Caldwell County MO Archives History .....CRAWFORD MIRABILE MILL - THE LOVELY RIDGE SCHOOL August 1934
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com August 28, 2008, 5:28 pm

CRAWFORD MIRABILE MILL - THE LOVELY RIDGE SCHOOL
	Narrator:  Mrs. Emma Eckelberry Alden, 71, of Kidder, Missouri

     Mrs. Alden is the daughter of Valentine Eckelberry and Mary Jane 
Cornelius.  This couple came from Muskingam County Ohio sixty eight (68) years 
ago (1866) attracted by the talk of Missouri land in this community.  They 
went to the Mirabile community and rented there for thirteen (13) years.  In 
1879 they came up into the Lovely Ridge neighborhood and bought their farm 
there.

     In her Mirabile youth, she recalls three doctors, Dr. Oakley Brown who 
came to Mirabile Township about the time her father did and Dr. Klepper, both 
of whom had their offices at home.  Then there was Dr. Wm. Crawford who 
besides being a doctor there since before the Civil War was a store keeper and 
a miller.  He bought the mill and the store from the pioneer Marquam.  The 
Eckelberrys always carried their grist to Crawford, no matter where they lived 
and paid one-sixth of the grist for toll.  He also ran a carding mill, where 
folks could have wool carded if they did not use home-cards; he had a saw mill 
where much of the lumber in that part was prepared.  He was the man who kept a 
lantern swinging in front of his mill to guide prospective night customers to 
his various business enterprises.  This mill stood for 100 years, being razed 
1933.

     Mrs. Alden began her education in the Mirabile one-room school and 
finished it over in Lovely Ridge.  She knew all about the school house history 
there.  There was for the few earlier settlers a small building located near 
the Esteb farm hence called the Esteb School.  She of course did not go to 
this but her husband C.C. Alden did.  Then a larger one was needed when the 
land became more settled.  Some one bought the house and moved it to Kidder 
where it now serves as a good little home - first door west of the Kidder 
Public School.  The new school was built a mile east of the old site.  It was 
burnt one night 1878 when Mr. McAtee the teacher piled hot ashes in ash barrel 
too near its front.  The third was built on the same site and faced east 
instead of south.  It is still used.

     Interview taken  August 3, 1934.


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