Volume 35, Number 3 - Winter 1996
The Cantwell Farm, Stone County, Mo
by Linda Myers-Phinney and David Quick
The Cantwell house, built in 1911, represents dual architectural characteristics--vernacular and more fashionable aesthetics of the day It was a very substantial structure for this rural setting, built by a relatively successful and prominent family The network of roads and especially the railroad served as links to the outside world. The Cantwells occupied a place in Missouri’s White River/Lake Taneycomo history, bridging the era of turn-of-the-century immigrants who pursued primarily agricultural lifeways and those of the slightly later, albeit, vastly different tourism of the l9lOs and beyond.
The authors are especially grateful to Jack and Joyce Bennett, who provided us with a wealth of information on their grandparents farm, where they also lived for 37 years in what some would view as tranquility We are indebted to them for the provision of several photographs and they have reviewed our report. The Bennetts have sold the property, straddling the Stone-Taney County line, to Cooper Communities, Inc.
Robert Lee Cantwell, Family and Farm
Robert Lee Cantwell (March 10, 1874 - May 7, 1964) was born in Houston, Texas, one of four brothers and two sisters. Robert’s family lived in the Long Creek valley near Alpena, northwestern Arkansas, throughout most of the 1890s. In 1898, when he was 23 or 24 years old, Robert crossed the White River and moved north into the area where railroad construction was known to be imminent. Preceded by his brothers William and John, who had relocated to Stone County in 1896, Robert had likely visited Missouri’s White River valley which was, after all, not so different from the area south of the river which he left behind. Although it is uncertain where Robert initially settled, he began hunting, fishing, and grazing cattle on open range lands in the Roark Creek Valley which bridged the Stone/Taney County line, an area where he would live out his life following those same pursuits (Bennetts, personal communication 1994).
In 1890, the Wilbur post office had been established in Roark Creek valley, but moved slightlynorth in 1895 and the name changed to Garber. Cant-well formalized his ties with the locale in 1902 when he married Ella Fronaberger (November 29, 1881 -October 7, 1942), whose family name identified the local rural school and graced the list of early Garber postmasters. Brother William Fronaberger served as the Garber postmaster from 190 1-1928 (Ingenthron 1974: 474, 476, 468; Bennetts, personal communication 1994). Garber served as the "town" for the population of the entire Roark valley from Reeds Spring to Gretna, the place where locals received and sent
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mail, visited with neighbors, purchased essential goods and services, and later boarded the train.
Robert and Ella made their home a little more than one mile west of Garber, on the south side of Roark Greek’s West Fork and at the south edge of the Roark Creek valley When the White River railway traversed the Roark Creek valley between Branson and Reeds Spring it opened several doors for Robert Cantwell: it offered employment surveying the rail tunnel where the line emerged from the Roark valley south of Reeds spring, and it served as a link to the outside world located practically at his door. No longer would cattle have to be driven elsewhere, but they could be shipped out from the Marvel Cave switch, a rail siding situated on Cantwell’s property. Here, also, cottonseed hull feed could be delivered for his cattle. The rail line through the Roark valley meant expanded markets and purchasing ability, growth, and economic opportunities.
This was particularly true of the immediate area in which Cantwell lived. Shortly after Harold Bell Wright’s 1907 publication of The Shepherd of the Hills tourists began to visit the area described in the novel. What became known as the "Shepherd of the Hills Country" was a triangular area roughly defined by the railway on the north and the James and White Rivers on the west and south. Robert and Ella Cantwell lived in the eastern part of this triangle, the area of focus un Wright’s book. Their famous neighbors and contemporaries included Levi "Uncle Ike" Morrill, Notch postmaster; Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Ross of Garber, more commonly known as Wright’s "Uncle Matt and Aunt Mollie;" Truman Powell, believed to be Wright’s model for the Old Shepherd; Powell’s family, the developers and promoters of Fairy Cave; the W. H. Lynch family, owners of Marble (Marvel) Cave; and C. E. de Gro if, nationally-known as Secretary of the American Angora Goat Breeders Association and a breeder of champion angora goats.
