IMPORTANT ACCOUNTS OF PAST PRESERVED IN LIBRARIES

In frontier villages books were found in homes; not many books, but those that were brought west with belongings of pioneers were precious and well read.

There were no libraries on the frontier, but after libraries were established residents made use of them, and those who could not read were encouraged to learn.

It is difficult for us today to appreciate what it was like not to be able to know what was going on in the world. Daily papers and magazines and books on every subject imaginable may found on the shelves of our libraries. In Cape Girardeau every school and Southeast Missouri State University has a library for the use of students, and a large, public library has been in Cape Girardeau since 1914. The first public library was established in Cape Girardeau Nov. 8, 1914.

The last of the Carnegie funds were used to build the second Cape Girardeau Public Library in Courthouse Park on April 1, 1922. The present public library in Cape Girardeau started in 1979 at 711 N. Clark, and was occupied by June 14, 1980. Formal dedication services were held Sept. 21, 1980. The library has a complete listing of historical events that have occurred in the city and the environs.

The story of the great seal of Missouri is one of the accounts.

Gov. Alexander McNair was Missouri's first governor. The territory began functioning as a state with elected officials in 1820, although it was not one of the Union's official states until Aug. 10, 1821.

Long before the state act was signed, McNair told the general assembly in 1821 that a state seal was needed. The governing body had held the first two sessions in the Mansion House in St. Louis in 1820 and in St. Charles in June 1821 without deciding on a seal. So in December of that year, a committee was appointed and the matter of a seal referred to it.

For years the actual designer of the seal was a matter of question until a letter was found that was published in the Jefferson City "Metropolitan" March 23, 1847. It established Robert William Wells, a legislator, lawyer and jurist, as the designer. In the letter Wells gave an interpretation of the seal.

The white or "grisly" bear was adopted because of its power, courage, and hardihood, emblematic of the state's resources and the hardihood of its citizens. The crescent or new moon was chosen to indicate the existing and future condition of the state, small in population (1821) and wealth, but increasing like the crescent.

The arms of the United States and those of the state were surrounded by a band yet separated by a line, indicating that they made one government as a whole, yet for certain purposes remain separate and distinct. The motto, "United we stand, divided we fall," is to indicate the advantage of the Union and the evils that would attend its dissolution.

The arms of the United States in connection with the arms of the state indicated that the power of war and peace rested with the federal government, as shown by the arrows and olive branch in the eagle's claws. The crest over the arms of the state was, Wells wrote, the helmet of a prince but not of a king, indicating the state was sovereign in some matters but not in all. "The larger star ascending from a cloud into a constellation of 23 smaller stars indicates the rise of Missouri into the confederation or union of 23 smaller states and the difficulty attending it the Missouri controversy."

The scroll carries the words "Salus populi suprema lex esto," which Wells translated, "Let the good of the people be the supreme law." It is sometimes translated also with the word "welfare," and is the only state seal to mention the good or welfare of its people. The original great seal was destroyed when the state capitol burned on Nov. 15, 1837.

The fire destroyed all records of what previously taken place leading to Missouri becoming the 24th state in the Union, but the state library held copies of all the proceedings.

Those proceedings included the contents of a two-horse wagon that was loaded into a Missouri River keelboat at St. Charles when the general assembly adjourned there Jan. 21, 1826, and moved to the State Capitol's permanent site at Jefferson City.

How did these early representatives of Missouri dress when they convened at the capitol? Most of them arrived either by horseback or boat in buckskin trousers and hunting shirts or homespun homemade clothes. Some wore moccasins and fur caps. But McNair preserved the dignity of the state, for he is said to have worn a fine cloth coat and tall beaver hat.

The legislators stayed in homes of citizens in Jefferson City, where board was $2 a week. There were also a few taverns. One citizen who took in legislators served them such generous meals, and guests' appetites were so big, that he lost all his money.

This story is one preserved in the collection at the state library, where the stories about Missouri contribute to the celebration of Cape Girardeau's bicentennial, because one of the city's residents, the late Marie Oliver, designed the Missouri state flag in 1908, which embodies the state seal.