Springfield Leader and Press from Springfield, Missouri • 45

r' itMii tMifM 4h4 a T- V' i i 77' v' rV- Jfc. -3 j1 v- r-r -V -C-ry'- SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 11, 1938 EnvBiSK i-'1 'h-- V' 'AsryCrr- ritoJifeW. -V. ih U- u. t-V j.

I- xvtsfrs V. -i A. 'A, L. a- Prim for tha silliest otatietito SprlngflsM-lf there, wen such a prlss woul have to go to the pram agin for a cooling davioo who figured out and reported: Qa a hot summer day, one to which tha temperatiwo' touches tha 99-do-a mark or higher, vasidanta of Springfield ahed an aggr gate of 34799 gallons of perspVa- EDITORS NOTE How much do wo home gamers know about Springfield What kind of Pt1 live in it? Who are they? Where are they from? What do they do? How do they make their living? And how do they spend their time? Perhaps you have some sort of general idea but probably ifs pretty vague and fussy. What you want are some good I substantial facts And here they are! For more than a month Docia Karell has been busy collecting facts about Springfield, and she has achieved quite an astounding collection facts all backed by figures some of them surprising facts which many a life-long native never has known r-MM' 1 fjr if Hi He re is a picture of 70ft0fi people going about their lives.

It shows their varied activities and interests, from making a living to going to church and going fishing, and reveals what sort of people they are From the great mass of information, a complete picture of the city emerges colorful, moving, alive: accurate, complete, and well-rounded. You will find the report most fascinating reading as well as highly informative and when you finish it you will have seen your home city of Springfield, objectively, as you never saw it before and you will see it with a new understanding. Perhaps never before has a city had its picture taken in exactly this way. Ifs intensely interesting If valuable. You're going to like it, and here it is.

the 34-one from Mtuweota, bat an Oklahoman from youth, and hn 13 yean; one from yearn; ana years. 15 Five Generations Of Freemans. Obviously had, at am panata. Sometimes tiuV i knew whan they wars Umu they moved around, and their parouta in turn wow from Mand, Germany, or New York, er the south, so that they cannot be arbitrarily elasiflsd aa Yasksora'er hlHMIty But of. thorn 49 parents (and probably osoral wore of Kentucky-Tsnnssmo background; 19 at least, rather deflnlMy Yankee; southerners Aram outside the i tain regions; and two born to England.

The other 39 wen from divine and overlapping stock that included, north, oouth, plains hlUs and foreign ancestry. One of the 34, Dr. S. P. Ptosuma, is the fifth generation of hie family to live in the Oearto -and his son and make two mors And they were hiU poopta, apparently, oven before the first ef them came to Greene oounty in 1933 4Ur he came from North Oaro- Whos Who Lists 14 From Here LX1URTEEN BpringftQldlane von nkw-Mt last (1447) By DOCIA KARELL WHAT sort of city actually is this Springfield in which VT we live? Thin Queen City of the Ozarks? Thii cap Downtown or old town, Springfield, as a flyer aeea it from the air.

Yon will find it interesting to try Jo locate aa many places of interest as yon can find, working out from the center Square, with Its conspicuous concrete pic, or perhaps from the Benton Avenue viaduct toward the top of the picture, with the Shrine Mosque at the south eni (right in the picture). The domed building in the foreground is old Convention hah. ital of the Ozarlu Empire? On the one hand, it evoke great aentiment and devotion, and auch eulogiee ax would make it xem, indeed, a little bit of heaven on earth, God's favored land. On the other, it evokes violent animosities, and is round lv damned as mean, poor, provincial, snooty, mid a way be-hind Ihe times. And then there the school of thought that hold while it may not be the capital of the universe in a broad, world sense, it Is a peculiar paradise of an exclusive people, to whom it should be strictly reserved, the last home of the last remnants of the good old origim I Anglo-Saxon settlers in America.

All of these are emotional viewpoints each of them, too. with its element of truth, and enough basis in fact to make a stout defense in an argument. But what is the whole picture? And what are the cold, hard facts of the case, beneath all their emotional lights and colors? dine. South Carolina and Georgia, 484. Not a stale in tho union but has contributed to our population but six hava contributed 10 or lass, Rhode Island, Delaware and Nevada, 4 each; New Hampshire, Utah, 9: and Ariaona, 14 Just three outside tho Osarks one in St.

