Times Past
This photo of renowned mule trader Ferd Owen, an Ozark County native, is reprinted from the Jan. 26, 1948, edition of Life magazine, recently shared with the Times by Paul Rose. The magazine said that Owen, pictured here with a “cotton” mule, had “bought and sold as many as 100,000 horses and mules in a year.” Even more amazing, he was famous for being able to recognize and name the price of any mule he had ever bought or sold through the years. He was related to the Ozark County Amyxes. A 1955 item in this week’s Times Past collection reports his death at his home near Belton. His former 2,100 ranch there has been developed into a planned community in the Kansas City suburbs where Times Past columnist Mary Ruth Luna Sparks and her husband, Mike, make their home.
Ozark County Times
Oct. 20, 1911
Nottinghill – F. H. Cantwell sold his cattle and is going into the sheep business. He says he is not afraid of the wolves now as Mr. Grudier and Mr. Williams make frequent trips over here with their hounds and have killed several wolves.
Landon Gaulding is having a...
Guy Howard, who became known as the Walkin’ Preacher of the Ozarks, is shown in this photo reprinted from the Dec. 25, 1944, edition of Life magazine. Howard is pictured with Lena Clayton (Mrs. Roy) Brown, 17, as she does laundry outside her Turkey Creek cabin in Ozark County. Howard told a reporter for the Springfield News-Leader that he walked about 3,300 miles in a year to preach in churches and schools around the Ozarks. An Oct. 15, 1942, item in this week’s Times Past reports that he had begun a two-week revival in Gainesville.
Ozark County News
Oct. 10, 1895
A subscription is now in circulation for the purpose of raising money to purchase the 40-acre tract of land that the Gainesville Cemetery is located on. This is government land. Every-body in and around Gaines-ville is either directly or indirectly interested in...
The late David Ford assists an unknown customer at Ford’s Market in this photo that appeared with the grocery store’s ad in the 1968 Gainesville High School yearbook, the Bulldogger. The market opened in 1906; its closing was announced in a 1980 news item shared in this week’s Times Past (below).
Ozark County Times
Oct. 4, 1912
Joe Champieux, the new blacksmith, has installed a telephone in his place of business for the benefit of his patrons.
Rockbridge – The new schoolhouse at Souder will soon be completed.
Several from here attended the ball game Saturday. Pine Creek beat Almartha. Don...
Guffey Motors - These photos from the 1960s hang on the walls of the former Brad Guffey Chevrolet office in Gainesville. They show the company’s 1964 wrecker when it was new and the company’s salesmen standing in front of a 1972 Chevrolet in the showroom: from left, Wilbur Cowart, Brad Guffey, Joe McFarland and T. J. White. The company, now Guffey Motors, is owned by Brad’s son Bob and his wife, Deb.
Ozark County News
April 29, 1897
Measles are making the rounds in the vicinity of Bakersfield, Moody and other localities of the eastern part of the county. We learned of some deaths as a result of the sickness.
We are reliably informed that the wife of Prof. Etherage of Howell county recently died...