Times Past: Oct. 18, 2017
This photo of renowned mule trader Ferd Owen, an Ozark County native, is reprinted from the Jan. 26, 1948, edition of Life magazine, recently shared with the Times by Paul Rose. The magazine said that Owen, pictured here with a “cotton” mule, had “bought and sold as many as 100,000 horses and mules in a year.” Even more amazing, he was famous for being able to recognize and name the price of any mule he had ever bought or sold through the years. He was related to the Ozark County Amyxes. A 1955 item in this week’s Times Past collection reports his death at his home near Belton. His former 2,100 ranch there has been developed into a planned community in the Kansas City suburbs where Times Past columnist Mary Ruth Luna Sparks and her husband, Mike, make their home.
Ozark County Times
Oct. 20, 1911
Nottinghill – F. H. Cantwell sold his cattle and is going into the sheep business. He says he is not afraid of the wolves now as Mr. Grudier and Mr. Williams make frequent trips over here with their hounds and have killed several wolves.
Landon Gaulding is having a well drilled on his ridge farm.
Oct. 19, 1917
James Ford and son, John, were over from Pontiac the first of the week having some wagon repairing done.
Ad – Do you want a dress made? Do you want a new fall hat? If so, see the Dress-making and Mil-linery Department at Wood & Reed’s store. Mrs. Hugh Layton, Miss Julia Edmonds.
School Notes – The boys of the school have organized a basketball team and are expecting to have some good games among themselves if no outside teams can be scheduled.
Oct. 22, 1942
G. W. Rogers, Jr., who has been in the navy for several months and who was with the ship, Calhoun, lost several weeks ago, arrived home Sunday for a 30-days visit with home folks in this city.
Romance – A plane was forced to land in a field near here a few days ago. It is reported the pilot had lost his direction to Springfield and was low on oil.
A large crowd attended the shower given at the home of L. M. Epps Friday night in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Freeman Epps. Freeman joined the Coast Guard about a year ago, and he came home on a 10-day leave to visit his parents and to make Miss Pauline Naugle his wife. They left Sunday.
Oct. 20, 1949
The newly organized Baptist church here has purchased a lot from Otis Gilliland on High Street on which a new church is to be built in the near future.
John Johnson of Dug-ginsville was here on business Tuesday. He purchased a new Chevrolet while here from the Kerr Chevrolet Co. Mr. Johnson’s son and grandson are employees of the Chevrolet Co. and have a fine place to work.
Oct. 19, 1950
Sandra Marie, newborn daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Trellis Turner of Thornfield, was the 100th baby to be born in the Maternity Department of Dr. M. J. Hoerman’s office in 1950.
The little girl weighed eight pounds, six ounces, arriving at 8:55 p.m. Oct. 17. The parents had one other child three years ago which died a few hours after birth.
Oct. 13, 1955
Ferd Owen, 66, of Belton, Mo., who made a fortune buying and selling horses and mules, died Oct. 7 at his home, the Owen-Good Ranch near Belton, after suffering a heart attack.
Born on a farm in Ozark County, Owen entered the horse and mule business for himself at West Plains, Mo., at the age of 15. He became president of the Owen Brothers Horse and Mule Company with branches in Nashville, Memphis, Meridian, Tex-arkana and Joplin with his brothers and nephews in charge.
Oct. 19, 1967
Mrs. Bertha Rebecca Martin, 81, died Monday at Tecumseh at the home of her son, Rudolph Martin. She had been a life-long resident of Tecumseh and was born April 23, 1886, to Smith and Rebecca Ann Ogletree Garrett. She was married to Thomas Oliver Martin on July 26, 1903.
... Surviving besides her husband are two sons and four daughters: Richard of Cimarron, Kansas, Rudolph of Tecumseh, Mrs. Tessie Evans of Tecumseh, Mrs. Letha Bushong of Gainesville, Mrs. Eunice Langston of Caulfield and Mrs. Geneva Beach of Almartha.
Wild turkeys will again inhabit the Center Point area and will probably reach huntable proportions in some three or four years, according to the Conser-vation Department. ...
Because of the presence of a few wild turkeys already in the area, this will be a small release of four toms and eight hens. ...
PFC Carl C. Herndon, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clayton Herndon, has been assigned to the 125th Air Traffic Co. near Phien Phlet, Viet-nam. Pvt. Herndon entered the Army in November 1966. ....
Oct. 21, 1992
Thom Taylor’s Celebrity Comedy Hypnosis Show Against Drugs will provide an educational two-hour comedy hypnosis stage show that will celebrate the power of the drug-free mind Oct. 23 at Gainesville High School.