Samuel S. Headlee

Another chapter in my new book is about the murder of the Rev. Samuel S. Headlee at the Pleasant View Church in northwest Webster County near Elkland shortly after the Civil War. I mentioned Headlee in a previous post about a year ago and discussed the Headlee family fairly extensively, but I went into very little detail about the murder itself. Without giving away the whole story (which you'll have to read my book to get), I will briefly outline the circumstances surrounding the killing.
Before and during the early part of the war, Headlee was a circuit-riding minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church who often preached at Pleasant View. The Civil War tore the church apart, and it split into two factions, the ME Church North and the ME Church South. Although the Northern faction came to dominate the church by the time the war ended, the Southern faction still claimed title to the building.
The Drake Constitution, adopted in Missouri shortly after the war, forbade anyone who had sympathized with the Confederacy from holding a responsible job like teaching, preaching, or practicing law without first taking an oath of allegiance to the Union. Headlee, as an unrepentant Confederate sympathizer, refused to take the oath but decided nonetheless to try to reclaim the Pleasant View Church for the Southern faction. When he announced that he was going to hold a revival meeting there near the end of July 1866, the Northern faction organized to oppose him and warned him not to try to carry through on his plans.
The headstrong Headlee showed up anyway on the appointed day insisting on his right to preach, but a mob that had gathered to challenge him forced him off the church grounds. As he was removing to some land he owned in the vicinity with plans to preach on his own property, he was shot and killed about a quarter of a mile from the church.

Sally Rand

Last time I mentioned the idea of famous or semi-famous people who were born in the Ozarks, and I talked specifically about Langston Hughes, a native of Joplin.
Another Ozarkian who, like Hughes, went on to achieve a certain level of notoriety as well as fame was Sally Rand, who was born in the small village of Elkton, in Hickory County, Missouri. While Hughes was already somewhat famous as a poet and author before his uncoventional beliefs (some accused him of being a communist) got him into hot water with traditionalists, the burlesque dancer became famous and infamous at the same time by taking her clothes off.
Actually, Ms. Rand rarely, if ever, appeared completely nude but instead was always partly covered by a fan, a bubble, or a sheer body suit. Her performance at the Chicago World's Fair, though, was enough for her to make a risque name for herself.
Although I've lived in the Missouri Ozarks my whole life and I've traveled to a lot of out-of-the-way places in the region, I've never been to Ms. Rand's hometown of Elkton. From looking at a map, I conclude that there's no good way to get there. I have, however, been to Elkland, in Webster County, numerous times.