Southwest City, Missouri

Southwest City, Missouri, is a town in McDonald County in the extreme southwest corner of the county and the state. The area that would become Southwest City was first settled by white men in the early 1840s. The first store on the site of the present-day town was built in 1846, and the place soon became a thriving crossroads community. It was officially platted as a town in 1870 and named after its location in the southwest corner of the state.

It grew rapidly after this and supposedly reached a peak population of about 1,500 people in 1886, although this claim is called into question by figures from the 1880 census, when the town had only 173 residents. If, indeed, the town grew by over 1,300 people in the first six years of the 1880s, it must have lost residents in the latter half of the decade almost as fast it had gained them in the first half, because the estimated population in 1890 was only 707.
In 1912, when a Springfield newspaperman visited Southwest City, he estimated the town's population at about 800, although this figure is also belied by the official census just two years earlier when the town's population was only 483.

At the time of the reporter's visit, Southwest City was serviced by a branch of the Frisco Railroad that ran from Rogers, Arkansas, to Grove, Oklahoma. The town had three churches and a high school (a two-story brick structure built in 1896). Among the town's businesses were a bank, a hotel, a newspaper, a hardware and implement store, a lumber company, a dry goods store, and a drugstore. Southwest City likely also had several general stores, but the newspaperman failed to mention them. Fruit growing and the poultry industry were also going strong in the area. (The poultry processing plant at Southwest City today is one of the largest employers in McDonald County.)

Southwest City's population remained pretty steady in the 400-600 range throughout most of the 20th century. Starting about 1990, it enjoyed a modest growth spurt for the next twenty years, with its population peaking at 970 in 2010. The 2020 population stood at 922.

Diamond, Missouri

A log cabin was built on the site on the future town of Diamond sometime after the Civil War, and a blacksmith shop, the first commercial endeavor at the location, opened in 1878. The place was called Round Grove at first and then Center, but the name was formally changed to Diamond when the community got a post office in 1883. It was named after a diamond-shaped tract of land nearby.

By 1913, when a Springfield newspaperman visited Diamond, the village was approaching a population of 400 people. At the time, Diamond had three churches, "a well-organized school," a bank, a mill, a lumber company, a livery, a hotel, two drugstores, a hardware and implement store, and "numerous general stores." The poultry and dairy industry in the area was prospering. Diamond was reached from Joplin via the Missouri-Pacific Railroad.

Diamond's population remained fairly static at around 400 throughout the first half of the 20th century, when it began a steady growth that peaked at slightly over 900 residents in 2010. The 2020 census registered a slight decline in population.

Diamond is not to be confused with Diamond Grove, a community that dated to Civil War times but is now extinct. It was located several miles northwest of Diamond just east of Joplin, and about the only remaining vestige of the community is the Diamond Grove Christian Church.   

Battlefield, Missouri

Battlefield is a small town a few miles southwest of Springfield a mile or so south of the James River Freeway (Highway 60). The town was laid out in 1907 along the Missouri Pacific Railroad that was being constructed through the area. It was initially called Stewart before the name was quickly changed to Battlefield, in honor of the nearby Civil War battlefield where the Battle of Wilson's Creek occurred. The town got a post office in 1908, which remained until 1940, when it was discontinued. Since 1940, Battlefield has gotten its mail through the Brookline Post Office.

During its early years, Battlefield was never much more than a railroad stop and a wide place in the road. That was the case in 1913, when a Springfield newspaperman visited the community. At the time, Battlefield had a bank, a Methodist Church, a "good school organization," a general store, and perhaps one or two other businesses, but the reporter thought the place needed an infusion of energy if it expected to grow.

Through the first half of the 20th century and into the second half, Battlefield remained a small community with perhaps a few hundred residents, at most. That changed after the community incorporated as a village in 1967 and then reincorporated as a fourth-class city in 1971, just four years later.

By 1980, the town had a population of 1,227, and its growth really took off during the first decade of the new millennium. From 2000 to 2010, Battlefield's population more than doubled from 2,385 to 5,590. Today, it is an important bedroom community for people who work in Springfield.

