On January 13, 1816 the Missouri Territory General Assembly passed a a law creating Howard County. Larger than Switzerland in area, it included all of the land that is now Columbia and even parts of the future state of Iowa. It was still five years before the Missouri Territory would gain statehood in 1821, but in the 1810s, settlers from Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee had settled in mass over an area of Mid-Missouri they called the Boonslick. The area was named after a salty natural spring that was used, beginning in 1805, by the sons of Kentuckian-Missourian frontiersman Daniel Boone to manufacture salt, a vital resource on the frontier.

On January 12, 1975, the Columbia Missourian reported on the controversy surrounding the announcement of Arland F. Christ-Janer as the new President of Stephens College. Stephens College, still described as a women’s college today, was founded as the Columbia Female Academy in 1833. The original Columbia College (see yesterday’s entry) was chartered that same year for the education of men.

On January 11, 1839, the Geyer Act was introduced and passed the Missouri House of Representatives. After then passing the Missouri Senate, it was signed by the Governor on February 11, 1939, creating the University of Missouri and the state’s first system of public education.

On January 10, 1910, the University Missourian reported Columbia citizens had experienced a lack of electricity for parts of the previous three nights due to a broken value and demand for electricity outstripping the power plant’s capacity. The city’s first power plant was built less than twenty years earlier in 1892 by the private company Columbia Water and Light. The company was founded after a massive fire (see yesterday’s post)

On January 9th, 1892, the greatest catastrophe to ever transpire in Columbia occurred when an extraordinary fire at the University of Missouri consumed Academic Hall. Far more than a building was lost, but through heroic effort, a few artifacts were saved. The disaster nearly resulted in the university moving from Columbia. Instead, a renaissance occurred through the leadership of a few men, and an act of profound historic preservation gifted the school and city their most iconic symbol.

On January 8, 2000, legendary local historian Alan R. Havig died at age 79, after contributing a massive body of work about American History. His over 50 year long association with Stephens College, first as a professor, then college archivist, made him not only a primary source of information about that institution, but a beloved teacher and Columbian. He joined the Stephens College faculty in 1967 after receiving is M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Missouri. He taught American history, American studies and popular culture until his retirement in 2005. Upon which he became College Archivist for over 10 years. The Stephens College Archives, were located in the basement of Tower Hall on the North Residential Quad. One of the most prominent buildings on campus, Tower Hall, opened in 1938, and continues to be a dormitory in 2023.

On January 7, 1949 the Associated Press reported that four Columbia men had been sentenced by the Boone County Circuit Court for “homosexual activities.” A fifth man, Emery Kennedy Johnston, had already been sentenced. E.K. Johnston, a professor, who had been acting dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, was charged with being the leader of a “homosexual ring” based out of his home in the Frederick Apartments on University Avenue.

On January 6, 1916, a new library building at the University of Missouri was dedicated. Known as Ellis Library since 1972, it was the first building on campus built specifically as a library. The main entrance fronted Lowery Street (now Lowery Mall). The library and Lowery Mall are the central, connecting link between the older Red Campus surrounding Francis Quadrangle, and the younger White campus marked by Memorial Union.

On January 5, 1926, the internationally renowned pianist J.W. “Blind” Boone announced his retirement in an interview with the Columbia Missourian saying, “I am going to retire and live in the happiness I have wrought from others and in a final pursuit of those stray tones which I have not yet found in life.” Boone spoke publicly about retirement as early as 1921, but the Missourian interview was published after special New Years Eve performances on both KFRU, a radio station only a year old, and Stephens College Radio. Boone, who was rarely in his hometown for New Years, would keep a busy January schedule.

On January 4th, 1971, the Columbia Public Library opened at a new location on the corner of Broadway and Garth. Six days earlier library patrons moved the book collection by hand, forming a “book brigade” that stretched over half a mile from the previous location at Broadway and 7th Street in the Gentry Building. The effort to establish a library for the citizens of Columbia has a long history.