Willard Duncan Vandiver
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Willard Duncan Vandiver (1854-1932) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from the US state of Missouri. He is widely credited with the authorship of the famous expression: "I'm from Missouri, you've got to show me" leading the state's famous nickname, "The Show Me State".[1]
Born near Moorefield, Virginia now a part of West Virginia, he moved to Missouri with his parents, who settled on a farm in Boone County in 1857, and to Fayette in 1872. He graduated from Central College in 1877; studied law, and became a professor of natural science at the Bellevue Institute from 1877-1880. and served as its president 1880-1889; accepted the chair of science in the State normal school at Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 1889, and became its president in 1893 and served until 1897; delegate to the Democratic State conventions in 1896, 1898, 1918, and 1920 and served as chairman in 1918.
Vandiver was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth United States Congress 1896, and was re-elected three times. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1904. Vandiver served as chairman of the State executive committee in 1904, State insurance commissioner of Missouri 1905-1909, vice president of the Central States Life Insurance Co. 1910-1912, and Assistant Treasurer of the United States 1913-1921. He retired and settled on a farm near Columbia, Missouri. He died on May 30, 1932, and is burried in the Columbia Cemetery.
