Times Past
Bakersfield School, pre-1914 fire An Oct. 2, 1914, item in this week's Times Past reports the fire that destroyed this stately Bakersfield school building, which an earlier, unidentified newspaper clipping had described as "the pride of the community." The building, which housed the first high school classes to be held in Bakersfield, burned just after the school year began. A few months after the wooden building burned, a concrete-block schoolhouse was constructed. That building, which opened in 1915, was destroyed by a tornado in June 1928. A bond issue to rebuild the school was brought to the voters 10 different times but failed to get the required two-thirds majority before the issue finally passed and a new school was built two years later. That building was replaced by the school that was eventually demolished in 2015 after Bakersfield voters approved a $1.9 million bond issue to build the district's current school building.
Ozark County News
Oct. 3, 1889
Joe Pumphrey, of Big North Fork, has moved his family to town to enjoy the benefits of the school here this winter – a wise act which others would do well to imitate.
Bakersfield Boomerang
Oct. 12, 1901
M. T. Parnell is building a new three-room residence on West...
The following article was reprinted from the Sept. 26, 1984, edition of the Ozark County Times.
Pet show winners in various categories were Frederik Carlsen and Hector, left, judges prize; Becky Hutton and Angel (rabbit), most in need of love; John Kimen and Bear (owned by Larry Schwarz),...
Claude Kirkland
The following article was reprinted from the Sept. 26, 1974, edition of the Ozark County Times.
[Reprinted from 1974] Claude Kirkland of Howards Ridge will be here during Hootin an Hollarin to demonstrate his art of carving link-within-a-link wooden chains from a single piece of wood.
Sometimes...
The 1974 Times Past item below reported that Patty (Mrs. Darrell) Crisp’s baton-twirling students would be marching in the upcoming Hootin an Hollarin parade. The parade participants were, front row, from left: Gayla Evans, Christy Frazier, Teresa Tharp, Gayla Hillhouse, Susan Ledbetter, Jolene McFarland, Lana Allen, Shelly Overturf, Shelly Hillhouse. Back: Lisa Johnson, Cathy Turner, Teresa White, Valentine Cisco, Beth Pierce, Lisa Griffith, Rhonda Donley, Jerri Sue Strong and Patty Snell. Patty Crisp and her twin sister, Peggy Merrell High, were 1956 graduates of Gainesville High School. Patty died in 2012 at age 74 after retiring from a longtime career as a first- and third-grade teacher throughout her adult life.
Ozark County Times
Sept. 13, 1912
Dormis – The Odom school opened Sept. 2 with Miss Mattie Trump of Oak Mound as teacher. The enrollment was fairly good for the first week.
Locust – The Locust ball boys have cleared their ground at the Gordon field. They have their hat in the ring now.
Sept. 19,...
This photo of the Gainesville Livestock Auction is taken from an ad in a mid-1960s Bulldogger yearbook published by Gainesville High School. The advertisement said the sale barn, owned by T. D. Crawford, held sales every Wednesday. The building was located next to Lick Creek on the east side of Highway 160 in Gainesville, roughly across from what is now the MFA Oil building on Third Street. It closed in March 1971 after the state bought the land for right of way to build the current Highway 160. A Times article reported, as the building was being demolished, that its arena had seating for 250 buyers, and its stock pens could hold 1,500 head of cattle or livestock. The sale barn’s yearly total sale averaged 30,000 head, the article reported. The 1949 Times Past item below reports Ray Wallace's plans to build and operate the sale barn.
Ozark County News
Sept. 6, 1894
The melon season will soon be over, sorry to say. . . . This office, assisted by a few friends and kids and kiddesses, devoured a 31-pounder raised by Esq. Terry on his upland farm southeast of town, which was the largest watermelon on this market this year.
A horse-...
The following article was reprinted from the Sept. 5, 1974, edition of the Ozark County Times.
by the late Ruby M. Robins
[Reprinted from 1974] “If it was to do over again, I would like to live it just like it’s been,” Truman Crawford, the first merchant at Clarkridge, Ark., said in recalling...
This photo of the village of Rockbridge, found several years ago in an Ozark County Times photo file, is thought to have been taken around 1900. Three of the four buildings in the photo are still standing: the mill; the small, white bank building; and the large white farmhouse. The large general store building (with horses tied at hitching posts out front) was quickly rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1986. All are part of today’s Rockbridge Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch, which is celebrating its 70th year in business this week. The rebuilt general store now houses a popular restaurant and serves as the headquarters for the resort, now owned by Ray Amyx, whose grandparents, the late Sidney and Edgie Amyx, who were married at Rockbridge in 1895 and who homesteaded nearby land.
Ozark County News
Aug. 22, 1889
The G.A.R. [Grand Army of the Republic] Post at this place has set the 12th of September for a Reunion of the old soldiers of the county. A public dinner, we understand, will be given.
Our advice to young men who desire to attend a good school this winter is, come...
This week’s Times Past photos show two Ozark County natives who proudly displayed their fishing success for the camera. Both were descendants of Ozark County pioneer families. Curt Luna (1888-1949), left, “taught 15 terms of school and served as a justice of the peace for four years,” according to his Ozark County Times obituary. Five years before his death, he and his wife, Cora Huffman Luna, “retired from their farm and moved to West Plains.” He is buried in the Smith Chapel Cemetery near Zanoni. Caleb Dean (1891-1951), lived in Ozark County all his life, sharing a farm near Tecumseh with his wife, Zina McCleary Dean. He is buried in the Hog Danger (now Mount Pleasant) Cemetery near Elijah. The photos are undated, and their source is unknown.
Ozark County News
Aug. 7, 1890
On last Wednesday, Martin Smith, son of W. A. Smith, was struck by lightning and killed while in a school room teaching in Brixey, in the north part of this county. The school was in session at the time and some fifty pupils were in the school house. A thunder shower...
The following article was reprinted from the Aug. 6, 1964, edition of the Ozark County Times.
Herman Pierce for sheriff, Randolph Hutchison for judge of the eastern district and Mark Deatherage for judge of the western district won the Republican nominations in Ozark County, while Garner Moody...
The following article was reprinted from the Aug. 8, 1984, edition of the Ozark County Times.
A total of 2,795 votes were cast in both the [1984] Republican and Democratic primaries for candidates for sheriff. This is less than half of the county’s 6,514 registered voters.
In this year’s four-...