Times Past: Jan. 24, 2018
A Jan. 25, 1918, item in this week’s Times Past reports that Bakersfield residents gathered to go coasting (sledding) on the “schoolhouse hill.” The sledding site was the former location of this stately Bakersfield school building, which is described in an unidentified newspaper clipping as “the pride of the community ... in the early 1900s.” The building, which housed the first high school classes to be held in Bakersfield in 1914, burned just after the new year began in 1915. According to Times publisher Ruby Robins’ history of the school published in the Aug. 31, 1983, edition of the Times, a few months after the wooden building burned, a concrete schoolhouse was constructed. That building, which opened in 1915, was destroyed by a tornado in June 1928 and was replaced by the school that was eventually demolished before the construction last year of Bakersfield’s current school building.
Ozark County Times
Jan. 25, 1918
The sad intelligence was reported here a few days ago that Martin Alsup, son of H. F. Alsup of South Fork, had died suddenly of strangulation while at the hospital at Ft. Sill, Okla., where he and his father had been called to be present when an operation for an abscess on a lung was performed on his twin brother, Barton, who enlisted in Co. D at West Plains last summer. ... Barton’s recovery is very doubtful.
The body of Martin is being shipped to Howell County for burial.
Bakersfield – A crowd has been gathering on the schoolhouse hill and coasting. The married people join the young folks in this sport.
Jan. 21, 1937
Ozark County is again without a courthouse. The old frame courthouse burned two years ago last November. The building which just burned [a former church building] was considered almost safe from fire.
When the fire was discovered about 12:30 Saturday morning, fire was breaking out through the windows and roof in the northeast end of the building, and inside, from the basement up, the whole east end of the building was a roaring furnace. ...
All that could be done was to prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings. ...
The record books of the different county officers had been placed in the vault that evening, but all papers on file in the different offices were destroyed.
Jan. 28, 1943
Tecumseh – Mr. and Mrs. Flay Blackburn and son Bobby have returned from Detroit, Mich.
Several of the men folks here are working at the dam.
Pvt. Alton Boatright is home on a furlough.
Howards Ridge – Howard Culpepper is recovering from a cold, contracted from running into North Fork River last week. He was running to get away from a big log which was rolling down the cliff toward him. He is employed on the clearing job for the dam.
Jan. 25, 1968
Mr. and Mrs. Shorty Wallace have announced the purchase of the Vest Bushong Grocery stock and the removal of Shorty’s Sport Shop from Gainesville to the former café next to the grocery business, which is located in the Bushong Oil Station east of Gainesville on Hwy. 160 at the junction with 181.
Jan. 27, 1993
Recent national media reports have stated that Sears, Roebuck and Co. has announced “significant corporate actions” which will include doing away with the Sears catalog, closing of some Sears retail stores and catalog sales stores. ...
Earl Holmes, owner and operator of the franchised Sears Catalog Store in Gainesville, said his catalog sales service will probably be closing this year. ...
Holmes has owned the franchise in Gainesville for about 20 years. He said he plans to continue business as usual until the contract is up in August.
Jan. 28, 1998
In a town meeting Sunday afternoon ... Dora School Board President David Jesse, along with School Superintendent Ken Cook, sounded the rally cry to carry on the Dora school legacy. [The school had been destroyed by fire.]
... Cook explained to the nearly 200 people who packed the Dora Assembly of God Church that classes are expected to resume Feb. 2 if the mobile buildings are in place. “There have been no plans for rebuilding yet, but we are going to rebuild. ... We have to deal with getting our students back in session first. ... ,’’ he said. [See related story, page 7.]
Trooper Clay D. Pettit has been assigned to Zone 7, Howell and Oregon Counties [after graduating from the Missouri State Highway Patrol academy on Jan. 16.]. Pettit is a graduate of Gainesville High School. He holds a bachelor of science degree in management from Southwest Missouri State University. ... Pettit is the recipient of the Superintendent’s Award for overall achievement for the 74th Recruit Class.