Jackson heritage group completes history book

JACKSON, Mo. -- The "Jackson, Mo., Area History Book" went to the printer last week. Orders for the book, which will contain 410 family histories and more photographs, are being taken for a pre-Christmas arrival.

The book also will include histories of Jackson sports teams, education, religion, social life, epidemics, disasters, pageants, parades, businesses and more. Editor Cathi Stoverink, who works for the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center, wrote many of the histories. Dr. Albert Dugan, a history professor at Southeast, contributed the economic and political histories.

The Jackson Heritage Association, which owns the Oliver House in downtown Jackson, compiled the book using Goodspeed's "History of Southeast Missouri" as a model.

That book was published 112 years ago. Goodspeed charged families $1 each for including their histories. Putting a 500-word family history and one photograph in the Jackson book was free.

Many new residents have become Jacksonians during the past decade when the city grew by 29 percent, and they were as welcome to be part of the history as natives, said Stoverink. So were people who no longer live in the city.

"We've had interest from Fishkill, N.Y., to Phoenix," Stoverink said. "People are proud of their heritage and ties to Cape Girardeau County."

The historical association had a hard time deciding whether to limit the book to Jackson or include all of Cape Girardeau County, she said. "Historically, Jackson has been separate from Cape Girardeau politically and economically," she said. "We decided to go with everything but Cape Girardeau."

The book includes a number of surrounding small towns "that historically have been part of Jackson's economic base," Stoverink.

One of the family histories is Robert Hartle's, which begins with his great-great-grandfather Peter Hartle settling on a farm in 1801. Hartle himself flew sea planes to Manila and Saipan during World War II, survived a passenger plane crash back home in 1948, developed the Indian Hills subdivision and helped found Kimbeland Country Club.

In Jackson, a city that is proud of its high school football team, Hartle played right end on the 1937 team that was unbeaten, untied and unscored-on, something no other Jackson team has accomplished.

Some people had a delightful time reminiscing in their family histories, Stoverink said. "There were other people who had a hard time because they missed their mothers and fathers."

In some cases, ancestors or children weren't perfect. "Sometimes babies were born before the wedding," Stoverink said, "but that doesn't make them any less special."

Four hundred orders for books have been received so far.

To order a copy of the book, send a check for $53.50 to: Jackson History Book, P.O. Box 114, Jackson, Mo. 63755. Add $6 if you want the book mailed. The book can be embossed with up to 24 letters for an additional $6.

The cost of the book will increase after its publication. Orders are being taken until the end of June.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182