Branson in 1905

Today, we think of Branson (MO) as a vacation and entertainment spot for mid-America, a mecca of live country music, and the home of Silver Dollar City, but it had an inauspicious beginning that would not have led one to imagine what it has become today.

Branson came into existence in the early 1880s, when about all it amounted to was a post office, and the place was named after the first postmaster, R. S. Branson. The name was changed to Lucia in 1901 but was changed back to Branson in 1904 when a town site was laid out on the north and west banks of a bend in the White River in anticipation of the arrival of the Missouri Pacific and Iron Mountain Railroad.

In late March of 1905, ten months after the town of Branson came into existence, a big write-up promoting the place appeared in a Springfield newspaper. The town site had a thousand lots ranging from 25 feet frontage up to one-acre lots. They were already "many beautiful residences and substantial business houses." However, Branson was "greatly in need of a bank," and it also needed a mill, a canning factory and "in fact most lines of business that one can imagine" since the town was only 10 months old and still "in a formation state."  

Although the writer mainly touted Branson because of its mining, timber, agriculture (especially fruit growing), poultry/cattle raising, industrial, and commercial prospects, he did not entirely overlook the town's potential as a resort or vacation spot. Because of the pure waters of White River, he thought it required no prophet to forecast that Branson, with all its natural and acquired advantages, will, even next summer, become a resort, and thousands will go to see this new town."

To have forecast what Branson has become today, however, would indeed have taken a prophet.

Fight Between New Town and Old Town

Residents of Springfield (MO) and North Springfield voted in the spring of 1887 to consolidate the two towns into one town under the name Springfield, but the vote was not without controversy, even after the proposal passed.

A rivalry had existed between the two towns every since North Springfield (called New Town) came into existence when the railroad came to the area in 1870 and was located a mile or so north of the public square. North Springfield grew up around the depot, and although it never rivaled Springfield (Old Town) in population or influence, it did become its own separate town with its own business district and so forth. 

In order to get New Town to agree to the consolidation, residents of Old Town accepted certain concessions, such as locating the new courthouse, the jail, and the post office near Center Street (now Central Street) fairly equidistant between the two towns, instead of on the square, where the old courthouse was. However, there was apparently still some question after the vote to consolidate as to whether the town fathers would carry through and locate the government buildings at the agreed-upon place.

In July of 1887, the Springfield Leader published a series of letters to the editor from those on either side of the issue, airing their grievances. The immediate question at the time was the location of the new jail. A writer calling himself "Center Street" made the case for locating it and the other public buildings near the intersection of Center Street and Boonville Street, as agreed on. He was answered by "Old Mossback," who argued for Old Town, where he felt real estate was more valuable and that the town was more likely to build up around the square. He thought the public square people had already made concessions in allowing the railroad to be located so far from the public square in the first place. Next came "Commercial Street" reiterating North Springfield's case, and he was followed by "Rough and Ready" who rose to the defense of Old Town. Then "Fair Play" took his turn. Despite the suggestion of objectivity in his name, he seemed to side with the public square as well.

As most people familiar with Springfield know, the jail was ultimately built near Central and Boonville, as was the new courthouse and the post office, although the old post office building is no longer a post office and a new jail has also replaced the one built on Boonville.  

Double Tragedy: Attempted Murder and Suicide

 On Wednesday evening, October 2, 1901, in southeast Saline County (MO), William Thomas shot his sweetheart, Minnie Mayse, gravely wounding her, and then stuck the gun in his mouth and killed himself. 

The incident occurred at the home of Charles Aldridge, about a half-mile north of Antioch Church. Arthur Cox, a young man who was working for Aldridge at the time, provided reporters with an account of the affair.

He said Minnie had been visiting her sister, Mrs. Aldridge, for about three weeks and that he (Cox) took Minnie to a singing at the church on the fateful evening. Thomas entered the church a short time after Cox and Minnie did, and after the singing was over, he approached the pair and asked to speak to Minnie alone. 

Cox agreed, but Minnie refused to go with Thomas. So, Cox took the young woman back to the Aldridge residence. However, Thomas followed in his own buggy and after Cox stopped his buggy in the Aldridge yard and helped Minnie out, Thomas jumped out of his rig and yelled for Minnie to come over to him, threatening to kill her and Cox both if she didn't.

Cox told Minnie to go ahead and go with him, and she started with Thomas toward the Aldridge house. The two were reportedly laughing and talking, giving no signs of further argument. However, Cox started away in his buggy and had gone but a short distance when he heard three gun shots. He hurried back to the house and saw Minnie lying on the ground near the front entrance, and Thomas was running toward the road. When he got to the road, another shot rang out. 

Cox helped Mr. and Mrs. Aldridge carry Minnie into the house and then hurried back out to the road. Thomas lay in road with blood pouring from his mouth and was beyond help. He died about two hours later.

