BOOK REVIEWS
CAPLINGER HIGH SCHOOL, CAPLINGER MILLS,
MISSOURI 1917-1940, (Third Printing), edited and published by Louis V.
“Abb” Gannaway ($12.00):
Caplinger Mills High School had its
beginning in 1917 with the 9th and 10th grades being
held in the local bank building. By Fall 1918 parents and other citizens
had organized, passed bonds and erected a new brick building. Eventually
the 11th and 12th grades were available before the
school’s closing in 1942. This book is the compilation of 140 replies to
questionnaires sent to former students living all over the United States in
the early 1970’s. These replies include biographical information on the
students, their memories of their high school lives, and many photographs of
the school and general area.
CAPLINGER MILLS NATIONAL HISTORICAL DISTRICT, (Second Edition with additions, 2009), by Bob Estes for the Caplinger Mills, Missouri, Bridge Preservation Society ($6.00):
HISTORICAL TOURS OF CEDAR COUNTY,
MISSOURI, published by the Cedar County Historical Society ($4.00):
In 1976 the Cedar County Historical Society,
in honor of our nation’s bicentennial, presented an eight-session lecture
series about the early history of the county. It was later decided to print
these lectures in the form of a tour guide of the county. This book of five
driving tours is the result. In addition to the historical information,
each tour section includes a map with areas of discussion located and
photographs of people and places associated with the tour.
THE ERA OF THE ONE-ROOM RURAL SCHOOL IN
CEDAR COUNTY, MISSOURI, (Second Edition), compiled by Jean Nipps Swaim
($20.00):
The author, herself a native of the county
and a retired teacher, traveled many miles and interviewed over 250 people
compiling information on all the rural schools of Cedar County plus the
Stockton Colored School in the southeast part of Stockton from about 1880 to
1905. Besides many tributes to individual rural teachers, each school
section includes information gleaned from public records, the interviews
with former students and neighbors and a list of the families whose
children attended the school. In the words of the author . . . “This book,
if nothing else, is a memorial to the people of an era as they carried out
the democratic ideal of an education for their children and for every
child.” Fully indexed.
Goodspeed’s 1889 HISTORY OF HICKORY, POLK, CEDAR, DADE AND BARTON COUNTIES, MISSOURI (Partial Reprint—Cedar County sections only), ($15.00):
Anyone doing U. S. genealogical or historical research has surely encountered at least one book of this monumental series by Goodspeed’s Publishing Company. With chapter titles such as “Settlement and Early Affairs,” “Court Affairs” and “Military History,” this reprint covering Cedar County from its formation to the 1880’s contains 80 pages of history and 75 pages of biographical sketches.
1961 ATLAS OF CEDAR COUNTY, MISSOURI, originally published by Murphy Map Company now with 2009 STOCKTON LAKE OVERLAY added by Bob Estes (CD) (15.00):
PRINT FROM THE 1961 ATLAS OF CEDAR COUNTY, MO, published by Murphy Map Company with 2009 Overlay of Stockton Lake ($5.00):
STANDARD ATLAS OF CEDAR COUNTY, MISSOURI,
(including a Plat Book of the Villages, Cities and Townships of the County),
compiled and published by Geo. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908
(Reprint) ($10.00):
This book is the fifth in a series of
reprints of county atlases undertaken by the Greene County Archives &
Records Center, Springfield, Missouri. Their goal is to reprint all such
atlases from counties that comprise the original Greene County, Missouri, as
established in 1833. In addition to all the township maps and town plats,
this book includes a “Patrons Reference Directory,” information on the U. S.
Land Survey System, and photographs of some of the patrons, their homes and
their businesses. All landowners are indexed by section, township and
range.
ARNICA IN THE DAYS OF YORE 1882-1982,
by Lorene Kenney Clayton ($2.50):
Platted in 1882 as Fincastle Springs, also
known as Arnica Springs, and finally as just Arnica, this once-bustling
community once included three general stores, two churches, a drug store, a
post office, a blacksmith shop, a mill, a school about ¾ mile northwest of
town and several homes. All of the businesses and most of the homes are now
gone. With the assistance of public records and her own and others’
memories, the author reconstructs her childhood hometown in our minds.
Loyal descendants of these townspeople and their rural neighbors, originally
from VA, NC, SC, TN and KY, still meet in the park for their annual Arnica
Picnic that was first organized in the late 1800’s.
LETTERS OF LOVE
AND ADVENTURE, by
Dale G. Goodman ($12.00):
This compilation follows one young man from
Missouri through his military service in the U. S. Air Force during the
Korean Conflict starting in May 1951 , when he reported to San Antonio, TX,
and ending in May 1954, when he was discharged at Turner Air Force Base in
Georgia. Compiled and written to commemorate their 50th wedding
anniversary, it includes the 150+ letters he wrote home to his girlfriend
and eventual wife, Barbara, as well as commentary on his military life
stateside and abroad and many photographs.
