Information Sheet

 

 

R         Prairie Flower Literary Society (Webb City, Mo.).

495                  Record book, 1884-1888.

                                    One folder, photocopies.

 

 

 

These are the minutes of meetings and membership lists of the Prairie Flower Literary So­ci­ety of Webb City in Jasper County, Missouri.  The records begin with the bylaws of the club, fol­lowed by minutes of meetings beginning with the organizational meeting on 23 December 1884 and con­tinuing through 23 January 1888.

 

The literary society was organized in the Prairie Flower community, which was then ap­proximately one-half mile from the limits of Webb City, Missouri.  The club met in the Prairie Flower church building.  The earliest membership roster indicates about forty men and women com­prised the club in the first year.  In 1886 the club reorganized as the Prairie Flower Ly­ceum.  On 27 December 1887, without comment, the original name reappears in the heading of the min­utes.  The organization was a debate rather than a literary club, and bylaws adopted in 1884 state as the club’s purpose the “free discussion of all subjects.”  Topics for discussion included the rela­tive pleasures of pursuit over possession, that pride and ambition caused more misery than igno­rance and superstition, that ancient times produced greater men than modern times, that the rail­road is a detriment to the welfare and prosperity of the poor man, and that the signs of the times indi­cated the downfall of the nation.

 

 

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