History
With planting season rapidly approaching, my dad’s gardens come to mind. He always had big, beautiful gardens that provided abundance, not only to us, but to neighbors and friends in the Howard’s Ridge Community. My grandma always said that we’d never go hungry because Daddy was so generous with...
While researching my files, I came across two copies of a Willow Springs newspaper I was unfamiliar with. "The Willow Springs Democrat" existed for only a year in its first life and not much longer in its second.
The practice of a newspaper declaring a party affiliation predated the Civil War....
Howell County is generally drier in its north than in other parts. Reliable water sources, especially in drought, were prized and their location was “well” known to the early settlers. In 1973 retired schoolteacher and local historian Ella Horak wrote of a watering location, which happens to also...
Now, I admit to being old, but as I drove home from a meeting this week, listening to the radio, two thirty-something program hosts complained they didn’t know any of the current music. They rattled off a few terms: K-Pop (Korean popular music) performed by boy bands and girl groups, with...
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...