Robert Bohlken was chairman of the speech and theatre department at Northwest Missouri State University from 1970 to 2000 — a period when the historic 1910 theatre in the college’s administration building was destroyed in a dramatic fire in 1979. Today, the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1984.
When John Sliker Bilby moved to his 44 Ranch on the west side of the Nodaway River near Quitman in 1868, he and his sons would drive cattle 100 miles from the train station at Council Bluffs to his property. This was before trains served his area. He would expand his half section (320 acres) to 26,000 acres in Nodaway, Atchison, and Holt Counties and herd cattle throughout his empire. He would use his Missouri property as a jumping-off point for buying a reported 1,000,000 acres in 15 states and Mexico, and he initially managed it all out of Quitman before moving to his Oklahoma ranch in 1902.
Charles & George Bellows were brothers who operated the Parkdale Farm in the southwest corner of Maryville from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. Their farm was most famous for its shorthorn cattle. They are on the Nodaway Stairway of Stars.
Leo Baumli operated a Belgian draft horse and Percherons breeding ranch near Barnard. He is most famous for breeding mules, including one mule named Ruth that was associated with Festus on the tv show Gunsmoke
Each year, the Nodaway County Historical Society inducts a new member to its “Stairway of Stars.”
Here are a couple of terrain maps of Mozingo Lake/Creek. Mozingo Creek is only 8.3 miles long. It begins northeast of Pickering, above 170th Street, and empties into the 102 River at 295th Street. It is difficult to show terrain in the rolling prairie. The map on the left, exaggerated 50x, shows Maryville on the bluffs above the 102 and shows the Mozingo training into The map on right is exaggerated 40x and shows the source of the creek northeast of Pickering.
Source Image: Published in Maryville Daily Forum March 10, 1976
Mill Creek on Wikipedia
In 1961, Maryville’s two Catholic Churches, St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s, merged into St. Gregory Barbarigo. The merger was spurred by St. Patrick’s being physically condemned. The new church was named for St. Gregory the bishop in the home diocese of Pope John XXIII. At the time, it was reported as the first church in the world to be named for St. Gregory.
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