HOUCK IS CALLED `ULTIMATE PROPAGANDIST'

A former Cape Girardeau resident returned to Southeast Missouri State University Tuesday night to share with the packed auditorium his thoughts on one of the innovators in the area's history.

Professor William T. Doherty Jr., presented the ninth in a series of 14 Cape Girardeau Bicentennial Lectures, based on his book "Louis Houck, Missouri Historian and Entrepreneur," where Doherty names Houck as one of the "Empire Builders" of Cape Girardeau.

"Aside from railroad builder and empire builder, Louis Houck had another life," Doherty said. "He was the ultimate propagandist of the region, the city, the college and the state."

Houck was a jack-of-all-trades, having risen to excellence in the fields of journalism, law, industry and education, Doherty explained.

"Even as a boy, he was constantly preparing himself to travel a multi-faceted road in life," Doherty said.

Houck arrived in Cape Girardeau in April 1869.

"He sold Southeast Missouri county by county, extolling the richness and fertility of the land, the virtues of its railroad and river traffic, and its ideal climactic location," Doherty said. "He said that the people of Cape Girardeau were the most industrious citizens he had come to know and were far more enterprising than in most other cases."

On Dec. 25, 1872, Houck married Mary Hunter Giboney, the only child of the richest landholder in the region, Andrew Giboney.

Houck immediately became interested in enhancing the real estate value of the area by building railroads, connecting Southeast Missouri with St. Louis, Chicago and other metropolitan areas throughout the region.

Houck later refocused his attention on the acquisition of a state penitentiary in the area, up for bids in Jefferson City. The state was looking for a place to relocate older prisoners, where health care and employment opportunities were close by.

Houck paraded several area citizens through the legislature of Jefferson City, showing off the granite, potter's clay, fire clay and silicon native to the area and the market available for the products once mined.

The commission decided unanimously to grant the penitentiary to Cape Girardeau, but shortly thereafter reversed the decision and repealed the act.

In 1873, the Missouri legislature passed a bill establishing a normal school in Southeast Missouri. Houck was quick to organize a movement to locate the college to Cape Girardeau.

"Houck once was quoted as saying that he preferred the penitentiary to the college because enrollment in the penitentiary was a sure thing," Doherty said.

Houck went as far as to offer 10 acres of his land upon which to build the college, but the board of regents refused, wanting to build the university on a hill, overlooking the city.

Houck served on the board of regents at the college from 1886-1925.

"He was in constant supervision of the outward appearance of the school," Doherty said. "He called for the double driveway, furnished trees to line the walkways, supervised the engineering of the terracing, he bought and donated land for the superintendent of the grounds and donated the land for the athletic fields and field house.

Doherty said that a lot of Houck's efforts were not recognized until his death in 1925.