Villages of Crawford County, Missouri - HANG DOG--SERVICE--KOLANO Nestled on a hillside among many stately cedars stands a rock building once called "Hang Dog." The building is located about six miles down the Courtois [pronounced Kotaway] Creek from Berryman. This rock building was the Service School Building, erected in 1933 as a Works Progress Administration Project. The three names formerly used for the location are challenging and the history is shrouded in tradition. Long ago a little waterpowered gristmill, post office, and store were all located inthe same building. The little gristmill was driven by the swift waters of the beautiful Courtois. Claude Doss, who is now eighty years old, remembers when the owner of the little mill would set the machinery in action for the customers and saunter off down to the Courtois for a little fishing. The place was first called Kolano, and the origin of the name is unknown. The postmaster in 1888 was Olando House and it is not known how long he served in that capacity. Some remains of the old mill dam may still be seen but the building which housed the post office, the store and machinery has long ago been swept away by flood waters. The original Service Hang Dog] School was on the same site as the 1933 rock building which was vacated a few years ago when reorganization closed all the county's rural schools. The Service School building now [1972] belongs to Mrs. George Chisenhall who resides there in the summer months. Evidently the history of Kolano, Service, or "Hang Dog" is already written. Rough rugged country with only private roads giving access to the site from the east and no roads at all from the west with the Courtois as an additional barrier, makes the vicinity almost inaccessible. When the place is visited there is a feeling of loneliness. The whispering of wind in the cedars on the old school grounds, the murmur of the water at the old Kolano millrace, and the thoughts of those early days when the settlers came on horseback walldng, or in the ox wagons, to grind, to buy, and to be educated, confirms the difficulty in writing the heroic story of suchpioneers as Mark Walker who came to this vicinity as one of the first settlers shortly after Missouri was admitted into the Union. He was buried in the Berryman Cemetery about six miles up the river from where he first settled. ------ CRAWFORD COUNTY AND CUBA MISSOURI James Ira Breuer, 1972 p. 83-84 ==================================================================== 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. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Joe L. Miller ====================================================================