When I was researching and writing my Wicked Joplin book, I was struck by how much prostitution there was in Joplin during its early days, particularly the late 1880s, and how open it was. Joplin, though, wasn't the only town in Missouri where "the oldest profession" flourished. St. Louis and Kansas City, the state's largest cities, are two examples, but St. Joseph is perhaps a less obvious example. St. Joseph was about two to three times as populous as Joplin during the 1880s and 1890s, but it probably had at least two to three times as many prostitutes as well. And, if anything, prostitution was even more open in St. Joe than it was in Joplin. A whole slew of women were even listed with the occupation "prostitute" in St. Joseph in the 1880 census.
Joplin, of course, was a rip-roaring mining town in its early days that drew a lot of young, single men, and anywhere there was a concentration of young, single men, whether it was a mining camp or a military post, women willing to entertain them for a fee were bound to follow. I suppose the prevalence of prostitution in St. Joseph was a carry-over from its early days as a bustling frontier town, when it was the western-most railroad terminus in the United States and a jumping off spot for people headed west on the Oregon Trail.
One prominent St. Joseph lady of the night during the 1880s and 1890s was Mollie Williams. Mollie first made the news in November of 1879 when she and Mattie Leftwich, one of her fellow bauds, were mentioned in connection with a larceny charge against a man. In 1881, Mollie was cited for "keeping a bawdy house," and she was cited numerous times over the next ten years or so for the same offense or for being an inmate of a bawdy house. For the latter offense, she was usually fined about $10, while the former carried a stiffer fine of $100 to $262.50. In most cases, Mollie simply pled guilty, paid the fine, and went back to business. That's how it apparently worked. All the madams and prostitutes in St,. Joe were periodically fined (usually at each quarterly term of court) and then allowed to resume their sport. It was more or less a de facto system of licensing, which was similar to how Joplin officials also treated prostitution in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Occasionally, Mollie made the news for reasons other than being charged with prostitution or keeping a bawdy house. For instance, in May 1884, Zell, "an inmate of Mollie's "maison de joie," as the St. Joseph Gazette-Herald called her place at 118 Main Street, complained to police that she had been attacked with a wine bottle by a "sister in sin" named Vic, who also boarded with Mollie. In July 1885, Mollie was cited for disturbing the peace, and in November 1886, she was charged with selling liquor without a license.
About six a.m. on the morning of January 16, 1888, "five bloods supposed to be from the wicked city of Leavenworth, entered the palace of sin run by Mollie Williams on Main Street," according to the Gazette-Herald, "and proceeded to wind up an all-night spree by tearing through the house and making mischief generally." Angered by the quintet's behavior, Mollie summoned authorities and caused the hell-raisers to be arrested. They paid fines of three dollars each and headed back across the river to Kansas.
More to come next time about St. Joe prostitution.
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