Purdy, Missouri

Purdy is a town of about 1,000 people located on State Highway 37 in northwest Barry County. It was platted in 1880 when the Frisco Railroad was being built through the area, and the first train reached the community in 1881. The place was initially called Winslow after a railroad executive, but the name was soon changed to Purdy, after George A. Purdy, a railroad land agent and local businessman from Pierce City.

Purdy prospered during its early years, and by 1890, it had a population over 300. The town continued to grow for the next couple of decades. Incorporated as a city in 1904, its population stood at about 460 when a Springfield newspaperman visited the town in 1912, although he estimated the number of residents at close to 600.

The reporter found that Purdy had "an excellent high school" and four churches, namely the Baptist, Methodist, Christian, and Presbyterian. Among the businesses in town were a bank, two mills, two elevators, a lumberyard, a real estate agent, a hardware and implement store, and a combination grocery/flour and feed store. The poultry, dairy, and fruit industries were all thriving in the Purdy region.

Purdy's population stayed pretty steady for the next fifty years after the newspaperman's visit, and then the town enjoyed a growth spurt, nearly doubling in population from 1960 to 1980, when the number of residents stood at 928. The population reached a peak of slightly over 1,100 in 2000 and today (as of 2020 census) stands at 1,031.

During the 1980s, there was quite an uproar in Purdy over the high school's longstanding no-dancing policy. A number of students and parents banded together to sue the school over the policy, and the dispute made national headlines. A federal judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and Purdy held its first-ever dance on school property in December of 1988. Although an appeals court later upheld the school's right to ban dancing on campus, dances gradually became accepted because of changing attitudes and a change in board members, and today Purdy High regularly hosts school dances just as almost every other public school in the country does.

Deepwater, Missouri

Deepwater is a small town located at the intersection of Missouri state highways 13 and 52 in southern Henry County. It was platted when the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad was built through the area in 1884-1885, and it got a post office at that time. The town was named after nearby Deepwater Creek.

However, the post office was not the first post office in the area called Deepwater. The township of Deepwater had been organized over forty years earlier, and a post office called Deepwater was established in 1850 about three miles east of where Germantown would later be located. This post office was moved to Germantown after that town was established in 1857. It was still called Deepwater Post Office even after the move, but it was discontinued some years after the Civil War.

The town of Deepwater grew and prospered during the first few decades of its existence, and it reached a peak population of almost 1,400 people in 1910. When a Springfield newspaperman visited Deepwater a couple of years later, the town was still in the midst of its glory days. At the time of the reporter's visit, Deepwater had the distinction of being home to the largest manufacturer of clay products in the world, the W. S. Dickey Clay Company. The firm employed about 300 workers in Deepwater and had other plants in various other locations.

Deepwater also had a weekly newspaper, two banking institutions, "an elegant school system" consisting of eight grades, and numerous stores and businesses. The town was home to several "good strong churches," including a Presbyterian, a Methodist Church South, a Methodist Episcopal, a Baptist, a Christian, and a Catholic.

After Deepwater's zenith around 1910, the town's population gradually dwindled throughout the remaining nine decades of the 20th century. That trend has continued into the 21st century, and Deepwater's population, as of the 2020 census, now stands at about 355 residents, which is at or near the town's lowest population since shortly after its founding.

Murder of Jeanette Brunner

I rarely write about unsolved murder cases. I prefer cases that have a definite resolution. However, I'm going to make an exception for the case of Jeanette Brunner, a 17-year-old girl who was killed in Dade County (MO) 56 years ago. Hardly anyone else has written about it since the case went cold a few months after her body turned up in a pond near her home, and I figure this young woman's case deserves some attention, too, like so many of the other cold cases that seem to get a lot of attention. 

A recent graduate of Lockwood High School, Jeanette left her home on foot shortly after midnight on Saturday, September 19, 1970, following an argument with her parents. Early Sunday morning, barely more than 24 hours later, two young neighbor boys found her nude body floating in a pond on their land about a half mile from the Brunner home. Cause of death was unknown at first, and there was speculation that she had simply drowned.