LIFE AND MEMORIES AT MY MISSOURI OZARK
HOME PLACE, by Dale G. Goodman ($10.00):
This autobiography of a Depression era boy
growing up in a hard but simpler world is a tale of a family and what they
did to survive and eventually prosper. Beginning with a 6-year-old’s
memories of his family of seven (three others would be born in Missouri)
moving from Topeka, Kansas, to rural Cedar County in 1937, living first in a
tent and two cars until a log cabin was built on their forty acres, it
continues through his childhood, his family’s move to the “Big House” on a
bluff on their new eighty acres of “good creek bottom land,” and on through
his young adulthood. His story and the included photographs detail a world
of a father having to work in Alaska during World War II to support his
family back home, planting anything they thought they could grow, eat and/or
preserve, a “forty-acre outhouse” upgraded to a two-hole privy, one-room
schoolhouses, hitching rides to town, fishing and swimming holes, “going out
west” adventures, enlisting in the Air Force during the Korean Conflict, and
meeting his future wife when she was four years old.
DIRECTORY OF LINDLEY PRAIRIE CEMETERY,
CEDAR COUNTY, MISSOURI, by the Board of Directors of Lindley Prairie
Cemetery ($10.00):
The first permanent settlement in what would
be Cedar County, MO, was established in 1832; and the county was officially
organized in 1845. Settlers to the Bear Creek/Paynterville area in the
southeastern portion of the county began arriving between 1835 and 1840.
With a few legible tombstones from the 1840’s and several unreadable stones
and many stone less depressions in the ground, especially in the northern
part of the cemetery, it is reasonable to assume the area residents soon
established this as a burial place for their loved ones several years before
its official designation as a cemetery in 1854. Unlike many rural
cemeteries, the almost 26-acre Lindley Prairie Cemetery still enjoys active
participation in its upkeep. A portion of this effort has resulted in this
book compiled in 1994. The information on the deceased is arranged by the
first letter of their surname and then each name has been assigned a
section, a row number in that section, and a number within that row so that
the grave location can be identified on the enclosed maps.
CEDAR COUNTY CEMETERY BOOK, published by The Cedar County Historical
Society ($35.00):
This 2003 edition is the third and latest
compilation of cemetery data for Cedar County. For each of the 120 known
cemeteries, the deceased are shown in alphabetical order accompanied by any
other legible information from each tombstone. Location information
included with each cemetery, as well as a map section at the end of the
book, helps the researcher physically find each cemetery. Fully indexed.
MISSOURI HISTORY IN CEDAR COUNTY,
(2008 reprint), by Clayton Abbott and Lewis B. Hoff ($20.00):
Peppered with historical photographs, maps
and plats, this 1971 book was the definitive source of Cedar County history
for almost thirty years and remains a valuable resource for the genealogist
and historian. Written by Abbott, a teacher and civil service employee,
with much of the research provided by Hoff, a lawyer, prosecuting attorney,
judge and newspaper editor, both natives of the county, the contents of this
book are taken from public records, old newspapers, interviews with “old
timers,” and even from information obtained from the National Archives in
Washington, DC. This information covers a time period from the earliest
settlers in the 1830’s to county events from the 1960’s. One hundred
sixty-one pages of biographies of many descendants of the early settlers
comprise a separate section of this book. Indexed.
CEDAR COUNTY, MISSOURI,
HISTORY &
FAMILIES, written and compiled by The Cedar County Historical Society
and published by Turner Publishing Company ($60.00):
Following in the tradition of Abbott and
Hoff’s 1971 MISSOURI HISTORY IN CEDAR COUNTY, this 341-page hardbound book
continues and elaborates on the history of the county from the earliest
known settlers in the 1830’s to events and residents of the late 1990’s.
Among others, expanded sections about the county’s country stores, towns and
schools and Civil War history are of particular interest. Modern printing
methods have enabled the inclusion of many more photographs than contained
in the earlier history book. Over two hundred pages of this volume are
family sketches, lineage information and photos from private contributors.
Fully indexed.
FILIPINO LEGENDS—IGOROT FOLK TALES, (1976), by Clayton Abbott with sketches by Mark Rountree ($8.00)
Known primarily for his books on the history of Cedar County, the late author wrote this book to document his first job after graduating from the University of Wisconsin in Spring 1926—eighteen months teaching the English language and culture at the Trinidad Agricultural School at Baguio in the northern Luzon of the Phillipine Islands. It was less than thirty years after the execution of the Filipino hero, Jose Rizal, by the Spanish and during the middle of the period in which Filipinos were preparing themselves for independence. His students were from all the sub-provinces—each of which had its own separate culture and different dialect. As part of their homework, he asked his students to translate their native folktales into English. Igorots had no written language; and before this time, their legends had been preserved by being handed down verbally from one generation to the next. These forty-one stories are from those original manuscripts. Limited supply.