Fisher's Cave

Although I grew up in the Springfield area and lived in Springfield for several years during my college days, I was never aware of Fisher's Cave until recently. It is a river cave located in Sequiota Park near the old village of Galloway in what is now southeast Springfield. The cave has been known at various times as Brashear's Cave, Fisher's Cave, Springdale Cave, and occasionally even Sequiota Cave.
Apparently, the first white settler on the land that includes the cave was Jacob Painter, who settled there in the mid to late 1830s. Painter was later a prominent gunsmith in Springfield and had his shop on Olive Street just off the square. During the Civil War, the land was owned by Benjamin Brashears. Shortly after the war, a man named T.B. Fisher acquired the land and began developing it as a resort with the cave as the main attraction.
In 1881, P.F. Vaughan bought the land from Fisher with the intention of developing the resort even more. He planned to beautify the grounds with shrubs and trees and to construct ponds for fishing and boating. Some of the trees were to be planted in groves to serve as gathering places for picnics. However, the cave, renamed Springdale Cave, would remain the main attraction.
Apparently, at least some of Vaughan's plans materialized, because Springdale Cave, or Fisher's Cave as it was often still called, and surrounding grounds did become a popular resort during the latter part of the nineteenth century and into the early years of the twentieth. One of the main attractions was guided boat tours of the cave.
By the 1910s, however, Fisher's Cave had been given over mainly to agricultural use. Mushrooms were grown in the cave and sold in St. Louis for fifty cents a pound. The mushroom spawns were spread in the cave, and six weeks later the whole grounds would be covered with mushrooms, ready for harvest. Rhubarb and celery were also grown in the cave, producing, some people said, a better quality plant than those grown outside in regular gardens.
In 1920, the grounds of Fisher's Cave became a state park and a fish hatchery. In 1959, the fish hatchery was removed, and the grounds became a Springfield city park. Now named Sequiota Park, it and all the other territory around Galloway were annexed into the city of Springfield in 1969.
Sequiota Park is still a local attraction. I'm not sure whether the main cave (Fisher's Cave) is open to the public or not. At least one source I checked said it has a gate across the entrance and is closed except by special permission from the city, partly because of the endangered species that inhabit it. (There's probably a liability issue, too. City doesn't want to be held responsible if someone were to drown inside the cave.) Another source, though, indicated that people could enter and explore the cave at their own risk if they wanted to.
For the less adventurous, there are two other caves at Sequiota Park that are open (at least officially) to the public. The reason I say "at least officially" is that, although they are open, they are hard to access. One is called the Crawlway-Crawl-All-the-Way Cave, and as its name indicates it is very low. It's not very long either. The other is called the Walkway-Walk-All-the-Way Cave. It is, as the name, implies tall enough for walking, but it, too, is not very long.

M.E. Gillioz

I go walking occasionally on the Wildcat Glades Nature trails along Shoal Creek south of Joplin. Part of the trail system goes over an old abandoned bridge that spans the creek. It used to be part of Highway 86 but was closed to vehicular traffic a number of years ago when a new bridge was built and now is open only for foot traffic as part of the trail system.
A few weeks ago I noticed a metal plaque on the bridge that said "M.E. Gillioz, Contractor. Monett, Missouri." I immediately wondered whether this was the same Gillioz for whom the Gillioz Theatre in Springfield was named. That is the landmark with which I automatically associate the name Gillioz. A little research on the Internet revealed that the answer is "Yes." It is the same man. Maurice Ernest "M.E." Gillioz was primarily known as a road and bridge contractor, but he also constructed a number of buildings like the theater in Springfield that bears his name.
Gillioz grew up around Rolla, Missouri. The first important building he built in southwest Missouri was the St. Mary's Catholic Church at Pierce City in 1904. He soon started building in Monett as well, moved there in 1914, and became a prominent citizen and benefactor to the community. Among the buildings he constructed in Monett were the high school, the Masonic temple, and the Gillioz Theatre of Monett. I believe the Gillioz Theatre of Monett, however, is gone and the Gillioz Theatre in Springfield is the only remaining building that still bears his name.
There are still a number of bridges remaining, though, that were constructed by Gillioz, including the Redings Mill Bridge south of Joplin that I usually walk over at least once or twice a week and that was built in 1930.

