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BARRY COUNTY R E F L E C T I O N S A Quarterly Publication of the Barry County Museum

Volume II1, Issue 1

Treasuring the Past Embracing the Present Envisioning the Future

The Barry County Museum is located south of Cassville on Highway 112

HOURS 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday—Saturday 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday

Inside this issue: Barry County Pioneer Days

1

Hands On Room

1

Sunnyside School

2

Featured Recipe

3

Poetry Nook

3

Notes of Harmony Quilt

4

Volume Ten Book Signing

4

March 2010

Barry County Pioneer Days in April Plans are shaping up for what promises to be a fun-filled evening. Barry County Pioneer Days will be held Saturday, April 17 at Crowder College in Cassville. Free chili will be served beginning at 5:00 p.m. An oldfashioned pie auction will take place at 6:30. Entertainment will begin at 6:00, featuring the Possum Holler Fiddlers, a group made up of youth 7-18 years old, playing traditional Ozark music. A silent auction and 50/50 drawing will also be part of the evening’s events. Proceeds from the evening will be used to enhance the New Harmonies; Celebrating American Roots Music exhibit coming this summer. New Harmonies is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Missouri Humanities Council. The exhibit will be at the Barry County Museum June 19 through July 31, 2010.

Members of the Possum Holler Fiddlers include Eric Green, Dalton Pennington, Porter McCullough, Luke Thomas, Leah Carneal, Lauren Patton, Kindra Harris, Aaron Armstrong, Jae Harris, Shelton McCullough, Amber McCullough and Andy Harris

Committees are collecting items for exhibits that will highlight Barry County musical artists, shows and traditions, as well as scheduling programs and performances to be held throughout the six week exhibit. Events will be posted on our wiki site as they are scheduled, and can be seen at

www.newharmonies.missourih umanities.org/Cassville. If you have a purtiful dress and bonnet, make a mean pie, can fancy up a pie box, or would just like to be involved with either Barry County Pioneer Days or New Harmonies, volunteers are gladly accepted and greatly appreciated. Just call the museum at 847-1640.

New hands-on room for children A new addition at the museum is a kid-friendly hands on area. The new room offers colorful toys and books for children to enjoy while the adults explore the museum. The gift shop also includes a children’s station where youngsters can color in the Ozarks Tales and Trails coloring book by Jane Head or browse the selection of kids’ books offered for sale. Inexpensive games and treats are also available for purchase.

Page 2

Barry County Reflections

Sunnyside The following information, obtained from the research books of the Rural School Project, appeared in the Barry County Advertiser September 21, 1983 ***************************** Sunnyside School was located down Sugar Creek, west of Seligman. In 1908 Mrs. Velma Reed Nesbit was a six year old, first-year student attending Sunnyside. She attended Sunnyside from grades one through eight. Mrs. Nesbit recalled an event that happened in 1908. After heavy rains, Sugar Creek was really on a rampage. Myrtle Moore, then a seven year old student, was standing on the bank when the teeming waters collapsed the shoreline sweeping the child away. Jess Reed, Mrs. Nesbit’s brother, was working at the Wardlaw mill at the time and happened by the school on his horse in time to

Rural School District # 96

Sunnyside School—Date Unknown Photo Courtesy of Molly McKay and Donna Cooper - Barry County MO Gen Web

see the little girl being carried away by the rushing water. He waded his horse into the water and followed downstream until he could pluck

her safely out of the torrent after she had gone under several times. The youngster was rescued, but when she was found to be safe and

sound the school was dismissed for the rest of the day. Mrs. Nesbit identified the following people in the 1908 photo: Front: Rosie Douglas Tilford, Velma Reed Nesbit, Johnny Becker, Webster Bolin, Ella Sprinkles Fletcher, Roscoe Star, Chris Barnes, Lewis Barnes, Harry Douglas, Cecil Douglas, Roscoe Baldwin, Chris Barnes, Reese Star, Sefus Star, Ivy Still, Floyd Still. Teacher, David Pendergraft is at the right in the back row. ************************************

Sunnyside School, 1908

The Sunnyside School is just one of 112 rural Barry County schools currently being researched by the Rural School Project. Fran Bolton and Penny Bailey meet Wednesdays from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. at the Barry County Museum. If you have photographs, information, memories or anecdotes about any rural school please contact them at the Barry County Museum (417) 847-1640.

Volume II1, Issue 1

Page 3

Featured Recipe—Busy Day Jiffy Cake 1 egg 1 cup of sugar 1 cup thick rich cream (soured with 1 tsp vinegar) 1 1/2 cup of flour 1 1/2 tsp baking power 1/4 tsp soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp vanilla Beat egg with a rotary beater, add sugar, beating until thick. Add cream and beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients. Bake in 8 x 8 cake pan 350 degrees about 25 minutes, until cake top springs back at touch in center. This recipe is rich enough without icing, and is best served with fruit; fresh, frozen or canned. *****************************

