Reeds Spring, Missouri, a passerby town located northwest of Branson, Missouri, the popular family vacation destination for southerners, has never changed. From initial settlements in the early 19th century to its near demise in 2003, Reeds Spring has been known for debauchery, saloons and questionable activities not typical for a town of roughly 400. Its cultural origins for more than two hundred years have remained consistent; the backwoods, wild-west nature of the town has been perpetuated from one generation to the next. The far-flung, dead-end highways make Stone County impossible to govern; steep hills and curvy roads make every police pursuit difficult and dangerous if not impossible. And the area has always been as such, its progress slow and easily hindered by corrupt government and lawsuits. From its beginnings in the wooded hills, residents have been the law, and officers a mere formality in a distant town; to live twenty minutes out of town renders the police twenty minutes away. In fact, the Reeds Brothers’ cabin, the first known cabin in the town, had a peephole large enough to point a shotgun through. And not much has changed over the years; if one goes knocking on doors out of town in the middle of the night, one will surely be welcomed with a hunting rifle in the face. Not that it’s unusual anywhere in the United States, and it’s in fact everyone’s right to own a firearm and protect their property. People simply don’t rely on the police in Stone County.
This idea of self-governance has been the building block of culture in Reeds Spring, and such a concept is difficult for new comers to grasp. People aren’t reliant on their neighbors as they are in the North, where homelessness is impossible in the cold winters. In fact, in the early days settlers would build their cabins on their own until the walls were raised, and only then did they call on neighbors to help raise the roof. If a man was not self-sufficient, there would be no reason for him to be in the wilderness, because the early settlers’ livelihood depended upon the relentlessness of hunting and the knowledge of agriculture. So it is no wonder that the city of Reeds Spring was sued in 2003 when a lady twisted her ankle in a pothole downtown. The bureaucrats in the town couldn’t grasp the idea that the government was responsible for the people’s safety. Because of its lawlessness, Reeds Spring is the epitome of freedom in the United States, taken as a blessing or a curse. The following is how Reeds Spring became what it is (or isn’t) today.
The Beginnings of Stone County
Because of the rocky, hilly terrain, trade in the Ozarks mostly began along the rivers, where European entrepreneurs had set up trading posts to buy beaver, deer, otter, bear, and raccoon skins, bears’ bacon, and fresh pork. The first Europeans to penetrate the Ozark wilderness were the Spanish and for a short term the French. A large portion of the Delaware Nation had settled near the James River after being pushed westerly by new white settlers and the St. Mary’s Treaty of 1818. Over the centuries, the Delaware had become dependent on annuities provided by the Spanish and American governments. Some Americans, particularly the Yocums, followed the Delaware into the Ozarks wilderness in order to capitalize on illegal trade with the tribe. President Monroe declared that Missouri land would not be sold until it was surveyed; however, the survey was not finished until the mid 19th century. In 1851, shortly after the completion of the survey in the area, Stone County was created. In 1870, the Reeds brothers were driving cattle through Stone County when they came upon a massive spring. It was there they continually stopped to allow the cattle to drink from the water, and they eventually settled the land. They established a post office there August 7, 1871. In the early 20th century a railroad came through the small town, but a 2000 ft tunnel had to be drilled through solid rock, deeming Reeds Spring a rough and tumble railroad camp.
It was considered a savage wilderness, and it was not expected to have much value when Thomas Jefferson bought it in the Louisiana Purchase. The Osage people were the earliest known tribe to inhabit the Ozark region, but they mostly used it as a hunting ground until they were asked to leave to make room for friendlier, displaced tribes. In the early 1800s inhabitants were the indigenous Delaware people–the same Native Americans who two hundred years earlier had met the pilgrim Europeans on the East Coast.i The Osage were often violent and would allegedly rob anyone who they happened upon, according to the pioneer settlers. The Osage traded with the Spanish until they became enemies of the tribe, in which case the Osage began trading with Americans. The tribe made camp along the White River in the summers and in the fall they would travel a trading path along the Mississippi. In the 20th century the White River was dammed several times, currently making three enormous lakes: Table Rock, Bull Shoals, and Taneycomo.
