November 19, 2025: TIMES PAST compiled by Sue Ann Jones
These men may have been members of the Gainesville Band that, according to an item in the Nov. 14, 1895, Ozark County News, reprinted below, "ascended the big hill opposite town and rendered several pieces of good music." Front row, from left: John C. Harlin, Roy Tate, Guy Wood, Harry Walker. Middle: Everett Luna, Harry Force. Back: George Boone, Charley Burk, Averill Harrison, Frank Walker, Will Burk, Unknown. The photo is from the collection of the late John Harlin (1937-2023); the names were written on the photo by the late Madge Harlin Brown (1898-1998).
Ozark County News
Nov. 14, 1895
Last Sunday morning the Gainesville band ascended the Big hill opposite town and rendered several pieces of good music. A better time could not have been selected; the morning was cool, the atmosphere light and clear, and the sun was shining brightly. The band could be heard for several miles.
The Republican
Nov. 1, 1906
All the members of the Gainesville band went to Bakersfield Tuesday to furnish music on the occasion of the McKinley speaking, which was billed to take place on the afternoon of that day.
Ozark County Times
Nov. 20, 1925
Henry Hayes, 45 years old, was found guilty of murder in the second degree by a jury in the circuit court here last week for the killing of Lee McGinnis, age 50 years, at the schoolhouse at Mammoth on the night of September 2, 1924. . . . The judge fixed the punishment at 10 years in the penitentiary.
Hayes took the stand in his own defense and stated he shot McGinnis in defense of his son, Truman.
Hayes and his sons, Truman and Norman, and Truman's wife met McGinnis and his son-in-law, Oscar McGee, and his wife at a singing going on at the Mammoth schoolhouse. The fight, started between the women, was taken up by the men. During the fight Henry Hayes was hit on the head with a rock, and Truman was being attacked when [Henry] went to his home, close by and returned with a shot gun with which he shot McGinnis. . . .
Hayes is appealing his case to the supreme court and is at liberty under a $10,000 bond.
Nov. 21, 1940
At a meeting of community leaders last Thursday at the court house, plans were laid for the operation of the Cotton Mattress making program, which will be directed thru the county Extension Association. . . .
1. All rural families in Ozark county having an income of $600.00 or less and who have derived 1/2 of their income from the farm are eligible to receive cotton and ticking for a mattress.
2. The first allotment, which is to arrive in the county sometime the last of the month, will consist of cotton and ticking enough to make 150 mattresses. . . .
. . .
4. Cotton and ticking are furnished free by Surplus Marketing Administration, operating thru the county Agricultural Conservation Association but twine and needles, and some transportation costs will be stood by the individuals receiving the mattresses. This cost will amount to 50 cent per mattress.
5. Each family makes their own mattresses at a center to be determined by the availability of building suitable to make them in and located as near as possible to the majority of approved applicants.
Nov. 18, 1965
Plans are being made for the dedication of the new Masonic temple in Gainesville on Sunday, Nov. 28, when the building will be dedicated, the cornerstone laid and the lodge moved from its old quarters to the new building.
Eleven men from Ozark county will leave Monday to be inducted into the armed forces for the November quota, which is the largest for this county for some time.
They are Eli General Williams, Lifford Calvin Beavers, John Delano Nash, Johnnie Ray Baxter, Lyle Dwight Thornton, Edward Dean Gault, Paul Avis Greenstreet, Gary Wayne Hambelton, Donald Gene Luna, Ronald Dean Luna, and Danny Rose Smith.
Three from this county have enlisted in a reserve unit. They are Dorman Ray May, David Earl Morrison and Frankie Lee Evans. . . . Married men in the county without children will start being called to take physical examinations in December.