Mary Ellen Rowe is a retired professor of history at the University of Central Missouri.

Articles Authored

French artist Louis-Leopold Boilly’s rendering of members of an Osage traveling party in Europe, including Big Soldier (at right). [Smithsonian Institution, National Portrait Gallery, object # S/NPG.2011.5]
Big Soldier (1773?–1844)

Big Soldier, a Little Osage war leader, was probably born in 1773 in a village near the…

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Samuel Hawken. [Missouri Historical Society, Prints and Photographs Division, N38641]
Jacob Hawken (1786–1849) and Samuel Hawken (1792–1884)

Christian Hawken, a respected gunsmith of Hagerstown, Maryland, taught his six sons and…

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Susan Shelby Magoffin. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N12846]
Susan Shelby Magoffin (1827-1855)

Susan Shelby Magoffin was born on July 30, 1827, at Arcasia, her father’s estate near…

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Benjamin O’Fallon. [Smithsonian Institution, National Portrait Gallery, NPG.81.33]
Benjamin O’Fallon (1793–1842)

Prominent in Missouri as an Indian agent and advocate of the American fur-trade interests…

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John O’Fallon. [William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, vol. 3]
John O'Fallon (1791–1865)

John O’Fallon, a St. Louis merchant, banker, and philanthropist, was widely praised after…

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