Medical help was summoned, and it was found that Minnie had been shot three times, once in the left wrist, once on the side of her neck, and a third time in the back. The third slug lodged to the left of the spine between the 6th and 7th dorsal vertebrae. The doctors probed for the bullet but were unable to locate it.

Mrs. Aldridge said her sister had been engaged to Thomas for about a year. Two letters were found in Thomas's trunk at his home, one addressed to his mother and one addressed to Minnie's mother in which he threatened to kill the young woman and himself. They were dated July 1901, two months before the fatal shooting. 

A coroner's jury met the next day and found that Thomas had come to his death by voluntarily shooting himself in the mouth with a .38 caliber revolver.

At first Minnie was not expected to live, but she did, although she was paralyzed in her lower limbs and was not expected ever to be able to walk again. 

Robbery of the People's Bank of Springfield

When two  men robbed the People's Bank on Commercial Street on the  morning of December 27, 1927, it was the first bank robbery in Springfield history. The two men left their car parked in a nearby alley, went into the store, and flourished pistols. 

They ordered several customers and employees to lie on the floor and told another employee to open the safe. The employee told them the safe was on time lock, but they knew it was a bluff and forced him at gunpoint to open the safe. One of the bandits scooped all the currency he could find from the safe, and the two robbers then ordered everybody into the vault. The bank employee who opened the safe begged them not to lock them in, saying how hot it would be with that many people locked in close quarters, and they agreed not to lock the vault but warned them to stay in it for several minutes before emerging. They agreed, and the bandits took off, jumping in their vehicle, which they had left running, and taking off about ten minutes after they parked it in the alley. 

Two young men, Jack Long and Joseph Fowler, were identified as suspects in the holdup, and two men, thought to be the fugitives, were arrested on the morning of the 29th near Galena, Missouri. They were brought to Springfield later that same day, but they proved not to be Long and Fowler and were released.

The real Jack Long made his way to Texas, where he was arrested in the spring of 1928 for a bank robbery committed after he arrived in the Lone Star State. He was convicted in 1930 and served five years on the charge. When he was released in 1935, he was brought back to Missouri to face charges in the 7-year-old People's Bank job.

He was also convicted of that robbery and sentenced to 10 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Gainesville Bank Robbery

On Tuesday afternoon, August 25, 1931, three men held up the Bank of Gainesville (MO). One man stayed outside in the getaway car while two others entered the bank. Neither was masked, but one wore dark glasses while the other had on a fake mustache. One of the bandits held the cashier and two other people at gunpoint while the second man rifled the tills and the vault for all the loot he could find, which amounted to about $4,000 in cash and over $20,000 in non-negotiable securities. Before making their getaway, the robbers, even though they knew the vault could be unlocked from the inside, forced the cashier and the two bystanders into the vault and told them to stay there for a few minutes. 

The getaway car, a new brown Ford coupe, roared west out of town toward Theodosia. A hastily formed posse gave chase in several different vehicles, but the bandits kept throwing out roofing nails causing the pursuers to puncture their tires. The final pursuit car was forced to call off the chase late in the afternoon near Forsyth after it, too, suffered punctured tires. It was learned at Forsyth (or that vicinity) that another car, containing two women, had met up with the getaway car and aided in the escape.

Around September 1, Charles Quick, a former resident of Protem, was arrested in Seminole, Oklahoma, as a suspect in the Gainesville heist. He was extradited to Missouri.

On the evening of September 2, Oliver Hart of near Protem, his wife, Burr Davidson of Kissee Mills, and his wife were also arrested in connection with the Gainesville bank robbery. Charges against the two women were later dismissed, and the case against Charles Quick was also not pursued, apparently because he'd been mistakenly identified as a participant in the crime when, in fact, it was one or two of his brothers who were allegedly involved. 

Hart and Davidson's joint trial at Gainesville in May 1932 on charges of bank robbery ended in a hung jury, and they were released pending another trial.

In June of 1932, just a month or so after his trial had ended, Hart was shot and killed on the streets of Protem by Edgar Blankenship, a former deputy sheriff of Taney County and a former friend of Hart. The two men had recently had a falling out, though, and Blankenship came to Protem with a rifle about noon on the fateful day and started firing as soon as he saw Hart. Blankenship, as a Taney County deputy, had aided in Hart's arrest, and this was apparently at least partly the source of the dispute between the two men. Hart had reportedly threatened Blankenship, telling him he was a dead man. At any rate, the ex-deputy was acquitted of murder in the Hart killing.

Meanwhile, two Quick brothers, Joe and George, were arrested in Joplin in May of 1933 on charges of robbing the Gainesville bank. They were brought back to Ozark County, but I have not traced what happened to them after that.