50 years ago

July 11, 1973

— The Emmanuel Baptist Church of Cassville this week announced acceptance of a call for a pastor of the church. Stanton W. Patterson, who has served at Wheaton for the past 8 years, will assume the post on August 5, according to Lisle Jeffries, chairman of the Church’s pulpit committee. Bro. Patterson will replace Clyde Leonard, who resigned several weeks ago to accept a church pastorate in Springfield. The Patterson family will move to the parsonage which adjoins the church property just off the Old Exeter Road in the west edge of Cassville.

— State Treasurer James I. Spainhower has announced that Barry County banks will receive $270,000 from the first statewide allocation of General Funds under the new Missouri Model for the investment of Intact State Funds. Spainhower said the total amount distributed under the first allocation is 50 million dollars. Every bank in the state was given an equal opportunity to apply for these funds. Although about 42 million of the first 50 million dollars invested will earn for the state the current market rate of interest of about 7%, Spainhower explained approximately 8 million dollars cannot earn more than 5% because federal regulations set this ceiling for those banks with less and $100, – 000, state money on deposit. The distribution is based on a formula which returns an am-out to each county proportional to the amount paid by that county in state sales and income tax. According to Spainhower, this formula standardizes the requirements which must be met by banks before they can be selected for the deposit of these general funds. Barry County’s percentage is .3.

— Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Voorhees have purchased the Good Earth Health Food Store on the west side of the square from John Twelker. The Voorhees are making their home in the Oak Grove Community on highway 86. They moved here from California.

40 years ago

July 6, 1983

— Barry County Court action has completed a new appointment and reappointment of representatives on the Barry-Lawrence Regional Library board of directors. Mrs. Arthur Hegi of Shell Knob has been named to the board replacing Mrs. Glen Garrett of Purdy. The reappointment was of Gail Bruner of Monett. Presiding Judge Lloyd Dilbeck made the announcements Thursday.

— Fire destroyed the Dan Boxley Service Station at Washburn about 7 p.m. Tuesday evening. The blaze started in the service bay of the structure. Volunteer units from Seligman and Exeter assisted with protection of nearby gasoline storage tanks during the blaze.

— Missouri unemployment dropped to 9.3 percent in May according to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The rate was down 0.9 from April’s revised figure of 10.2. Area county statistics included Barry 8.8, Lawrence 8.9, McDonald 9.8, Newton 8.7, Stone 9.1 — Carolyn M. Hunter, DMD, has purchased the dental practice and clinic Cassville from Dr. Estel Landreth. Completion of the transaction was Friday. Dr. Hunter will begin her practice here July 11. A hygienist for eight years, Dr. Hunter completed dental school at Southern Illinois University, Alton, this year. She recently received her license to practice in Missouri. Dr. Hunter’s husband is a first officer with Ozark Airlines. The family, including two children, Brian, 14, Tricia, 9, will reside in the Eagle Rock community. Dr. Landreth had practiced here since 1976. An associate, Dr. David Parsons, was in the clinic with Dr. Landreth on alternating weeks for the past two years. Both Landreth and Parsons will confine their practice in the Wichita, Kansas area with the sale here. Dr. and Mrs. Landreth own a home in the Eagle Rock area of Table Rock Lake.

— Rolling into high gear just before the July 4 rains that visited the area, fescue seed harvest in Barry County will go on hold until the middle of the week to permit a drying-off period. Growers, buyers and processors have. upped their estimates of this year’s harvest as threshing began. Growers and customer harvesters this week indicated two factors might keep prices more stable this year. First is an apparent decision of many growers to hold their seed until the winter months for higher prices. Secondly, rains Monday in this area amounted to about two inches. Areas to the north received from four to five inches, which could have caused considerable damage to standing seed and not done swathed seed any good. Fescue seed people last year who stored their seed, received a net price of 30 cents a pound when they put it on the market in December. Actually, the price was 10 cents higher, but the additional fee went for cleaning, bagging and storage. Markets remained steady this week, wet seed bringing 18 cents and dry seed 20 cents. Buyers estimate about one-third of the seed has been harvested thus far in the late, rain delayed season.

