Michelle Brooks Livres

Quite a bit has happened in Missouri's capital city since Lewis and Clark passed through the area on their famous journey. And some of that history has remained hidden. Being the center of politics in the state and possessing a small-town mindset, the city has a dual identity. Burr McCarty turned his humble home and stagecoach stop into a political gathering place. Ferryman Jefferson T. Rogers was elected mayor ten times. Calvin Gunn established the town's first newspaper and was the state's first printer. Join author Michelle Brooks as she details these and more forgotten stories from the capital city's past.

Pretty in A Hard Way by Michelle Brooks is a captivating and remarkable book. Like so many of us, the speaker is “waiting for the disaster of [her] life to reveal itself.” These poems will surprise you as they take you away from the expected to intense, forbidden insights. —Leah Maines

Jefferson City incorporated in 1825, but so much of that history has changed or been forgotten. Today's Lincoln University practice field used to host early circus visitors. Although called St. Peter Cemetery #1, the old recently restored cemetery on West Main Street was the second Catholic cemetery, after the sight and smell at the northeast corner of Bolivar and McCarty Streets was too much for neighbors. The man who designed the Missouri State Seal and served as a longtime judge built a Steamboat-style home on a hill at the northwest corner of Adams and High Streets, where the Missouri River Regional Library is today. Author Michelle Brooks explores the world of the Mill Bottom and the Foot, as well as cemeteries, fairgrounds, ballparks and stately homes lost to time.