50 years ago

July 2, 1975

— CRANE SCHOOL BURNED

Fire Saturday morning completely destroyed the three story high school building at Crane. Fire departments from Aurora, Marionville and Billings were called to assist the Crane Fire Department when the blaze was discovered shortly after 5 a.m. The elementary school building just east of the high school building was saved.

— SPORTSMEN’S CORNER OPENS IN CASSVILLE

A new business to serve both wholesale and retail fishing and outdoor interests in the area will open within the next two weeks. Sportsmen’s Corner, owned by Allen Sparks and Doug Samuel, is located in newly remodeled facilities adjacent to Ozark Furniture at the in-town highway intersection in Cassville. Designated by a 15 foot jumping bass sign in front, the firm will occupy 1,600 square feet of the German Building. Featured will be fishing and outdoor supplies of all types. Sportsmen’s Corner also plans establishing a service route to docks and resorts on Table Rock Lake shortly after their retail outlet is opened. An additional feature of the new Cassville business will be sale of live bait.

— TREE AT COURTHOUSE COMING DOWN Thebigtreeinthesouthwest corner of the Barry County Courthouse lawn is coming down. Remember the elm giant? It was the one which attracted signs recently requesting it be spared from the woodman’s ax. The county court this week issued a contract to Donnie Stephens of Washburn to remove the tree at a cost of $375, which was low among two bidders, the second being L. B. Corn of Seligman for $500.

— TORNADO SIGHTINGS DOUBLE NORMAL RATE Tornado sightings were reported at a record pace and at nearly double the normal rate through the first six months of the year. Allen Pearson, director of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center said that some of the increase is due to better reporting of small storms throughout the count-ry. He cited good warning systems and news media handling of the warnings for the relatively low death toll. He said there have been about 850 tornadoes reported in the United States this year, exceeding the record 747 tornadoes reported during the first six months of 1973. The total for January through June this year is nearly 400 above normal. Pearson said the death toll has not kept pace with the big increase in tornado reports. He said 52 persons have died in 23 killer tornadoes, while the average for the past 25 years has been 109 fatalities from 466 tornadoes during the first six months. Mississippi has recorded nine tornado-related deaths to lead the nation in that category. Arkansas is right behind with eight deaths. Texas with seven and Georgia and Missouri with five.

40 years ago

July 3, 1985

— FESCUE WINDDOWN ON DIFFERENT PRICE SCALE

The last five days of heavy fescue seed harvest in Barry County proved to be quite a contrast for seasons of the past. Price increases were the order of the day, according to both harvesters and buyers. Since the middle part of the last week in June, prices went to 22 cents a pound for top-quality seed. This represented a 10 cent increase over the opening price of 12 cents in the second week of June when the post-June 15 harvest began. Biggest factor for steadily increasing prices was a one-half crop situation in the county. A good season will produce about 11-12 million pounds of seed. Grazing needs and necessity of replenishing hay supplies this year drastically reduced the number of acres seeded in the county. Prices last year, dipping to 10 cents at season’s end, also discouraged seed growers and changed their minds toward intended uses of Kentucky 31 fescue this season. In the 1984 harvest, a large quantity of seed went into storage. Some came out on a 15 cent market earlier this season.

— COUNTY STILL LOWEST IN UNEMPLOYMENT

Barry County continues to hold the lowest unemployment percentage in Southwest Missouri. Statistics from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations set the rate at six percent for the month of May. Other adjoining county percentages included: Newton-Jasper 6.5, Lawrence 6.3, McDonald 7.6 and Stone 9.6. Statewide, the rate fell by four-tenths of a percentage point from April, as the number of jobless Missourians dropped by 7.100 to 157,800. The drop was primarily seasonal, reflecting the continued improvement that takes place in the spring months, a division official said The division also noted, “Virtually all this growth in Missourians employed has come from the nonmanufacturing industries, ,including retail trade and services.” The May report from the division reflected a new all-time high for employment in the state. Total jobs increased by 40,300 to a mark of 2,298,300.