30 years ago

June 30, 1993

— A Wichita, Ks., couple, Mr. and Mrs. Terry Stoops have assumed operation of The Rib restaurant and lounge in Cassville. Their purchase of the business from Mr. and Mrs. Ron McGrath was completed on Tuesday. The former owners said they would devote full-time to development of a six-acre business site in mid-Cassville. The Stoops, who have been negotiating to purchase the business for several months, sold their hydraulic equipment firm in Wichita in December. Mr. and Mrs. McGrath purchased the burnedout restaurant building in February 1988, and Opened the rebuilt facility in June of that year. Their future includes development of a strip mall adjacent to the mid-Cassville highway intersection. Two structures on the site have been demolished in preparation for the project.

Business buildings in the area, known as the German properties, will eventually be demolished when new spaces for existing firms are available. McGrath has plans for the eventual construction of a supermarket on additional land purchased recently from Mr. and Mrs. Carter Koon. The Stoops immediately assumed operation of the well-known eating establishment and plan to maintain the same hours and staff. McGrath will remain with the new owners as a consultant through mid-July.

— Normally a quite area, away from traffic where visitors to the Barry County Ozarks can relax and enjoy the facilities of nearby tourist attractions, the privately owned campground at Roaring River Resort was a flurry of activity over the weekend. Missouri’s first trapping of a live cinnamon bear was accomplished at the campground owned by Mr. and Mrs. Lex Elliott. The 12-pound male, judged to be about two and one-half years old, had been in the area about two weeks, during which Missouri Conservation Commission people quietly went about the task of trying to discourage the bear from visiting places frequented by people.

But, as agent Charles Mars put it, “This is a critical time for bears in getting something to eat in the woods. Berries aren’t ripe, so the animals take the next best approach to eating, they visit trash dumpsters if there are any around.”

First showing about June 16 at Oak Hill Courts, just a short distance up the road toward Cassville from the Elliott place, the bear was regularly visiting trash dumping facilities in an area adjacent to the north entrance of Roaring River State Park, all the time becoming less and less concerned about people being around. At Oak Hill, agents Marrs and Bill Stimson placed an electric fence around the dumpster. When the bear made his first visit to the area under these conditions, he was promptly discouraged from returning by the slight shock from electrical current.

So, the visitor from the woods promptly set up shop across Highway 12 at Rock Village Court and trailer park, where garbage was also available. For the next few days, the visitor alternated up and down the ridge between Rock Village and the private campground at Roaring River Resort.

Agents noted, strangely, the bear never made it on into Roaring River State Park, which was about three-quarters of a mile south of the area he was frequenting. Thursday the bear seemed to center his area of involvement at the Elliott place, making frequent trips out of the woods to take sacks of trash out of a dumpster and drag them into the woods where they were picked apart for morsels of food. During one of these visits, Gene Graves, camp manager and John Dumas, an employee, were in the process of herding the bear out of the area when he turned on Dumas, growled and made a swipe at him with a paw.

That was enough for Elliott who called the Conservation people for help to get the animal out of the area.

— Cassville volunteer fire department was called to a residential area at 10:15 a.m. Sunday. The call at the 1500 block of Townsend was classed as an electrical box fire, causing only slight smoke damage.

— A Toledo, Washington, woman, once a resident of this area has purchased her own 94th birthday present. Gladys Oakley McEwen, wrote to the Democrat, saying her subscription was going to be her own gift to herself.

Mrs. McEwen wrote, “I was born and raised six miles from Cassville on old Flat Creek at the Oakley Store.”

Residents of the area familiar with the times say the Oakley store was probably in conjunction with the Travers Mill that operated in that area of the creek years ago. The vicinity is just beyond the old Jefferson place, immediately south of the Merle’s Chapel area. A bridge crosses the creek