Chapel Hill, Missouri: Lost Visions of America's Vanguard on the Western Frontier 1820 to 1865

Abstract

Despite its present circumstance as an extinct Missouri town in the geographic heart of the Midwest, Chapel Hill College was once the vanguard of the burgeoning American empire. In 1852, Chapel Hill College stood as a monument to the triumph of the small slaveholding society that migrated laterally across the Mississippi and settled in western Missouri. The school's success and inevitable failure is a microcosm of the history of migration into western Missouri that was aided and abetted by government, churches, and men perched atop the pinnacle of power. The history of the region around Chapel Hill has been eclipsed by the rise of Kansas City, Bleeding Kansas, and the Civil War. From the 1840s until the mid 1850s the towns southwest of present day Kansas City thrived along with the trade and travel connected to the Santa Fe and Texas trails. The communities around Chapel Hill, Pleasant Hill, and Lone Jack were flourishing until they were destroyed by the tumult of the Border War that merged into the general violence of the Civil War. Several small Missouri towns went up in smoke and along with them went their histories. Chapel Hill is exactly such a town. This thesis examines the factors that created the town and the college on the geographic edge of the American frontier. It argues that settlers to the area had historic and cultural roots that eased their migration. Technological innovations expedited their move west and shaped the way they thought of the future. The society that built the school was supported economically and militarily by government, underpinned by smallscale slavery, and girded by religion. It further argues that the wealth generated from the Santa Fe trade created a local economy that allowed the school to briefly thrive. The school and town were destroyed during the war and have virtually disappeared in the historic record. According to the scant historic record, the school closed amidst a drought and a downturn in the economy. This thesis examines evidence that suggests the swirling political storm over Bleeding Kansas was an additional cause for the closing of the school