Missouri joins the nationwide reading of the Declaration of Independence

Across nine time zones, Americans in all 50 states and 16 U.S. territories simultaneously read the Declaration of Independence to public audiences Wednesday, including 11 locations in Missouri.

A reading in Columbia took place at 5 p.m. at the State Historical Society of Missouri, with the same document being recited at the same time in Jefferson City, Springfield, Joplin, Rolla, Richland, Cape Fair, Caruthersville, Marionville, Aurora and Clinton.

Across the country, the declaration was recited in a total of 796 places, including Independence Square in Philadelphia, where the declaration was first read by John Nixon on July 8, 1776.

In Columbia

At the State Historical Society of Missouri, nearly 300 people filled a room where 10 people volunteered to read portions of the 1,337-word document in sections.

Shortly after 5 p.m., Beth Pike, a member of the State Historical Society staff and the American 250 Missouri Commission, was the first to recite.

She read the first 71 familiar words, beginning with: “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another ...”

Then Linda Godwin, a former NASA astronaut and retired University of Missouri physics professor, read the next 130 famous words that start with these: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Mayor Barbara Buffaloe was the last to read, ending with the passage that promises to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Before the reading, Joel Rhodes, executive director of the State Historical Society, provided historical context for Wednesday’s nationwide reading by reminding the crowd that such public readings were the centerpiece of July 4 celebrations for well over a century.

He also noted the Declaration of Independence is “a living idea that pushes Americans to continually seek ways to fulfill its promise.”

“Just as surely as there is no golden age behind us, there is no promised land ahead,” he said.

“There is only the birthright our founders left us, the unending, heavy-lifting of forming a more perfect union,” he added.

In the state capital

In Jefferson City, the declaration was read in front of the Cole County Courthouse before a gathering of about 100 people.

Sponsored by local chapters of the Sons and the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Cole County 250th Anniversary Committee and the Show Me 250 Committee, it was an evening of patriotism, prayer, commemoration and free ice cream, thanks to the Missouri Dairy Council and Central Dairy.

The Rev. Greg Morrow, pastor of Corticelli Baptist Church, an active member of the Sons of the American Revolution and a direct ancestor of four patriots, read the declaration in its entirety before a respectful crowd.

Before he began, Morrow offered a prayer: “The idea of what took place in that day and time has shown a light for all the world to follow,” he said.

Clifford Olsen, chairman of the Cole County 250th Anniversary Committee and member of the local Sons of the American Revolution chapter, also spoke to the crowd, telling them: “Across the world, people have tried to replicate this revolution. Not others. They’ve tried to replicate this one.”

Olsen was involved in the nation’s bicentennial celebration in Russellville when he was a high school student, and recalled the effect it had on him.

“I said to friends, ‘Boy, it’d be cool to do (the 250th),” he remembered. This week, he said, it came true.

In a small Missouri town

In Richland, Missouri, a town of 1,724 south of Columbia, the reading took place at Richland Lodge, which belongs to the Grand Lodge of Missouri, a statewide Freemason organization.

Held by the National Sojourners and Heroes of ‘76 Harry S. Truman Chapter No. 152, about 35 people were in the audience.

The group’s president, Gerald Hill, started the reading at around 5 p.m., followed by a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, a toast and dinner.

Hill said afterward that he picked up on parts of the Declaration of Independence that seemed more significant now.

“That’s what we were founded on, and this is what we should be about,” he said. “I’d like to see everyone come together a little bit more.”

Togetherness has been a recent goal for Masons around the Richland area, who are pushing for more community involvement. The group has been raising money, buying goods and funding services for missing children.

“It brings us together, the guys together,” said Ken O’Dell, a mentor of the lodge. “There’s nobody higher ranking than anybody inside here. We’re all exactly the same people. We have supervisors that come in here, but when they’re in here, they’re not a supervisor. We call them a brother.”

Members of the Sons of the American Revolution, as well as the Daughters of the American Revolution, were part of the commemoration. One, Florence Warren Buchanan, is the great-granddaughter of Richland’s co-founder, Henry Earnest Warren.

She said these events and their sponsors help raise awareness of patriotism for young people.

“I think it’s a wonderful way to celebrate, and we’re doing it at the same time that they actually read the original declaration,” she said. “That’s a really good way to remember and celebrate.”