History
Last week, we needed to take our taxes to the accountant in West Plains. I am useless in this line of work, so my wife and I agreed to go to the public library, where she could organize things, and I would hunt for history. She went inside before me. In a few minutes, she called me, suggesting I...
Computers, networking, and social networking have revolutionized how I do research. I started pursuing local history fifty years ago when I was typing on a manual typewriter, and most of my digging for information was in dusty old stacks of paper in some basement. That has all changed, and a lot...
September 18th of last year marked the five-year anniversary of this column in the Howell County News. I won’t say it, but the cliché about time being airborne is true. I recall how it started, as if it were yesterday.
My sister-in-law, Sandra Whitaker, told me a married couple, Ron and...
Each year, the first measurable snowfall brings to my mind one of the worst winters in South Central Missouri's recorded history. The details of its severity and consequence are in the letters and diaries of both sides stationed in the area during the Civil War. The majority of the civilian...
The first part of this story covered my road trip in early October to Assumption Abbey, the monastery in Douglas County, 23-miles southeast of Ava, Missouri. By way of recapitulation, the purpose of the trip was to interview Father Cyprian Harrison, a 94-year-old Trappist monk. My WSHS sophomore...
My childhood memories of Thanksgiving in Willow Springs include downtown parades, fall festivals, and the reason for these festivities - football. For many years I attended the biggest area sports rivalry of the year. On Thanksgiving Day, the Willow Springs and West Plains football teams played...
One hundred sixty-one years ago, South Central Missouri was reeling from an attack from the north. The raid, begun in Houston, reached Shannon County on November 4, 1863, swept through Texas County, and concluded on November 9, in northern Howell County. Along the way, twenty-three homes were...
In 1962, WSHS teacher Lowell McMurtrey took his World History class to Assumption Abbey, the Trappist monastery located southeast of Ava, Missouri. The trip created a good deal of excitement for my sophomore class. Field trips for a class were rare, and this seemed exotic, almost as if we were...
Our previous article told the story of the public execution of convicted murderer Robert Shehane, an event witnessed by thousands in Thomasville in August 1858. There are several variations of the story, including misidentifying the name of the victim and suspect and even the location and...
One hundred seventy years ago, the fledgling communities of South Central Missouri were abuzz with the news of a murder. Howell County was still part of Oregon County, with the seat of government in Thomasville, the largest town in the region. The story we now tell has several versions, resulting...