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My
Home Town
REEDS
SPRING, MISSOURI
by
James F "Jim" Barrett
Reeds
Spring started life as a verdant, green
valley, from which flowed a never ceasing
stream of clear, pure water. This water
eventually became Railey Creek, joined the
James River near the County Seat of
Galena, and then on to the junction with
the mighty White River. At last the waters
of Reeds Spring, in the form of the White
River, flowed into the Mississippi and
then on to the Gulf of Mexico and the
Atlantic Ocean. A floating leaf, or a
piece of limb might, therefore, very well
end up venturing out into the great
Atlantic, after leaving its home in the
Missouri Ozarks.
And
just so it was that adventurers came up
those same great rivers, one after
another, and made their way into the
depths of the Ozarks, some two hundred
years ago. But the green valley that was
to become Reeds Spring was not discovered
by the White Man until the late 1860's or
early 1870's. The Reed brothers drove
herds of cattle from Texas to the new and
bustling railroad yards in various
Mid-Western towns. During one of these
trips they discovered the excellent valley
and the spring. The brothers may have
called the place after themselves, or it
might have been named by people who
followed them and called it Reed's Spring,
because the brothers and their herds
always watered and fed there, often for
several days. Either way, the town was
named for the Reed brothers in the late
1800's.
Around
1880, enough people had settled near the
Steele place, which was a bit south and
east of the present Reed's Spring, to
demand postal service. The Stultz
(sometimes spelled Stults, and on some
maps, Stutts) family and the John
McClureys were some of the families living
close to the Steeles. The Ruth Post office
was established and the mail was delivered
by wagon hack from Marionville, coming by
way of Crane and Galena to the west. Thus,
Reeds Spring was officially recognized and
on the government's maps. The PO was moved
from house to house as various people took
over the postmaster's duties. It is
thought that Henry Stultz was the first
postmaster, but the office finally moved
two miles to end up on The Old Wilderness
Road, the principal route connecting much
of SW Missouri and NW Arkansas to
Springfield, and eventually, to the new
railroad there. There the post office was
in a general store operated by Nips and
Gibbons, who were the last of the Ruth
Post Office managers.
When
the railroad came up the White River to
Branson, then up Roark Creek, headed for
Reeds Spring, people began moving from
Stultz and other places, down into the
Reeds valley. Everyone knew that the
railroad builders would have to blast a
long tunnel through the range of Ozark
style mountains that separated the head of
Roark Creek (flowing east) from the head
of Railey Creek (flowing west), which was
the spring at Reeds. People reasoned that
the blasting of the tunnel would take a
long time, and it did. They also reasoned
that many men would come to work on the
tunnel, and they would need a place to
stay, food to eat, entertainment, liquor,
a doctor and all such other human needs.
Soon the area around and in the hills
above the spring began to grow and to
prosper as the railroad continued to build
and the tunnel began to excavate.
Nips
and Gibbons built a new tin building for a
Reed's general store, which they painted
red. Henry Plummer built a store as well.
Entertainment took place in a building
called a "blind tiger," a saloon and dance
hall. Some think Buck Webster built that
service, but it is known that he did build
the first hotel. It was later sold to, and
enlarged by, C. C. Bush. And until its
demise it was always known as the Bush
Hotel. It was very popular for years,
mostly used by "drummers," traveling
salesmen who came in on the new railroad
and boarded there while they traveled the
Wilderness Road in rented hacks and teams,
selling to one and all whom they
encountered along the way. Some folks tell
of it still being in use during the Second
World War, for they recall servicemen
staying there while visiting their home
folk.
In
the early days of the town, the spring was
allowed to pretty much follow its original
time worn course, down the valley and
entering the larger flow of Railey Creek.
But, as Reeds grew, it was tunneled under
the town's square and then diverted to a
large, continuous ditch-line alongside one
of the main, unpaved streets, where it
remains and flows to this day - mostly
unnoticed by the passing tourists and
hurrying locals. As the town grew, Ed St.
Clair built a store, Otis and Molly Davis
built and operated a boarding house, a Mr.
Brinson was the town's blacksmith with a
shop for that purpose only, Jess Smith
became the town's barber, while Dr.
Shumate and Joe Meredith built and
operated the drug store, with adjoining
office space for the Doctor's office. John
Viles opened the first restaurant where
his daughter was unfortunately killed when
a windstorm brought a beam down upon her
in the building, which was badly
damaged.
The
first butcher shop was owned by Bill
Dohms, but business was a bit tough
because nearly everyone had their own
smoke house full of home butchered and
cured meats. The first ministers were the
Reverends Spence and Pinkston, who
conducted church and Sunday School. The
Bush family, who owned the hotel, built a
livery stable that prospered until it
burned, killing fifteen of their rental
horses. The ladies of the day were also
active in the growing town around Reed's
Spring. Mrs. Swift was the first bank
teller, Mrs. Clara Steadman operated a
millinery shop. The first school lasted
for three months and was operated in the
dining room of the hotel while Buck
Webster still owned and operated it. The
first teacher there was Mrs. Ruth
McCormick. Her daughter, Alice, was the
first baby born in Reeds Spring. Later on,
the McCormick family served as
postmasters.
