The Boonville Turners

from:  Boonville An Illustrated History by Robert L. Dyer

           The principal German organizations, other than the churches, for maintaining cultural and social traditions were the singing and gymnastics societies known respectively as the "Gesang Vereins" andthe "Turn Vereins" (Gesang = Singing; Turn = Gymnastics; Verein = Club or Society) established not long after the arrival of the first significant numbers of Germans in the late 1840's and early 1850's.  These groups, which came to be known mong the non-Germans in the community simply as the "Turners," traced their origin to the work of Father Freidrich Ludwig Jahn who established the first Turn Verein inBerlin in 1809 at the time Germany was being suppressed by Napoleon.  Father Jahn supposedly formed the group to drill his followers in gymnastics and military tactics with the object of making them better soldiers.  In later years, however, music, theatricals and oratory were added to the social function in the German community.
        The first such organization formed in Boonville was the "Gesang Verein," a men's choral group established in 1854.  In 1857 the younger Germans in the community organized a "Turn Verein" to practice gymnastics.  These two groups met two or three times a week up to the time of the Civil War and held regular monthly gatherings to eat, drink, sing, dance and stage amateur theatricals.  In some ways, these activities paralleled activities held by the Southerners in the community and their Thespian Society.  But as Elbert R. Bowen points out in his monograph, Theatrical Entertainments in Rural Missouri Before the Civil War (University of Missouri Press, 1959), Thespian groups formed by Southerners (he uses the more general term, "Americans") tended to be limited to young men who were members of the "better" families in the community, while the Turners included a healthy cross section of the entire German population men and women, rich and poor, old and young alike-in their activities.
        The German groups were also less concerned than the Southerners with justifying their activities as being "cultural" or "educational," and therefore had no compunctions about holding their gatherings in saloons as opposed to the more formal and pretentious Thespian Hall, though they did occasionally schedule events there.  More often than not, however, they preferred to meet at "Squire" Mack's saloon on the southeast corner of Main and Spring, where they could have food, drink, plays, song and dance in the same evening.  Germans also had no religious scruples about scheduling Turner performances on Sundays, while the more puritanical Southerners considered such activities "inappropriate on the Lord's Day."
        After the war the two societies merged into a single organization, the "Turn and Gesang Verein," and in 1867 rented Thespian Hall to hold their monthly entertainments, called "Kraenzchens," that included gymnastic exhibitions, music and recitations, and closed with a dance.  Special  Grand Balls were held each New Year's Eve, and these, along with the annual masquerade ball honoring the beginning of Lent, became highlights on the German community's social season in Boonville.
        In 1895 the society bought the old Baptist Church building on Vine Street, and hired an architect to redecorate it.  For a number of years thereafter it was known as "Turner Hall" and was noted as having one of the best dance floors in town as well as a stage for the performance of various theatricals.
        At about the turn of the century the membership of the Turn and Gesang Verein was divided into four sections:  singing, gymnastics, dancing and "Skat."  The singing section met every Wednesday and practiced singing their German songs; the gymnasts practiced three or four times a week; and the dancing section arranged for dances whenever possible.  The "Skat" section, which was the smallest with only about twelve members, met once a week to play "Skat," a popular card game of that time.  A number of "Skat" tournaments were held in Boonville attended by members of the American Skat Bund (League), and it is said that the Boonville Skat players often won most of the prizes.
        The society was quite active and prosperous until the outbreak of WW I at which time attendance at the monthly meetings diminished considerably and he other activities of t