The Alexander W. Doniphan Community Service and Leadership Foundation recognizes honorees who exemplify General Doniphan’s outstanding characteristics and personal commitments in one or more of the diverse components of his life, mainly education, jurisprudence, statesmanship, patriotism in defense of county, and integrity in business.
Alexander Doniphan’s legacy can be seen throughout North West Missouri in a myriad of projects.Alexander Doniphan
Projects
Alexander Doniphan’s legacy can be seen throughout North West Missouri in a myriad of projects.
The Alexander Doniphan Memorial Highway was dedicated Oct. 23, 1998 at a gathering of community officials and school children at Alexander Doniphan Elementary School in Liberty. As first counselor in the Church’s North America Central Area presidency, Elder Kenneth Johnson of the Seventy was among dignitaries at the dedication. Dedicating the newly renamed highway was Edward Douglas, commissioner of the Missouri Department of Transportation.
After the dedication ceremony, some four dozen of the officials at the dedication were invited to visit the Church’s Historic Liberty Jail Visitors Center. There, they were hosted on a tour of the center and at a luncheon by Elder Gayle D. Heckel, visitors center director, and his wife, Pat.
Elder Johnson was the featured speaker at the luncheon. In his talk, he lauded Gen. Doniphan for being a role model, then emphasized that the Savior Jesus Christ is a role model for all.
The renaming of what was Highway 152 between Liberty and Leavenworth, Kan., was initiated and coordinated by John Dillingham, a Kansas City businessman, who approached Missouri Department of Transportation officials and gained approval from the state.
He was master of ceremonies at the dedication program, which featured narrations from school children highlighting Gen. Doniphan’s role in helping to establish William Jewell College in Liberty; and in being a man of principles, a valiant soldier, a dedicated public servant and a lawyer. In connection with each narration, dignitaries were introduced appropriate to the aspect of Doniphan’s life highlighted.
The narration on Gen. Doniphan as a man of principles was given by Ammon Sarver of the Liberty 1st Ward, who then introduced Elder Johnson, representing the LDS Church, and Ronald E. Romig, archivist for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, representing that church.
Elder Heckel said dignitaries at the dedication and the subsequent visitors center tour and luncheon represented a good cross-section of the community and included state, city and county government; public and higher education; civic groups; news media and local Church leaders.
The Will of Missouri: The life, Times, and Influence of Alexander William Doniphan is a collection of writings and essays procured and compiled by the Alexander Doniphan Committee.
Who is the most well-known Missourian? Might it be Shery Crow or Brad Pitt? How about the most influential Missourian? Maybe it is Harry Truman or Chuck Berry? Alexander William Doniphan is perhaps the least well-known yet simultaneously most influential Missourian.
Doniphan was dedicated to the rule of law, even when standing for this principle was not the popular opinion for people of the day. Doniphan believed in the value of education and helped establish one of the first colleges in the western frontier. Doniphan’s military exploits remain extraordinary to this day.
To celebrate the Missouri Bicentennial the Alexander Doniphan Committee sponsored a community writing project to chronicle the life, the times, and the influence of this incredible yet little-known Missourian.
- History Day
Winners:
Cameron Tedrick
Junior Division Website
The Tuskegee Airmen: Fighting Racism at Home and Abroad
Katherine Rein
Senior Division Documentary
Breaking Barriers with the Rule of Law: William H. Webster
- Alexander Doniphan Statue
Statue Erected by the State of Missouri.
Sculptor: Frederick Cleveland Hubbard.
Foundry: Florentine Brotherhood Foundry.
Date Commissioned: 25 August 1917.
Dated Installed: 8 December 1917.
Date Dedicated: 29 July 1918.
County of Statue: Ray County.
Location of Statue: College St., courthouse lawn, Richmond.
- Doniphan Bust in the Missouri Hall of Fame
Doniphan bust was added to the the Hall of Famous Missourians located in Jefferson City, Missouri. The hall is a series of privately funded bronze busts displayed in the Missouri State Capitol between the Missouri Senate and House chambers. The busts, created by Missouri sculptors Sabra Tull Meyer, E. Spencer Schubert, and William J. Williams, depict prominent Missourians honored for their achievements and contributions to the state.
Doniphan County, Kansas, located in the extreme northeastern corner of the state, is bordered on three sides by the Missouri River. Some of its first towns and cities were founded and incorporated around 1854, nearly seven years before Kansas was admitted into the union as a free state.
Alexander Doniphan Elementry is located in Liberty, Missouri, and is part of the Liberty School District.
Doniphan Electric Cooperative Association, Incorporated is a nonprofit, member owned organization that was founded in 1937 as part of the Rural Electrification Act to provide electric service to members of Doniphan County and areas in Atchison and Brown counties. It is located in Troy, Kansas. REA is now the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Doniphan Electric Cooperative is the smallest Rural Electric Cooperative in the state of Kansas serving over 1,650 residential and business consumers. It employs four linemen that maintain the 467 miles of distribution line. The goal of Doniphan Electric Cooperative is to provide members safe and reliable service in a prompt and efficient manner at the most economically feasible rate.