Louis, one in Hannibal ona in Joseph. Two others were Osarks bom, though outside the state, one in Kansas and ona in Arkansas. Still another ooe had a "hillbilly background of Tennessee and. Kentucky forebears, ham by wpy.of Illinois, whan -ho was bora. Sis were born hon In Spring-field itself, and three others in Greene One was bora fas Indiana, but hie mother was a Tennessee Missouri Osarks native, he.

was ben from the J5f, old St Louis highway that earns in St Louis street and gave it the name, and goes on southwestward into Oklahoma Just the old overland stages and pony expreu used to da Highways 90 and 95 travel over the National boulevard that the government built to the National cemetery. Locally, a partly boulevarded scenic highway" now virtually dr-elm the city, paging by both Toss-night and Zoo parks, and raninc A good many northern and eastern dtiea eat Springfield butter and Springfield eggs bub one only anjayi fresh Osarks cream, and that is Boston. Cream from the Producers Oreamsry hers, in 19-gallon cane packed In ice, le shipped on feat passenger trains to Boston dally, and there delivered to Boston cooks and housewives on the porch before breakfast each morning, for hundreds of Boston families to eat on their oatmeal or cornflakes, and drink in their eoffee. in August, 39 earloads wen shipped, .393 19-gallon cans to tha ear. invasion than ths pleasant aspect of the country it was baasd on tha hopa of making money, combined with a certain missionary spirit.

Two math results, for Sprint flald, were Drury college, and tha railroad both significant It was during this poet-war period that some of the city's eldest and best families of today came, tracing back to New England, Mew York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other northern states. Instead of to Tennessee such families as the Pair-banks, the Baxters, the Faisons, the Heers, the MfcQregora, the Shepards, the Newtons, to name only a sample few. Aloofness Bred In Tim 90s It was in the next decade, after the coming of the railroad, that Springfield experienced its most phenomenal growth Jumping from a population of 9533 in 1880, to in 1800, an Increase of 335 per cent During that decade, Spring-field was the fastest growing of the large towns in Missouri. But in the next decade, between 1800 and 1900, it was the slowest growing, with an increase in population of leu than 1500 in the whole 10 years, or only 9 percent -It seems quite likely, that it was 'during that quiescent period of the VOs, after the almost 900, that Springfield developed that solidarity or insularity and ee sufficiency that have given it certain reputation for snootineu By the turn of' the rvbrtwaUy no growth. It probably waa natural enough if the community had developed a sort of "dosed corporation" attitude of getting along very wen by tha within itself, thank you.

After such a period, it would not be strange if "furriners" came to bo resented. Such an attitude would be peculiarly native, anyhow, to a people sprung from hill stock, with their strong clan feelings dating far bf in history, and nurtured by the comparative isolation that is implicit in hill living. And as it is told of Bigllsh settlers in Ireland, that they become "more Irish than the Irish," so a number of those Yankee families which settled here soon after the war, have become more ardent Ocarkians than the natives hill-bom for generations. Even Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, than whom nobody is more ardently hill-billy, and who herself was hillbilly born, has no Tennessee Mood in her.

Of her four grandparents, one was bom in Virginia, one in South Carolina, one in Scotland and one in Wales. Her South Carolina grandfather was the grandson of German immigrants. Mrs. McCord's own father was bora and reared in Indiana, her mother in Illinois, and they came to the Osarks in the middle VOs. Two Towns Form One City QFRINUHiU) of today has two coordinate buslneu centers the Public Square, which was tho beginning and oenter of tho oM town" established by tho Campbells and FUIbrights in tho lata 1930s; and Commercial street, which was the main street of the "new listed in tho reel Whofs Who.

-2 ineluding Prank Hedges, who Uvea hen only when he to not in. Japan; and Arthur Thomas, wha aeate hen a short time aa exequttn officer 'at tha U. Medical and haa since ntumed to hie former home at IV 0, crjMTJJ TtafeniHwr Taking A Sample Of Businessmen Of the 34 representative bustnem and profeesional men who am the directors of tho Chamber of Com-moms. lT wam bon tho -state of bf that number. 'if I I That team throa tunings" (Cantoned oh Moil ftcri Vt.r'i.SL I Let us examine.

Area and People fckOi.OurEnipire" fchlt QntXNarau is city of around 74000 today, a natural eresb roads and rival metropolis Of such a parados can be) far the heart of an dark empire that embraces about 39 Missouri counties and extends into north Arkansas. That is by no means an of the Osarks, but It is the distinctive Springfield area considerable timbering a secondary industry, and sports major occupation. Of the total population 84' than 44.000 not only arc native bon, but also of, full native bom parentage -and a good many of the rest of them have one native-born parent, frequently Osarks bom. Most of the 3939 ne-groe are native-born American for many generations. The negro population is exceedingly small a fraction of one percent and like the foreign-bom population, is mostly concentrated in Springfield.

aT tr 3 --f- 'A? i. JXU f. y- -f. ASV 8 PRODUCTS BOOST THE OZARKS town of North Springfield, when the railroad was built. It is a pleasantly spreading city of trees and of homes.

