TIMES PAST
This photo, shared from the Dora School library’s Facebook page, shows Dora’s first store. According to a history of Dora by the late Bess Cropper published in “A History of Ozark County: 1841-1991,” it was opened by Anton Fisher sometime after he bought the land in 1878. He “acquired the post office,” Cropper wrote, and “named it Dora after his daughter. The store was later sold to U. L. Winkler and then to D. L. Harlin, who sold it in 1908 to his brothers, Joe and Frank. Edwin and Mattie Deupree bought the store in 1912. Their son Ray Deupree eventually took over its operation and ran it until his death in 1967, when the store closed.
Ozark County Times
June 19, 1903
Hawk Walker has had to give up the championship belt to Tesley Luna on account of the following story. Tesley says that a cyclone passed over a small town in North Missouri and that a grocery man had a sack of flour hanging out in front of his store for a sample and that the cyclone blew the sack off and left the flour hanging there.
June 19, 1908
Last Tuesday morning Capt. Sallee, believing that Mrs. Hicks, who is confined in the county jail for the murder of her husband, needed a little personal attention, spoke to a number of the ladies of the town who responded promptly to looking after the prisoner.
After Dr. White, county physician, had thoroughly disinfected the jail, the ladies marched in and gave Mrs. Hicks a good bath and placed upon her some much needed clean clothing.
June 14, 1918
Mr. Claud Gaulding and Miss Amy Small, both of this city, were married Sunday at the home of Olin Edmonds at Isabella. Rev. Hale performed the ceremony.
The bride is the only daughter of Dr. J. H. Small. ... The groom is the oldest son of County Clerk Baxter Gaulding and wife. ....
S. F. Amyx arrived home Monday from Camp Grant, Ill., where he had gone to see his brother, Sigel, of Co. F. 32 Engineers. He saw all of the Ozark County boys in that camp. Curtis S. Amyx, Lewis Gardner, Charley Blacksher and Robert Exline. They were well and in high spirits, and in a few hours after Mr. Amyx visited them, they were on their way to France.
June 10, 1943
A farewell party was given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Preston Friend of near Lutie Monday night in honor of their sons, Pvt. Quentin Friend and Pfc. Earlin L. Friend, who are in the service, and also for Pvt. Noel Burnett. A very large crowd of relatives and friends were present.
The evening was spent in playing games and songs by Fern Pierce and Lorene Friend.
Lt. Arnold Martin, who has been stationed at Williams Field, Ariz., for some time, and Miss Rose Jocumm of Sacramento, Calif., were recently married at Chandler, Ariz.
They spent a few days with home folks at Pontiac before going to a new field at Ephrata, Wash.
Lt. Martin is a son of Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Martin of Pontiac.
June 14, 1945
Willie Wilbanks of Pontiac, who has been employed in Kansas City for some time, was killed Tuesday morning in a car wreck while on his way to work. Two other men were also killed.
Mr. Wilbanks is survived by his wife and six children, one son being in the service overseas.
Funeral services and burial will be made at Pontiac Friday morning.
On Wednesday morning of last week, when M. L. Kesner went to the pasture to get his horses to go to work, he found them both dead under a walnut tree. They had been killed by lightning the evening before during the electrical storm. Mr. Kesner is a prominent farmer of the Tecumseh community.
June 13, 1968
James A. Holmes received a Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in commencement exercises there last Monday.
Mr. Holmes wrote his master’s thesis on the history of Ozark County from 1841 to the Civil War. A former resident of Gainesville, he teaches in the Oak Grove high school near Kansas City.
Caney – A large crowd attended the wedding of Jan Shanks and Jim Miller at Smith Chapel June 2.
Bill Rose had the misfortune of losing his tractor by fire recently. He now has a new one. Also he and Floyd Pitcock traded for a new baler.
June 16, 1993
Jim Dutton and the band “Just by Chance” from Mountain Home will be featured this week as musical guests at the gazebo on the square in Gainesville.
The music is slated for June 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Recently Tony and Patricia Dohmen opened a new business in a familiar location just off the square in Gainesville.
Main Street Laundry came about following the couples’ remodeling of the building, which sits on the east side of Main Street, just across from Hambelton’s House of Flowers.