A couple of weeks ago I created a new Tower Grove South group on Facebook, and last night I did the same over on Flickr. If you live in or just have interest in this incredibly dynamic, vibrant neighborhood in South St. Louis, please join both, share information, events, news, photos, etc. I’m about to head over to the Facebook group right now, in fact, to post about a community garden or yardshare (wouldn’t that be cool? [I mean, the garden, not me posting about it]).

The location of Lee Shelton's whorehouse is still standing.

William Lyons, 25, colored, a levee hand, living at 1410 Morgan Street, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o’clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan Streets, by Lee Sheldon, also colored. Both parties, it seems, had been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. Lyons and Sheldon were friends and were talking together. The discussion drifted to politics and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon’s hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. He was removed to the City Hospital. At the time of the shooting the saloon was crowded with negroes. Sheldon is a carriage driver and lives at 911 North Twelfth Street. When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the Chestnut Street Station. Sheldon is also known as ‘Stag’ Lee.

-Saint Louis Globe-Democrat, December 28, 1895

That, in a nutshell, is the story of Lee Shelton (the name had been misspelled in the newspaper), both known as “Stag” and “Stack” Lee. The Bill Curtis Saloon was located in the epicenter of what was then St. Louis’ thriving vice district. The saloon was located at 1101 Morgan Street (now Delmar and at this location, Convention Plaza), at the corner of 13th Street, a few blocks away from a notorious bordello called The Bucket of Blood. Incidentally, this is also just a few blocks from where I work, at 10th and Washington.

Lee Shelton may have earned himself the nickname of “Stag” from his reputation as a pimp and a loner. But there’s also evidence that he called himself “Stack” after the riverboat Stack Lee, part of the Lee Line of riverboats, known as Cecil Brown relates in Stagolee Shot Billy, “…for speed, sumptuous cabins, elaborate cuisine—and prostitution.”

At the bar, Shelton asked “Who’s treating?” Someone pointed to Billy Lyons. Shelton sat at his table, where, according to several witnesses, they drank companionably until the talk turned to politics. They started throwing blows at each other’s hats, Shelton eventually breaking the brim of Lyon’s derby.

In turn, Lyons grabbed Shelton’s Stetson, saying he wouldn’t give it back until Shelton paid him for his damaged hat.

Instead, Shelton pulled a .44 Smith & Wesson revolver, shot Lyons, snatched his hat, and, without a word, walked out of the bar and back to his boarding house on 6th Street. He was arrested early the next morning after police, following a tip, found him asleep in bed.

Billy Lyons died from his wounds, and Stag Lee was put on trial for murder—twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury amidst a lot of political controversy. In the second trial, Shelton was convicted and sentenced to 25 years at the state penitentiary. He was released early, but went right back to a life of crime. He ended up pistol-whipping a thug and was sent right back to prison where he died, at age 46, in 1912.

The story and, subsequently, the song traveled down the Mississippi River from St. Louis to New Orleans, where it took on a life of its own. The scoundrel’s name variously became “Stag” Lee, Stagger Lee, Stag-O-Lee, Stagolee, Stackolee, Stack-A-Lee, and even Stack-O-Dollars, and the song traveled around the country. The words to the song were first published in 1910 by folklorist John Lomax under the title “Stagolee.” In most versions of the song, the dispute involves gambling and the Stetson hat. One of the first recordings was by Frank Hutchison in 1927. Blues singer and guitarist Mississippi John Hurt recorded the song in 1928 under the title “Stack O’Lee Blues.” Stack O’Lee is hanged in Hurt’s version. The tune became well known throughout the South and has been immortalized in song over the last century, performed by the likes of Mississippi John Hurt, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, PJ Proby, Pat Boone, The Grateful Dead, Champion Jack Dupree and Lloyd Price, amongst many others. There are hundreds of different versions of the song, variously called Stagger Lee, Stagolee, Stackerlee, Stack O’Lee, Stack-a-Lee and several other spellings, sung by musicians as far apart in style as W.C. Handy (“Stack O’Lee”) and The Clash (“Wrong ‘Em Boyo”).

The boarding house at 911 N. 12th Street (now known as Tucker Blvd.), where, according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat story above, “Stag” Lee Shelton lived, is still standing; it’s the only house remaining on the block (directly across from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch building). But, according to Cecil Brown, this was actually the location of Shelton’s “Lid” club (whorehouse), since police arrested him at his residence on 6th Street… but I am not sure if this “Lid” club was the same nightclub as his infamous “Modern Horseshoe Club.” While it once housed a restaurant (the Sommer House) in the early 1990s, it now appears to be a private residence. I snapped the photo above last week.

Lee Shelton is buried in an unmarked grave in Greenwood Cemetery in Hillsdale, Mo., and William Lyons’ grave is also unmarked. He is buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Normandy.

ATTACHED MP3: Stagger Lee Podcast

Featuring the following songs:
Mississippi John Hurt – Stack O’Lee Blues
Lloyd Price – Stagger Lee
Bob Dylan – Stack a Lee
Don & the Goodtimes – Stagger Lee
PJ Proby – Stagger Lee 1965
Bassholes – Stack O Lee
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Stagger Lee
The Clash – Wrong ‘Em Boyo

(A tip of the cap to the Riverfront Times, Harry’s Blues Lyrics Online, Dreamtime Podcast, the Ill Folks blog and Associated Content for information contributing to this article.)

Last spring I decided I would build a compost bin in our back yard. Well, that was delayed by several things… our vacation to Seattle, my dad dying, and the construction of a privacy fence (see below) that ended up being a much bigger project than anticipated. So I finally got around to building this thing in October… a little late, maybe, but just in time for fall leaf-raking and with still plenty of time to get a good pile going before spring gardening.

