Volume 7, Number 10 - Winter 1982


Old Highway 13 at Kimberling Ferry
by Lucille A. Brown

While indexing Volume 4 of the WRVHS quarterlies I read again the story of the building of the first bridge at what was then called "Kimberling Ferry" written by Mary Scott Hair.

I distinctly remember the building of the state road to connect with the new bridge. The contract was awarded to the Oberlander Bros. Construction Company of Springfield, Missouri. The brothers were Carl, Richard, Henry and Fred (Fritz). My Aunt Maggie Welch married Fred and they, with their small son, Theodore, lived in a small house on the hillside near the new road construction. This house had a high porch and Aunt Maggie fell from this porch and sustained severe injuries. Theodore was just about school age and the nearest school was, I believe, Schooner, which was too far for him to walk. Aunt Maggie and Theodore went to Enumclaw, Washington, and stayed with her sister, Sadie (Welch) Brown. She cared for the Brown babies, one of whom is Dr. J.W. Brown of Seattle, until the road was completed. Uncle Fred joined them in Washington where they lived until their deaths in 1972 and 73.

In the summer of 1972, Theodore and his wife, Dorothy. visited me. I took them and his Uncle Henry Oberlander, who still lives in Springfield, to see Kimberling City. Henry pointed out the location of the old road and the house where they lived. The building of that road was considered quite an engineering feat with the equipment available then.

WINTER MEETING - MARCH 14, 1982
The School of the Ozarks College Center Cafeteria
1:15 P.M. Hope to meet you there!

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