Emma Fassnight Steury
Eighty-six years ago in Springfield
Sunday News & Leader 12 April 1953 page D1
"Springfield was a village huddled around the square when a little 7-year-old girl and her two brothers with their parents rode into [town] over the old St. Louis Road. The family had traveled from northern Michigan to Rolla by train, then purchased a mule team and rented a wagon to make the remainder of the trip.
"The little girl then Emma Fassnight, and now Mrs. Rudolph Steury, was 93 years old Friday…Mrs. Steury lives on Campbell Street Road in the same neighborhood in which she has lived for 86 years. Her parents, Conrad and Christina Fassnight- originally spelled Fassnacht-lived in the copper mining district of Michigan when they decided to come to Missouri. Mr. Fassnight was a miner and Mrs. Fassnight had a government contract to serve meals to the miners. They had accumulated considerable wealth and this they sewed up in money belts for the family to wear on the long trip.
"In Springfield the Fassnights bought 70 acres of land at $71 an acre. Part of that tract now is Fassnight Park and the remainder recently was bought by the Springfield Board of Education as the site for a new high school. The Board of Education paid $2,000 an acre for the tract it purchased.
"The family lived for 22 years in a little house which was built in 1868. It still stands on the school site, though it was moved into the background to make way for a large two-story white home built in 1900. Mrs. Steury's two brothers, Ed and John Fassnight –never moved from the homeplace and both died in recent years…
...Civil War troubles still cast their shadows over Springfield when the Fassnight family arrived here. The two boys collected little boxes full of bullets from the rolling acres around their home. They also found evidences of earlier occupancy of the land along the little creek for there they picked up many Indian arrow heads.
"Mrs. Steury recalled seeing freighters traveling the road from Taney County hauling cotton- one or two bales to the wagon. Usually two or more wagons would travel together and often they camped near the Fassnight farm.
"She remembers the excitement of circus day in Springfield. Wagons from the hill region often would start rolling past the Fassnight farm the day before the big show, bringing families from distant places. They too, would camp near Springfield or perhaps would even go into town and stay at a big wagonyard on Campbell Avenue near Walnut Street.
Then there was the big day, April 21, 1870, when the first little train pulled into Springfield at the Commercial Street station. The Fassnight family made the trip in a wagon to see the train on the Atlantic and Pacific railroad line in the new town of North Springfield.
"They had to cut the brush so people could get up there to see the train, recalls Mrs. Steury. ‘That part of town was all over-grown then. The railroad track went about a mile or so past town to the west and people who wanted to could get on the train and ride to the end of the track. The train would then back up to the station and they would get off. The engine was a dinky little thing-not at all like we have nowadays.’
"Living just south of the Fassnight farm was the family of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Steury who had come from Bern, Switzerland to Springfield about 1872. Their son Rudolph and Emma Fassnight were married in 1878. He died a number of years ago.
"For awhile the young couple lived with the elder Steury couple at their farm home. Then Mr. and Mrs. Fassnight gave their daughter 80 acres adjoining the Steury farm but nearer Springfield and the couple moved into a little house on that tract. In 1898 they built a large white house where Mrs. Steury still lives with her son, Frank Steury and his wife.
"Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Steury had eight children, five of whom survive. They are William R. of Clayton Wash. who is here to celebrate his mother’s birthday. John of Spokane Wash., who visited his mother two months ago. Mrs. Emma C. McCommas, Edward and Frank Steury, all neighbors on Campbell Street Road…
...With her birthday coming so close to Easter, Mrs. Steury feels as though she is having several celebrations for she was the center of much family attention at Easter time. Mrs. Frank Steury is planning a turkey dinner in her honor Sunday. The birthday coincides with the 53rd wedding anniversary of Mrs. Frank Steury’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tom McCollum, 2146 North Rogers, so the two events will be celebrated at the same time."
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Image courtesy Springfield News-Leader. The News-Leader and the Library District partnered to scan of the newspaper’s photograph collection and place them online. The project, From the Darkroom: Springfield's Historic Newspaper Photographs, is made possible by a Library Services and Technology Act Digital Imaging Grant funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and coordinated by the Missouri State Library. Contact the Springfield News-Leader for copies of the image.
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