November 2010

On June 26, 1974, a meeting sponsored by the Arcadia Valley Woman´s Study Club was held at the Arcadia Valley High School library. Ninety-Two persons attended in addition to the guest speaker, Dr. James W. Goodrich.

Originally housed in downtown Springfield, the History Museum found its first "real" home in the Victorian Bentley House. Then in 1993 the History Museum was moved to Springfield's Historic City Hall. This impressive structure, built in 1894 and used originally as the U.S. Customhouse and Post Office, allowed The History Museum to open its first permanent exhibit on this region's history. Titled "Crossroads at the Spring," it tells the local story from the coming of the first people to southwest Missouri 12,000 years ago up to 1957, when Springfield was voted an All-American City.

Since 1959 the society has grown from a small group of committed people to a membership of over 800, all in a village with a population of 70! Unsure of their future when they completed their first restoration in 1960, they turned the property over to the Arrow Rock State Park. They soon found there were more buildings to be saved and they began to work. The Friends now own ten historic buildings and one modern building.

Settled by French-Canadian habitants in the late 1740s, the village of Ste. Genevieve has been inviting visitors to enjoy the charm of its narrow streets, shops, museums and historic homes for decades. Located amid Ste. Genevieve’s National Historic Landmark District, the Felix Valle House State Historic Site offers visitors a rare glimpse of Missouri’s French colonial past.

Just across the street is the Dr. Benjamin Shaw House. The earliest portion of this white frame building was constructed in 1819 by Jean Baptiste Bossier as a storehouse for his mercantile business. Today, the house provides interpretive space for the site.

Facing le grand champ, the agricultural fields of colonial Ste. Genevieve, is the 1792 Bauvais-Amoureux House. The walls of the house were formed from hewn logs, set upright into an earthen trench in a style known as poteaux en terre, making it a rare architectural treasure. An impressive diorama of Ste. Genevieve in 1832 is displayed in the house.

Dillard Mill sits along Huzzah Creek and was the second mill built at that site. The first, Wisdom's Mill, built in the 1850s, was destroyed by fire in 1895. Innovations in the new, modernized mill included steel roller mills for grinding the wheat and a turbine to power the mill. For years, farmers brought their grain to the mill to be ground into flour and eventually livestock feed. The mill ceased operation in 1956.

Today, most of the original machinery is still intact and operational. A turn of a wheel brings the machinery back to life during tours of the mill, which are given year-round. Groups should contact the site in advance.

Picnic sites provide a peaceful, scenic setting to enjoy lunch. Visitors can also wade across the creek to a 1.5-mile hiking trail that winds through an oak-hickory forest.

The adjoining Boonesfield Village is a collection of historic buildings from throughout Missouri that are being reconstructed to form a living history village and a center for the study of history, traditional arts, natural sciences and ethics.

The Historic Daniel Boone Campus and Boonesfield Village are likely to impress visitors not only with the size of the home but also the scope of the village that is coming to life behind it. The village has expanded to include over a dozen other 19th-century structures, including a chapel and schoolhouse. The village is populated by interpreters in period dress, with more performers and artisans to come as the village grows.

The Boone home, nearly 200 years old, is large even by today's standards. It rises four stories -- counting a kitchen and dining room in what might be considered a basement -- with limestone walls that are 2 1/2 feet thick. The home has seven fireplaces and a ballroom on the top floor.

The Crane Family moved to the Williamsburg area in 1828 and has only moved about 7 miles in all that time. Joe's family members would take an interest in a certain item and end up with quite a collection. Arrowheads, dolls, general store items such as tobacco tags and biscuit tins, farm implements, Victorian furnishings, and antique cars are only a few categories of interesting items that can be found in the museum. Original land grants are housed in the museum as well.

The Civil War may have ended in 1865, but vivid memories of the "Lost Cause" lived on for decades at the Confederate Soldiers Home of Missouri. Opened in 1891, the Confederate Home provided refuge to more than 1,600 veterans and their families for nearly 60 years. These veterans hailed from points throughout the South and served in every major battle of the Civil War. Foot soldiers, artillery and cavalrymen, marines, guerilla fighters and even spies found a place of rest here in their old age. The very last of these former rebel soldiers, John T. Graves, died at the home in 1950 at the age of 108, thus bringing an end to an amazing era in Missouri history.

The Cole County Historical Society was formed on July 24, 1941. The dedication of the original society members and those who quickly joined made it possible to purchase the original museum building in 1946, and to complete the necessary renovation prior to the official opening at a reception on May 17, 1948.

The society is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the museum and the Upschulte House. Funds for these purposes have been and are, derived solely from membership contributions, fund raising projects, admission fees, and individual donations. The museum and library are staffed entirely by volunteers—there are no paid employees. All funds available are used without private benefit to any individual or group. For growth of and additions to its historical collections, the society depends upon individual and corporate gifts and bequests.

The society has published books dealing with family histories, a history of Harrisonville, cemetery guides, calendars, and reprinted plat books.

The society provides for the preservation of such material and makes it accessible to the public in the Margaret Wade Archives, located in the Cass County Information Center at 400 E. Mechanic. There it houses many county records such as probate packets, deed books and indices, court records, marriage records, tax records, etc. Volunteers have prepared indices for birth and death records, census and marriage records, and over 60,000 obituaries to name a few. In addition, the society maintains the 1835 Sharp-Hopper Log Cabin and uses it to showcase the pioneer heritage of the county.