Lawyer and journalist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Louis Houck is often called the ""Father of Southeast Missouri"" because he brought the railroad to the region and opened this backwater area to industrialization and modernization. Although Houck's name is little known today outside Missouri, Joel Rhodes shows how his story has relevance for both the state and America.

Joel P. Rhodes is Associate Professor of History at Southeast Missouri State University and lives in Cape Girardeau. He is also author of The Voice of Violence: Performative Violence as Protest in the Vietnam Era and coauthor of Historic Cape Girardeau: An Illustrated History.

The Missouri Biography Series, edited by William E. Foley