Jefferson City, Missouri's capital, was officially named the City of Jefferson in honor of the third U.S. President and was built on a site chosen by the First General Assembly in 1821 for the seat of government. Saint Charles served as the temporary capital until 1826 while the new town was established. The first statehouse here burned in 1837 and the second in 1911, and the present capitol, completed in 1917 of native Carthage marble, is known for paintings, sculpture, murals, the Resources Museum, Soldiers and Sailors Hall, murals by Benton and Brangwyn, and legislative chambers that highlight Missouri's historic role as Frontier State, Gateway to the West, Mother of the West, and an agricultural and industrial center state. In 1829 the city became the seat of Cole County, which had been organized in 1820 and named for pioneer Stephen Cole. The State Penitentiary was located here in 1833, the Missouri Pacific Railroad reached the city in 1855, the Missouri River was bridged in 1896, and Lincoln University, now state supported, was chartered in 1866 as an institute for Negroes. In the Ozark foothills near the state's center, the capital was settled mainly by Southerners and later Germans on land ceded to the U.S. by the Osage Indians in 1808. During the Civil War, delegates elected to a state convention in February 1861 to decide Missouri's status in the Union deposed pro-Southern state officers who had left at the approach of Union troops in June 1861, and the provisional government established by the convention kept Missouri in the Union. The state seal, adopted in 1822, uses symbols including the crescent mark of the second son for Missouri as the second state formed from the Louisiana Purchase, a bear for courage and resources, the U.S. coat of arms for union, a helmet for strength, and a large star for Missouri as the twenty-fourth state, with the motto, "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law." Other sites of interest include the National Cemetery, Executive Mansion, Cole County Historical Society Museum, the Supreme Court, State Highway and other state buildings, statuary on the capitol grounds, and the riverfront view.