The Staffelbach Bordello

There is a controversy of sorts that has been going on in Galena, Kansas, for the past several weeks over a business that was opened up not long ago and called the Murder Bordello by its owner. It consists of an old Victorian house at the corner of Front and Main streets in Galena that has been restored and opened for tours. In addition to claiming the the place was once a bordello where a murder took place, the owner also claims or at least strongly suggests that the place was not just any bordello but the one operated by the infamous Staffelbach (aka Staffleback) family and the one where they lived in 1897 at the time they killed Frank Galbreath, the man whose murder the family was convicted of later in '97. The owner has also suggested that the place is haunted.

There are certain people upset because it can be demonstrably shown that the Stafflebachs did not live at the corner of Front and Main streets in 1897 but rather a half mile or so away on the western edge of the town. Furthermore, there is no evidence to even to suggest that a murder ever took place on the grounds of the Main and Front streets property or its immediate environs. Also, the only people who think the place is haunted are those people who seem to believe all old houses are haunted, and it's not absolutely known that the place was ever even a bordello.

The people upset by the new business don't like someone perverting the town's history in order to try to make a profit from it. Meanwhile, some people on the other side argue that it makes little difference whether the restored house is actually THE Staffelbach house. As long as the businessman is bringing tourists and shoppers to Galena and helping to revitalize the downtown, he should be left to do his thing. The Staffelbach legend is, after all, part of Galena's colorful history, and the town should be allowed to cash in on it without interference from those insisting on a strict adherence to historical fact.

I tend to side with the purists who object to the location at Front and Main Street being identified, even by implication, as the house where the Staffelbachs lived at the time they murdered Galbreath. If there were any doubt whatsoever, it might be different, but there is ample proof in the form of contemporaneous newspaper articles and other documents to show beyond doubt that the family did not live there.

Small Town High Schools

I think I've commented on this blog previously about small towns that used to have high schools and no longer do. For instance, I believe I recall citing the example of McDonald County, Missouri, as a place where school consolidation, particularly during the 1960s, left several small towns without high schools. It is little wonder that small towns tend to fight school consolidation, because the towns that are left without high schools often die a rather rapid death. Often, the school had functioned as one of the main hubs of social activity, and when that unifying social force is gone, the rest of the town disintegrates as well. This general observation, however, does not really apply to the case of McDonald County that I previously discussed. Of the several towns in McDonald County whose schools went together to form McDonald County High School, the only one that has almost died out in the years since is probably Rocky Comfort. However, I think the general observation still applies in the majority of cases. For instance, another area with which I am familiar, the area of Dallas and Hickory counties, Missouri, comes to mind. I remember when Tunas and Windyville in Dallas County both had high schools. Both, however, were consolidated in the 1950s or 1960s, and now both of them are virtually ghost towns. I believe Louisburg also had a high school at one time, and it, too, hardly exists today. In Hickory County, the same can be said about Cross Timbers and Preston. About the only town in either county that used to have a high school and no longer does but yet manages to survive is Urbana. And that's probably due in part to its proximity to Skyline High, which formed when Cross Timbers, Preston, Tunas (or part of it), and Urbana came together. Louisburg and Windyville, I think, are now part of the Buffalo School District, and I think a part of Tunas may have gone to Buffalo as well. There are other communities in these two counties, such as Charity, that also had high schools at one time, but that time was longer ago than my memory goes back. I'm old but not quite that old.

The Irish Settlement

In the past I've discussed various Utopian or otherwise non-traditional communities, and I'm going to continue that theme today. The Irish Settlement in south central Missouri on the border of Oregon and Ripley counties was not founded on Utopian principles as some of the others I've previously discussed were, but, still, it was unusual in that it involved a sort of communal living. The Irish Settlement was founded in the late 1850s by a St. Louis priest, the Rev. John Logan, as a relief effort for poor Irish Catholics, many of whom were former railroad workers who had been laid off because of the financial panic of 1857. The Rev. James Fox of Old Mines, Missouri, bought a tract of land in southern Missouri for the settlement, and the Rev. Logan moved there in the fall of 1858. By the spring of 1859, about forty families had arrived. A log cabin, forty feet square, was erected and partitioned off. One section was used as a chapel and the other section as a private residence for the priest. Meanwhile, the families settled on farms carved from the large tract of land and sold at twelve and a half cents per acre or else on already existing farms nearby. During the Civil War, nearly all the residents of the Irish Settlement were either killed or run off, and the buildings were destroyed by roving bands. After the war, the place was never rebuilt. It was soon overgrown with brush and became known as the Irish Wilderness. A small community in northeast Oregon County called Wilderness, founded in the early 1880s about two miles northwest of where the priest's cabin and field had been located, is about the only surviving reminder of the Irish Settlement.

