Norwood, Missouri

Early in my teaching career, I taught at Houston, Missouri, for a year, and almost every weekend, my wife and I would drive to Springfield to see our two families., both of whom lived in the Springfield area. We didn't always take the same route, but most of the time we came by way of U.S. Highway 60, which took us through Norwood. I remember that, either during the time I taught at Houston or somewhere near that time, there was a big controversy at Norwood High School because a boy had been expelled from school for refusing to cut his long hair. 

Those trips between Springfield and Houston and the hair controversy are the two main things I tend to associate with Norwood, but there's a little more to the town than that. Norwood was laid out along the route of the Kansas City, Springfield, and Memphis Railroad when it was built through the area in 1882. The town was named Norwood after the novel of the same name by Henry Ward Beecher. 

Norwood didn't exactly boom in the months and years after its formation. At least, that's the conclusion one can reasonably draw from a brief mention of Norwood that I found in a March 1892 issue of a Springfield newspaper. A reporter visited Norwood and asked an old man he encountered what the population of the town was. The old codger supposedly said, "About ten, reckonin' the children, two cats, and one dog." This statement, of course, was made in jest, but it still gives an indication that Norwood did not amount to much, even ten years after its creation. The reporter opined that Norwood could hardly be called a village. 

Norwood did experience growth after 1893, though. In 1911, when a Springfield Leader reporter visited Norwood, he estimated the town's population at about 500. The newspaperman had previously visited Norwood about six years earlier, and he estimated that the town had grown by about 65% during the interval. A lot of farming, stock raising, and fruit raising were taking place in the outlying areas around Norwood, and the town itself boasted a bank, three general merchants, a lumber store, two drugstores, and a hardware and farm implement store.  

In 1930, Norwood had a population of about 350. Over the next 80 years, it reached a low of about 260 in 1960 and a high of over 660 in 2010. In 2020, the population stood at 578.

The Murder of George Patrick

After attending a show in Reeds Spring (MO), 19-year-old George Patrick and his date, 16-year-old Goldie May, were on their way home on the road between Reeds Spring and Galena on the evening of November 1, 1924, when they were hailed by two men on foot. As soon as the car came to a halt, the men jumped in and ordered Patrick, at the point of a gun, to drive. When he refused to turn where they told him to, one of the men conked him on the head and then shot him in the left side.  

Goldie jumped out of the car during the confrontation and took off down the road. Meanwhile, the highwaymen took a watch from Patrick's wrist, pulled him out of his Ford automobile, and sped away in it themselves.

Goldie was rescued by a passing motorist. Together she and the motorist returned to where Patrick had been shot, picked him up, and took him to a doctor in Reeds Spring, where he died within minutes. 

Goldie said the two gunmen were both wearing khaki clothes and had heavy beards and that one was a lot taller than the other, but she was unable to give a more detailed description because the darkness prevented her from getting a good look at them. 

A manhunt for the two murderers was organized, but it turned up no sign of the culprits. After a couple of days, the fugitives were tentatively identified as Ed Young and a man named Cotton who had worked in a cannery in Reeds Springs the previous season. The identification was based on the fact that the two men had called at the home of an aunt of Young's late Saturday night, after the murder, both of them armed with revolvers. The aunt had already heard about the crime, and she suspected that her nephew, whom she knew to have a violent streak, and his companion might be the perpetrators. So, she refused to admit them and called police after they left. 

After another day or two, Young and Cotton had still not been located, and the manhunt was called off under the assumption that they had somehow escaped the dragnet.

On the night of November 8, however, exactly a week after Patrick was killed, the two suspects were arrested at Harrisonville when they were found sleeping in a car that had been stolen at Humansville a few days earlier. Some weapons were found hidden in the vehicle, and the two men were charged with carrying concealed weapons. 

The two suspects gave phony names at first, but the Stone County sheriff traveled to Harrisonville and identified Young and his sidekick, whose name was eventually established as Odess "Cotton" Yandell. The two men were brought back to Stone County and charged with murder. At their trial in early December, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life imprisonment, and they were transported to Jefferson City a couple of days later.

Young, 33 at the time of his imprisonment, escaped in mid-November 1932 by walking off a prison farm, but he was recaptured a week later in southeast Missouri and brought back to the state pen. Yandell, who was only 21 when he checked into the big house, was paroled in late 1940, while Young was granted a parole two and half years later. 

Summersville, Missouri

Summersville, straddling the Texas-Shannon County line about 23 miles southeast of Houston, was platted in 1870 and named after early area settlers Jesse and Thomas Summer. The village got a post office the following year and has had one ever since.

In 1885, the population of Summersville was about 100 residents. Businesses in the town included two or three general stores, a drugstore, a hotel, a land agent, a wagonmaker, and a cabinet maker, as well as the post office. The community also boasted a Methodist church and an I.O.O.F. (Oddfellows) lodge.