Why the big bin? While it is true that you can compost by just throwing stuff (lawn trimmings, vegetable scraps, etc.) into a large pile and letting it sit there, that tends to get a little wind-scattered, hard to control or keep in one place, and can be rather, uh, “fragrant” and unsightly, not to mention you’re inviting every critter in your ‘hood to dig in it and drag it all away. Also, with a “cold pile” like that, you don’t mix and turn to maintain a target temperature. Sometimes it’s warm, sometimes it’s frozen, but usually it’s just at ambient air temperature. A pile like this will still decompose, yes, but it will take a lot longer to do so.

So what did I do instead? I collected some found lumber (found in my garage), spend $100 on some additional lumber and other materials (the most expensive item was the hardware cloth, so if you can “find” some of that without having to pay for it, more power to ya!), and I built a simple, sturdy compost bin over the course of a pleasant weekend in October. Buying the plastic ones seems to cost anywhere from $100 to $300. Tools used: Hammer, electric drill, and a handsaw.

Does it look big? It is. I wasn’t really sure what size to make it. All plans and instructions I found online recommended making it 3′x3′x3′, which would have left an awkward, unused space in that rear fenced-in section at the back of our yard. So, I made it slightly shorter and not as deep (roughly 33″) and made it about 4-1/2′ wide. So yeah, it’s nice and big and I load it up with all sorts of stuff like kitchen food scraps, leaves, grass clippings, newspaper, etc. I also bring home a bag of coffee grounds/filters and some food scraps from work every week. A couple of weeks ago someone handed me an entire bag of week-old bagels that had gone to waste, so I tossed them in, too. Bread and coffee grounds are nice “brown” ingredients for your compost mix.

Also, there is a lot of misinformation regarding adding dog and cat poop to your compost pile. I’ve read on more than a few websites that flat-out say it’s a big no-no if you plan on using the compost in a vegetable garden, but I’ve found out from some composting experts that IF you can get a hot compost pile and keep it hot for a couple weeks at a time, then you obviously know what you’re doing and can handle a little dog poop. We have one dog and one cat (they both poop in the back yard… MOST of the time), and I’ve been adding their droppings to my pile for the past month. I know it’s getting hot in there because I can SEE the steam coming from it when I turn it over on cold days (and I can smell an odor of ammonia, too). How do you get your pile “hot”? You make sure that you keep the mixture about half and half green vs. brown ingredients. That’s it.

Oh yeah, here’s what it looks like with the lid open:

In that pic you can see the wire mesh (“hardware cloth”) that I used to line the inside on all four sides plus the underside of the lid. That’s to help keep the crap in and the critters out.

By the way, all the wood was purchased specifically for this project EXCEPT for the four 4″x4″ posts and the planks on the top of the lid. That stuff was left over from our privacy fence project.

There are lots of different designs and plans that you can find on the Web for building your own. I just sorta made this one as simple and easy as I could. No, there is no door on the side for extracting the compost, and there aren’t separate compartments for the various stages or anything fancy like that. I’ll continue to add to the pile until February or so, and then I’ll have to shovel the stuff out in the spring… no big deal. But if I decide to replace the front side with a door to make extracting the pile easier, that won’t be that hard either, as I used deck screws to attach everything together and can just unscrew them later for that purpose. Also, it helps if you have a pitch fork of some kind to turn the compost once it’s in the bin. I have been turning it about once a week. You’re also supposed to keep it wet (damp like a wet sponge), so I open the lid and water it down a bit with the garden hose after I turn it.

There are a few more pics here.

Kopp Farmhouse circa 1893

In the early 1860s, my great-great grandfather, Charles (Andreas Heinri Carl) Kopp, bought this house and 16 acres on Henry Ave. in Manchester, Missouri. This house, located at 650 Henry Ave., is still standing today, although it has been extensively remodeled (see below and more photos on Flickr). His daughter, Elizabeth, was born here in 1867. This picture was taken ca. 1893/1894.

Left to right: Charles, grand-daughter Annie (Anna) Schroeder, 2nd wife Clementina (nee Weidner), Elizabeth Schroeder (nee Kopp), and a boy that might be his stepson, Charles Steinmeier.

And here is a photo I took of the very same house earlier this summer:

The same house as it appears today.

Here’s a good idea of what we like:

King Khan

Darrin & Kopper

Originally uploaded by Kopper
I was going through some of my mom & dad’s old photo albums at my sister’s house yesterday and came across some good ones that I’ll be adding to my Flickr account soon. Here’s one I don’t ever remember seeing before… it’s my friend Darrin Lowery and I taken in the driveway at my parents’ house in St. Peters. This would’ve been the week of Spring Break, 1988. Darrin and I were pals at CMSU in Warrensburg, it was my senior year, and since he had nothing going on (I didn’t either, really) and didn’t have any money to go anywhere fun, we just decided to spend the week wreaking havoc in St. Louis. While there, we got pulled over by the cops once for speeding (we weren’t speeding and we ended up not getting a ticket) and we even had cops in a completely separate incident pull guns on us and do one of those classic “get out of the car with your hands up, turn around and put your hands on the car!” scenarios where we had to get frisked and almost got our asses thrown in jail… for what, you ask? Spinning my wheels as we pulled into a gravel parking lot on Euclid in the Central West End. See what happens when you bring a black friend home with you for spring break?

Once we get a good selection of shared photos on there, I’ll add a Flickr badge to the sidebar of the blog.