Volume 2, Number 5 - Fall 1965
Bits & Pieces
Olive Carpenter of Selma, Oklahoma, says: "58 years ago I lived on paw paws and persimmons for some days in your Ozarks." When Carpenter was 14 years old he came to the Ozarks to trap wild animals. A brother, age 18, and a friend of the same age, saved up enough money to buy two horses and a spring wagon which had been made into a delivery wagon. Young Olive was permitted to join only because he could cook. They drove from home, in Kansas City, to Rogers, Arkansas, by way of Cassville, then crossed Arkansas to the Cash River area. At Cassville they traded a gun for a red, tan coon hound. In the lowlands on Cash River, around Sedwich, the rains came down until the boys had to pay a farmer to pull them into the uplands. They went coon hunting at night, fished, and hunted for quail, squirrel, rabbits, wild turkey, and deer. They traded hides for flour, sugar, salt, eggs, and potatoes. The horses died from swamp fever. At the end of the four months the boys came out with enough money to buy railroad tickets to Kansas City and enough tall tales to last a life time.
The Platte County Historical Society, with Mrs. Mary B. Aker of Parkville, secretary, sent the price of a membership in order that it might receive the Quarterly.
The delegates from the 14th District to the National Republican Convention in St. Louis in 1896 were M. B. Gideon and J. L. Davis of Forsyth. The alternates were from Poplar Bluff and Benton.
Opal Eversole came from Texas to seek ‘family.’ At Galena, from court records, she found that her grandfather, James Mathes of Stone County, married Mary Garrison in 1853 and later married Juda (Judy) Ann Summers. Her father was David Mathes and her mother was Stella A. Johnson, born in Douglas County. Stella was a daughter of G. W. Johnson who taught school. Her great grandfather was David Mathes who married Elizabeth Allen.
Opal was 13 years old when her grandfather died, so recalls many family stories that he told. She was born in Douglas County and left when 16 years old to live in Sapulpa and Stroud, Oklahoma. She is trying to find out: did her grandfather, James Mathes, marry Judy Ann Summers or did he marry Juda Ann Summers. She bought a copy of the White River Valley Historical Society Quarterly.
Mr. C. S. Gossett has sold out to one Ben Boyd, and will move to Kansas City in a short time. He sold his tobacco, that he had raised the past season on 18 acres of land, the working of which cost him not more than $200.00 for $1,000.00. He had built probably the finest tobacco barn in the county, 84 feet by 64 feet and 14 feet high. His tobacco filled it six tiers high and was of the red Burley variety and is said to be the finest ever raised in any country. From the Taney County Times, December 5, 1889.
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My shop is neat, razors sharp and towels clean. My scissors are clean and clippers in order, to do you the best job you ever seen. Give me a call when in need of anything in my line of business. T. J. VanZandt, Barber and Tonsorial Artist, South Side Square, Forsyth, Missouri. An advertisement in the Taney County Republican in 1895.
Mr. Milt Merrick is having his hay cut with a machine. The first time a machine has ever been on Bilyeu Creek. From Swan Items, Taney County Times, July 5, 1890.
Lawyers advertising for business in the Taney County Republican in 1896 were: B. B. Price, C. B. Sharp, George L. Taylor, R. C. Ford, William H. Johnson, all of Forsyth; Granville Halt of Protem; and Robert N. Henderson of Brown Branch.
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