Guide to the Archival Collections.pdf - Missouri History Museum

Papers, 1802-1906. 5 boxes
James Overton Broadhead, prominent lawyer and politician, was the eldest son of Achilles
Broadhead of Charlottesville, Virginia. His boyhood days were spent in Virginia, where he was
tutored by an uncle in English and the classics. At age 16 he entered the University of Virginia,
where he studied for a year. At the close of that year he was engaged as a tutor in a private
school near Baltimore. His father moved to Missouri soon after and settled in St. Charles County.
After James arrived in Missouri in 1838, he was engaged as a tutor in the family of Edward
Bates, noted lawyer and member of President Lincoln's cabinet. While instructing the Bates
children, he studied law with Bates, and in 1841 was licensed to practice. He began his
professional career in Bowling Green, Missouri, and practiced in the courts in the circuit of St.
Charles, Lincoln, Pike, Ralls, Montgomery, and Warren Counties. He was elected to the state
legislature in 1847 and was a state senator from 1850 to 1854. He married Mary S. Dorsey
(1824-1914) and they had three children: Charles S., Mary W. Horton, and Nannia D.
Broadhead. In 1859, Broadhead came to St. Louis, where he formed a partnership in the practice
of law with Fidelio C. Sharp. He took an active interest in politics, serving on the Committee of
Safety formed in St. Louis in 1861 to assist in keeping the state in the union. He ran for the U.S.
Senate in 1864, but was defeated by B. Gratz Brown. In 1875, he formed another law
partnership, Broadhead, Slayback and Haeussler. In 1882, he won a seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives. President Cleveland appointed him to study French spoliation claims in 1885,
and he later served as the U.S. minister to Switzerland from 1893 to 1985. Failing health forced
him to resign, and he returned to St. Louis, where he died August 7, 1898. He is buried in
Bellefontaine Cemetery. Mrs. Broadhead died September 14, 1914.
The collection includes correspondence relating to the secessionist movement in Missouri in
1861; family correspondence, particularly when he was serving as minister to Switzerland (1893-
1895); legal papers and notes, Civil War material, and copies of some of Broadhead's speeches.
Also includes memorandum on the prosecution of treason in the case of U.S. v. Joseph W.
Tucker; memoranda relating to Missouri politics and government, judicial appointments, and
constitutional law; the Peralta and Mormon cases, the case of the City of St. Louis v. the St. Louis
Gas & Light Company; rough drafts of lectures, articles, and legal notes; two land grants, and 15
memoranda books, containing records of travels, expenses, and notes on legal issues.
Indexed in the archives card catalog.
Cite as: James Overton Broadhead Papers, Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.
A0181
Broadsides collection, 1779-1984.
5 flat storage boxes; 2 map drawers
Collection of printed broadsides and posters assembled together due to their similar nature
rather than subject or provenance. Topics include advertising, auctions, entertainment and
theater, land claims, horse and mules sales, politics, publications, transportation (especially
steamboats), Civil War, Mexican War, and World War I and World War II.
Some German.
Indexed in the archives card catalog.
Finding aid available.
Cite as: Broadsides Collection, Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.
A2186
Brockhoff, Estelle Margaret.
Biographical Data Sheet, 1966. 1 folder [formerly Alphabetical File]