IT'S NO APRIL FOOLS': TODAY MARKS BIRTHDAY OF LOUIS HOUCK

The calendar year has many holidays. Some are vacation days, and some are days to be enjoyed but are work days. April Fools' Day is such a day.

Today is April Fools' Day, but more important to Southeast Missourians, it is Louis Houck's birthday. Houck was born in Belleville, Ill., April 1, 1840, and this would be the 152nd anniversary of his birth.

Louis Houck was a young man when he came from St. Louis to view the river city of Cape Girardeau on April 21, 1869. It must have been a nice spring day, and the river city made a very good impression on young Houck because he decided to adopt it as his home.

The young lawyer never lessened his affection for the city or the area of Southeast Missouri, and until the day of his death, Feb. 17, 1925, he devoted his time, energy and money in doing things to improve the city and the area.

In keeping with his April 1 birthday, he played a trick on providence by uncovering many secrets about the past history of Southeast Missouri and putting what he discovered in a three-volume set of books, which he had printed at his own expense in 1908.

When Houck came to Cape Girardeau he was a young lawyer with several years experience printing German newspapers in both St. Louis (with his father) and in Belleville. The area was heavily populated with German immigrants and the German newspapers sold well. The experience on the newspapers gave him a good foundation for publishing books.

On Christmas Day in 1872, Houck married Mary Giboney, the granddaughter of Alexander Giboney Sr., who was one of the first Americans to enter Louis Lorimier's village before it was taken into the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1804. The importance of this fact is noted and of particular concern to history scholars because Alexander Giboney Sr. must have had a flair for history. He saved, and very carefully preserved papers and other memorabilia pertaining to the history of the area in a dry place in his home. The senior Giboney died in 1804 but his son, Alexander Giboney Jr., must have continued his father's hobby. It was this collection of reference material Houck was privileged to use in writing "A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the State into the Union in 1821."

In Houck's mind the history of Missouri was not complete without mentioning the years of French and Spanish rule. A trip to Spain was necessary. Again at his expense, he undertook to have the records compiled into a two-volume set of books translated and edited from the archives of the Indies of Seville, Spain. The two-volume set was titled "The Spanish Regime in Missouri."

Besides these two sets of history books, Houck published "Law of the Mechanics' Lien" and four years later, "Law of Navigable Rivers." He also annotated the 15 volumes of the Missouri Reports and wrote about personal family histories and recollections.

Prior to the years of writing, Houck became interested in building a network of railroads throughout Southeast Missouri into the swampland and backwoods areas to enable individuals who resided in such areas the opportunity to travel.

In 1873 he pushed Cape Girardeau forward into establishing the Southeast Missouri State Normal School that today is a university. For 39 years he was a member of the Board of Regents, and for 36 of those years he was president of the board. He was serving on the board at the time of his death in 1925.

His home, "Elmwood," on Bloomfield Road has been in the Giboney-Houck family since the late 1700s when the land was granted to Alexander Giboney by the Spanish. The land was the site of the Giboney home, which housed the historic records, until a bolt of lightening hit the house and it burned to the ground just after Houck finished the first set of Missouri histories.

Although the calendar does not include Houck's birthday on the square marked April 1, for Missourians this day has enabled the state through Houck's perseverance to have a most complete history from prehistoric times to 1821. Other writers have carried the history forward to keep it complete.