Shelf List

 

 

R         Cassville & Exeter Railway Company.

421                  Papers, 1909‑1976.

                                    Five folders, photocopies.

 

 

These are papers concerning a short‑line railroad which connected the towns of Cassville and Exeter in Barry County, Missouri, begun as the Cassville & Western Railway in 1896 and reor­ganized as the C&E in 1919.  The collection includes letters, documents, clippings, and pho­to­graphs.

 

Folder 1: Correspondence

 

Letter, Robert L. Ripley, New York, New York, to David Dingler, February 5, 1931.

Letter, Frisco Lines, Joplin, Missouri, to David Dingler, December 21, 1937.

Letter, John R. Smith, St. Louis Railway Historical Society, to Ray Dingler, July 14, 1947 [with brochure].

 

Folder 2: Documents

 

Deed of foreclosure, Conqueror Trust Company and O. H. Orendorf, complain­ants, and Cassville & Western Railway Company and others, defendants, decree en­tered April 12, 1913. (Typescript from county records.).

Trust Deed, among Cassville & Western Railroad Company, first party, and M. T. Rice, second party, and George L. Sands, third party, July 1, 1915. (Type­script from county records.).

Promissory note, dated September 8, 1919, for $9,500.00, between David Dingler and J. C. Ault, and J. C. Hatler, C. M. Robeson and O. L. Cravens.

Warranty Deed, between C. M. Robeson and Cassville & Exeter Railway Company, September 8, 1919.

Deed of Trust, made October 1, 1926, between W. F. Bodine and Edna M. Bodine, parties of the first part, and T. S. Frost, party of the second part, and David Din­gler and J. C. Ault, parties of the third part.

Funeral notice, for David Dingler, died November 16, 1939.

 

Folder 3: Newspaper Articles

 

“C. & W. Changes Hands,” [n.p., September 8, 1919].

“Deal Closed for Sale of Railroad in Barry County” [n.p., September 1919].

La Coss, Louis, “An Ozark Railroad Whose President Runs its One Locomotive,” St. Louis Globe‑Democrat Magazine, January 30, 1927.

“President of Railroad Also Its Only Engineer,” St. Louis Post‑Dispatch, Sep­tember 28, 1928[?].

“Rebuilt Engine to Cassville and Exeter Railroad,” The Monett Times, August 21, 1935.

“Snowfall Blamed For Wreck Fatal To Cassville Man,” The [Springfield, Mo.] Daily News [January 1939?].

“James Clinton Ault,” Cassville Democrat [January 1939?].

“Owner of 5‑Mile Railway Fights Truck Traffic,” Springfield Daily News [ca. April 1939].

“‘One‑Man‑Railroad,’ David Dingler, 74, Dies at Cassville” [n.p., November 17, 1939]­.

“Widow Heads Nation’s Shortest Rail System,” St. Louis Post‑Dispatch [3 Janu­ary 1940?].

“Mrs. Dingler Is President of C. & E. Railroad: Black Is Auditor,” Cassville Demo­crat, January 11, 1940.

‘Marge of Sunrise Mountain Farm,’ “Fresh from the Hills ... Ozark Railway,” The Chi­cago Sunday Tribune, December 8, 1946.

“Cassville and Exeter Railroad Suspends Runs on 4.8‑Mile Route” [n.p., Febru­ary 2, 1949].

Bass, Eddie, “Famed Little Railroad Hauls Its Last Load,” Springfield Daily News, February 2, 1949.

“C. & E. Committee Approved by CC,” Cassville Republican, February 3, 1949.

“Short Rail Line to Operate Again” [n.p., July 27, 1949].

“C. & E. Will Run Again; Work On Track Is Started,” Cassville Democrat, July 27, 1949.

“Dingler Sells C. & E. To Citizens Group” [n.p., August 29, 1951].

“Purchase of C&E Completed by Stockholders,” Cassville Republican, August 30, 1951.

Marsh, Joe, “Looking over Missouri with Joe Marsh: The C and E Goes Chugging Along” [Advertisement, ca. 1954, U.S. Brewers Foundation‑‑Missouri Division].

Brickey, Howard, “Cassville & Exeter Line Makes Last Trip Over 4.8‑Mile Track,” St. Louis Post‑Dispatch, September 12, 1956.

“Historic C & E Now Part of Barry County History,” Cassville Republican, Sep­tem­ber 27, 1956.

“The Connecting Link ‑‑ The Railroad Comes To Cassville,” Barry County Adver­tiser, July 2, 1969.

“The Connecting Link, Part II ‑‑ The Golden Years,” Barry County Advertiser, July 9, 1969.

“The Connecting Link, Part III ‑‑ A Victim of Progress,” Barry County Adver­tiser, July 16, 1969.

Horner, Irene, “The Connecting Link: The Story Of The World’s Shortest Stand­ard Gauge Railroad,” Barry County Advertiser, December 8, 1976.

 

Folder 4: Magazine Articles

 

Wilson, Charles Morrow, “A Family Railroad In Missouri,” Transportation: The Monthly Magazine of the Transportation Industry, III, No. 1 (July 1928), pp. 21‑23.

“A Tom Thumb Railroad That Delivers the Goods,” The Literary Digest, 98, No. 13 (September 29, 1928), p. 48.

Wilson, C. M., “Our Shortest Railroad,” Railroad Man’s Magazine (November 1930), pp. 494‑497.

“...It May Be Short But Its[sic] Just As Wide As Any Railroad In The Nation,” Hi‑Voltage (June 1948), pp. 4‑5.

 

Folder 5: Photographs

 

Neg     Subject

 

01        Engine #345

02        Switcher with slope‑backed tender

03        Engine #345

04        Engine #20 and Junge’s railroad engine

05        Engine #20 and Junge’s railroad engine

06        Engine #345 hauling boxcar

07        Stoking fire ‑‑ photo taken from tender

08        Engine #20 at loading dock

09        Engine #345 in front of Talbert Produce

10        Cassville depot

11        Dave Dingler, Emmons Hawk, Cecil Hodge, Bert Anderson, and Buck Crane

12        Bert Anderson and Dave Dingler

13        Engine #2644 ‑‑ last steam engine

14        Dave Dingler

15        Emmons Hawk and Cecil Hodge

16        Engine #345

17        Engine #2644

18        Engine #345 (same as negative no. 1)

19        “Commencement work of electrification of Cassville and Western Railroad, Cass­ville, Mo. ‑‑ Apr. 4, 1909”

20        “Dingler bought the C & E Railroad (about 5 mi. to Exeter) in 1919.  This photo is the first engine of the railroad when he bought it.”

21        Mrs. Ida Gardner Dingler

22        Dave Dingler

23        Cassville depot

24        Diesel engine

24a      Passenger coach

 

 

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