Incoming Kingdom Missionary Unit

Anyone who has followed this blog at all over the past few years knows that I am fascinated by the Utopian social and religious movements that have occurred in this country, particularly during the latter 1800s and early 1900s. Another such movement was the Incoming Kingdom Missionary units that were established around 1920 by the Rev. John A. Battenfield, a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Around the turn of the 20th century, Battenfield claimed to have discovered within the Hebrew text of the Old Testament "patterns of seven" by which he could discern the true meaning of the scriptures. In 1913, he began publishing a series of pamphlets called "The Great Demonstration" in which he announced that the world as it existed would end by 1926 and perhaps earlier. About the same time, he left the formal ministry and began traveling around the country as a religious lecturer, supposedly to prepare the world for the coming apocalypse. In 1919, the first issue of his newspaper, the Incoming Kingdom Harbinger, was published in Olney, Illinois, and he began urging his followers to build economically self-sufficient communities in isolated, mountainous areas of the country, where they would be able to survive the holocaust and emerge afterwards to establish the Millennial Kingdom of God. Gilbert, Arkansas (located in Searcy County) was chosen, because of its remote location, as the site for one of the units. People began arriving at Gilbert in September of 1920 when wealthy Illinois farmer C.E. Jordan, a firm believer in Battenfield's teachings, bought land for the site and started selling lots at cost to Battenfield's followers. A church and a schoolhouse were quickly constructed, as was a printing plant for the Incoming Kingdom Harbinger. Within a few months about 70 people had arrived in the community, and the number of people living in the community rose to about 200 within a couple of years. The Gilbert millenialists began mission work or "witnessing" to people in surrounding communities. According to Battenfield's vision, believers were to share their belongings and live communally, and cooperative stores and other cooperative endeavors were begun. However, problems soon arose because some of the colonists who came to Gilbert were reluctant to share their belongings. Also, Battenfield alienated some of his followers when he began to abandon traditional Christian teachings about the Trinity and other subjects. The movement became more and more endangered as the years began to elapse with no holocaust and no appearance of the Messiah. The last straw came in 1925 when Battenfield announced that he would bring one of his followers who had died back to life and his several public attempts to do so failed. Battenfield reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown. His publication suspended operation, he and his family left Gilbert, and his remaining followers soon renounced his teachings. For more information on this topic, visit the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas at www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net.

Rose O'Neill and Bonniebrook

Yesterday, my wife and I drove by the Bonniebrook Mansion and Museum a few miles north of Branson on U.S. Highway 65. I had noticed it before but never paid much attention to it, and my wife was surprised that I didn't know more about Rose O'Neill, who owned and lived at Bonniebrook during the early part of the 20th century and was the designer of the kewpie doll. So, I read up on her a little bit. Rose was born in 1874 in Nebraska, and at age 14 she won an illustration contest sponsored by the Omaha Herald. In 1893, her father bought some land in Taney County, Missouri, and the family moved there. About the same time, Rose, who was already making a name for herself as a cartoonist and illustrator, went to New York to further her career, and she soon became famous as an illustrator for leading magazines and other publications. Meanwhile, her father began building a mansion on the land in Taney County. It was called Bonniebrook and was financed largely by Rose's earnings from her work as an illustrator. In 1901, Rose divorced her first husband and moved to Bonniebrook. A year later, she remarried and the couple lived at Bonniebrook. Rose continued her work from the Taney County farm, and her husband wrote a popular novel, which she illustrated. She and her 2nd husband divorced in 1907. In 1909, Rose's kewpie illustration appeared in the Ladies Home Journal, and in 1912 a German manufacturer began producing dolls based on the illustration. O'Neill became enormously popular and also very wealthy. In addition, she was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. Besides Bonniebrook, she owned a townhouse in New York's Greenwich Village, and she was called the "Queen of Bohemian Society." She also owned property in Europe and studied sculpture under Rodin. However, the Depression and her own extravagant lifestyle left her no longer wealthy by the time she came back to Bonniebrook to live permanently in 1937. She became popular in the Branson area, presented artistic workshops, and donated some of her artwork to the School of the Ozarks at Point Lookout. A strong advocate of women's rights, she also lectured on women's equality. Rose died in 1944 at Springfield and is buried at Bonniebrook. Today, Bonniebrook Mansion and Farm is maintained as a museum.