John J. Pershing, commander of the U.S. armies in World War I, had lunch at Courtesy Court at 12th and North Main on May 1, 1936. Pershing was traveling from Lincoln, Nebraska to his boyhood home at Laclede, Missouri where he was going to dedicate the cornerstone of a new school. Maryville is midway between the two communities.
The Olde English style building at 1202 North Main has rich culinary history including Glen “Mac” McGinnis who sold it in 1948 to set up Mac’s Steak House by the Mary Mart Shopping Center and Thompson’s Paradise Donut Shop which opened in 1968 by Mr. and Mrs. Lester Thompson.
A protest over the quality of food (often called food riots) at the Student Union Cafeteria in April 1964 included students blocking Main Street (which was the route of 71 at the time), tear gas, and police dogs. The run-up had included 1,600 students attending a rally at the football field. The Missouri Governor called out reinforcements from the Missouri Highway Patrol. The riots followed the October 1963 panty raids at the college, and some of those involved in this event were accused of attempting to instigate panty raids in the food riot. The image is AI colorized and enhanced. The original photo is here.
The Maryville Municipal Swimming Pool opened on August 20, 1955. It was the first time Maryville had a public swimming pool since the Maryville Sanitary Swimming Pool at First and Vine closed in the late 1930s. The 230,000-gallon pool opened ahead of schedule after a $75,000 bond election for the pool passed in November 1954, following much effort by the Soroptimist Club, including torchlight rallies. The pool was initially open only 2 weeks, and opening day was on a 100-degree day, and was punctuated by a lightning storm in which swimmers went into the dressing room but didn’t leave.
Here’s the original signed Platte Purchase Treaty document that was signed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on September 17, 1836. It was ratified the US Senate on February 15, 1837 and signed by Martin Van Buren on March 28, 1837.
In August 1971, the 5 mile Chief Ca-Ha-Qua Nodaway Scout Trail, built by Troop 74, opened at Nodaway Lake, with the Mic-O-Say dancers commemorating it. AI used to colorize black-and-white photos often makes them brown. The sign was white.
While not discussed in the article, there is a story about Ca-Ha-Qua being involved with a lake in Nodaway County near Clearmont.
Ca-Ha-Qua (“Red Fox”) was said to be chief of the Sac/Fox in the Platte Purchase Treaty of 1836, which was negotiated by William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame) at Fort Leavenworth. There are 15 Sac/Fox names who could not read the treaty that put an X on it. The signatories are identified as “chiefs, warriors, and counsellors.” Mo-hos-ca (“White Cloud”) is reported to have been chief of the Ioways, but 12 Ioways signed with an X.
Approximately 30 Girl Scouts from Troop 336, around the lake for about five miles, and the hiking time is Maryville, and their leaders, Mrs. Max Harris, Mrs. Dave Sawicki, Mrs. Don Swartz and Mrs. James Holt and at the Nodaway Community Lake on M-136 Friday to hike the Chief Ca-Ha-Qua Nodaway Scout Trail built by Boy Scout Troop 74, The trail extends around the lake for about five miles and the hiking time is set at 2½ hours. Numbered post along the trail help guide hikers. Scouts built six bridges crossing creeks and ditches.
From the 1970s until 2002, Brother Damian Larson at Conception Abbey was a fixture on the radio and in the newspaper as the “weather monk” who gave forecasts. Brother Damian was killed in the Abbey on June 10, 2002, when shot twice by a gunman who killed two monks at the abbey and wounded two others before the gunman killed himself. There was never any indication they had been targeted but were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when the gunman from Kearney drove to the Abbey and opened fire.
