History

photo from the Abbey's website. 
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...
For years, I observed the abandoned old store on the east side of what became Howell County Route U, never knowing the treasures inside or the many stories of its importance to a rural village like Hutton Valley. I didn't realize the building was over one hundred years old when I first started...
With football season underway and the sassafras leaves beginning to turn scarlet, for me, it means chili—Texas red with beans—notwithstanding the International Chili Society (and Texas purists) define chili as not having “beans or other fillers.” The bean issue has sparked numerous arguments, but...
In September 1917, West Plains’ Stephen W. Thompson and his outfit, the United States 1st Aero Squadron, arrived for training in Amanty, France. He would spend the next five months learning to be an aerial observer in open-air two-seat bombers. The job included protecting his aircraft with a...
Growing up in Willow Springs in the 1950s and 1960s left me with memories of the freedom a small child could experience in a small town in a more innocent time, with a feeling of safety that sadly is no longer there. As kids, my brothers and sisters and I were allowed to walk unaccompanied in our...

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Willow Springs, MO 65793
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