1939 1944 Barnard Beal Park Boy Scouts Burlington Jct. Cartoons Catholic Conception Abbey Ellis Meek Eugene Field Farmers Fires Football Gas Stations Golf Graham Harry Truman Herbert Hoover Farm Horses Houses Jokes KenRex Ken Rex McElroy Maps Maryville Maryville High School Murders Music Northwest Missouri State University Obituaries Photographers Pickering Platte Purchase Pumpkin Center Skidmore Spoofhounds St. Patrick's Stairway to the Stars Theatre Townsend US71 Washington School World War I World War II
Smoke Shop During Townsend’s December 1960 Fire
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Nodaway County’s Lafayette High School
In August 1921, Nodaway County had a Lafayette High School near Guilford. It was billed as the only rural school district in Missouri to do this without state (most one-room schools sent their students to towns for high school). The school forced the media to refer to the school near Guilford as “Lafayette Rural High School,” while the bigger one in St. Joseph, Missouri, always had to have the St. Joseph name attached to it. The school was too small to offer basketball or football teams, but it did have a little track.
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Fire on the west side of the square in -20F Temps in 1918
A fire that occurred on January 30, 1918, destroyed most of the buildings west of the square. Outside temperatures were reported at -20F, and it iced over. It was the second of three major Townsend fires (the others being in 1892 and 1960). More than 100 people moved bags of Townsend goods across Fourth to the Farmers Trust building (later Citizens and today Bank Midwest) in preparation for Townsend’s reopening on the north side of the square in a former grocer space. Towsends was in the Michau Building on the corner, which later became Place’s. Some items from Nodaway Valley Bank were moved to the First National Bank
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8,000 Meals Served at Nodaway Court House Picnic for Troops Going to Camp Funston for WWI Training in September 1917
On September 26, 1917, more than 8,000 meals were served on the grounds of the Nodaway County Courthouse, honoring county men who had been drafted in August for World War I training at Camp Funston (now Fort Riley) in Kansas. The crowd in town was estimated at 15,000. The men then went to the Burlington Station, where the Burlington had dispatched 2 cars to take them. 220 Nodaway men had been drafted and passed their physicals in the August draft and were not exempted from service. The draftees went in waves through October for training, and each wave had its festivities, but none were as grand as the Sept. 26 event.
My aunt, who would have been 5 at the time, talked about how she got caught up in the excitement and ran down the track, throwing flowers. She said she never realized what she was cheering for and contrasted it to a more somber visit when they drove to St. Joseph during World War II just to see my dad pass through on a train.
Most histories say that the Spanish Flu, which killed more people than the War (as many as 100 million in the flu vs. 23 million in the war) started its worldwide spread at Camp Funston.
The AI colorized/enhanced image is from the Nodaway Countians in History photos at the Maryville Daily Forum Aug 18, 1973. The caption refers to Nov. 1, 1917 but it was September.
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“Human Fly” Harry H. Gardiner Climbs Nodaway Courthouse Tower, Nodaway Valley Bank Building, and First National Bank, June 15, 1916
On June 15, 1916, “Human Fly” Harry H. Gardiner climbed points of the Nodaway County Courthouse, Nodaway Valley Bank, and First National Bank Building in Maryville. The above ad is from the Ravenwood Gazette. The photo of him is from the St. Joseph News-Press when he climbed the Federal Building in St. Joseph.
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Dedication of First House Stone Boulder in 1921
The dedication of the First House 6-ton boulder on the grounds of the Carnegie Public Library occurred on September 8, 1921. The dedication was intended to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Missouri’s admission to statehood, which occurred on August 10, 1821, but was delayed because of issues with the inscription. The dedication also included the unveiling of new plaques on the World War I memorial pillars on Memorial Drive at Northwest Missouri State.
The boulder came from East 4th Street (and had been moved previously to West 2nd). It was described as a 6-ton granite composite, supposedly the smallest of several boulders originally on East 4th, and the only one that could be moved (probably glacial erratics).
Here are associate stories.
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Ireland School
There is plenty of Irish going around in Nodaway County — what with the world’s shortest parade by Burney’s, the Irish settlement at Conception, the old St. Patrick’s Church, and bars seemingly everywhere. But if you want to go to Ireland, all you have to do is go to Wilcox.
Maryville Baseball Comets Beat Battery C During 200 Mile March from Fort Leavenworth to Des Moines
On July 26, 1907, members of Battery C, Fifth Field Artillery marched into Maryville late at night as part of a 200+ mile march from Fort Leavenworth to Des Moines after overnights that included Lake Contrary in St. Joseph and Savannah. In August, the Army marched back to Fort Leavenworth through Maryville.
The unity brought caissons (the two-wheeled cart designed to support the trail of an artillery piece). In 1908, Edmund Gruber, commander of the unit and later commandant of Fort Leavenworth, wrote: “The Caissons Go Rolling Along.” Those lyrics differ from the current official version. Gruber’s version was transformed into a march by John Philip Sousa in 1917 and renamed the “U.S. Field Artillery March.”
The unit camped at McJimsey Park Pond (just north of the Alice Beal property –Beal Park today– across the Wabash tracks)
Battery C had supposedly won the Army baseball title the year before and Maryville showed its hospitality by beating the team 2-0. The Army stayed longer on the retrun march and lost two more games. The games were probably played at Carl Riffe Field (named for a deputy sheriff), which was at the corner of East Halsey and South Charles (and is still a field today). It was two blocks from St. Mary’s Church (now St. Gregory Barbargio). This field was used by several ball teams, including the high school team, and was discontinued around 1915 when the college built its field.
The Comets were a semipro team, and this item challenges the printed history of the team, which says it got its name because Haley’s Comet was present during a game. The Comet was in 1910, and this predates that.
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General John J. Pershing 1936 Lunch at Courtesy Court
John J. Pershing, commander of the U.S. armies in World War I, had lunch at Courtesy Court at 12th and North Main on May 1, 1936. Pershing was traveling from Lincoln, Nebraska to his boyhood home at Laclede, Missouri where he was going to dedicate the cornerstone of a new school. Maryville is midway between the two communities.
The Olde English style building at 1202 North Main has rich culinary history including Glen “Mac” McGinnis who sold it in 1948 to set up Mac’s Steak House by the Mary Mart Shopping Center and Thompson’s Paradise Donut Shop which opened in 1968 by Mr. and Mrs. Lester Thompson.
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