30 years ago

June 28, 1995

— GROWTH INDICATORS POINT TO PROGRESS FOR CASSVILLE

Cassville is 150 years old and still growing. The town of 500 in the year 1870 is now a town with a population of 2,371. Census takers are estimating that by the year 2010, Cassville will grow to include 2,950 people. Census figures include only those people living within the city limits. The numbers do not include several adjoining residential developments. In recent weeks, several building projects in the city have been completed, and others are just beginning. Cassville’s newest bank, First State Bank of Cassville, opened for business on Monday. The 4,000-square-foot facility is located at First and Main streets. Ron and Mary Belle McGrath have constructed 5,000-squarefeet of retail office space in a new building on East Seventh Street. The building, which contains four offices will be occupied by Designs by Debbie, Sports World and John Starchman Insurance. The building that currently houses Designs By Debbie and Sports World will be demolished. The McGraths said they hope tenants will move into the new building within the next 30 days. The old Clyde King property, west of Memorial Park has been cleared, and construction is set to begin on a 4,520-squarefoot structure that will house the new Oriental House restaurant, owned by Ouisik and Sun Dokko. The building, which will be constructed by Chapman Construction, will contain the restaurant, two commercial units and second floor living quarters. St. John’s has begun construction on a new clinic located behind Dr. Victor Occeno’s office. The clinic is being built by Springfield Builders, Inc. Other building projects in the works include: a 22,775-squarefoot hospital expansion; a 240-square-foot addition to GTE’s central office in Cassville; and a 1,500-square-foot addition to the American Legion building. City building permits could set a new record this year if construction continues at its present rate. Former building inspector Max Cooper said that in 1992, 45 permits were issued within the city limits. In 1994, that number grew to 59 permits. This year, there were 26 permits issued through May. City administrator Gregg Beavers, who has taken over as building inspector, said that there are at least five more permits pending, which would bring the six-month total up to 31 permits. Bill Shiveley, manager of Barry Electric, said that about 40 to 50 percent of their growth has been in the Cassville area over the past five years. 1,300 new electric customers have been added since 1990, and about 450 to 550 of these were in the Cassville area. GTE also attributes Cassville with the majority of its area growth. Since the beginning of 1995, over 150 new telephone lines have been added to digital equipment at GTE’s central office in Cassville. Tom Arnold, area manager for GTE, said that two-thirds of that growth has been in the Cassville exchange area. Postal service is also on the rise. Cassville Postmaster John Walters said that the post office has added about 300 deliveries in Cassville since 1990. He expects this year’s deliveries to increase by 60 to 70. Currently, the post office delivers to 2,428 families in the Cassville area. According to Donna Sanders at the Barry County clerk’s office, voter registration is up 17 percent in the city. In July 1994, Cassville city had 1,337 registered voters. In June 1995, that number increased to 1,617. Cassville rural precinct’s voter numbers rose by 6 percent. There were 1,259 registered voters in July 1994 as compared to 1,337 in June 1995. Cassville R-IV school district is also showing signs of growth. A new high school has been completed to help house a portion of the district’s rapidly expanding student population. Superintendent Dan Bailey said that during the 1990-91 school year, the district served 1,606 students. Last year, the district enrolled 1,911 students. That computes into a 19 percent increase over a five-year period.

— SHELL KNOB COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT FEATURED IN TWO NATIONAL MAGAZINES

A Shell Knob development has received national attention recently. TimbeRoc Village, located at the intersection of Highways YY and 39 in Shell Knob, was featured in the July/August edition of Log Homes Illustrated and the March 1995 edition of Building Systems Magazine. Both magazines were attracted to the unique concept of building a log commercial district. The idea was conceived by Robert Baird, his son, Brad Baird, and son-in-law, Rob Hall. All three families moved to Shell Knob in 1990 to build a 10 log cottage resort called the Timbers. Once that project was completed, they purchased a V-shaped, sixacre tract and build the log commercial district now called TimbeRoc Village. Individual log offices were constructed for Coleman Realtors, Horsefeathers, TimbeRoc Construction, Subway and Boatmen’s Bank. A 6,000-squarefoot log mini-mall with room for 18 tenants was also built. Log construction was chosen by the Bairds and Hall because it fit in with the look of the area. They said log buildings look perfectly natural in the lake setting. Shell Knob’s Chamber of Commerce is another TimbeRoc Village resident. The chamber is housed in a restored 112-year-old log cabin, which sits within the development. The cabin was the home of James and Catherine Fields who came to Shell Knob in 1883. In 1994, the home was disassembled and moved by Jim Stepp and John Bishop.

—TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO LAST SATURDAY CASSVILLE WENT DOWN IN ASHES

That morning April 18, 1893, will never be forgotten by the people that witnessed that awful conflagration, when the savings of a life time, went up in smoke and ashes, and many others were financially crippled. The Cassville people will never forget their friends of those dark days. The fire originated in the Wm. Townsend building, situated on the east side of the public square on the lot where F. N. Reese’s drug store is now located. The building at that time was occupied by Wm. McCarty, with a short order house and grocery store. The fire originated about 1 a.m., and destroyed the business portion to this city. It burned south to the building now occupied by Marquadt’s restaurant in front of the post office, and north along main street to where J.C. Henry is building his brick block. N.L. Halley’s frame business houses located where the First National Bank and Kinnaman’s store was burned and up to the livery barn, The John Hessee Hotel and barn on north were burned. The Oxford barn and lumber yard where W. A Wilk’s is now located went down in ashes. At the end of that year, the town was more substantially built than THE CASSVILLE DEMOCRAT issued a little paper that week, dated April 22, 1893, giving an account of the fire and called on its patrons for the payment of all debts, that printed in Monett.