Betty Higgs age 10

Betty states, “I have copied this recipe exactly as it has been handed down to me. Nowadays, instead of using thick cow cream freshly skimmed from the milk, you can use one cup of whipping cream soured by adding 1 tsp. vinegar and letting sit while getting other ingredients together. Commercial sour cream is not rich enough.” Betty adds, for those thinking about calories or fat, “Notice the cake has no other shortening.” She also admits she

uses an electric mixer instead of a rotary beater, and rarely sifts flour as most has been pre-sifted, however sifting is a good way to mix dry ingredients. Betty Lamberson was born Betty Lavelle Higgs, daughter of Chester “Buck” Higgs and Marguerite Hoyt Higgs. Born and raised in Wheaton, Betty shares she began making this cake as a 10-yearold growing up on the farm. She was assigned the duty of fixing lunch on wash day. After WW II, when electricity was made available by Barry County Rural Electric Coop, an electric range with a deep-well cooker was put into service. Betty “looked” (removed rocks) and washed brown beans and put them on to cook in the deep-well cooker. The beans were served with home canned “last of the garden” relish, bread and homechurned butter churned from a tabletop Dazey Churn. Betty then made this cake to be served with home canned peaches, or whatever fruit was available from the cellar. According to Betty, “A farm housewife always had the ingredients on hand, requiring nothing special. Nowadays we have to go to the store to get cream rich enough. But it is still delicious!” Betty’s grandparents, Walter William Hoyt and Della Ann Henley were married in 1907. Walter was working for the Missouri and North Arkansas Railway at Wayne, Missouri and around 1925 was offered a transfer to Wheaton. Wheaton had organized a new high school in 1916, graduating its first

class in 1921, and this no doubt influenced his decision to relocate. All four of the Hoyt children, Charles, Maurice, Marguerite and Ida graduated from Wheaton High School. Mr. Hoyt was always ready to treat children to an ice cream cone when they visited the depot. Mr. Hoyt remained with the railroad until it closed in the late 1940s. When they first came to Wheaton, Mrs. Hoyt managed the hotel, which was on Main Street near McCallister’s drugstore on Main Street. She was known as a great cook, and her dining room was a popular place for meals. She was also a practical nurse and assisted Dr. McCall and Dr. Ellison on some of their rounds. Marguerite Hoyt was born January 16, 1918 in Sulphur Rock, AR. On February 3, 1937 she married Chester “Buck” Higgs. They were the parents of Gary Joe and Betty Lavelle Higgs. After graduating from SMS, Marguerite received her masters in education from Drury. She taught school from 1944 to 1975, beginning her career in a one-room school in Barry County. After retiring from teaching, she worked as the librarian for the Webb City Library. She had a passion for quilting and was recognized as a master quilter throughout the Joplin area. Betty’s mother, Marguerite Higgs, and her sisters-in-law, Monta Lauderdale and Ruby McGaugh and their next door neighbor, Elizabeth Howerton, traded recipes back and forth, so Betty is not sure of the origin of this recipe.

Marguerite also took home economics at Wheaton High School in the 1930s. Every student was required to make a recipe file box, and Betty still has her mother’s.

Marguerite Hoyt Higgs

Poetry Nook March Wind Blow! Blow! Ye March wind From dawn to setting sun. Blow thou like an angered fiend, but yet it’s all in fun. It is the same from year to year; the March winds blow and blow. Those mournful tunes we often hear as the wind whirls to and fro. We hate your fitful howling, we hate the dust you fling. But each year when you come prowling, we know you’re bringing spring. So we can’t appreciate your blowing, nor your weird attempts at fun. But when the old year fast is growing, we love to see you come. By Maynard Vanderpool from The Avaunt—1935

® Phone 417 847-1640 Fax 417 847-1641 [email protected] www.barrycomuseum.org Postage

P.O. Box 338 Cassville, MO 65625 The Barry County Museum

Notes of Harmony Quilt Volume Ten

• Collecting, preserving and exhibiting items that illustrate the past, present and future of Barry County. • Fields’ Photo Archives - a collection of more than one million negatives available for public viewing and researching. • Oral History Project capturing the stories of long-time county residents to create a collective memory of Barry County life. • Display space for community art exhibits and collections.

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Kathy White, left, museum director, accepting the lovely quilt donated by members of the Ozark Country Quilt Guild; Peggy Calton, Kathleen Ortiz, Karla Kuklaw, Heidi Fisher, Alta Baldwin, Joyce Rivers and Donna Baldwin. Bridget Shupp and Laura Allen assisted in making the quilt, but were not available for the photo.

The Ozark Country Quilt Guild has once again presented a quilt to the museum to be used for a fund raiser. The quilt, Notes of Harmony, was designed and pieced by Kathleen Ortiz, assembled by the Country Quilt Guild and quilted by Country House Quilts.

The musical theme was chosen to compliment the upcoming New Harmonies exhibit. Tickets for the quilt may be purchased at the museum for $1.00 each or six for $5.00. The quilt will be on display at the museum. The drawing will be held December 3, 2010.

The museum will be celebrating publication of Volume 10 in the Lifetimes of Memories, Voices of Barry County series. The oral history project got its start in 2005 when interviews of local residents were initiated. Since that time more than 700 interviews have been conducted, resulting in 51 narrators’ stories published to date. Each hour of recorded interview requires approximately 40 hours to process and produce into written form. Volume 10, featuring Max Fields, Dick Harris, and Dr. Gene Miekley, will debut Friday, March 19. A customary book signing will be held that afternoon from 3:00—6.00. Gift sets of volumes one through ten will be offered at a special rate of $75.00. This special offer will run through July, 2010. Complete information on books available, and narrators featured in each volume can be seen on our website; www.barrycomuseum.org.