Fulton, Missouri 1920 - 1960: History in Stories and Photographs

by Carolyn Paul Branch

History of Fulton, Missouri 1920 -1960, using transcribed newspaper articles, contemporary records, and vintage photographs from the collection of the Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society. Includes chapters on Helen Stephens, the "Fulton Flash" who broke world records at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, chapters on Winston Churchill's visit to Fulton in 1946 and complete text of his "Iron Curtain" Sinews of Peace address, thought by historians to be the beginning of the cold war. Includes a chapter on the Metz brothers coal mine disaster in 1936 that killed four brothers, three who went down the shaft to save the first. Another chapter details the 1936 beating and torture of elderly black farm laborer, Bill Howe, by three white robbers from St. Louis, and the intensive two year effort by Howe's white neighbors and the Callaway Sheriff's Department to hunt down, convict, and punish those three white men. The growth and problems of Fulton's State Hospital No. 1, Missouri's largest institution for the mentally ill is followed through the forty year period. Early coal mines, the firebrick industry and the shoe manufacturing factories are chronicled with pictures of employees and stories about strikes, protests, and layoffs. This history tells the story of a town, primarily through direct transcription of events reported in the newspapers of the time.

460 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2014

About the author

Carolyn Paul Branch learned storytelling from her mother and started writing down both family stories and "made-up" tales when she was twelve. She worked with the Callaway County Public Library's local history and genealogy collection for more than thirty years and developed a deep love and respect for the human stories buried in old records.
She is the author of six books of local and family history.
Snakes in the Kitchen is her first memoir. The title chapter won the top non-fiction Award from Midwest Writer's Workshop 2013 in Indiana. The second chapter, The Day Grandma Called the Doctor won the same award in 2015. Other chapters have won various literary awards in Arkansas and Missouri.
Tangled Roots is a mystery novel set amid the small towns, bluffs, and trails of Central Missouri.
Branch's next novel, The Sanity of Strawberries, is a murder mystery set within a hospital for the criminally insane.