Information Sheet

 

 

R         French, William Aden Elmer, 1892-1980.

175                  Papers, 1877-1967 (bulk 1877-1934).

                                    Twenty-six folders.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are the papers of an author and newspaper publisher at Eminence in Shannon County, Missouri.  Included are hunting and fishing diaries, journals, teaching notebooks, lists of pub­lished works, short stories, and family correspondence.

 

William Aden Elmer French was born at Erin, Tennessee, in 1892.  One of ten children, he came to Missouri with three of his brothers in 1906, making the month-long journey by wagon.  Fol­lowing his education at Eminence, French was employed as a teacher in rural schools in Shan­non County, Missouri, and Glendale, Oklahoma.  In 1916 he hired on as a printer with the Emi­nence Current Wave, beginning an association with that newspaper which, with a few lapses, lasted un­til his re­tirement and sale of the paper in 1962.  He was also editor and pub­lisher of newspapers in Sum­mersville, Birch Tree, and Winona.  He was the author of seven books and a collection of poetry, and numerous magazine articles and short stories.  He died in March 1980 and is buried at Emi­nence.

 

French’s papers consist of about equal numbers of diaries and miscellaneous note­books.  With the exception of one folder of French family correspondence, they are his per­sonal papers, provid­ing a daily record of his life from 1906 through 1926.  They also provide an account of life in the Current River hills of the Ozarks, and include a considerable amount of information on the Shannon County communities of Eminence, Shawnee, Owl Bend, and Munsell.

 

Writing, hunting, and fishing are quite evident in his papers as French’s favorite pur­suits.  His progress as a sportsman is noted in several of his early notebooks, and his frequent outings are carefully entered in his diaries.  Of his literary efforts there are only a few early ex­amples, but there are lists of his published writings with publication data to 1914.

 

French’s diaries are nearly complete for 1906-1926.  The earliest begins in Tennessee and in­cludes the particulars of his trip to southern Missouri with his brothers.  The remaining diaries contain notes and records of his tenure as teacher in rural schools at Cotoreva, Owl Bend, Prairie Hollow, and Munsell in Shannon County, his army service during World War I in Iowa and South Carolina, and his subsequent re-employment with the Current Wave.

 

 

 

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