Despite the growing trend toward tourist-oriented commercialism which surrounded Cantwell and absorbed his friends and neighbors, he would continue for his entire life to focus on remunerative pursuits that acknowledged land as the ultimate commodity. In traditional nineteenth-century Ozarks fashion, Cantwell bought cattle from Taney County and southward in Arkansas, and drove them to the open range of Roark valley to fatten for markets north and east, shipping them out from the Marvel Cave switch. (Much of his Roark valley land would
not sustain cultivation for hay or wheat, which sometimes necessitated wintering cattle elsewhere.) Cantwell also raised hogs and chickens and cultivated modest quantities of wheat and corn for family consumption. At one time he expanded to goat herding, owning 2,000 head (Bennetts, personal communication 1994). Around 1930, however, he sold his goat herd after losing many to the depredations of coyotes (Stone County News-Oracle 10/23/29).
In addition to his agricultural activities, Cantwell invested a good deal of money in land. In 1902, the year of his marriage, he recorded his first land transaction, the purchase and resale of eighty acres in the Roark valley. This proved to be the beginning of a lifetime spent buying, selling, and financing real estate in both Taney and Stone counties, but mostly within the Roark valley.
The record of Cantwell’s land transactions is a lengthy and often complicated one stretching from 1903 to 1958 and involving purchases, resale, mortgage financing, default by mortgagees, repurchase of previously sold tracts, acquisition of rental property in Branson and Reeds Spring, and land purchased for unpaid taxes. Two facts are evident, however; over the course of his lifetime, Robert Cantwell amassed 3,111 acres in the Roark valley and land mortgages represented a large part of his personal wealth.
The amount of land for which Robert Cantwell was assessed taxes fluctuated between 1908 and 1926, but from 1926 to 1951 it steadily increased. In 1926 he paid Stone County taxes on 440 acres, in 1933 on 734 acres, in 1940 on 2,079 acres, and in 1951 on 2,399 acres. (Taney County Tax Books; Stone County Tax Books) According to his grandson, Cantwell acquired land during the Depression for as little as twenty five cents an acre (Bennetts, personal communication 1993). Cantwell did much buying, selling, and financing prior to the Depression, but a different pattern emerged between 1933 and 1938. During those years he continued to purchase land but neither sold it nor financed mortgages (Stone County Deed Records; Taney County Deed Records). This would seem to indicate that while Cantwell had cash in hand, few others did. By 1940 Cantwell resumed his previous buying/selling activities, but without evidence of investment in notes.
Personal tax assessment records revealed the relevance of Cantwell’s lending to his overall worth. In 1903, the first year he was assessed personal
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bedrooms, a rather remarkable number of rooms for a house dating to this period in Stone and Taney counties. Later additions to the house have included a bathroom and an office. The Cantwells originally paid $1,000 for the windows and lumber to construct the house; these materials were shipped by rail to Garber, where they were off loaded and brought a little more than a mile upstream to the house location.
The construction of a network of railroads during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries throughout the Ozarks allowed for economic expansion. This was certainly true for the White River hills. One could argue that the house and farm stead could not have been built without the nearby railroad. Although it is clear that most of the material which went into its construction arrived via the railroads, analysis of the building indicates that the house was conceived and executed by people steeped in local and vernacular ideas of what a fine home should be. The house represents a transition from the regional vernacular to forms more expressive of national fashion and is filled with elements expressive of both older concepts and what were new ideas for the region during the very early 1900s.
Location and Site
When the farmstead was approached as it has been in recent times by a steeply descending road from Highway 76 it seemed quite isolated. This impression might be misleading, however, because there were other homesteads and people living nearby in the Roark Creek valley. The railroad, the major means of communication and transportation in the early twentieth century, was situated less than 300 yards from the Cantwell farm complex. In a time when it took hours to go short distances by road in the Ozarks, it also often provided major items of news by means of its telegraph.
The Cantwells were already located with relatively good access to local wagon roads prior to the construction of the railroad. The earliest of these consisted of a wagon road identified by the General Land Office (GLO) surveyors in 1848. The road depicted on the 1956 Garber 7.5 foot quadrangle follows the same basic route through the West Fork of the Roark Creek valley as it did in 1848, except for where it crosses intermittent streams. This road, which linked Reeds Spring, Garber, and beyond, was the major local road prior to the completion of State Highway 76. Highway 76 was built to meet the demands of tourism which was already well established in the area by the 1920s and 1930s.
Other wagon roads that were extant around the turn of the century included: (1) an east-west connection of the Roark Creek valley road to Indian Ridge road; (2) a north-south connection of the Roark Creek valley road with the Fall Creek valley road; and (3) a road extending from the main Roark Creek valley road (i.e., the GLO road) to the Notch Post Office, passing by Iron Spring. Most importantly, all four of these wagon roads converged within close proximity to the Cantwell farm, making it a hub with respect to the local flow of goods, services, and information. Here, an upright plank-sided structure had been occupied prior to the construction of the more substantial Cantwell home.
