Category: Podcast

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Today we are interviewing John Mertens, former director of Ozark Regional Library, interviewed by John Jones.

First, some background on you.

Where are you from?

What did you do before coming to the Arcadia Valley and so forth?

Yeah.

Okay, I grew up, partially grew up in Wisconsin.

My family, when I was very young, lived in Wisconsin.

I lived there until I was 12 years old, had an unfortunate situation.

My father was an excellent businessman.

He worked hard, worked long hours.

He owned a clothing store in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

That’s the home of the Land’s End, their main place of business is Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

But my father died at age 44 of a heart attack, and so that was the end of his business.

My mother sold the business and so we were sort of out of a place to live. read more

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Wilma Reed.

I was born March the 3rd, 1932.

I was born at Juliet, Missouri.

Who were your parents?

Clarence and Caroline Fireball.

What about grandparents?

My grandparents on my dad’s side was Emerson and Tampa.

T-E-M-P-A. Fireball.

And then my mother’s side was Noah and Talitha.

I don’t know how to spell that.

Young.

And what do you remember about growing up in Juliet?

Well, it was very, very country, you know.

And my first remembrance was, you know, of course, everybody lived out in the country, you know, and all that.

But we lived in a place and I didn’t ever know it that then.

And I don’t know if people called that then, but in the later years, they called it Fireball Haller, you know.

And, of course, we walked to school all the time. read more

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My name is Willa Dean Combs. I was born in 1930 in Bollinger County. We lived in northern Bollinger county and I moved to Madison County later when I married.

Willa says that she and her husband had a farm on Castor River and that he passed in 2017.

She says she was born May 20, 1930 in the middle of the Great Depression. She says that some of her earliest memories relate to her younger brother getting into trouble and she, as the older sister, trying to get him out of it. But then she shares a story of her brother crying and her mother coming to find out that she had bitten him. Her younger brother was the only sibling she had. She says that she and her brother played a lot on the farm where they grew up. She says their main source of entertainment was playing in or near the pond. read more

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My name is Maurice Stevens, I was born September, 1930 in Marquand Missouri. My parents are Ruby Stevens and – Stevens. (Note: Jerry Stevens, Maurice’s son, also participates in the interview.)

There wasn’t a lot of money around. My dad had a farm and raised various animals.

Maurice went to school in a small country school, Greasy Creek named after the nearby creek. When he got older he went to the Marquand schools. I graduated from the highschool in 1948.

He and the kids used to play softball but didn’t have gloves. He liked school and mentions that he and his sister did well in the spelling matches.

We ask him what he did on the farm and he says he helped with most things and mentions cutting wood, picking corn using a team of mules. The didn’t sell the produce because there were 8 kids so the food was to feed the family. They did timber work to help bring in money. read more

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Jack: My name is Jack Ward Skinner. I was born November 28, 1935 in St. Louis. My history with this county actually begins with my parents. My dad grew up in the Knob Lick area, but my mom was born and raised down on Castor below Higdon, Missouri. And so a lot of my early information comes from her, hand me down stuff.

This was, of course, they got married in 1934. And I was born in 35. And they’re in the middle of the depression. Jobs were hard to find. And so we moved to St. Louis and that’s why I was born up there.

1940, still jobs were kind of hard to find. So dad, we moved back down to live with my grandpa and grandma Ward, whose farm, they had an 80 acre farm, which lies across the road from the current Amidon parking lot. There on Castor. read more

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My name is Sharon Robbins and I was born in Glen Allen Missouri, July 5, 1948. According to my momma, it was a very hot day and she had a large garden and the corn was about ready and she spent the day picking and shucking and canning corn the day I was born. The corn wasn’t quite ready and she always said she liked her corn “nubiny”, not quite fully ripe which seemed to big. Sharon says that’s what shaped her to love the first, tenderest sweet corn. Her parents were Winfred and Lavern Upchurch that lived on a small farm outside of Glen Allen. She had an older brother who died tragically when they were teenagers. She also had a much younger brother that still owns and farms the family farm.

Her first memory of childhood was getting electricity in the house when she was only two. She and her older brother followed the electrician, Elmer Hahn, around the house collecting the little round metal “coins” that were left over from punching out holes in the metal outlet boxes. read more

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My name is Bill Osborne.  I was born March of 1948 here in Fredericktown in a home on Franklin Street where I was born and raised. My parents are Rosina Kessler Osborne and Buddy J.E. Osborne.

My earliest memories were going fishing with my father and my cocker spaniel puppy dog got out in the water. Papa assured me she wouldn’t drown. That was at the Little St. Francis River down by Saltpeter cave just up from the new bridge. Papa drove a stock truck and knew all the farmers, roads and places to fish and hunt. I was probably four or five at that time. My father passed away when I was just six or seven and that was also a vivid memory.

I always admired my mother because she had 3 kids to raise, ranging in age from me, I was the youngest to my sister who was the oldest. My brother had spinal  meningitis when he was 3 months old. It was prevalent during that time and similar to polio. The girl next door to us had it though she had a better recovery and could walk and talk. My brother survived but couldn’t walk or talk. read more

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My name is Linda Gay Whitener. I was born March 11, 1953 at Saint Mary’s in Ironton Missouri.

What to you remember of your childhood?

It’s really easy to remember because I lived there until the 6th grade. I’ve been here all my life. Just recently moved in with my significant other on High Street just a couple of houses down from the elementary school.

Right after my birth we lived on Z Highway but I don’t remember that. My parents were George Robert Whitener and Helen Maple Miller Whitener. We moved to 310 High Street soon after I was born. One of my early memories is sitting with my dog Peppy, a black and white chihuahua on our gray couch and chair while everyone was working. Her dad would bring her a snack and drink while she sat and watched. read more

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My name is Glenda, my maiden name was Robinson, I was married to John Skaggs who passed away and then I was married to Judd Pierce who also passed away. I was born July 2nd, 1934. I’ll be 85 years old this year.  I had 6 brothers and sisters, 4 brothers, 2 sisters. There were seven children in the family. I was born north of Patton Junction on a farm where we lived until I was about 5 years old. One story I remember about the farm house is going out for the day and forgetting my little sister.  Back then you didn’t have playpens or strollers so you would put a child’s dress tail under a table leg to keep them from crawling away.

We moved out to a place on HWY 51 north of Patton Junction. My father opened a filling station there. We lived there until I was 9 years old and that’s when we moved to Fredericktown. While we were there one of the things I remember best was working in the truck garden. We would work there while my dad worked at his filling station. I remember my mom would put my little sister in a horse collar to keep her from crawling away while we were working. read more

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My name is Margaret Miller. I was a Warnicker. I was born in Iron Mountain Missouri in 1931. My dad was a miner. In 1931, of course, the depression was starting. Iron Mountain was a mining town and there was a strip of company houses across from the mines. We lived in a big house. Then the mines shut down and my dad lost his job. At that point he began taking city people on hunting trips as a guide which provided a good income. He also hunted and fished for food. We also had a garden.

I was the only girl. I had an older brother, Charles, who was eight years older than I was. I was the only girl in the extended family. I was probably a little spoiled. When I was six my younger was born.

I went to school in Iron mountain but often also stayed with my grandmother in Mine LaMotte and would sometimes go to school there. There was no high school in Iron Mountain so my older brother went to high school in Mine LaMotte and would stay with my grandmother. read more