After the discovery of lead along Joplin Creek in southwest Missouri, a rowdy boomtown sprang up overnight. Named after the creek, it paid homage to itinerant minister Harris Joplin, who had settled there briefly in the 1840s. Two rival towns developed: Murphysburg, west of the creek, and Joplin to the east. They merged and incorporated as Joplin in 1873. The town swelled from a mining camp into a thriving city, populated by American and European...