Times Past

This 1910 photo, shared with the Ozark County Historium by the late Ken Brown several years ago, shows the Kansas City, Ozark and Southern Train at the Ava train depot, which stood on the site of the present-day Ava High School parking lot and operated the 15 miles between Ava and Mansfield from 1910 until 1935. It was the second shortest rail line in Missouri. Indications were that the line would be extended into Ozark County, but those plans failed to materialize. Known locally as the Ava Southern, the rail line’s primary cargo was hand-hewn railroad ties, and later, canned tomatoes, but it also hauled walnut logs, cattle and other freight, according to a history of the railroad by Michael Boylink published in the April 11, 2019, edition of the Douglas County Herald. In later years, self-powered passenger coaches also operated on the rail line. When the railroad went into foreclosure, it was rescued by the city of Ava and managed for a while by the town’s bank president. In 1935, the year it closed, notices in the Herald reported the county collector’s suit against the railroad for unpaid taxes.

Rick Jarvis, surrounded by the devastation of last Thursday’s [in 2007] tornado, says his family’s loss can’t compare to the loss of a family whose 7-year-old daughter died when the tornado destroyed a mobile home just months after hitting the Jarvis Station at Caulfield.

This photo, from the Amyx family collection, was probably taken around 1920. The details handed down by family members say that it depicts a Ford touring car and a Fordson tractor, both stuck in Lick Creek. Although we don’t know exactly what happened or who is pictured in the photograph, we can guess that the tractor came to rescue the stuck-in-the-creek touring car, only to get stuck itself. Whatever happened, the kids on the horses seemed to think it was all very interesting.

This photo of Ozark County’s second jail, built in the 1870s, is from the collection of Judy Ford Lyons. A similar photo appears in the “The History of Ozark County, 1841-1991,” which says the two-story jail, about 12’ x 18’, was attached to the sheriff’s dwelling. A small window was located on each level, and removable steps led to a second-story doorway. The lower jail level could be entered from the long porch fronting the sheriff’s dwelling. The rough-hewn log jail and dwelling were “located in the field across Lick Creek, northeasterly from the town square, where the Highway 160 bridge crosses the creek,” according to the book. Times Past items below from 1890 through 1907 describe conditions in the jail, and the 1908 item shows that the new jail had been completed. It still stands on Harlin Drive near Third Street.