John Sappington A Slave Owner and Not a Missouri Hero
December 22, 2007
Sappington Cemetery State Historic Site
John Sappington - Saline County’s Elite
Dr. John Sappington (1776-1856), a prominent pioneer physician of Saline County, established this family cemetery in 1831. The two-acre cemetery contains 111 headstones and markers and is enclosed by a limestone wall and wrought iron fence.
Dr. Sappington studied medicine in Kentucky and in 1804 married Jane Breathitt, the sister of Kentucky Gov. John Breathitt. In 1817, they came to central Missouri’s Boone’s Lick Country and by 1819 settled just west of Arrow Rock.
A conformist, Dr. Sappington attacked the common medical practice of bloodletting to treat patients. In the 1830s, he perfected and amss marketed quinine in pill form to treat malarial fever, a major disease in the Missouri River valley. The St. Louis Medical Society denounced him as a quack, but his”anti-fever pills” quickly became the frontier’s most famous pre-scription. in 1844, he wrote “The Theory and Treatment of Fevers,” the first medical treatise published wesst of the Mississippi River.
Dr. Sappington was also a business entrepreneur, agriculturist, land speculator and political confidant. He established an economic and political dynasty that included three Missouri governors. An inscription over his grave reads: “A truly honests man is the noblest work of God. He lay like a warrior taking his rest.”
Along with the Sappington family, two of Missouri’s governors are buried in the cementery. Both had married daughters of Dr. Sappington.
Meredith Miles Marmaduke (1791-1864) was elected Lt. Governer in 1840 after Gov. Reynolds died. Marmaduke married Dr. Sappington’s daughter Lavinia in 1826 and became a partner in his father-in-law’s enterprises. Active in the Santa Fe trade, Marmaduke also served as Saline County judge and surveyor. His son, John Sappington Marmaduke, was Missouri’s 25th governor (1885-1887).
Clairborne Fox Jackson (1806-1862) was beginning his term as Missouri’s 15th governor when the Civil War began. Jackson supported slavery and advocated the seccession of Missouri. In June of 1861, federal troops occupied the capital of Jefferson City, forcing Jackson and pro-secession officials to flee and join Confederate forces. He died in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1862 and was reinterred in Sappington Cemetery after the war.
Prior to entering poltics, Jackson was Arrow Rock’s first postmaster and engaged in retail trade and banking. He was elected to the House of Representatives from Howard County in 1842, and became a leader in the “Central Clique,” the machine that dominated Missouri’s Demoncratic Party politics during the mid-19th century, Jackson married three of Dr. Sappington’s daughters: Jane in 1831, Louisa in 1833 and Eliza in 1838.
All three women are buried in the cemetery.
Symbolism in Sappington Cemetery reflect some period beliefs. Cedar and Austrian pine trees represent eternal life because they are evergreen. Governor Marmaduke’s arched monument suggests vitory over death. The clasped hands symbolize a farewell and hope of meeting in eternity. The Masonic compass shows he was a member of that organization. Twin columns over Governor Jackson’s grave denote “noble lives” of he and his wife.
The Sappingtons and their extended families owned large numbers of African American slaves whose labor and skills contributed directly to their success and prosperity. Dr. Sappington gave them a tract of ground as a burial place. Known as the “Sappington Negro Cemetry,” it is located on Route AA one-quarter mile south of the Sappington Cemetery. It is privately owned, but open to the public.
Sappington Cemetery, along with two other cemeteries, became part of the state park system by an act of the state legislature in 1967. The act mandated that the state park board “suitably mark and maintain every grave of a former governor in this state, which is not within a perpetual care centery.” Jewell Cemetery, near Columbia, houses the grave of Missouri’s 22nd governor, Charles Hardin. The burial site in Herculaneum of Missouri’s fifith governor, Daniel Dunklin, is also a state historic site.
Sappington Cemetery State Historic Site
Route AA
Saline County
c/o Arrow Rock State Historic Site
Arrow Rock, MO 65320
660.837.3330
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I found the article very well written and informative. But, it needs to be checked over and corrections made in relation to several miss-spelled words. I had an opportunity to see both cemeteries and the Sappington estate home from the road for the first time this past Saturday, although I had lived in Saline County for the past 40 years. I am appreciative of the maintenance of these historical sites. Billie
Billie,
Thank you for your comments. We have made changes and if you have any additional corrections, please feel free to leave a comment again.
The Sappington Cemetery is a good place to reflect about the era in which Mr. Sappington lived.
I thought the article was well written and informative! I do take issue with the heading (John Sappington A Slave Owner and Not a Missouri Hero) you say a good place to reflect about the era in which Mr. Sappington lived. As you stated in that era it was common practice to own slaves! He obviously had compassion for the Negro’s or he wouldn’t have given land for the Sappington negro cemetery! Do some research and see how many Masters gave land to their Negro’s then rethink your title.
Sincerely, John Sappington
May 15, 1776…John Sappington born
Dr. John Sappington, author of the first medical book published west of the Mississippi River, was born May 15, 1776 at Havre De Grace, Maryland. He studied and practiced medicine under his father for several years at Nashville, later moving to Franklin, Tennessee. In 1814 Sappington set out on horseback for the Philadelphia medical college where he received his degree. He returned to the South and in 1817 joined westward bound caravans to Missouri. Two years later he settled on a farm west of Arrow Rock in Saline County.
Sappington’s field of practice extended from Jefferson City west to Lexington and all over adjoining counties. His forte lay in a remedy for fever, the main agency of which was Peruvian bark or quinine. Although this drug had been known since 1600, it had won recognition slowly, especially in America. To Sappington is due credit for its widespread and successful use in the Mississippi Valley as a treatment for malarial fevers. He attacked such practices as bloodletting, and his success and frankness to brother physicians contributed much to the acceptance of new treatment.
Tiring of his strenuous practice, Dr. Sappington devoted his attention after 1832 to the manufacture and exploitation of his “Dr. John Sappington’s Anti-Fever Pills.” Their large sale throughout the Mississippi Valley brought exceptional financial returns, which were wisely invested. His sense of public duty induced him to give to the world his theories, and there appeared in 1844 The Theory and Treatment of Fevers, by Dr. John Sappington, Saline County, Missouri. Thus voluntarily relinquishing a fortune, he set forth all his formulae, including that of his proprietary anti-fever pills.
To ameliorate the lot of indigent children of Saline County he left $20,000 in trust. During the first fifty years of its service thousands of boys and girls were its beneficiaries. Owing to the establishment of the free public school system, the interest was directed to the higher education of young men and women of Saline County. In August 1938 the fund amounted to $80,000 and almost 12,000 students had been aided with nearly $200,000 in tuitions having been paid. Sappington died September 7, 1856.
Sounds like a Missouri Hero to me!
As an African American 17 year old, I have to agree with BlackMissouri about what constitutes a hero.
George Washington was a slave owner, too.
And he wasn’t a hero either.
I don’t think we should celebrate any slave owner as a hero.
Again, you are reading from a black perspective and any black person who believes in their dignity and value as a human being would have a right to determine that he is not a hero.
At least Washington and Sappington have names. There are plenty of slaves who were heroic in escaping from their masters, but they were called criminals and likely beaten and burned in front of the other slaves.
A good book to read about a true heroin is “Celia, A Slave” but she was put to death for murdering her rapist master near Fulton.
As a great, great granddaughter of Dr. John Sappington I was very pleased to read about his accomplishments. I don’t know if he was a hero but the person who discovered quinine was surely a humanitarian.