based on her Kewpie illustrations. She said  she wanted her Kewpies to teach people to be happy and kind.

She married twice, but chose not to become a mother of any chubby babies herself as she was supporting her large family with her work.  

Bonniebrook in the Missouri Ozarks (Taney County) was Rose's favorite home. At the height of her career, she purchased other homes in New York, Connecticut, and in Italy. Near the west side of Bonniebrook, a small brook gurgled its way downstream which was said to have inspired the name for her home. At the top of the house was Rose O'Neill's studio, filled with treasures from friends and family. Her unusual, but favorite mode of dress for the times  were blousy aprons or kimonos over a Greek style tunic. 

In the spring of 1944, Rose died of heart failure at the age of 69. She was buried near her family and Bonniebrook.

For Your Info: While I find Rose's Kewpies appealing, some of her other illustrations I find dark and disturbing.

More to Read:
1.) Rose O'Neill: An Autobiography. Edited by Miriam Formanek-Brunell.University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Mo; 1997.
2.) American Illustrator: Rose O'Neill. By J. L. Wilkerson. 2001
3.) Collecting Rose O'Neill's Kewpies. by David O'Neill and Janet O'Neill Sullivan. 2003.
5.) Kewpies and Beyond: The World of Rose O'Neill. By Shelley Armitage. 1994.
6.) Rose O'Neill - The Girl Who Loved to Draw by Linda Brewster. 2009.
7.) Representative Women. By Lois Oldham Henrici. 1913.
8.) The Kewpie Primer. By Elizabeth V. Quinn. Illustrated by Rose O'Neill. Frederick A. Stokes Co, New York. 1916.
9.) Titans and Kewpies: The Life and Art of Rose O'Neill. By Ralph Alan McCanse.
10.) The Adventures of the Kewpies: A Coloring Book.  Saalfield Publishing Co, 1962.
11.) Missouri newspapers at Chronicling America
12.) Findagrave #21784408

Places to Visit:
1.) Branson's Kewpiesta in April.
2.) Drury University: The Rose O'Neill House, 900 North Benton Ave, Springfield
3.) Nelson-Atkins' Collections, 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City (2 pieces of Kewpie art)
4.) O'Neill Museum, 485 Rose O'Neill Road, Walnut Shade, Mo.
5.) Ralph Foster Museum, College of the Ozarks, 1 Cultural Court, Point Lookout (south of Branson)



"Do good deeds in a funny way. The world needs to laugh or 
at least smile more than it does."  
~ Rose O'Neill



Biography written by Dolores J. Rush. Updated: 2/5/2020