JEFFERSON CITY, MO, JULY 4, 2023 – Watkins Mill State Park will host a special program titled Terrors and Trials: Henry and Lucy Fike’s Civil War Saturday, July 15, from 2-3 p.m.
This presentation is sponsored by the Missouri Speakers Bureau, which is jointly organized and managed by Missouri Humanities and the State Historical Society of Missouri.
Drawing upon the 400 letters the Fikes wrote to each other during the Civil War, presenter Jeremy Neely will consider the ways in which two ordinary people – one, a schoolteacher who became a Union quartermaster and the other, a homemaker – navigated the greatest challenges faced by their nation and their marriage.
In the fall of 1864, Henry marched from St. Louis to the Kansas border, chasing General Sterling Price's Confederate Army and confronting the damage caused by years of guerrilla violence. Lucy, meanwhile, exemplified the outspoken patriotism of loyal women on the home front. In addition to taking on the responsibilities once held by her absent husband and raising their spirited toddler, Ellie, she also spearheaded the local Union League and found herself constantly feuding with Copperhead neighbors.
"For my part, I feel like putting on britches now, and fighting," Lucy wrote in 1863.
Together, the Fikes remind us how the war was indeed a shared experience that demanded extraordinary sacrifices by men, women and children alike.
Watkins Mill State Park is located at 26600 Park Road N, Lawson. For more information, call 816-580-3387.
For more information on state parks and historic sites, visit mostateparks.com. Missouri State Parks is a division of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.