Times Past


This photo of the building of the Barren Fork Bridge in 1925-26 is from the collection of Rhonda Herndon, who received it from Marcella Naugle Bilyeau. It’s reprinted from the current issue of the Old Mill Run, which features Ozark Countians’ recollections of the building of Highway 5, described as the county’s first “modern road.” Copies of the Old Mill Run are available for purchase at the Ozark County Historium.
Ozark County Times May 18, 1917 A good crowd attended the White moving picture show at the Christian church here the first four nights of the week. Mr. White has a good show. He goes from here to Bakersfield.     May 17, 1918 Thirteen more Ozark County boys, in the charge of Clerk Hugh Layton, left...

The 1919 item in this week’s Times Past reporting the delivery of four Ford touring cars and three trucks by the late S. F. Amyx reminded us of this photo of other early Ford automobiles that were offered for sale at Amyx Auto, which operated on the Gainesville square. The photo, from the collection of Susan Amyx Ault, is reprinted from the December 2012 edition of the Old Mill Run. The photo accompanied a 1991 story by Becky Bell that commemorated Amyx Auto’s 75th anniversary. The story quoted the late Ralph Amyx saying a Ford roadster sold for $325 100 years ago, and a touring car sold for $360-$375. Ralph, one of Amyx Auto founder S. F. Amyx’s six sons, became the company’s manager in 1934 and its owner in 1952 following his father’s death. He was succeeded by his son, Donald, in 1980. The business closed in 2002.
Ozark County NewsMay 15, 1890Daniel Luna and others caught six young wolves near Big North Fork this week. The sad news reached here on Tuesday that John Miller, of Lick Creek, was dead having accidentally stuck a knife into his left breast Monday evening.Mr. Miller was at his farm tending to some...
An item in last week’s Times Past column repeated an error that originally appeared in 1967, when the Times incorrectly announced the April 15, 1967, marriage of Dian Terry and Sp/4 Donald Luna at the First Christian Church here. Gainesville resident Barbara Rackley Luna has let us know that she...

This May Day photo was taken on Gainesville’s square, probably in 1931. The late Alma McDonald (Luna), then probably a senior in high school, was the queen leading the children wrapping one of the May poles, according to the late Mary Ruth McDonald (Landers), Alma’s sister, who’s second from left in the photo and was a first-grader at the time. Others in the photo are, from left, Nadine Morrison (Ebrite), Mary Ruth, Maxine Shaw (Shanerman), Marguerite Sanders (Cobb) and Juanita McClendon. Several years ago, Mary Ruth told the Times the girls wore skirts made of crepe paper. The two children ahead of Alma are unknown. Behind the group is the east side of the square, including the Christian Church, which served as the county’s courthouse after the earlier courthouse burned. The church later burned as well. To the right of the church is the small stone building that still stands on the square, now without its front-porch awning. The source of the photo is unknown.
Ozark County TimesMay 1, 1908Dora – Our section was visited Thursday night by the worst windstorm in the history of this part of the county. Houses were wrenched from their foundations, barns unroofed, orchards destroyed and a great portion of the timber uprooted. May 3, 1918Rosco Beard, son of...

This undated photo of the building that housed the Cletus Vaughan store in Bakersfield from 1950 to 1994 was shared by Micheal Mahan on the Bakersfield Missouri Historical Society Facebook page. Vaughan is mentioned in a 1994 item in this week’s Times Past that reported his unexpected death on the day he was to sign papers to sell the store, which he had purchased in 1950 from his in-laws. In his Facebook post, Mahan said it’s thought that the building was originally built around 1857 and stood near the town’s water tower; it was moved using logs to its present site after the Civil War, probably around 1868, he said. The building now houses Richard Chamberlain’s hardware store in downtown Bakersfield.
Ozark County NewsApril 25, 1889 On April 21, Mr. Henry Winger and Miss Nora Wood, daughter of Henry Wood, were married at the residence of the bride’s parents four miles west of town. Rev. J. H. Adams officiating.Also at the residence of A. B. Daniel, the bride’s father, in Gainesville, on April 24...