It has no skyscrapers and the present tendency is toward building lower buildings Instead of higher ones. Centering around the Square, the south business jlistriet has encroached in all directions forcing back and back the nice old residence districts that once surrounded It, extending east on St. Louie street, both east and west on Walnut, oouth on Kimbrough and Jefferson and ootfOrahd OafejMiltad Maln and Market, and north down BoonriOe hffl. Main features of Interest today in the old town am the Springfield Teachers college, Phelps Grove and Pfcasnlght parks, National and Maple Park cemeteries, the attractive new residence districts that have developed southeastward, and southwest beyond the town the U. 8.

Medical Oenter. Outstanding features of the new town are the Frisco shops and freight yards, the Elaenmayer min, and Doling and Zoo parks the latter including the new Osark Empire Pkee State Pair grounds, created within the post two yearn around the old Zoo park racetrack. Still Crossroads For Highways Between towns are Drury college, tha Senior High school the public library, outstanding old residence streets; the county courthouse and Jan, the new postofflee and' (federal) courthouse, the old federal building which now awaits remodeling into a city hall and art museum. Smith and Grant Beach parks east and west, and right in the center of town ragged Longs park, site of a proposed civic center in a dusty city plan drawn several yean ago: the City Water company and Springfield Newspaper offices, the railroad tracks and station, the covered Jordan river, an industrial and warehouse district, a. negro district, two viaducts, and federal and state social security, WPA, relief and employment quarters.

As from its beginnings, Springfield today is still a crossroads for several national highways 94 94 99 and 199 and for state highway 14 Six-ty-elx still follows, in general, the Our Roots Deep In This Soil. 0 v' i f)P 57,537 persons in Springfield in 1030 (most of them still hem, and maybe 10,000 mom), 41,770 were bom in the state of Missouri; 14.500 wem bora in other states; 030, or IA percent, wem bora out- i Ida the United States. Of the 030 foreign-born eltiaens, the largest number 383 an from England, Ireland and Scotland; almost as many 303 am from Germany; and tho next largest 71, from Sweden. There am 40 foreign-bora Jews 30 French, 30 Italians, 14 from Russia and 13 from Oreece. Thera wem formerly two Swedish churches hem, but tho last of them dissolved yean ago; them ta still however, a Scandanavlan club composed of immigrant women from Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and their daughters of tore generations.

Old timers recall when Mg Oer-man picnics were a Mg event hen, and them le still one church which holds special services in the German language for a email congregation. Yearn aga too, tho annual Scottish reunion waa an outstanding celebration. But today, for tha meet part, the immigrants am long since assimilated Into tha general community lift and make no organised effort to maintain their original national identity. 3380 Children Of Foreigners Besides its foreign-bora, Spring-field haa 3300 dtiasns who war tha children of ona or both foreign-born parents. Theaa foreign-born parents came to America from tho following countries: Germany, 1330; England, 013; Ireland, 40; Canada 370; Sweden, 170; Norway and Denmark, Swltaeriand, 131; France, 130; Scotland, 114 and Russia, 17 with a fewer nudiber from each of several other countries.

And of tho 14,880 bora hi other states, 109 wen bora in New England 1170 in Tennessee and Kentucky. States contributing most to Springfield's population am: Arkansas Nanas ,,.815 DUnote ....701 Iowa OOS'Ohto Oklahoma NSTtau aoitees 505 No other state ooctributed aa manylaa 104 It win be easy enough for any eurioua reader to estimate the comparative invasion froni rotated. "hiUMUy atatas and from states. Beyond our closer, neighbors listod sbovs. New York, New Jersey and Fennaylvsnia together have sent 009 persons to' Springfield Virginia West Virginia North Car- Tlit Ozsrks fa one of the rrtifest dtirjrbf eoa-m unities in tha nation and it fa fitting and propar that tha finest finished dairy prod nets ehonld come from this region.

