Villages of Crawford County, Missouri - BOYER'S MILL--"PUCKY HUDDLE"--DAVISVILLE Davisville is located on the headwaters of Huzzah Creek between RockBranch and Possum Trot Hollow in the southernmost part of the county. It began with a gristmill about 1830. The location was a beautiful setting, a pioneer's paradise. In 1860, just eastward and over the hill about a mile away was Bryant's Mill, in the shadows of what today is known as Red Bluff. The bluffs overlooking the site of Bryant's Mill are strikingly red, brown, and variegated in color. Boyer's Mill, as a gristmill center served the people for nearly fifty years, then the name was changed to Davisville. Davisville was also called "Pucky Huddle" by many of the old pioneer settlers. George B. Thomas, a noted Crawford County educator, who paved his educational course by hard knocks and who wrote a thesis for his doctor of philosophy degree, with the title, True Tales of the 0zarks, was born in 1873 on Shoal Creek, a mile and a half from Buzzard Hollow and six miles from Pucky Huddle--in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks--as stated in a biography of Mr. Thomas. The first post office was established as Boyer's Mill on June 17, 1878, and the name was changed to Davisville on November 8, 1880, because there was already a Boyer post office in Wright County. The postmasters and date of appointment from 1878 until 1971 are as follow: Moses K. Davis June 17, 1878 James F. Greeley October 12, 1881 Finis E. Braley May 25, 1882 Robert M. Dennis September 29, 1882 Richard M. Dennis October 19, 1882 Richard F. Turner November 28, 1882 Jesse B. Smith April 11, 1883 Corbett S. Jones October 3, 1883 John J. Simpson November 10, 1885 John M. Smith January 8, 1891 Alvin 0. Brisco May 25, 1891 Frank Wagner August 11, 1893 David C. Miller August 30, 1893 Joseph S. Martin May 25, 1898 Milton S. Eaton August 22, 1904 Eugene W. Green March 6, 1905 Henry Martin October 30, 1907 Eugene W. Green October 27, 1909 Jeremiah Priest February 11, 1913 Walter A. Davis January 22, 1919 Walter Priest September 13, 1933 Howard Cole January 14, 1936 Bernice Beckham September 4, 1938 Theodosia Alexander January 13, 1939 Adolph G. Kehner January 31, 1954 Like other villages in Crawford County there were periods of growth followed by a decline, depending on leadership in the community and the economic status of the area. At one time through the years there were in Davisville five stores, a blacksmith shop, a gristmill, a saloon, and a large and luxurious hotel and resort, popularly known as Woodlocks. One of the early blacksmiths was Jim Newkins, another about 1905 was E. W. Green. It is not known how many of the previous postmasters were also owners or operators of the stores, but in more recent years one store owned by Clyde Crabtree burned. Today there are two stores, one owned by Gus Kehner and the other by James Baker. The leading merchants of Davisville in the last three decades were Clyde Crabtree, John Beckham, and A. G. Kehner. In 1936 Woodlocks Resort and gristmill burned, and a few years later the site was purchased by Ross Pennant. Recently it was purchased by Martin Krewson. The Krewson family has developed an unusual interesting and cultural business. They make statuettes and wax figures of many designs. At the Christmas season their nativity scene on the hillside is very impressive and inspiring. The former owners of Woodlocks were Patrick and Henrietta Dawson Woodlock. The original Woodlock home was a gift to them from Henrietta's father, William Dawson of St. James, Missouri. The Woodlocks were pioneers and were the subject of an article called, "A Romance of Pioneer Days" published in the Missouri Magazine in November 1934. This interesting article is reproduced as a feature article in Part II of this book. Patrick Woodlock, whose whole life had been changed by love and devotion to Henrietta Dawson, gave up his plans to become a priest and shared with her more than fifty years of his life as a miller and hotel keeper. His great wisdom of other phases of life made him a useful man in the region. In late years when he became afflicted with rheumatism he became the author of Mathematical Discoveries. Henrietta Woodlock established the first "Summer Resort" in the Ozarks. The Woodlock family, beside the parents, consisted of seven daughters and one son. One of the daughters, Clara Gordon, possessed unusual talent for writing poetry, short stories, and feature articles. Some of the productions have been widely published. Clara Gordon styles herself, "A Flea Bitten Poet" and in her Book of Memories she penned this appropriate and tiny prayer-"Lord make my Words of Worth While Stuff, and Nudge Me When I've said Enough." About forty years ago, perhaps in the early 1930s, Walter Davis for no known reason wrote some factual but brief historical notes on some scrap paper and placed them between the pages of a book. Mr. Davis died in