Excerpt from Missouri's Centennial Other States have birthdays, Missouri has birth years. In other commonwealths the centennial of statehood means a celebration of local concern. Missouri approaches the observance of a centennial period of nation-wide interest. One hundred years ago there was before the American people no issue greater, more serious than the Missouri question. The action of President White and his associates of the State Historical Society in calling together this Committee of One Thousand is timely. Missouri's Centennial will begin in another month. That centennial is not limited to a day, a month, or even a year. It is a period. In 1817 the move ment for statehood of Missouri had its formal beginning. That year was known to its generation as the maniacal year. In Old Franklin, St. Charles, Herculaneum, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and all of the other centers fast growing in population, men were signing peti tions praying the Congress of the United States that Mis souri Territory may be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States. They were not crazy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Centennial celebration program contains articles about and pictures of West Plains, Missouri. Sponsored by local businesses, with advertisements on most pages.