Banquet Products live up to thfa ideaL within the Osarks and what is true of these counties is true, in a tenoral way, of the rest of the region. These 39 counties Oedar, Dade, Lawrence, Barry, Polk, Oreene, Christian. Stone, Taney, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Douglas, Otark, Udede, Wright, Bowen, Hickory, Texas and Vernon comprise a territory of about 11,509 square miles, with an average population of 37 persons to the square mile, as compared with 53 for the entire state of Iflaeouri, and 41 for the nation. Considerably more than one-sixth of the total population (according to the 1939 census) lives in Springfield. The hut census is now eight years Old.

and experienced observers today estimate the Springfield population to have increased another 10j009 to 30,009 ever the 1939 figure of 57,531 It is probable other communities both within and outside the Osarks have nude comparable gains, so that in spite of inevitable variations, the comparative figures of the 1939 census are still probably reasonably accurate. At any rate, they are the only figures available, and therefore are need throughout in this story. Outside of Springfield, the total irpniattaH of the 39 oounties Is (as of 1939) 309,397 about the same pupufrtwi as the city of Louisville, Ky. including Springfield, the total population of the area is almost exactly the seme as that of Seattle or Indianapolis- little more than the state of Vermont, and considerably non than the states of Delaware, Nevada or Wyoming. Five Other Citiea Share District the 39-oounty area, there ere, besides Springfield, five cities which the government classifies as "urban'--that having a population of 3800 or more.

About 33j000 persons live in those ttvo-coughly. 1509 at Nevada; 4009 each at Aurora, Mo-A nett and Lebanon, and about 3600 at West Plains. '-He arty 94009 live In towns of 1 ami 3509; and an the rest 319,451, or about 99 percent, live on farms. In other words, of about 369000 the Springfield Osarks area, i about 90000 are city folk and 384, 909 raral. The Osarks Empire is, therefore, a rural empire.

It occupies a high, hilly largely -wooded, often stony, vell-wstered area, mild of climate, gmn primarily to agriculture, with Most Of Whites Are Hill Stock In the whole 30 oounties, the 1930 census showed only 3910 persons of foreign birth or lea than one percent. Of that small number, one-third are German, and next in order are English, Canadian. Swedish, Swiss, Irish, Polish, Italian, Csecho-slovakian, and Scottish. No other nation has as many as 109 immigrant in the whole region. The native whites are predominantly of southern mountain stock, the laris majority, at boom time in the pest, from the Carolines, Kentucky and Tennessee often di met, sometimes by way of Arkansas, Ohio or Illinois, others are from Virginia and Georgia.

And generally speaking, they are of English ancestry with a large flavor, how of Irish and Scottish. A hill people and a rural people by long inheritance of many generations but not, necessarily, an agricultural people, unless hunting and fishing be classified as agricultural pursuits Of such an empire is Springfield the capital Souths Hilliolk Build a City CPfUNGFIEU) was first settled by 0 Tennesseeans more than 100 years aga An early traveler described It as "a mean little and by 1854 it had a population of only 454 Tho only thing that gave it any early Importance at all was tha fact that it was on important overland transportation routes, and therefor a natural market oenter tor a region far Mound. --Until tho Civil war, virtually all tho settlers were from Tennessee and Ken turky though John 8. Phelpa, who waa to become congressman and governor, was a Yankee from Connecticut, who arrived in 1937, when there warn stm only 14 white-families here. After the war white Springfield was not actually part of tho Confederate south that was to bo "reconstructed" ti shared tho benefits of northern seal tor educating, evangelising, and exploiting the A number of Union soldiers liked it hem, and either or earns back after the But tho Yan- When yon choose dairy products with tha nama "Banquet" stamped on them yon art selecting the best that your grocer haa to offer and yon are buying an "AO Ozarks" product mads in ona of tho finest Ozarks creameries from cream from selected Ozarka cowa.

And We Boost The Ozarks Empire District Census Shows Springfield Catching Up With St. Joe When You Buy Butter or Ice Cream Specify At their recent rates of growth, Springfield may expect to pais St Joseph in population, and to become tho third city in Missouri, around 1044 Whether or not it ean do so before tho 1010 census adds eonriderabto excitement to the nee. Oomparitive growths of the two cities fa shown on the tables below, taken from the official census report for 1934 st. jossru araiNorma IVMlstiea UN SS.4SI ISM BOSH IMS MS. SIS ISM n.MS ISM n.BM ism asms IBM mis bUsutoS.

Using tha 1030 figures, to overtake at. Joseph, Springfield will have to gain 14711 in population, and match St Josepha growth in St Joseph'! latest population estimate ta. for "St Jooph and ubuits," and la 14004 Ebtimated population of Springfield "and suburbs" is now 04000-4esving 0KM to go to overtake St Joseph, hi addition to matching its growth. i --if' i- 1 7.