Volume 4, Number 6 - Winter 1971
"One Pants Jonnie"
The White River Leader, Nov. 2, 1968
John W. Rulketter and his wife Ruth, of Birmingham, Michigan, are in the Ozarks this week to visit Mr. Rulketter’s old home site where he once lived with Uncle Matt and Aunt Molly Matthews of the famed Shepherd of the Hills story.
Rulketter was born in Springfield in 1903, then came to this area with his parents and one sister when he was yet a small boy. His father purchased property from the Atwood family and there they built a home. They lived one fourth of a mile from Uncle Matt and Aunt Molly so the two families became close friends. William Rulketter, John’s father was a professor at Drury College so they eventually moved back to Springfield, but John returned each summer for five years, from 1912 to 1917, when he was 9 thru 14, to spend the summer with Matt and Molly. "I didn’t have to pay any room and board at all, I was a non-paying guest," Rulketter told us.
The cabin where John lived with Matt and Molly had four rooms; the living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and the last couple of years John was with them, they had a screened-in back porch. John slept on a cot in the spare bedroom.
"Aunt Molly was very much a lady and a marvelous cook. My favorite was green beans and salt pork cooked in a skillet and could she ever make it declicious", Rulketter said.
Matt and Molly’s son, young Matt, had grown up and left home by this time so John became another son to them, and as John put it "They were just like a Mother and Father to me. I loved them."
His nickname in those days was "one pants Johnnie" because he had only one pair of pants, one shirt and one pair of socks.
We asked John how he spent his time during those summers and he replied, "I helped Aunt Molly around the house and guided people to Marvel Cave. The fee for this was 25 cents per group whether there was only one or half a dozen. Seven was the most he ever had in one group. The money John got was strictly his and he didn’t have to share it with anyone. The people must have thought he was doing a man sized job for such a small boy because quite often he got an extra tip.
The only source of light in the cave then was lanterns and candles. They climbed down and back up by ladder and the tour usually lasted about two and one-half hours. A few rooms they went into then are now closed off and not used.
The route John took from the railroad station at Garber to Notch then to the Cave, was one of three routes used then. The others were from Reeds Spring or by wagon from Branson which was a very rough route.
"I got lost only one time and it was because I was trying out a new route that someone said was shorter," John told us. "It started out as a cow path but ended up as nothing. I only had one tourist with me."
"Was he mad"? we asked.
"No, he just laughed and said, "John, let’s go back the way you know."
John usually had from 50 to 75 customers each summer and back then that was a big crowd. He was comparing the size of the tours then, to the ones now. He didn’t go through the cave with every touring group, but he estimates he has been in the cave about 75 times, though he has not been in the cave since the steps were made and all the other advantages have been added because he really prefers to remember it as it was. He does think that he might give in and go through the cave this time but he doesn’t know for sure.
In 1918, John’s father died and the family moved from Springfield to Ohio, his mother’s home. John didn’t come back until 1941 but since then has been back about six times. He loves it here and does not consider himself a tourist when he visits the area. Rulketter still owns property (16 acres) where he lived with his folks on the Stone-Taney County line, north of Roark Creek.
John told us that in 1907 Uncle Matt became the postmaster and station master at Garber. The town consisted of the post office, the general store, one blacksmith shop, a storage shed, a railroad siding and two houses. Uncle Matt and Aunt Molly lived in one house but John could not recall who lived in the other one. Matt was also a policeman for a short time in Springfield, Illinois. According to Rulketter, Matt loved the hills and people.
When John was in his late teens Uncle Matt died. John had gotten a letter from Matt telling him he was leaving Garber the next day on his way to California, but knew he would never get out of the Ozarks because the night before he had heard the death call of the coyote. He died a few days later in Springfield (Mo.) at the home of an aunt of Ellen Jennings who runs the Ellie’s Guided Tours mini bus in this area.
The death call of the coyote was an old superstition in those days. If someone heard
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the call there was going to be a death and perhaps it wasn’t just superstition in the case of Uncle Matt.
Rulketter remembers when this area was just starting out as a tourist attraction but the way it has grown is far beyond his expectations.
Mr. Rulketter and his wife have two children, Mrs. Thomas (Nancy) Fairhourst of Ann Arbor, Mich. who has four children, and John W., Jr. of Louisville, Ken. who has two children. Nancy was here in the Ozarks for the first time just a few days ago to spend some time with her parents while they were here, and loved the area as much as her father. John Jr. has never been to the Ozarks.
The New Post Office of Garber, built in 1928. The only building in the City of Garber, Mo. Population, 0. Taken in 1942.
Old Entrances to Marvel Cave
Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Ross
(Aunt Molly and Old Matt of "The Shepherd of the Hills")
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Rulketter with 3lb trout gift
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