Germantown, Missouri

Germantown is a small community in Deepwater Township in southwest Henry County, Missouri. Today, about all that remains of the place are a church, a couple of businesses, and a few residences, but at one time, it was a thriving little village.

Founded in 1857, Germantown was named for its high concentration of residents who were German immigrants or of German descent. The current church at Germantown is the St. Ludger Catholic Church, which was established by German Catholics in the town's early days. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the more interesting episodes of the Civil War in Henry County occurred in March of 1864 in the Germantown neighborhood. On the evening of the 26th, a party of guerrillas came into Deepwater Township and started “menacing the citizens and committing the most outrageous acts of plunder.” A citizen named Short hurried to the Federal camp at Germantown, to report the situation, and a Union detachment under Sergeant John W. Barkley was dispatched to the vicinity of the trouble.

When he arrived on the scene around midnight, Barkley learned that, after Short’s departure, another citizen of the neighborhood had shot and severely wounded one of the bushwhackers and that they had fled the area, taking the injured man with them. The Federals pursued and soon caught up with three of the Rebels at the house of man named Dunn. After an all-night stand-off, the three guerrillas, including the wounded man, surrendered and were taken back to the Federal camp at Germantown.

The two uninjured Rebels were given a drumhead court martial. Civilians testifying before the tribunal identified the two men as part of a band that had committed all sorts of depredations in their neighborhood the previous winter, and the two guerillas were convicted and sentenced to die by firing squad. The condemned men knelt down beside the grave that had been prepared for them and "met death with a dauntlessness worthy of a better cause."

The wounded Rebel was spared because of his serious condition, but the Union commander at Germantown vowed to execute him if he recovered. For a more detailed account of this episode, check out by book The Civil War on the Lower Kansas-Missouri Border https://amzn.to/3L13BOF.

After the Civil War, Germantown prospered for a few years and seemed to be on the road to becoming a fairly substantial town. However, when a railroad was constructed through the area in the early 1870s, it bypassed Germantown. The town of Montrose grew up along the railroad about four miles southeast of Germantown, and several businesses and quite a few residents of Germantown packed up and moved to the new town. Germantown began a rather precipitous decline, and by the mid-1870s, it had already lost its post office. By the late 1880s, it wasn't much bigger than it is today, not much more than a wide place in the road.

Me and Mrs. Jones, We Got a Thing Going On: A "Triangular" Relation Culminates in Murder

When 48-year-old Sarah Elizabeth "Sadie" Trainer shot and killed 47-year-old Cora Jones on the streets of St. Joseph on Saturday evening, December 17, 1932, the immediate dispute involved a grocery bill, but the murderous act was the culmination of bad blood that had existed between the two women for many years over "a triangular relation."  

According to Sarah's son, 31-year-old Forest Trainer, his father had begun an affair with Cora Jones about 13 years earlier. Sarah had caught her husband, 53-year-old Fred Trainer, and Cora together two or three times, resulting in bitter quarrels. Forest's parents had finally separated about five or six years ago, and the elder Trainer had gone to board with Mrs. Jones and her husband, Charles, who lived not far from the Trainers. Sarah did not file for divorce until early 1932, and the divorce was granted just two or three months prior to the shooting. The property settlement decreed by the divorce also caused "a good deal of trouble" between the Trainer couple. 

Early on Saturday evening, December 17, Forrest Trainer and his young wife, Ethel, went to a local grocery store to purchase provisions and asked for credit, but storekeeper David Stearns denied the request, because Trainer, who was out of work, already had run up a bill with the store that he couldn't pay. Stearns said Trainer would have to pay something toward the current bill before additional credit would be extended. 

Trainer called his father and told him the situation, and Fred Trainer, in the company of Cora Jones, soon met up with his son outside the store. Forrest asked his father to give him some money, which, according to the son, Fred had previously promised to do. Fred gave his daughter-in-law five dollars, but Forrest and his father got into an argument over the amount, because Forrest thought Fred ought to give him ten dollars. Meanwhile, Cora began berating Forrest and Ethel for running up such a large grocery bill to begin with. 

As the argument heated up, Forrest asked his father to walk down the street a piece so that they could discuss the matter in private, but Cora wouldn't let them leave. Forrest claimed she called him "everything but a white man" and slapped him. 

At this point, Ethel, who was at the store, called her mother-in-law and told Sarah. whose home was only a block or so away, what was going on. The argument was still going when Sarah arrived, and, according to at least one eyewitness, she walked up to Cora and shot her in cold-blood without warning. Both Forest and his father claimed not to have seen the actual shooting, while Sarah denied shooting Cora. 

