Times Past


This 1910 photo from the collection of April Arington Legler shows the general merchandise store at the Ozark County community of Birdtown, also known as Toccoa. West Plains resident Jim Decker provided this information about those in the photo: Seated, from left: Pat Briscoe (a local blacksmith), Dr. Gordon (a local doctor), Tim Gordon (Dr. Gordon's son), John Decker (Jonathon's son), Marty Moody, Arthur Gordon, Sam Thompson, Walter Tabor, Homer Decker (father of Jim Decker), Mont Tetrick and Bill Moody (and his dog, Molly Cottontail). Standing: John Gordon, Jonathon Decker (who built this store building in 1905), Charles Decker (son of Jonathon), Eddie Lewis, Claude Moody and Eldon Decker (the two boys in front of window).
Ozark County News Jan. 2, 1890 A disease known as influenza, or “grippe,” is raging in many of the large cities of Europe, causing as many deaths as the worst scourge of Cholera ever known. The Recorder issued a marriage license one day last week to Mr. Hiram Welch, aged 47 years old. He is...

As reported in the 1906 Times Past item below, J. N. [Newt] Ford bought a partnership in the Gainesville business that became Ford & Force and relocated it to a building that is shown in this undated photo of the west side of the Gainesville square. We're unsure exactly which building housed Ford & Force, originally a drugstore, but the report says it was "just south of the bank," which was in the bright-white two-story building in the center of the photo – the first awning from the right. Ford bought out his partner, Harry Force, in 1907, and the drugstore eventually became Ford's Village Market, a grocery store that, except for 11 years (1939-1950), continued to be operated by a Ford family member until it closed in October 1980. The original frame building was rebuilt in brick in 1929 and today houses Mischa Kastning's The Hair Shop and Tanning.
Ozark County News Nov. 22, 1883 Dr. Small has built a "cyclone" stable for his horse. The woods are said to be full of game, and our sportsmen are fattening on fried squirrel. Several thousand fruit trees passed through town the first of the week bound for the west end of the county. Farmers out...
Burned to Death Fighting Fire. DAVID W. WALKER, 69, FALLS INTO BURNING HOUSE WHEN ROOF COLLAPSES.   Donald W. Walker, 69, well known farmer of near Pottersville, was burned to death about noon on Thursday of last week, while fighting fire at the home of a neighbor, Jess May, a mile away. Mrs. May...
PAPER GOES DEAD And Editor Attempts Suicide.   The Bakersfield Republican, a newspaper published at Bakersfield, this County, the past year or two, went dead last week. The editor, Wm. McNair, attempted to commit suicide Friday evening about 5 o’clock by taking an overdose of morphine, but the...

The Dec. 17, 1909, editor’s comment, below, about “hog-killing weather” reminded us of this undated photo of an Ozark County butchering day that was shared with the Ozark County Historium by April Arington Legler in 2016. The people in the photo are unknown, but April is a descendant of the Bushong and Luna families, so most likely the people in the photo are members of one of those families.
Ozark County News Dec. 19, 1889 Christmas next Wednesday. We wish all our readers a Merry Christmas. The young people of the town are to have a concert at the courthouse Saturday night. Admission free and all invited.   Dec. 21, 1899 Messrs. Eli Meiser and W. A. Sims of Paragould, Ark., were in...

This photo, from the collection of Mountain Home, Arkansas, resident Randy Fouts, shows the 7-mile-long conveyor belt that carried rock from the quarry at Flippin, Arkansas, to the construction site at Bull Shoals Dam on the White River around 1950. The photo came from Fouts’ father-in-law, Charles Reed of Flippin, who worked on the construction of the dam. In fact, said Fouts, he lost his Flippin senior class ring somewhere in the concrete of the dam. When Fouts posted the photo on Facebook page several years ago, several people responded that their fathers or other relatives had worked on the incredibly long conveyor.
Ozark County News Dec. 12, 1889 Work on Guy T. Harrison’s new store house is progressing. It is to be a commodious building.  The material has been procured to build a new belfry at the Christian church. The work will be commenced this week.   Dec. 15, 1904 Gainesville post office schedule: West...

These undated photos of the Brixey store and post office on N Highway at Brixey accompany stories about the old Brixey community in the November edition of the Old Mill Run, the quarterly publication of the Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society. The reminiscences were written by former Brixey resident Ronnie Parsons and by Crystal Martin Miller, granddaughter of Leslie and Bessie Bushong Naugle, shown standing at the store in the photo below. The Naugles owned the store from 1942 until their daughter, Joyce Naugle Smith Martin, took over in 1972. Other stories in the November issue describe the Murray store at Thornfield and a salute to Dora native and World War II veteran Windell Martin Cobb, who died Sept. 14 at age 98. Copies of the Old Mill Run are available for purchase at the Historium. To join OCGHS and receive the newsletter by mail, send $25 to P.O. Box 4, Gainesville, MO 65655.
Ozark County News Nov. 29, 1894 A spelling match is being arranged for the [school] association, between a young champion of Dora and a fair speller from near Gainesville.  Nat Beach, our genial barber, wishes to announce that the person who "swiped" his basket last week will be liberally rewarded...
The following article was reprinted from the Nov. 22, 1962, edition of the Ozark County Times.    [1962] Ozark County has a good chance to be the top deer hunting county in Missouri when the final tabulations of the kill during the state’s 7-day gun season are compiled by the Conservation...

This photo, from the Amyx family collection, was probably taken around 1920, and 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 what happened or who is pictured in the photograph, we can guess that the tractor came to rescue the flooded-out or stuck touring car, only to get stuck itself. Whatever happened, the kids on the horses seemed to think it was all very interesting.
Ozark County News Nov. 22, 1883 Out of some thirty births in Bridges township during the year, we have heard of but one girl, that of James Agee and his wife. About 18 years from now, Mr. Agee will have to keep two big bulldogs and a double-barreled shotgun in the house to protect the premises from...

Lick Creek baseball team This photo of the Lick Creek baseball team is reprinted from the Dora Historian Facebook page, curated by Mary Lillyquist Collins. From left: Walt Robbins, Tom Robbins, Mitch Baxter, Ray Robbins, Saul Strong, Everett Pleasant, Marion Kirkland and John Robbins. At right: James "Jim" (1859-1944) and Mary Jane (1863-1917) Robbins, parents of the Robbins boys. The photo is undated, but an item in Howards Ridge items in the Sept. 16, 1910, edition of the Ozark County Times reported that Everett Pleasant, "a member of the Lick Creek ball team, was hurt several days ago in a game between the Lick Creek and the Theodosia teams. He was hit on the jaw with the ball and is suffering much with the injury."
Ozark County News Oct. 10, 1889 Gainesville is having a steady growth of a permanent character, which, if kept up, will make this a thriving town in a few years. The amount of five hundred and eight dollars and seventy-six cents, taken from the county treasury by the burglars who blowed the safe...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423