This undated photo was taken by M. C. Stephens looking west at the “steel bridge” that was completed over the North Fork of the White River (now Lake Norfork) in Tecumseh in 1924 at a cost of $50,063, according to A History of Ozark County 1841-1991. An item shared below from the April 18, 1924, Ozark County Times reports that “several hundred people” had come on a Sunday to watch workmen install the bridge’s concrete floor. The people in this photo are unknown, but they had apparently gathered to be photographed at the newly completed bridge that was considered a modern marvel at the time. The bridge, 18 feet wide, continued in service until it was replaced in 1988 by the current 38-foot-wide bridge, which was built at a cost of $2.1 million (including removal of the old bridge). This photo is one of many historical images shared on the Dora School Library’s Facebook page.
Ozark County TimesApril 17, 1903J. T. Luna Sr., who lives 10 miles north of Gaines-ville, happened to the misfortune of losing his residence by fire last Monday night. The house caught from the smoke house, and as to how the smoke house caught fire is a mystery to Mr. Luna.He saved some few of his...

This photo, reprinted from the World War I book Called to the Colors, published last year by the Historium, is believed to show the second contingent of 64 military draftees who gathered in Gainesville in February 1918 to be taken to the train station in West Plains in a caravan of 15 cars. The Times reported, “It took a half hour for all the cars to cross the North Fork on the Hodo ferry. Crowds thronged the ferry and the waysides to wave cheer and blessings.” The book lists the names of the men separately from the photo, so we don’t know who’s who in the picture. But one of them is believed to be Lawrence Cates, who shipped out with the second contingent, and whose death at Camp Funston was reported in the April 12, 1918, Times item shown below.
Ozark County TimesApril 12, 1918 Lawrence Cates, one of the 64 boys who left here on Feb. 25 for the training camp at Camp Funston, died of pneumonia on Wednesday of last week.The body arrived at the home of his parents near Noble on Saturday and was interred with impressive ceremonies in the...

This photo of “Elbert Amyx and His Project” is taken from a 1930-31 booklet in the Historium’s collection that was published by Bakersfield School to promote its innovative programs. The text with the photo says, “Vocational Agriculture is the only course offered in high school in which the boy earns while learning. Each boy taking Vocational Agriculture is required to carry on a home project related to the school work and supervised by the instructor, carried to completion on the farm. ... [T]he boys are given practical training in farm shop in which they learn the fundamentals of woodwork, sheet metal, hot metal, concrete, leather and rope. Students are also given practical training in the field in almost every line of farm management such as soil improvement, erosion, pruning, and judging.” Interestingly, while the 1930s text refers only to boys, state numbers show that the number of vo ag students today is split about evenly between male and female students. And two of Ozark County’s four high school vo ag teachers are women.
Ozark County TimesApril 3, 1908 The news of the death of Edward Upton last Sunday came as a shock to his many friends of this vicinity. He was taken dangerously sick with pneumonia on Sunday, just a week before he died, and grew rapidly worse until his death.Mr. Upton was a member of the Masonic...

These photos of the Dora Roller Rink, reprinted with permission from the Dora School Library’s Facebook page, are from the Thornton family collection and are dated June 1958. Former Dora student Martin Capages, in his book “Recollections of a Dora Farm,” said the skating rink was the town’s “social center” in the 1950s. “The eighth graders would race and slide around the corners, but the high school girls would skate with their boyfriends to the Everly Brothers’ ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’ and Pat Boone’s latest,” he wrote. It cost a quarter to skate, he said, and “There were never any fights or negative events.”
Ozark County NewsMarch 31, 1898Little Everett, the 9-year- old son of W. W. Luna, has a pretty fair idea how printing ink smells. He painted himself up in great shape last week while helping us. While he was painted, he went on the “war path” to be a printer. Well, give the boy a chance.Mr. Frank...

This photo, showing an Ozark County dinner on the grounds enjoyed by the Mahan and Friend families at Theodosia, is from the collection of Linda Holmes Lamphear and her daughter, Kim Ledbetter. The date is unknown, but it’s thought to have been taken in the late 1940s at the home of Silas and Emma Mahan Weston. Silas built the house in the background, Linda said. Emma is the white-haired woman standing at left. Linda believes the occasion may have been the birthday of one of her great-grandmother Mary Friend Mahan’s brothers.
Ozark County NewsMarch 22, 1894Albert Thompson Post No. 275, G. A. R. [Grand Army of the Republic] met last Saturday and elected the following officers for the year: W. A. Love Com-mander; R. S. Small S. V.; B. F. Sweckard J. V.; Wm. Comer Quartermaster; J. A. Bingaman Adjutant; J. E. Wood Officer...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

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