The
tunnel was opened and the railroad
completed to the mines at Joplin in 1907.
As the completion neared, the demand for
railroad ties across the Mid-West, and the
Far West, was growing at a frantic pace.
Reeds Spring was situated in the middle of
hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin
oak forests. People began cutting ties and
hauling them down to Reeds to sell to the
brand new railroad operating there. The
business of tie cutting quickly grew into
a major, Ozarks wide business, with Reeds
Spring and Branson as the epicenters of
receiving, payment and shipping. Soon,
transients and drifters, smelling the
money boom, threw up log shacks barely
large enough to exist in while they hacked
ties and hauled them to Reeds, or sold
them in the field to men with wagons and
teams. Many women donned men's clothing
and cut ties alongside their husbands,
some managing to outstrip them in the
cutting and hacking of oak logs into
squared railroad ties. The boom lasted
until about 1920 or so.
Eventually
the post office came to Reed's directly.
Then the mail was carried from Notch, the
famed location of Uncle Ike Levi Morrill,
who was featured in Harold Bell Wright's
world-renowned novel, The Shepherd of the
Hills. The mail was also carried to such
other interesting places as Radical, now
Kimberling City, to Mabry's Ferry, which
became the Kimberling Ferry, where the two
historical bridges now stand, and to
Marmaros, now a ghost town beneath the
foundations of today's Silver Dollar City.
One of the early postmasters at Radical
was Tom Jennings. At Marmaros it was
Mollie Malotte.
Very
early Reeds Spring was built over and
around the flowing waters from Reeds
Spring. The town and all the merchants
built board walkways and porches out and
over the flowing water, wherever it
happened to be running. Merchants and
storeowners had special wooden boxes
immersed in the cold waters of the spring
where they kept milk, eggs, butter and
cheese brought in by the farm folk and
traded for merchandise or services. Going
to Reeds Spring town was a holiday for
farm and tie-hacker children. They often
slipped away from their parents and went
to wade and play in the flowing spring
waters. A long time resident of Reeds, Ms.
Powell, long ago wrote her friends telling
them that she was discovered so wet from
head to foot that her parents had to buy
her an entire new outfit before they could
take her on the long wagon trip
home.
Folks
who can recall the early residents of
Reeds mention Mose Andoe, who made and
sold chili that he served in big bowls,
with extra large crackers in plenty. Then
there was the Barnhart family, Adam
Antweiler and Louis Phillips who all dealt
in railroad ties. Howard Claybough
operated the very first movie theater, Tom
Davis was the first car dealer (later
taken over by Howard Claybough), and
George Horn had the first garage. The
Greer family had a furniture store, while
Luman Stone had a dime store, called a
"racket store" at the time.
When
the tie-hacking industry died out around
1920, the many farmers living out upon the
denuded hilltops were suddenly without
work or income. Things looked mighty tough
for a few years. But those gaunt, barren,
rocky hilltops turned out to be a renewed
source of income for one and all. The
acidic soil and the climate were ideal for
the growth of tomatoes, and that industry
sprang to life and became as big, dynamic
and wealth producing as had been the tie
hacking and selling business. There were
thousands and thousands of acres on the
logged over hills that were soon planted
to countless tomato plants. People came
from far away each season to live in, or
beneath, their wagons to plant, harvest
and can the "Red Gold" crop. This business
grew and prospered through the Second
World War and went on until the huge
vegetable fields in California and Florida
took over the business.
Much
later in its life and growth, Reeds Spring
acquired paved streets, a modern school
building or two and smears of green and
gray moss on the shaded sides of its older
brick and stone buildings. After the
1950's, L. O. Magers built and operated a
modern locker plant, while he learned to
become a real estate salesman as well. He
started life in Reeds as a teacher in one
of the early frame schoolhouses. The Yates
Candy Store came into being, the pastor
was now Rev. Chas. E. Beech, while a
garment factory was opened in the old
tomato canning building near the center of
town. Howard Claybough, of Claybough
Motors, opened a new bank, the Bank of
Table Rock Lake, to serve the coming
businesses associated with the late 1960's
gigantic lake.
In
2003, the newly constructed express
highway was opened, connecting Branson
West with the fairly modern Missouri 160
Highway, to the north and west of Reeds
Spring Junction, formerly known as Stutts
Junction (or Stultz, or Stults Junction).
Now Reeds Spring has been taken off the
high count traffic routes, as the highways
bypass the downtown area for the first
time since the Old Wilderness Road was
abandoned. Curiously enough, the new
highway is pretty much back on the route
of that Old Road, which also bypassed
Reeds Spring, save for a spur of it that
entered and served the town as dirt, or
gravel, or paved roads for 150 years.
Perhaps now Reeds Spring will take on a
new set of garments, become a historic
sort of town, perhaps an art and tourist
colony, such as Eureka Springs has become.
Here, where the leaves and twigs still
drift down the streams to the great
Mississippi River and then on to the
oceans of the world, we shall see what the
townspeople and fate will bring to this
most interesting old Reed brothers
watering hole, now lying still and
peaceful in the deep green valley of the
Ozarks Mountains.
Copyright
2003 James F "Jim" Barrett
All
rights reserved
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