History
In my last article, I ran out of space reviewing the Battle of West Plains and its aftermath one hundred sixty-one years ago. We looked at the attack as described in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, a compilation of reports from both sides published two decades after the war....
The recent front-page article by publisher Amanda Mendez informed readers about the closing of the venerable Ferguson Drugstore in Willow Springs, after one hundred seventeen years in the community. For some former residents, who get their news of all-things Willow Springs from the Howell County...
It seems every year about this time; my thoughts turn to the Battle of West Plains, which occurred on February 19, 1862. It isn't the anniversary of the fight that triggers my attention; it is the weather. The sleet storm we just endured in Howell County is much like what the combatants...
I am fascinated by people who can do things that I haven’t done or probably couldn’t do. Esoteric subjects interest me, but I can’t imagine getting a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy, and after those accomplishments, changing course and going to law school. Then, becoming a Curators’...
With the construction of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad completed, the exploitation of the virgin pine forests in Howell County could begin. The big timber was located in the northwest and northeast corners of the county. The northwest portion was first harvested because it...
Each episode of “The Way We Were” is an adventure, often down paths I have not thought about for years. One source of memories, particularly those that recur from time to time and may still affect us in subtle ways, often stems from something a relative said. My latest jaunt down “reflection lane...
After my column last time about Christmas in the Ozarks, I heard from a few friends who shared their memories of Christmas in Willow Springs in the 1960s.
Annette Tetrick Johnson (WSHS, 1965) recalled, “I remember how exciting it was to go downtown as the streets were decorated and hearing the...
In the past couple of issues, we’ve explored an unpublished local history written by John Frommel.
Another unpublished manuscript deserving of attention is a local history written by R.J. Huckshorn in 1951. Robert Jack Huckshorn was a resident of Willow Springs in the early part of his life,...
north, snow covered the lawns and cornfields to the point of boredom, but were a rarity greeted with mild awe in the Ozarks.
In the northern cities, people drove to Christmas tree lots full of Scotch pine, Douglas firs, and blue spruce trees to get their symbol of the holidays and toted it home...
This issue continues the saga of William "Pug" Garrison, an early pioneer of Howell County. Garrison came to the Hutton Valley-Willow Springs area as a long hunter, trapper, and squatter in the summer of 1852 and lived here for nearly a decade hunting and subsistence farming before the Civil War...