Times Past


Sometime after “Fred Wright and family” moved to Hammond to become “one of the merchants there,” as reported in the July 15, 1943, item below, this photo was taken of the Wrights’ store, which had moved into the Hammond bank building. The photo was taken by Orval Jernigan, a Milligan Grocery Co. representative who traveled to rural stores in Douglas, Ozark and Taney counties. During the winter of 1946-47, Jernigan took pictures of the stores he called on, typed descriptions onto the bottom of each photo print and mounted them in a photo album that now belongs to Christy Voliva in Ava. She has shared the photos, which were scanned into digital form by Kenneth Brown, with the Ozark County Historium.
Ozark County NewsJuly 13, 1899A terrible tragedy took place near Bakersfield recently. Mr. Leech, who lives near Bakersfield, had two sons aged about 10 and 12. The oldest boy got the shotgun to kill a hawk nearby. In order to get near enough to shoot the hawk, he cocked the gun and turned the...

This photo, shared by Ozark County Historium genealogist Rhonda Herndon, was donated to the Historium several years ago by Larry Loftis. Taken sometime around 1910, it shows the “Sawmill by Ramsey Spring, below the Arthur Loftis place, toward Smith Chapel Church,” according to notes with the photo, which also identify Will Loftis, center, holding the shovel; Henry “Shoat” Womack at right, holding the team of horses; and “Amyx children up front.”
The DemocratJuly 13, 1904J. W. Terry of Lilly Ridge, one of our most prosperous farmers, is extensively engaged in the sheep business. He now has about 400 head of a good breed.Albert Harley found two bee trees last week. The comb in one of the trees reached about 8 feet up and down the tree. Ozark...

During the winter of 1946-47, the late Orval Jernigan, an Ava-based sales representative for Milligan Grocery Co., Jernigan took pictures of stores, mills and some scenery throughout the Ozark, Douglas and Taney county area. Jernigan labeled this photo “Modern Hill Home, Skyline Drive in Forest.” An album of Jernigan’s photos, now owned by Christy Voliva of Ava, was digitized several years ago by Kenneth Brown, who shared the photos with the Ozark County Historium, with Voliva’s permission.
Ozark County TimesJuly 5, 1918S. F. Amyx received notice a few days ago that his brother, Curtis, had landed safely in France. Relatives of Lewis Gardner, Charley Blacksher and Robert Exline, Ozark County boys of Co. F 32nd Engineers, have also received notice of their safe arrival in France. ...

During the winter of 1946-47, the late Orval Jernigan, an Ava-based sales representative for Milligan Grocery Co., Jernigan took pictures of stores, mills and some scenery throughout the Ozark, Douglas and Taney county area. Jernigan labeled this photo “Modern Hill Home, Skyline Drive in Forest.” An album of Jernigan’s photos, now owned by Christy Voliva of Ava, was digitized several years ago by Kenneth Brown, who shared the photos with the Ozark County Historium, with Voliva’s permission.
Ozark County TimesJuly 5, 1918S. F. Amyx received notice a few days ago that his brother, Curtis, had landed safely in France. Relatives of Lewis Gardner, Charley Blacksher and Robert Exline, Ozark County boys of Co. F 32nd Engineers, have also received notice of their safe arrival in France. ...

This postcard photo of Gainesville, from the collection of Mary Ann Boone Heard, was taken sometime after 1912. The Ozark County Courthouse is the white, two-story building on the lower left edge. (It burned in November 1934.) The Harlin House is visible in the middle of the right edge. Several other homes in the photo still stand as well, including the two on top of the hill and the two-story peaked-roof home just west of the square.
Ozark County NewsJune 26, 1890 Ad – Look out for the Clark Bros. Consolidated Menagerie & Circus.They will positively exhibit at Gainesville Monday, June 30. Come out and witness the grand free show, a grand high-wire ascension and the very old, war-scared elephant. She will perform feats of...

This photo of the 1958-59 Gainesville Elementary School Bullpups basketball team was taken from that year’s Bulldogger yearbook published by the high school publications class. From left: coach Benton Breeding, Gary Frazier, Ron Luna Bobby Robbins, Randy Rose, Stacy Landers and Don Luna.
Ozark County TimesJune 21, 1918Ad – You can buy a good Buggy or Hack at Wood & Reed Merc. Co. We have just had an old contract filled and at a much lower price than present market.P. H. Martin and wife, of a few miles south, were in town Saturday. They returned home in the evening in a fine new...

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 TimesJune 19, 1903Hawk 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...

This ad for the Hillhouse service station, taken from the 1971 Gainesville High School Bulldogger yearbook, shows then-station owner Loren Hillhouse checking the oil on a customer’s vehicle beside a sign advertising the price for a gallon of gasoline: 24.9 cents.
Ozark County TimesJune 10, 1910 Gainesville Camp No. 5180 M.W.A. joined the Camp at Lutie Sunday and decorated the grave of neighbor Joseph Peacock. ... They met at the lodge room and marched to the cemetery near Lutie and were followed by a large number of citizens from Lutie and vicinity where...

Marv Looney, left, told the Times this photo was taken in 1957 or ’58 when he and his fellow fisherman friends, the late Jollie Pace and Don Rackley, caught three limits of bass one night on Bull Shoals Lake while fishing out of what was then Pontiac Boat Dock. He believes they were fishing from a boat owned by Pace and another friend, John R. Sims, and it “probably had a 10 hp motor on it.” At the time, Looney and his wife, the late Delores Robbins Looney, owned the Rod and Gun Motel on W Highway near Pontiac, and Marv also taught school in Gainesville. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas and serve as president or chancellor of colleges around the country, retiring back to Pontiac after ending his career as chancellor of what is now Missouri State University-West Plains.
Ozark County NewsMay 30, 1889 Boone & Mishler’s marble shop at this place has just finished a very fine monument for F. E. Norton, deceased, to be put up at his grave near St. Ledger [now Udall]. It is said to be the finest monument in the county. The inscriptions were cut by J. A. Miller. May...

This undated postcard from Rainbo Ridge Resort in Isabella is thought to have been photographed in the 1950s. According to “The History of Ozark County: 1841-1991,” Rainbo Ridge was one of the 43 resorts established around or near Bull Shoals Lake at Ocie, Theodosia, Isabella and Pontiac between 1952 and 1973. Located on Highway 160 between the Theodosia Bridge and HH Highway in Isabella, the resort’s two simple and tidy cabins attracted early tourists, primarily fishermen, to Ozark County shortly after Bull Shoals Dam was completed in 1951, impounding the lake. According to the history book, Rainbo Ridge was built that same year by Dale and Edith Riddle of Kansas City, “with Edith Riddle doing the carpentry work and some of the wiring and plumbing.” After being bought and sold several times, the resort closed in the late 1970s, according to the book.
Ozark County TimesMay 22, 1914Liner – Poke salad has taken a back seat now, and strawberry shortcake is in order.Wm. Holstine lost a fine colt this week. Toledo – Walter Gilliland of this place died Tuesday after a few days illness.E. T. Brown attended the funeral of Mr. Gilliland at Thornfield...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423