The Cantwell House: Overall Form
The dual character of the house is immediately clear when we consider it as a whole. It appears to have been constructed in two phases, a common practice in southern Missouri. The southern upslope part of the house comprises a southern one-story wing recalling a typical double pen house with a veranda. The southern elevation shows what appears to be a veranda on the west side as well. This southern wing is representative of a common vernacular type, but it has been given greater formality by wide cornices, closed soffits, and cornice returns. Attached to the north end of the south wing is a two-story section that appears more formal and more "classical" in detail, although it has an "L" plan and a fairly vertical form. This verticality is partly contradicted by the shallow pitch to the hipped roof. The "classical" quality of the house is most clearly expressed by the near doric columns of the veranda. These columns encircle the east side and northeast corner of the two-story section.
One could imagine that the owner built and lived in a single story, two room vernacular home. Then, with improved economic status and greater pretensions, he added the two-story section to reflect changing local fashion, expanding needs, and greater accrued wealth. In this case, however, the Bennetts have contended that essentially the whole house was built as one in 1911. In the absence of a detailed architectural study and irrefutable documentary evidence, such a contention would have been considered suspect. Several attributes of the house, however, clearly illustrate that it was built as a single unit.
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These attributes include continuously poured foundations, as well as sills and floor framing that also were constructed continuously over the area where the two parts come together. There is also no indication in the attic where the two parts meet (i.e., where the one-story wing joins the two-story section) for any addition, subtraction, or modification.
This house presents a clear case of the Cantwell’s idea of a fine home, having been conditioned by the forms resulting from the common local practice of additive building. Here, the two parts were constructed at the same time. The history of vernacular architecture is replete with examples of additive forms that became standards for later buildings created all at once. The Cantwell house represents an early twentieth century example.
Structure
The frame of the house is a conventional balloon frame for the time. This is evident in the crawl space, the attic over the one-story section, and through a hatch above the closet of the northeast bedroom that permits a view into the attic of the two-story section. The frame is constructed of unplanned oak, precisely cut to "two by" dimensions. The studs, joists, and rafters are on 24" centers. Ridge boards were not used in the roofs of either section. Ceiling joists in the one-story section and (it is assumed because of the date) floor joists for the second floor of the two-story section rest on ledgers and are nailed to continuous studs. In the one story-wing the studs continue past the ceiling joists to form the frame of 9" short walls. The studs are topped by a single plate that supports the joint between the roof rafters and the more gently sloping veranda rafters which are spiked together. In the crawl space one can see that the entire frame rests on box sills; thus, the beginnings of the platform frame system can be seen in this one detail. The framing material, although shipped by rail to Garber, appears to be of wood that was available in the immediate region.
Domestic Buildings
Wash House
A slab rock wash house is situated about 20 feet west of the center of the one-story wing of the house. It is approached from the southwest door by a flagstone path, and is located at the edge of a steep slope to the west and north. According to the Bennetts, this small building was built in 1928 or 1929. It was built
at the insistence of Ella Cantwell who had seen buildings of similar construction and wanted one. It was used as the location for a gasoline-powered washing machine which was exhausted through a hole in south wall. It was also the location of a kerosene refrigerator. Electric power was not present at the farm stead until 1956. The Bennetts continued to use the building for a washer, dryer, and freezer until they left the farm.
The building is 11 feet, 6 inches square with interior dimensions of about 10 feet square. It is of typical "slab rock" construction, which in this case involved the laying up of vertical sandstone slabs embedded in concrete walls, using forms on the interior to produce a wall of about 9" thick. The joints between the slabs of rock are fairly wide, irregular, and are dark, forming a "Giraffe Rock" pattern. Later, probably much later, a "rope~~ or "vine" be ad was applied to these joints. The building had doors on the east and south sides, awning windows on the north and west sides, and a 19" wide 11" deep chimney on the south side. The pyramid roof has exposed rafter ends and is covered with cedar shakes and metal ridges. Taken together these features make this an excellent example of small slab rock buildings that were commonly built in the 1920s-1930s and even promoted by the state during this period.