A autopsy revealed a few days later, however, that she had been beaten on the head with a heavy object, such as a rock, and then thrown in the water. Reports conflicted as to whether she was already dead when placed in the water or she was unconscious when thrown in and died from drowning as a result. In either case, a coroner's jury concluded that Jeanette had been killed by an assailant or assailants unknown. Her clothes were found in the pond, but there was no evidence of rape.

It was reported at the time that Jeanette had recently lost her job working in the SMSU (Southwest Missouri State University) cafeteria and that she was despondent over that turn of events, but there was no indication that her recent job loss factored into her death. It was also never intimated that the argument with her parents played any part in the tragedy other than being the impetus for her to leave home in the middle of the night.

The family offered $1,000 reward for information leading to Jeanette's killer, but two months after the murder, no arrests had been made, and the case quickly went cold. After November 1970, it was scarcely mentioned in area newspapers for the next fifty years. In 2020, John Hacker wrote a feature about Jeanette's case that appeared in the Joplin Globe, but that's the only extensive coverage I'm aware of that the case has gotten in the past 55 years. At the time of Hacker's story, no one had ever been arrested in the case, and I assume that's still true.

Murder of Dan Stephenson

After Jack Inman and Bill Wilson killed Dan Stephenson south of Springfield in northern Christian County on the evening of October 21, 1882, initial reports of the incident that appeared in Kansas City and St. Louis newspapers contained few details of the crime. Inman and Wilson, whom the Kansas City Times described as "two roughs," went to Stephenson's home just south of the Greene County line near the James River, invited him to come out and take a drink with them, and then, according to the Times, proceeded to "beat him to death with spokes from a wagon wheel." Stephenson and Inman were brothers-in-law, reported the Times, and "the killing is supposed to have grown out of family feud." 

That was about the extent of the initial coverage.

It was left to the local weeklies, which came out a few days later, to supply additional information about the circumstances of the crime. The Ozark Republican, as reprinted in the Springfield Weekly Patriot, described the crime in some detail. It seems Stephenson had married Inman's sister, who was also a cousin of Wilson, but the "married life of this couple was not a happy one." Stephenson and his wife had separated, and not long afterwards, "ugly rumors" began circulating in the neighborhood of an untoward relationship between Stephenson's estranged wife and her cousin Bill Wilson. Stephenson confronted Wilson one day about the rumors. He said he never expected to live with his wife again, but he told Wilson that he should have more respect for his cousin than to "lead her from the path of rectitude and virtue." Wilson became angry at Stephenson's reproaches and swore revenge. "How fully he put these threats into execution our citizens have sadly learned."

On the fateful evening, Inman and Wilson, returning from Springfield in a wagon, called at the home of Stephenson's mother. She told them he was attending a meeting at Faught's School. (Faught's School and Church building was about a mile north of Faught's store, which was a forerunner of Nixa.) Inman and Wilson waited for Stephenson to return, and when he got back home, they talked him into going with them in their wagon to have a drink.

A short distance away, one of Mrs. Stephenson's neighbors heard a commotion, and he thought one of the voices he heard sounded like Dan Stephenson's. Early the next morning, he inquired at the widow Stephenson's for Dan and was told that he had not come back home. A search was undertaken, and Dan's battered body was found in the immediate vicinity of where the neighbor had heard the commotion. Inman and Wilson's wrecked wagon was nearby, but there was no sign of the two men.

They were immediately suspected of the crime, and a posse was organized to find them. No sign of the fugitives was found at first, but about a month after the crime, a brother and a brother-in-law of the murdered man went to Inman's house and found him hiding under the kitchen floor. The sheriff was alerted, and Inman was arrested. Shortly afterwards, Wilson turned himself in and was also lodged in jail.

Both men were charged with murder, and their joint trial came up in early September 1883. Inman was acquitted, and Wilson was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison.