Times Past

Barefoot school, 1901 (located between Longrun and Theodosia) This 1901 photo of the original Barefoot School, located between Longrun and Theodosia, was shared with the Ozark County Historium by Wilfred E. Wooldridge, M.D., for the Historium’s 2010 book Lard Buckets and Paper Pokes, which featured stories about Ozark County’s early one-room schools. Writing about the memories of her grandmother, former Barefoot School student Edith Peacock Edmond, Sally Lyons McAlear said the school got its name, not from its barefoot students (although in this photo, all visible feet except the teacher’s are bare), but from the fact that the log school had a dirt floor. The district, which closed in 1959, had two subsequent buildings with clapboard exterior and oak floor. It was officially renamed Oak Grove, but that name never stuck. In the photo: Back row, from left: teacher Ulysses Grant Tanneyhill, Arthur Peacock, Joe Willhoit, Vernon Duncan, Kelly Peacock, Kitty Blankenship, Clara Bruer, Bill Miller, Della Hicks, Clemmie Wilhoit, Stella Bruer and Della Welch. Second row (seated): Charlie Havens, George Worthington, Fred Miller, Earl Duncan, Roy Peacock, Bunt Havens, Harry Havens, Evert Hicks, Jasper Hicks, Pearlie Hicks, Bennie Welch, Vienna Havens, Nettie Miller, Edith Peacock (Edmonds), Ollie Welch, Dollie Worthington, Vic Bruer.

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.