OMR celebrates 35th year with latest edition

The May 2021 issue of the Old Mill Run, the quarterly publication of the Ozark County Genealogical and Histori-cal Society, marks the newsletter’s 35th year of publication.

 As always, the May issue has several stories of interest to those who enjoy Ozark County history. Almartha native Betty Rennaker Montgomery has written a story about her father, Homer Rennaker. Janet Taber interviewed Melva Roberts Morrison Fogle, who shares her memories of the old Elijah community. Melva’s father, John Roberts, was a carpenter, and built several houses in the area, including the house where Melva and her first husband, the late Nolan Morrison, lived during their years in Gainesville. Roberts also built the house at Fourth Street and Harlin Drive in Gainesville where his daughter, Betty Roberts Amyx, lived for a while with her husband, the late Larry Amyx, son of Lawrence and Lennie Ford Amyx. 

Melva and Betty also had a sister, Vernetta, who first married Tom Willhoit, and later Dr. O. B. Crawford.

Kaitlyn McConnell’s Ozarks Alive! story about second-generation Ozark County Times correspondent Marty Cropper Uhlmann is also included, along with a photo of Marty at her eighth-grade graduation in Dora. 

 The latest edition of the OMR also includes short stories about Dr. Charles A. Beach, a longtime doctor who was born in Almartha but later moved to Elijah. Beach is said to have delivered more than 1,300 babies during his years of practice in Ozark County. Also, there’s a story about growing up in Nottinghill. 

Expecting widespread interest in this edition, extra copies of the latest OMR edition have been printed and are available for purchase for $5 at the Ozark County Times office in Gainesville. 

     The Ozark County Historium, which serves as the headquarters for OCGHS, remains closed due to concerns related to the current covid pandemic, but volunteers hope to reopen the facility sometime this summer.

Membership in OCGHS includes a subscription to the OMR. Annual memberships are $20 a year. A lifetime membership is $200. To join, send a check payable to OCGHS to Box 4, Gainesville, MO 65655. 

A list of other OCGHS publications  currently available is shown on the His-torium’s website, ozarkcountyhistory.org. Among the popular choices is a DVD of almost all the old collected issues of the OMR and a DVD of A History of Ozark County, 1841-1991, the “brown history book” published by OCGHS in 1994. Each disk is $35 plus $3 shipping. To order, send checks to the same address shown above. Items may also be ordered directly through the website. 

OMR history

The first issue of the OMR, published in April 1986, was edited by Mark Chaney.

The first president of the OCGHS was Wilma Fish. Others on the original committee included Ruby Robins, Hilda Lincoln, Gay Strong and others. 

The second issue of the OMR was edited by Shirley Carter Piland, who also wrote several interesting stories in that edition, including one on Dr. Beach and another about the Bray family, one of the first Black families in the county. 

While Shirley Piland and Ruby Robins served on the OCGHS board, both the brown history book and also A Survey of Ozark County Cemeteries were finished. 

Another OMR editor was the late Dale Morrison, who wrote or knew people who would write great stories for the publication. Morrison retired as editor in late 2001. Eventually, Mary Ruth Luna Sparks became the editor and still serves in that job. 

 Current OCGHS officers are Jean Allen, president; Rhonda Herndon, vice president; Janet Taber, treasurer; and board members Nancy Thomas, Mary Ruth and Mike Sparks, Susan Amyx Ault, Sue Ann Jones, Jane Elder and Barbara Luna.