Jackson house home to local, state history

The Oliver House in Jackson holds a historic presence that no other home in the area has. The house was the home to Marie Oliver, who has been termed "Missouri's Betsy Ross," and her husband Robert Burett "R.B." Oliver. While there, the Olivers raised five children and created a local and state legacy.

The Olivers purchased the house on East Adams Street, just off Hope Street, for $2,500 in 1881. In 1882, R.B. was elected to the State Senate. In 1903, R.B. Oliver managed to get $200,000 from the Missouri Legislature to rebuild the State Normal School (now Southeast Missouri State University) following a large fire. Eventually he became senior partner of Oliver & Oliver Law Firm in association with two of his sons. R.B. Oliver was a member of the Missouri Bar for 54 years until his death in 1934.

As accomplished as her husband was, it was Marie Oliver that put her family on the map. Born in northwest Missouri, she went to Richmond College in Richmond, Mo., alongside her brothers. After one of her brothers died, she began a written correspondence with his best friend. Years later the two would meet and eventually marry in the winter of 1879. The Olivers moved to Jackson, where he became a well established lawyer and she began to volunteer for several charitable and community organizations.

It was when Marie Oliver joined the Daughters of the American Revolution that her community spirit and state pride took hold. In 1908 the state chapter of DAR realized that although Missouri had officially become a state and adopted a coat of arms in 1822, there was no designated state flag. The DAR appointed Marie Oliver to research what could be done about that.

She wrote letters to the secretaries of state for every state in the United States, asking how their states had adopted their own flags. Once she decided she had enough information, she started to draw her design for how she envisioned the flag based on the Missouri coat of arms. She then asked her friend, Mary Kochtitzky, an artist from Cape Girardeau, to paint a flag with that design.

The flag was submitted to the House of Representatives and passed, but the state Senate did not pass it. Two ears later this happened again, this time because there was a competing flag in the race. That flag was eventually declined because many people believed it looked too much like the United States flag. The original paper flag was destroyed in a fire at the Missouri State Capital building in 1911.

Marie Oliver worked with another friend, S.D. MacFarland, to sew a second flag, this time made out of silk. On March 22, 1913, it became the official flag of Missouri. That original flag was kept in the Oliver home for years, until their son Allen Oliver donated it to the state in 1961. In 1988 elementary students around the state raised money to get the flag restored. The restored flag is now on display in the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City.

R.B. Oliver died in 1934, and Marie passed away 10 years later. The home was bought by another family and in 1980 it was placed in the National Registry of Historic Places. Part of it was turned into a museum, a place to learn about the Oliver family and also some history about the town of Jackson. The museum displays authentic period furniture, including the first piano to arrive in Missouri via steamboat up the Mississippi River. The house has more than 1,500 historic photographs, many of Jackson in the late 19th century, early 1900s clothing, an original portrait painting of R.B Oliver, as well as the sewing kit used to sew the first Missouri State flag

Docents give tours of the house from 1 to 4:30 p.m. the first Sunday of every month from May to December, and all three Sundays before Christmas. For more information about special tours, private tours, or special events, contact the Jackson Chamber of Commerce at (573) 243-8131 or (573) 243-3753.