The population was 187 in 1900, and by the time a Springfield Leader reporter visited Summersville in 1913, the population had grown to about 250. To reach Summersville, the Springfield man traveled first to Cabool (presumably by rail), and from Cabool he took a stage to Summersville. The 35-mile second leg of his trip took nine hours, but he claimed that he enjoyed the scenery so much that he didn't mind the long journey and arrived "without any great fatigue." 

Only about four months before the Leader man's visit, Summersville had suffered a fire that destroyed several business buildings and one "handsome residence." One store had already been completely rebuilt, and a couple of other buildings were under construction. The Springfield visitor opined that the fire had turned out to be "a blessing in disguise," because the new buildings were of better quality and more fireproof than their predecessors. 

Land around Summersville was very good for agriculture purposes, said the reporter, and land close to town was selling for $30 to $50 an acre. Farther out of town, farmland was selling for $10-$25 an acre, while unimproved land could be had for $5 to $10 an acre. Four or five miles outside of town, the land became free range, and cattle were turned out on it during the summer months so that farmers only had to feed their stock about five months out of the year. 

According to the Leader representative, Summersville had "a good school system" and "churches of various denominations." There were several church-affiliated societies as well as at least one fraternal lodge.

Among the town's businesses was the Summersville State Bank, which had a capital of $25,000. Other businesses included a pharmacy, a real estate agency, a clothing store, a hotel, a hardware and furniture store, a telephone company, a combination lumber store/insurance agency, two general stores, and a combination livery, feedstore and sale barn.

One of the pressing needs around Summersville was better roads, and a Good Roads movement was underway in the area when the Springfield man visited. On his trip back to Springfield, the reporter took a surrey to Mountain View, site of the nearest railroad depot. The trip took only three hours, and at Mountain View, our man presumably caught the train home to Springfield.

Summersville continued a gradual growth throughout the twentieth century, reaching a peak population of 571 in 1990. It has since decreased slightly in population to 453, as of 2020.

Killing of Vellie Driscoll

On October 5, 1897, the Forepaugh and Sells traveling circus made a stop at Rich Hill, Missouri. That evening during the performance, some local men, mostly miners, got into a dispute with some of the circus employees, and a 16-year-old boy named J. R. "Vellie" Driscoll, son of one of the miners, was hit on the head with a blunt object and killed during the melee. One of the circus men involved in the dispute was quickly taken into custody, and he had to be secretly whisked out of town to prevent a lynching. 

The person spirited away from Rich Hill reportedly implicated Victor Lee, operator of and main performer for one of the circus sideshows, in the Driscoll killing, and Lee was arrested in Joplin on the evening of the October 7 and charged with murder. The blunt instrument used in the killing was identified as a tent stake, but Lee denied killing Driscoll and said he thought the boy was not murdered at all but rather kicked by one of the circus horses. 

Ultimately, Charley Bell, who was manager of the circus and who also operated a candy stand, was identified as the person spirited away from Rich Hill, and he was charged as the actual murderer of Driscoll, while Lee was charged as an accomplice.

The two defendants were tried together in Bates County in early December. Lee claimed he was only drawn into the unfortunate affair because he left a bundle of his belongings at the candy stand, where the melee occurred, and happened to return to the stand to retrieve the bundle just when the fighting broke out. He said he had been questioned and released on the night of the incident because authorities were convinced that he was telling the truth. After relating his story to the jury, Lee was found not guilty and released.

Bell was turned loose before Bell's trial ended, and I have not found a definitive answer to what happened to Bell. From the lack of available evidence to the contrary, I conclude that he was probably also found not guilty.

 

Omaha, Arkansas

There were settlers in the area of Omaha, located about five miles south of the Missouri state line on old Highway 65, well before the Civil War. In fact, when old 65 was built in the early part of the 20th century, it generally followed the pre-Civil War Springfield-to-Harrison road, which passed through the Omaha area. However, it was not until around 1873, when Omaha got its first post office, that the community took on any semblance of a town, and it was not until 1903, about the time a branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad was built through the area, that Omaha was actually platted.

With the coming of the railroad, the town prospered, as it became a stop along the route. The train depot was actually located about a mile southwest of Omaha at a station called Cricket, but the town of Omaha still benefited from the increased traffic through the area and the ease of access that the railroad brought.

When a representative of the Springfield (MO) Leader visited Omaha in December 1912, he found a thriving little town of about a 150 people that boasted, in addition to its post office, a school, a bank, a hotel, a real estate agent, a couple of doctors, two or three blacksmiths, a barber, a carpenter, a shoemaker, and several general stores, including one that had been in business in Omaha for 28 years. The main industry in and around Omaha, though, was timber. The Leader man thought the area around Omaha would be good land for agriculture and stock raising, but for the time being, timber was king.  

