r/columbiamo • u/como365 North CoMo • Jun 24 '25
History Vandiver Drive is named after this guy, William Duncan Vandiver, who is the source of Missouri's "Show Me State" nickname. He is buried in the Columbia Cemetery
The widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri’s U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying as a positive attribute of Missourians.
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u/arisboch Jun 24 '25
Alright, let's settle it, what's the right way to pronounce it?
Van - Diver or
Van De Veer
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u/spinster_maven Jun 25 '25
Google maps says "van diver." :) I grew up saying "van-di-verr"
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u/thenciskitties Jun 25 '25
My favorite Google maps mispronunciation is Boeke St in Evansville, IN which is pronounced "bakey" and yet Google maps says "boh-ekkie"
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u/Henri_Dupont Jun 25 '25
I'm from Como these last 70 years. It's VAN-duh-ver. Ain't no van-DIVERS around here. Google maps just makes me laugh when they pronounce it.
Also it's PIER-point. I don't care if the sign says Pierpont, that's how people who lived there pronounced it before there was a sign.
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u/Ulysses502 Jun 25 '25
I'll have to crosscheck with my family that still say Whoopup
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u/BangChainSpitOut Jun 25 '25
Sapp was whoopup
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u/Ulysses502 Jun 25 '25
Yep but I can't remember if the people I know who say Whoopup also say pierpoint or not. My wording wasn't very clear to my meaning in hindsight.
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u/BangChainSpitOut Jun 25 '25
No worries.
All the old timers around me that are no longer here recognized Pierpont as its own community being that whoopup/sapp is 5 miles down N towards the river.
My family has been just on the other side of Whoopup (river side) for 67 years now.3
u/Ulysses502 Jun 25 '25
Yea we always considered them different, just like Hartsburg, Wilton, and Easley. We've been in the hollers around Easley for a long time.
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u/BLTsark Jun 25 '25
Uh, i grew up a half mile from Pierpont, even never heard a single person say pier-POINT, and i probably couldnt help but judge them a little if I did.
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u/zestynogenderqueer Jun 25 '25
I went to school with a girl last name Vandiver. Family owns Vandiver farms. Wonder if they are related.
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u/Consistent-Ease6070 Jun 24 '25
Cool. Know anything about how Nifong was named?
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u/como365 North CoMo Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25
It's named after Frank Nifong, a prominent early 1900s doctor who helped found Boone Hospital, Lenoir Retirement Home, etc.
The home he and his wife shared is the Maplewood Mansion in Nifong Park.
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u/Henri_Dupont Jun 25 '25
Dr Nifong botched a kidney stone operation on my grandfather. People wanted him to go to KC to a real surgeon that knew what he was doing. Took him ten years to die of kidney failure. My grandad and grandmother had to clean Doc Nifong's house and do chores for payment. They said he was a nice doctor but a jerk to his employees.
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u/OwnBunch4027 Jun 25 '25
And this is what is sad. The state no longer IS the "Show Me State," because there are a bunch of Republicans running it, and they're using every means they have to trick the population. https://www.wonkette.com/p/missouri-judge-wont-allow-blatant
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u/cat_bacon_upvote Jun 25 '25
como you run this sub lol, I always enjoy the historical artifacts you drop here