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The interior floor is concrete and the walls are smooth-finished concrete. The walls have a height of 7 feet 6 inches. From that height, there is an approximately 45 degree cove up to a final ceiling height of 8 feet 7 inches. The cove and ceiling are covered with double beaded tongue-and-groove. The awning windows on the north and west are of a standard type with two lights and are 62" by 27 1 /2". The two windows are set 32" above the floor. The door frame openings are 2 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 3 inches and the eastern door is of a common two panel type. The south frame is covered from the interior with plywood.
Water Tank
A cistern for the gravity water system is located about 18 feet south of the house and about 6 feet uphill from the yard fence. This cistern dates to the time of the construction of the house. It consists of a rectangular concrete tank measuring 11 feet 3 inches by S feet 5 inches, with the narrow dimension set into the hill. It was constructed of poured concrete into board forms. Where the thickness could be ascertained, it measured 8" thick. The corners on the downhill side closest to the house are 57" out of the ground; those on the south are about 24" out of the ground. The tank top slopes downward east and west from the peaked center. The peak is 16" above the corner height and forms gable-like ends on the south and the north. There is a rectangular opening, one side of which is along the ridge 8" (the thickness of the wall) in from the south side. This opening is 22" along its top (west) and bottom (east) sides and 27" along its north and south sides. The tank is 7 feet deep, measuring from the lower side of this opening.
Conclusions
The Cantwell Farm Complex represented a significant cultural resource, assessed as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Partial destruction of some of the agricultural and domestic structures has only served to elevate the importance of existing architectural features at the site, but especially the house. We have documented the house in particular to such an extent that it is possible to reconstruct accurately major parts of the building. On the other hand, the destruction of the barn, the "smoke house," the "rainwater collection" shed, the privy, and the chicken house has hindered our ability to evaluate building chronology and to describe architectural details. These represented a diverse assortment of facilities, integral material elements of the daily lives of the Cantwell and Bennett families. Fortunately, we have been able to assemble
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a photographic record and provide some accurate quantitative structural information, based partly on documents and information supplied by Jack and Joyce Bennett.
The farm complex contains virtually all elements of a self-sustaining household. The buildings represent a diversity of construction ages, and several comprise(d) farmstead structures of 50 years or greater. The dual vernacular and more fashionable characteristics of the Cantwell house are exemplified by the two sections of its original construction. The gravity water system and the wash house indicate the desire of the Cantwells to incorporate modern amenities in their lives. The building of a large shed primarily for the collection of rainwater for the gravity fed water system illustrates the inventive and pragmatic approaches taken by the Cantwells to enhance their everyday lives. The use of materials recycled from railroad trestles and canning factories exemplifies a typical, local, practical willingness to make do with what was already available, a practice that likely evolved during earlier times of little money and difficult transportation.
The Cantwell house and its dependent domestic and agricultural outbuildings, located near the convergence of several roads and a railroad, provide clues that allow us to create a picture of a rural, but not isolated, lifestyle of a relatively successful and prominent family. This lifestyle was grounded in the traditional pursuit of stock raising and was connected to national markets. The Cantwell farm typifies turn-of-the-century agricultural patterns. It is historically significant not only for its past, however, but because the house has remained relatively unchanged after eighty-three years and because the farm stead complex area had been in the family’s hands for the same period. Cantwell occupied a place in Missouri’s White River/Lake Taneycomo history, bridging the era of turn-of-the-century immigrants who pursued primarily agricultural pursuits and those of the slightly later, albeit, vastly different tourism era of the 1910s and beyond. Despite his accrued landholdings and wealth, Cantwell remained rooted primarily in agriculture, reaching beyond only briefly into other economic pursuits.
Their way of life was exemplified by a typically
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ingenious use and reuse of materials at hand, as well as by knowledge of and a willingness to adopt the forms of modernity. The homestead also represents a way of life which could not survive in the face of the intense force of current development in the Branson area. The Robert Lee and Ella Cantwell home bears witness to the lingering endurance and success of traditional agricultural-based Ozarks lifestyles, even while the surrounding economic and cultural fabric changed to one dominated by tourism. It also stands as testimony to the fact that Ozark herdsmenhunters were not, as they have often been carica
tured, ignorant and uncouth hillbillies who were confounded by and resistant to progress, but individuals with an aptitude for a particular business who could readily adapt and be comfortable with modern innovations.
This article was adapted from the much longer report, Historical and Architectural Studies, the Cantwell Farm Complex (23sn913), Stone County. Missouri, Center for Archaeological Research, Dr.. Neal Lopinot, Director, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Mo., May 1994.
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