I've estimated the 1912 population of Omaha by looking at 1910 census records, but I think my guess of 150 is fairly accurate. The figure seems to jibe with the town's population trend during future decades. Omaha had 146 residents in 1940, but it dropped off to only 91 ten years later. The population rebounded to as high as 207 in 1990, but it has experienced a general downward trend since then, fueled in recent years by the fact new Highway 65, built in the early 2000s, bypassed the town. Omaha's population as of 2020 was only 128 people. However, the town still has a school that serves grades K-12.

Linn Creek, Missouri

I've mentioned Linn Creek a few times over the years in my posts on this blog, but I don't believe I've ever devoted an entire post to the town. Today, I will.

When Camden County was formed in 1841, it was originally named Kinderhook County, and the village of Oregon, located where Linn Creek (the stream) emptied into the Osage River, was named the county seat. When the name of the county was changed to Camden in 1843, Oregon also changed its name to Erie. In 1855, because a cholera epidemic had killed much of Erie's population the previous year and because Erie's location was prone to flooding, the county seat was moved up Linn Creek about half a mile, and the new town took the name of the creek.

Because of its strategic location near the confluence of two fairly major waterways (i.e. the Osage and Niangua rivers), Linn Creek, like its predecessor, was an important shipping point during the pre-Civil War days, supplying goods to places throughout southwest Missouri.  

In 1870, Linn Creek had a population of about 130. By 1912, when the town was profiled in the Springfield Leader, the population had grown to about 430. To reach Linn Creek, the reporter who wrote the profile took the stagecoach from Lebanon. He said the whole territory through which he passed was new to him. He thought the surrounding land looked promising for crop farming, dairy farming, and raising poultry. Unimproved land was relatively cheap, selling from $5-$10 an acre, depending on the quality of the soil and the proximity to markets

In 1912, Linn Creek had a high school, three churches and several fraternal organizations. Among its businesses were two banks, a newspaper, and a hotel. 

In 1929, Linn Creek was destroyed during construction of Bagnell Dam and the Lake of the Ozarks, and the town was covered with water when the lake was filled. A new town called Linn Creek, or New Linn Creek, was built on higher ground a short distance away from the lake. However, a rival town, Camdenton, also sprang up nearby, and it became the new county seat. With Camdenton emerging as the principal town in Camden County, Linn Creek diminished in importance during the first decade after construction of Bagnell Dam, and its population plummeted from about 550 to about 200. Its population since 1940, however, has remained fairly steady at approximately 200.

Lowry City

When I used to write for Show Me the Ozarks Magazine, I sometimes was assigned to profile doctors or other leaders in the community in what was called a "Meet the Doctors" or "Meet the Educators" feature, or whatever the case might be. Sometimes these so-called profiles were actually paid advertisements. For instance, one of the local hospitals might occasionally buy advertisement from the magazine in the form of profiles of the physicians affiliated with that particular hospital. I would interview the doctors and profile them, but I was expected to show them in the best light possible, since the hospitals were paying for the copy.

Back in the early part of the 20th century, the Springfield Leader used to do the same thing, but the subjects of their profiles were not people but rather towns that surrounded Springfield. The profiles were paid for by the town's businesses that were featured in the profiles. Even though these articles were meant to promote the town in question rather than provide an objective view of the town, they usually imparted quite a bit of interesting information about the place.

Over the next few weeks and maybe the next few months, I plan to write about some of the places profiled in the Leader during the early 20th century, although, in many cases, I'll probably consult other sources besides the Leader in order to give a more complete, well-rounded view of the town in question. First up is Lowry City, Missouri.

Lowry City was platted in March 1871 eight miles north of Osceola in northern St. Clair County in anticipation of being a stop along the C & M Branch (I think the C & M stood for Clinton and Montrose) of the Tebo and Neosho Railroad, which was being laid through the area, and the new town was named a couple of months later, even before the railroad was completed. The man who owned the land on which the town was laid out named it after a businessman for whom he'd worked in Indiana. A post office was established at Lowry City about the same time it was named, and the Osceola Herald featured an article in June of 1871 about the new town while buildings were still going up apace. The Herald declared that, due to its favorable location on the prairie and its proximity to the railroad, Lowry City would "certainly make a good town."  

The new town grew rapidly, and by the latter part of 1871, it already had two physicians, two dentists, and about twenty businesses. In 1880, Lowry City boasted a population of 195 people, and it still had about the same number of businesses that it had in late 1871. By 1899, the population had increased to about 500 people. The town had at least four churches, two newspapers, a flour mill, and a sawmill, as well as a good number of basic businesses like general stores and drugstores. 

At the time Lowry City was profiled in the Springfield Leader in 1912, its population had decreased slightly from ten years earlier to about 460 people, although the article in the Leader erroneously estimated it at about twice that figure. The town had "splendid schools and excellent churches," and its citizens had just voted a bond for a "twentieth-century high school building." Improved farmland surrounding Lowry City was going for about $40 to $50 an acre. 

Lowry City's population has held fairly steady over the past 110 years. Its current population is slightly over 600, and at no time during the past century has it dipped below 437 or above 728.