Francis White Cloud. Portrait by George Catlin, circa 1844–1845. [Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art]

The Ioways did not live in what is now Missouri for much of the historical era.…

Claiborne Fox Jackson. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N21069]

Claiborne Fox Jackson was born in rural Fleming County, in northeastern Kentucky, on April…

Hancock Lee Jackson. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governors Portraits Collection, P1091-018866]

Hancock Lee Jackson was born in Madison County, Kentucky, on May 12, 1796. He married…

Thomas James (right) and family. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James Memorial Library Photograph Collection, R1480]

Thomas James spent little of his life in Missouri, but he significantly influenced the state. With a strong…

William Jewell. [Walter Williams, ed., A History of Northeast Missouri (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913)]

In some respects, William Jewell’s story is similar to those of thousands of others who…

Jolly Mill circa 2022. [Photo by Ross Brown]

Jolly Mill, a grist mill and whiskey distillery, was built in the late 1840s on Capps Creek in…

John Rice Jones. [Columbia Missouri Herald: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, 1895]

John Rice Jones, a pioneering jurist renowned for his erudition, was one of the principal framers of Missouri…

Henry Kayser. [William Hyde and Howard Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, vol. 2, 1899]

Henry Kayser was a key figure in the intertwined worlds of politics and public improvements…

Stephen Watts Kearny. [Engraving by Y. B. Welch for Graham’s Magazine, from an original daguerreotype by Peter A. Juley & Son, photographers. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, California Faces: Selections from the Bancroft Library Portrait Collection]

Stephen Watts Kearny was born on August 30, 1794, in Newark, New Jersey. He was the…

William Keil. [Oregon Historical Society, OrHi 4508]

William Keil was born on March 6, 1811, or 1812, in Bleicherode, Erfurt, Prussia. His…