Cora was taken to the hospital, and Sarah was arrested and charged with assault. After Cora died about 24 hours later, the charge was upgraded to first-degree murder. Sometime after her arrest, Sarah admitted the shooting, but she said Cora was threatening her with an iron bar resembling a car crank at the time. 

So, at Sarah's trial in early 1934, her attorney argued self-defense. He also wanted to make an insanity plea, but the judge ruled that he could not argue both self-defense and insanity. So, he stuck with the self-defense plea. 

Sarah took the stand in her own defense to repeat her iron bar story. She said she acted not just to protect herself but also her son, since Ethel had told her over the phone that her ex-husband and Cora were "killing Forrest down here." During her testimony, though, she broke down in sobs, claiming that "they" would not let her tell her story.

At the end of the trial, the jury came back with a second-degree murder conviction and a sentence recommendation of fifteen years in prison. Cora's lawyer moved for a new trial, and when that motion was denied, he appealed to Missouri Supreme Court. 

Sarah remained free on bond during the appeals process, but after the high court affirmed her conviction in March 1935, she was transported to the state prison at Jefferson City. She was paroled in 1941 after serving about six and a half years of her fifteen-year sentence.

 

Springfield to Carthage Road

For the first several years after my wife and I moved to Joplin from Springfield, we frequently traveled Highway 96 (approximating Old Route 66) between Carthage and Halltown on our trips back to Springfield instead of taking I-44, because we lived on the north side of Joplin. I was always intrigued by the small towns one passes through on that route, several of them no more than wide places in the road and almost completely extinct. 

One might assume that at least a few of those little villages grew up as a result of being located on Old Route 66, and I think I probably assumed that myself at the time I was often traveling that way. If you make this assumption, though, you would be wrong, because almost all of the small hamlets located along Highway 96 between Carthage and Halltown predate the opening of Highway 66. 

Until this stretch of road was officially designated Highway 66 circa 1926, it was known as the Springfield-to-Carthage Road, and it dates at least as far back as the Civil War. Moreover, most of the small towns along the way date at least as far back as the turn of the 20th century.  

Located just over the Greene County line in eastern Lawrence County, Halltown got a post office in 1879, and the town was platted in 1887. It was a thriving little town in the early 1900s, and even today, it still has a population of about 170 people. In fact, it is one of the few villages along the stretch of Highway 96 from Greene County to Carthage that still has the appearance of anything more than a wide place in the road, but its business district, if you can call it that, is a ghostly shell of what it used to be.  

Traveling west from Halltown, the first little community you come to about three miles down the road is Paris Springs. It is actually not on present-day Highway 96, but it was on Old Route 66. Nowadays, you have to detour off 96 to get to it. Originally known as Johnson's Mill because it was the site of a mill on Clover Creek, the place was used for mill power even before the Civil War, but it never amounted to much as a town or village in its early days. The place was also the site of a natural spring that supposedly had healing waters, and its name was changed to Chalybeate Springs shortly after the Civil War when a mineral-water resort was established there. Later the name was changed to Paris Springs, and the place prospered for a while as a healing resort, but by the time the 1917 History of Lawrence County was written, "not much [was] left of Paris Springs." 

Just a mile and half west of Paris Springs lies the village of Spencer, and like the former place, Spencer is on the Old Route 66 road but not on Highway 96.  Spencer was a going little place at least as early as the 1880s, when it had a school, a flour mill, a post office, two churches, and two stores. Nowadays, there are still some store buildings in Spencer that date from its Route 66 days, and tourists often visit the place as a nostalgic curiosity. 

Another five miles west of Spencer is Heaton, more commonly called Heatonville. It was laid out in 1868 by Daniel Heaton and by the following year had ten residences, one store, one blacksmith shop, and a post office. Heatonville, however, "failed to reach the expectations of its sponsor," as the 1917 history says. By that year, Heatonville no longer had a post office and didn't have much else either. During the heyday of Route 66, it did serve as a bus stop, but, as far as I know, it never had much else other than the bus stop (which might have doubled as a store). Nowadays, I don't know whether there is anything at all left even to indicate exactly where Heatonville was located unless you're quite familiar with the area. 