April 1946 and the family came across the notes which read: "In 1876 a flood came and washed the Boyer Mill away. Later another mill was built by William Dawson and was run by P. D. Woodlock--a few years before Mr. Woodlock died another flood came and this mill washed away, and it was never rebuilt. "The first schoolhouse was a log one with puncheon floor. The seats were split logs with round peeled backs. Holes were bored with an auger and sticks were stuck in the holes for legs. The fireplace was logs taken out of one end in a "three-cornered shape." The house had one two-sash window, the other window was a log cut out, five or six feet, and 8 x 10 window panes were put in this opening. Two windows were the only light in the building. About 68 or 70 years ago Davisville (then Boyer's Mill) consisted of three log houses, one box house, one store operated by Newton Jones. The blacksmith, shop was operated by Jim Newton, the gristmill was operated by Boyer. About five years later a saloon was built by R. F. Waggoner and J. J. Simpson. People began to gather at this saloon on Saturdays and would gamble and run horse races. This brought on disputes and would end up with a free for all with eight or ten fist fights before it ended:' When Gene Woodlock came home to Davisville to take over the old family heritage he wrote a touching poem called "Memories of Childhood" and in one verse he said: "So I left the big cities, with all their bright lights, And came to a place where I can now sleep of nights. The jungles, to some, are a very much dread-- But to me they are different, I like them instead." There is one historic site in Crawford County that deserves a memorial plaque. It is a place now almost forgotten, remembered by only a few. Geographically, the site is Section 15, Township 39 Range 2 West and is located on the old Hinch Road about one mile north of Highway N between the Meramec River and Brazeal Creek. Within a radius of two miles may be found five historic sites--Vilander, the Harrison Cemetery, the Cedar Grove School, Liberty Hill, and the site of the first settler of Crawford County. Before telling of Vilander it is well to have a resume of the original setting of this now almost forgotten, post office and store. It is to be remembered that the first settler, William Harrison, came to this site in 1811, ten years before Missouri was admitted to the Union, and in 1823 made land entries with the County Recorded of Deeds a s follows: "William Harrison, September 20, 1823, entered the southwest quarter of Section 15, Township 39, Range 2 west; and the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 22, same township and range, beside other entries." The County Court records of February 1835 show that the County Court met on Liberty Hill. The entry read as follows: "At a county court began and held at Liberty Hill, it being the place appointed by the court holding courts in said Crawford County on the last Monday in February, 1835. Goodspeed's history fails to tell where Liberty Hill is located, and Everett Marshall King in his History of Maries County states that court in Crawford County was "held at Liberty Hill, the location of which is no longer known." Recently it has been established that Liberty Hill was located about one-half mile east of the historic Harrison Cemetery. An old and extremely rough road leads to the base of the Hill, terminating at the home of William Bouse. From the Bouse home to the site there is no road. It seems strange that the place was once the designated location of our County Court. Perhaps the court met in the home of Batteal Sites or Jacob Sites who at that time lived on the hill. From the top of Liberty Hill flows a small spring, seemingly a symbol of a "beginning." Truly this was a beginning, the first home of our early settlers, the beginning of our county government, the beginning of the first Crawford County schools, the beginning of the Harrison Cemetery, and near the place where the first blast furnace was established. The election judges in 1836 for Liberty Township were Arthur McFarland, John Twitty, and Batteal Harrison, who married John Twitty's daughter, Ellen. The County Court met again in November 1835 at Liberty Hill so there is no reasonable doubt about the location of Liberty Hill. Finally in an interview with Oscar Kimberlin, husband of Frances Minnie Harrison Kimberlin, daughter of Benjamin Harrison, the location of Liberty Hill was verified. The Cedar Grove School, among the first in the county, was organized in 1843 and is a short distance north of the Harrison Cemetery. The Cedar Grove School and the Rock School a few miles north were organized about the same time and the Harrisons were a factor in the beginning of both schools. ------ CRAWFORD COUNTY AND CUBA MISSOURI James Ira Breuer, 1972 p. 103-109 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. 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