| Newspaper Item | Wednesday, July 21, 1955 NOT A SINGLE BUIDLING STANDS THERE NOW Corsicana Has Interesting History Once Booming Barry County Town, An interesting historical article about the Barry County community of Corsicana, written by Attorney John O. Sanders of the Cassville, appeared in the July issue of "The Ozarks Mountaineer." Corsicana is located about five miles southwest of Purdy. The article follows: You have heard of Ghost Towns. Well, there is a place down in the scenic Ozarks in Barry County, Missouri, that might qualify as a ghost town, although there might be some question as to a place of habitation for the ghost. Its beginning was not very different from the usual village in the early days of the Ozarks pioneers. Joy's Creek, with a natural water fall, invited the establishment of a grist mill. L.J. Blankenship accepted this invitation. The exact date is not definitely known, but it was at an early time, perhaps in the 1830's. Then came the usual blacksmith shop, closely followed by a number of stores. Jasper Fly was perhaps the first to set up a general store. At first it was of the customary cracker-barrel type. It was the practice of this family, especially the men folk, of gadding about the village that is said to have given the town its nick name of "Gadfly", by which the community was most generally known in the early times. In time Gadfly became the pioneer home of a number of prominent families, mostly from Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Besides the Blankenship and the Flys, there were the Garrisons, the Mays, the Johnsons, The Barrs, the Davises, and the Smiths, most of whom established some kind of business. Scott Barr was the original blacksmith of the village. His skill in shoeing horses and oxen, making many metal instruments hard to obtain in those early days, sharpening plowshares, hoes, and like utensils, spread for miles around. Silas Davis, also had a shop. He did some blacksmithing, too, but his main business was making things of wood which comprised a long list of articles. many things were made of wood then that are now made only of metal, such as hames, hinges, shoe lasts, and wagon spindles. Davis was chiefly concerned, however, in making wagons, coffins, and furniture. At a fairly early time the merchants began to specialize. The Flys turned mostly to "dry goods, shoes and notions." John Tommy Johnson set up a hardware and harness store. There were two drug stores - with "blind tigers" attached. There were a few other stores that I do not distinctly remember. But before the end of the century Corsicana, as it was now commonly called, had become quite cosmopolitan. It had a mill where grains were ground into bread stuffs, wood and cotton carded into rolls, a variety of stores where anything available to the pioneers could be purchased, two blacksmith shops, a woodworking shop, a post office, a newspaper (The Valley Press, which later became The Cassville Republican), a good school, churches, doctors, lawyers, two Justices of the Peace (kept busy most of the time), a cooperative milk plant engaged in the making of butter, - and a bright future. But that future, as, in time, the whole community would find out, held only ill for them. to begin with the troubles, the mill, the hub of the town, burned down. The milk plant failed, due to a lack of milk in the community. Old feuds flared up. A number of prominent men were killed, Dr. Holliday was killed by Tom Crawford. Him Hall killed Amos Kelley, a prominent attorney. It is said that Hall and Kelley originally fell out over a well that was located in the public road between them. Then the old-timers began to pass away normally. Thus the town lost its leaders. Alas, "where there is no vision the people perish." this saying was true in pioneer times as it was in the time of which Solomon wrote. Corsicana began to acquire a reputation as a place where toughs and fighting men lived. It was scarcely possible to get through an election day without a number of fights. Some fought with fists, some with knives, and some with guns. As a teen-ager I caught the spirit. It was on an election day. A boy from our school was there. I did not like him; perhaps I was a little afraid of him, though I would not have admitted it then. Anyway I carried my old barlow knife, sharp and ready for him, all day. The construction of the Frisco Railroad from Plymouth (now Monett) to the south opened up some new towns. The county seat, after a number of location contests, had definitely become established at Cassville. Corsicana was on the down slide. The Flys moved their store to Purdy, a town on the new railroad. The Valley Press changed ownership and set up as The Cassville Republican at Cassville. The village was dying a lingering death. Then on November 30, 1943, a tornado delivered the final knockout. A furious funnel dipped down on this town, wrecked every building and scattered the debris over the adjoining countryside. No habitation was left even for the ghost. Some years later an attempt was made to inject new life into the village. A new up-to-date canning factory was erected. But it soon burned down. Only a few farmers live there now. One of these, A.C. (Chart) Garrison, a descendent of one of the pioneer families, and with whom I have checked must of this information, is starting something new. He has constructed a series of small lakes, fed by numerous springs and seeps, which he has stocked with fish. He plans to open these up for the fishing public, including tourists, and who can say he will not yet keep the name of Corsicana alive? But, Corsicana ended up with the same beauty spot, the Joy's Creek falls, that it had in the beginning. There is a series of rapids extending half a mile or so above this fall. The old mill race, starting at a point above the rapids, is a silent reminder of its past usefulness. |
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| Paper Date | July 21, 1955 |
| Resource | Newspaper |
| Submitted by | Submitted in 2014 by: Phyllis Long and typed by: Linda Garrett |
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