Wilshire Apartments

This book would not have been published except for the suggestion of Father J. J. Lilly, after he had read of the first dinner I gave to the old settlers of Springfield. He suggested that my guests were the only persons now living who could tell of the early days as they really were, and of matters and things as they really existed, during the first few years of the settlement of Greene County. Realizing the truth of his statement, I herewith present the recollections of my guests, largely in their own language, which may not attract the hypercritical, but will satisfy all those wanting to know our early history and of early settlers, their integrity, perseverance and forcefulness. There is nothing about the late Civil War or things which occurred during or after it, except as to the death and burial of General Nathaniel Lyon, which is truthfully told by the only man living who knows the facts, Dr. S. H. Melcher, now of Chicago, Illinois.

Passage source: Personal Reminiscences and Fragments of the Early History of Springfield and Greene County, Missouri : Related by Pioneers and Their Descendants at Old Settlers' Dinners Given at the Home of Capt. Martin J. Hubble, March 31, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, published 1914.

You ask how this could be done ? I will illustrate by one or two instances. There was an old man who lived in the west portion of this county, familiarly known as Uncle Davy Reynolds. It was his custom when he came to Springfield to stay one night at my father's house and, as a boy, I had heard him tell of the working of this plan. On one occasion a man moved in and stopped near his place - had four horses to feed - and he, Uncle Davy, soon found that he was not buying corn sufficient to feed those four horses, for the county was sparsely settled and he knew every man who had corn to sell. He watched his crib and found his corn missing. He went to his crib on Saturday, selecting the day on purpose, arranged his corn so that he would know if any was taken, and in the cobs of several ears inserted a slip of paper with his name written on it. Next morning it was gone. On Sunday he visited this man and while there walked out to the lot, and on examining the cobs, found several with his name in them. He suggested to the man that it was a strange incident. Of course the man was confused. Uncle Davy suggested the best way out was for him to move and by the time the sun was an hour high the next morning he was gone.

Passage source: Personal Reminiscences and Fragments of the Early History of Springfield and Greene County, Missouri : Related by Pioneers and Their Descendants at Old Settlers' Dinners Given at the Home of Capt. Martin J. Hubble, March 31, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, published 1914.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Springfield Township - 41,758 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.