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is Howard Moore We wandered down into the land of hardwood trees. To us new-comers, it's known as Mc Donald County. Latitude 37 degrees 30, or Mason's and Dixon’s line of 1820 forms the southern boundary. But we started from Newtonia, the Prairie City, which has been the center of pioneer association since 1830 It was at Newtonia we met Mrs. Margaret Wilson Wo. Newtonia is not in Mc Donald County. But it has had a lot to do with the county, The Battle of Pea Ridge, Elk horn Tavern, March 6, 1862; Bat tle of Newtonia, Sept. 13, 1862. Mrs. Wilson owns the original Capt. Ritchey farm where the batle was fought at Newtonia. ‘People from all over the country have been trying to buy these racks,” Mrs. Wilson said last week. “But they're not for sale ‘The northern line of Mrs. Wil son's farm is “protected by a solid rock wall, a wall built more than a hundred years ago by a pioneer who built the first ice cabin at the present site of Ritchey That wall was used as breast works for the Northern and Southern troops during New tonia’s Civil War “tilt.” Mrs. Wilson is rocking her house with those Civil War-scar red and modern-day-initiated rocks. “If only those rocks could talk,” Mrs. Wilson mused. She said that neither she nor her late husband had any partcular sen timental reasons for buying the place in 1911. Mrs. Wilson said that M. H Ritchey or his son, Capt. J. M Ritchey, constructed a rock wall around 600 acres where they had intended to make ther home They planted chestnut trees tulip trees, native only to Ken tucky. “The only tuplip tree you'll find in these parts other than this one in my yard is at Sar coxie,”” Mrs. Wilson said. She said that Mr. Stark at Stark City nurseries had a few sprouts for experiment. “So many people didn’t under stand 40 years ago,” Mrs. Wilson explained. “Mr. Wilson built 4 round barn.” It’s still standing, also, and Mrs. Wilson has every intention of carrying out his wishes. “Would you come back and take a picture when Mr. Hub bard has finished the front of the house,” Mrs. Wilson asked? We had lunch in the Stella Cafe, and during the fine meal listened to fishermen swap tales one local man (I’m sure) said that bass were even coming out to graze on his oats. Another said that goggle-eyed perch were jumping up for the few peach blooms left in his orchard. And from the strings of fish I saw pulled out of the streams of Indian Creek, Mike's Creek and Sugar Creek. I’m inclined to be lieve those Stella stories. But just across the line, south of Stella and in McDonald County, you will see one of the largest chicken ranches in southwest Missouri, Alva Laughlin said,” This place has been ‘advertised enough’ by your paper and others.” He said that the Neosho paper head run two features on his project and that even his son, an MFA scholar, had been publicized in the magazines But to me, 16,00 chickens is a lot of chickens. on 20 acres,
Newspaper Details
Neosho Daily News
Neosho, Missouri, US
Tue, May 12, 1953
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Cornelis V.
USA 17 Sep 2025
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