Every year, the Montgomery County Historical Society holds a dinner for area residents, giving them an opportunity to know about the county’s history.

This year’s dinner on the afternoon of April 23 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Montgomery City had about 60 people see a pair of speakers, Dr. Brad Lookingbill and Ashley Beard-Fosnow. Lookingbill is a professor at Columbia College who wrote and edited several history books. Beard-Fosnow is the executive director of Missouri Humanities.

“This was one of the biggest crowds that we had,” said Dave Teeter, who was the event’s emcee and a member of the Historical Society.

Lookingbill, who lives in Columbia, co-wrote a book called Missouri: The Heart of the Nation, which was published in 2019. The book, which was in its fourth edition, chronicled Missouri’s indigenous population as well as statehood, slavery, modernization and political realignments. It was originally published in 1980.

“Bill Parrish and Lawrence Christensen were the original authors and were retired,” Lookingbill said. “So they asked me if I would update this a few years ago for the (Missouri) Bicentennial.”

Lookingbill, who grew up in Oklahoma before moving to Missouri in 1996, also wrote War Dance at Fort Marion and Dust Bowl, U.S.A. and edited books such as American Military History and Custer and the Little Bighorn Campaign.
During his speech, Lookingbill said before statehood, there were multiple tribal groups that made Missouri home, such the Osage Indians, the Quapaw, Otoe, Missouria, Ioway, Sauk, Fox, Omaha, Peoria, Piankeshaw, Ponca, Kaw and the Chickasaw.

“The history of Missouri’s first people spanned at least 12 millenia and revealed wisdom, resilience and adaptiveness,” Lookingbill said.

Beard-Fosnow heads an organization that is based in St. Charles. It helps put on programs throughout the state to inform and generate interest through history, culture and traditions.

Teeter said he first met Beard-Fosnow two years ago while she put together a program in the Warren County area.

“She’s very good at giving me suggestions,” Teeter said. “They have a speakers bureau that they support.”

Beard-Fosnow, who lives in the Kansas City area, said she was honored to be invited to speak at the Historical Society dinner.

“As I drove into town and looked at that incredible (Historical Society) website, I was so excited to learn more about Montgomery County,” Beard-Fosnow said. “They have really unique and incredible cultural assets in the area.”

During the presentation, Teeter recognized the Historical Society’s Board of Directors. Besides Teeter, president Doug Dowling, vice president Sharon Sanker, treasurer Matt Harris, secretary Chris Kroeger, directors Jamie Heymeyer and Tom O’Keefe and board members Bonnie Begeman, Ann Wilson, Burt Poehlman, Jerry Oden and Shirley Nation are the other members of the board.

“They do a lot of different things for our society,” Teeter said.

Teeter encourages residents to check out the Historical Society website at mchsmo.org. The website is created by a volunteer whose family spent several generations in the southern part of the county.

“She has some wonderful information there,” Teeter said. “She is always constantly updating it. She is always looking for new content. There are a lot of different pictures, articles and different things on it.”

The Historical Society is holding an open house from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. on May 13 at its building at 112 W. 2nd Street in Montgomery City.