Just a couple of miles farther west from Heatonville on Highway 96 one comes to Albatross, at 96's intersection with Highway 39. I'm not altogether sure, but I think Albatross is the only little village along this stretch of road that does not predate Route 66, because I think it actually started as a bus stop. I'm not sure whether it took Heaton's place as a bus stop or both villages had bus stops simultaneously for at least a while, even though they were very close together. 

The little village of Phelps lies about three and a half miles west of Albatross. Phelps sprang up shortly before 1880, and by that year it boasted a population of about 80 people. By 1890, it had a school, three churches, two general stores, a drugstore, a hotel, a post office, a wagon master, and three doctors. Like Heatonville, though, Phelps did not get "along very far in its endeavor to make a noise in the world," and by 1917 it was already in steep decline.

About eight miles west of Phelps, one comes to Rescue, which began around 1900, although it never really amounted to much more than a wide place in the road. The last time I was through that way, about the only thing remaining to mark the location of Rescue other than a road sign was a building that once served, I believe, as a garage or filling station. I haven't driven Highway 96 lately, though; so, as far as I know, there may not be anything there now. 

Lying another three miles west of Rescue is the little village of Plew. A post office was established at Plew in 1893 and remained in operation until 1904, but like Rescue, the place never amounted to much more than a wide place in the road during its early days. After Route 66 came in, a resort with cabins for travelers was located at Plew, but they closed after I-44 was constructed and most of the traffic bypassed Plew.

Five miles west of Plew is Avilla, in the eastern edge of Jasper County. Avilla was founded before the Civil War, and it was a going little community during the late 1800s. Even today it still has a population of about 100 people and still has the semblance of a small village, but its heyday is long gone. 

In the "old wagon days," according to a 1921 Springfield Leader article, quite a bit of through traffic passed along the Springfield to Carthage road, and the road was kept up fairly well. However, during the early 1900s, stretches of the road had been allowed to fall into disrepair, as folks were only interested in keeping up the roads that led to their own local centers of commerce. About the only attempt that was made to keep the road up was in the Halltown area. Thus, when a legislative road bill was passed in the summer of 1921 to grade and put down a new coat of gravel on the old Springfield to Carthage road, the proposal was greeted as welcome news by people living along and/or using the road on a regular basis. Cost of the project was not to exceed $6,000 per mile. 

The Leader observed at the time that the Springfield to Carthage road contained "probably the longest undeviating section of road in Southwest Missouri." From the line separating Ranges 25 and 26 (just west of Spencer) to the Jasper County line, the road was a straight shot for nineteen miles.     

Woman Owns a Town

In the summer of 1927, Ada B. Clodfelter sold her property in Springfield (MO), where she had run a boarding house, and purchased the entire town of Garber, a tiny village west of Branson in Taney County with the idea of building it up as a tourist attraction. Located in the Shepherd of the Hills country, Garger was where J. K. Ross, the real-life inspiration for Uncle Matt of the famous Harold Bell Wright book, had his post office for many years, and it was less than a mile from his cabin. 

Shortly after Ada took over the town, an official of the Missouri Pacific Railroad visited Garber to arrange for the appointment of an agent and caretaker at the village. The railroad anticipated that the little resort community, which currently had but one store and about five residences, would become a busy place, and it planned to list Garber on its map.

Already the storekeeper by virtue of having bought the town, Ada was not only appointed the railroad agent for Garber, but she was also appointed postmistress and elected mayor of the little village.

Ada Clodfelter from Springfield Press.

Not long after Ada took over Garber, she had a rustic hotel erected, and in the summer of 1929, she started a publication called the Buzzer Magazine, which she put out singlehandedly. The magazine promoted both women's concerns and the Ozarks as a resort region.

Ada had big plans for Garber. She was an aspiring figurine artist and wanted to start a toy factory. She also wanted to establish a church and women's home at Garber. Indeed, an old folks' home (which was an expansion of the women's home idea) was constructed in 1931, but old people did not flock to occupy the home. 

Moreover, the town never took off as a resort the way Ada (and the railroad) had visualized. Its development was handicapped by a lack of good roads to reach the secluded village. For instance, the road from Garber to nearby Marvel Cave, which was already an established tourist attraction, was a mere trail unsuitable for automobile traffic. So, people who visited Garber had to arrive on foot, by horseback, or via the train, which only stopped at Garber if it carried disembarking passengers or if Ada flagged it down to pick up departing passengers. 

Ada died in early 1933 at the age of 58, and her dream of turning Garber into a booming tourist attraction died with her. She was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery at nearby Notch, which was also the final resting place for "Old Matt" and "Aunt Mollie" Ross.