Appendix XXXI - Benjamin Ulpian Massey Biography
Dated and abstracted excerpts by George Langford, Jr.

Date	Excerpt
1856-1860	Benjamin U. Massey attended schools in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Spring, 1861	Federal troops under Gen. Lyon captured the State Militia at Camp Jackson in St. Louis, Missouri, and Gov. Claiborne Jackson called for 75,000 of the State Militia to assemble at Jefferson City to repel the expected Federal invasion.
June 1, 1861	It soon became apparent that no sufficient State Militia forces could be assembled to repel invasion by Gen. Lyon, and it was determined that the State Government should retreat from Jefferson City and carry with them such State records as were portable and absolutely necessary to conduct State Government business while it was on wheels.
June 12, 1861	In great anxiety, and in great haste, these records were packed after dark in the office of the Secretary of State.  It was felt necessary also to include Missouri's Great Seal, and so it was concealed in the home of Capt. Rodgers, who lived just back of the Capital, within the corporate limits.  There they stayed for a couple of days.
June 14, 1861	The records and State Seal were hauled in wagons to Boonville, Missouri.
June 17, 1861	After the skirmish at Boonville, the State records and the Great Seal went along as the State Militia retreated to the Coonskin in McDonald County.  The Great Seal was in the custody of the Secretary of State, who was with the Governor, and it was impressed upon a certified copy of Missouri's Ordinance of Secession passed by the Legislature at Neosho, Missouri.
Spring, 1862	The Great Seal was in the custody of Benjamin Ulpian Massey at Springfield, Missouri until the retreat of Gen. Price, and B.U. Massey had it in his charge at the time of the Battle of Pea Ridge in March of 1862. After the battle of Pea Ridge, B.U. Massey took the Great Seal on the march from Van Buren, Arkansas to Des Arc, Arkansas on the White River. When Gen. Price's Army, and Gov. Jackson's Civil Staff, including the Secretary of State, the Lt. Gov. and others reached Des Arc, they met with the Commission which had been appointed by the Legislature at Neosho to superintend the engraving or lithography of $10 Million in State Bonds, by which the State expected to buy military supplies.  These Bonds were then signed by the Governor and sealed with the Great Seal and attested by the Secretary of State.  As Benjamin F. Massey was absent, his son Benjamin U. Massey, as the representative of the Secretary of State, affixed his father's signature and the impression of the State Seal on many of the Bonds.  Bonds of smaller denomination were then used to pay those militia men whose service time had expired. Shortly afterward, Gen. Price's Army disbanded as a State organization, and most of his troops enlisted in the Confederate Service. Gov. Jackson died shortly thereafter at the home of his son-in-law at Des Arc, and Lt. Gov. Reynolds assumed the Governorship of Missouri. Benjamin U. Massey had the impression that Gov. Reynolds assumed custody of the Great Seal, as he never saw it again until after the War, when Gov. Reynolds presented it in person to Gov. McClung at Jefferson City.