In late 1818, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft at the age of 25 made an expedition into the Ozarks in search of cultivatable land. Schoolcraft, just out of college, was unprepared for his journey into the wilderness with only a pistol for hunting and a packhorse to carry his things. After getting lost several times, he met James Yocum along the James River. Yocum was the first known settler in the Reeds Spring area, and he was likely an immigrant of Germany. ii Schoolcraft spent the night at Yocum’s cabin, and the next day Yocum borrowed Schoolcraft’s canoe to transport a load bears meat to a trading post 35 miles downriver; now preserved at the theme park Silver Dollar City. Schoolcraft hiked a 15-mile foot trail to the trading post, the equivalent of a journey from Reeds Spring to Indian Point. Judging by length of the trail and the location of the James River, Yocum’s cabin would have been somewhere along the Y Highway, Cape Fair region of Stone County. When Yocum arrived in the canoe a day later, he had around fourteen men with him looking to barter at a trade boat parked at the post. The 20 men drank through the night, in a small cabin in the wilderness, singing and dancing. However, Schoolcraft remained sober, for fear of his well being among the drunkards.
It is alleged that the Yocums made whiskey and moonshine to be sold to the nearby Delaware tribe illegally. They then took the specie of coin given to the Delaware by the American government, melted it down in a cave that they claimed was a silver mine, and made Yocum Dollars with it. The new coins were then circulated throughout the Ozarks. When someone showed up in Springfield with the Yocum Silver Dollar, it was deemed counterfeit by the government. ii The Yocums eventually were driven out of the Indian reservation when John Campbell, a federally appointed subagent of the Delaware reservation, learned of their practices, and the Yocums settled into Taney County, where they turned their interests to agriculture . The Yocums “dirty” money was injected into the Taney County economy.
By the 1830s, the Delaware had left the Ozarks and once again headed west. The Cherokee moved through the Ozarks in the years of the “Trail of Tears,” spawned by the Indian Removal Act of 1830 signed by Andrew Jackson and enforced by Martin Van Buren. This marked the end of Native American inhabitance in the Ozarks. President Monroe in 1818 declared that Missouri land could be sold as it was surveyed; most of Stone County was not surveyed until 1850. iv This hindered settlement in the area, as new settlers could not be guaranteed ownership of land without a legal document. However, squatters were welcome in the early days of Stone County. No one asked who their neighbors were, they were just glad to have neighbors at all. v Settlers continued to make their homes in the Ozarks, despite the uncertainty of land not surveyed. These settlers lived mostly by hunting, trapping, and subsequent trading along the riverbanks, because the land was hilly and rocky and not suited for agricultural development. Today in Stone County, the land is used to raise some cattle and horses. However, due to the thin grass on the hills, a large plot of land is required to healthily nourish livestock.
Notes:
i Schoolcraft, Journal of a Tour, Jan. 15th and 16th http://history.missouristate.edu/FTMiller/LocalHistory/Schoolcraft/schcrftcomplete.htm
ii Lynn Morrow, The Yocum Silver Dollar, 5 http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/V8/N11/Sp85d.htm
iii William Robbins, Reeds Spring Journal http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/30/us/reeds-spring-journal-an-iron-eagle-is-back-and-so-is-a-town-s-pride.html
iv Stone County Historical Society, History of Stone County
v A Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region, 21
Bibliography
Schoolcraft, Henry R. Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw: from Potosi, or Mine a Burton, in Missouri Territory, in a South-West Direction, toward the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1818 and 1819. London: Richard Phillips and Company, 1821
Morrow, Lynn. “The Yocum Silver Dollar.” The White River Valley Historical Quarterly. Volume 8, Number 11, P. 5-6. Spring 1985.
Robins, William. “Reeds Spring Journal; An Iron Eagle Is Back, and So Is a Town’s Pride.” New York Times. September 30, 1988.
The Stone County Historical Society. History of Stone County. Marionville, MO. 1989.
A Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region. Ramfire Press. Cape Girardeau, MO.
1956.
