Information Sheet

 

 

R         Wiley, Robert S., collector.

521                  Collection, 1869-1997 (bulk 1930s-1980s).

                                    Eighty-four folders.

 

THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-SITE STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR ITS USE BY RESEARCHERS.

 

 

This is a collection of legal documents, newspaper clippings, magazines and printed mate­rial, advertising items, and miscellaneous paper ephemera pertaining to the history of Stone County, and to travel, tourism, and recreation in the White River Lakes region of southwestern Missouri. Much of the collection pertains to Stone County, Missouri, but there is also material on Greene, Lawrence, and Taney counties in Missouri, and some locations in Arkansas.

 

Robert S. Wiley was born at Hurley in Stone County in 1942.  He attended Southwest Mis­souri State University in Springfield and received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.  In 1969 he established a legal practice at Crane, Missouri, and from 1970 to 1973 was the prosecuting attorney for Stone County. In 1985, Wiley published Dewey Short, Orator of the Ozarks, a biography of the long-time representative of the 7th Congressional District. Currently, Wiley owns and operates an abstract company and continues his practice at Crane.

 

The Wiley collection is a large assemblage of paper ephemera generally concerning Stone County and southwestern Missouri.  The broad scope of the collection will make it useful for re­gional historians and genealogists.  Virtually every kind of paper item is represented, from obso­lete legal forms, letterheads, stationery, business cards, personal papers, estate papers, bank checks, newspaper clippings, advertising brochures, calendars, maps, and magazines. Some of the legal documents and miscellaneous personal papers date to the late nineteenth century, but most of the items date circa 1930 to the present.  The beginning of modern development of the tourism and recreation industries generally throughout the Ozarks is represented by a collection of regional magazines from the 1930s, while the development of the White River Lakes region (Table Rock Lake, Lake Taneycomo, and Bull Shoals), circa 1950s-1970s, is well documented by brochures and other advertising items by lakeside tourist developments and hunting and fishing resorts.

 

The collection is topically organized in three broad subject areas. Section 1 concerns Stone County and includes folders on county officials, municipal officers, and the towns of Crane, Ga­lena, Hurley, Ponce de Leon, and Reeds Spring. Section 2 includes miscellaneous materials for other areas in southwestern Missouri as well as Eureka Springs and Hot Springs, Arkansas.  This section also includes unique items such as the yearbook for the reunion of the 35th Infantry Divi­sion at Springfield (1928), and the dedication program for the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau (1928). Section 3 consists of magazines, travel guides, maps, and other printed material which might be classed as “Ozarkiana.” Included are such items as Arcadian Life (1928) and Ozark Life (1928-1931) magazines, and regional guides such as Lon Scott’s Ozarks (1928), and Keith McCanse’s Where To Go in the Ozarks (1931-1932).  There is also a group of publications by local and state tourism associations from the 1960s.

 

Section 4 contains the most recent accessions to the collection.  This section is a photograph file consisting of original views as well as copies of photographs of Stone County at the turn of the century from the Wiley collection.  The images include the Aurora Clubhouse on the James River at Cape Fair; the Galena Blues baseball team; road or railroad construction southeast of Galena; an unidentified Stone County school group; construction of a railroad tunnel at Reeds Spring; a photo of a sinkhole near Reeds Spring; and a selection of 35mm slides of photographs and postcards in the Wiley collection, including views by postcard photographers George Hall, Fox, and Wright. Among the significant views are those of the canning factory at Hurley; a gigging party on the White River; the roundhouse and depot at Crane; and several views of Galena, Missouri.  There are also two folders of unidentified photographs of individuals presumed to be Stone Countians.

 

Section 5 consists of additional items accessioned on 17 October 2002, including a 1930 yearbook for Crane High School, with tipped-in photographs of teachers and students, a script for the 1951 Stone County centennial pageant, and miscellaneous items concerning Fairy and Spanish caves, and the Stone County courthouse. Among the latter is a photocopy of a pass issued to wit­ness the hanging of Roscoe "Red" Jackson at Galena in 1937.

 

Folders 81-84 contain the papers and scrapbooks of Leonard J. Williams, a native of Crane and long-time school administrator in Stone County.  Williams began writing on local history after his retirement in 1976. The scrapbooks contain clippings of historical items published by the Crane Chronicle and Stone County Republican, 1976-1983, in columns titled "Much in a Basket" and "Weekly Local History Lesson."  The columns featured items on the history of Crane and the communities of northern Stone County including Cape Fair, Curran, Hurley, Scholten, and Virgin Bluff.  The scrapbooks include many of the columns and stories written by Williams, as well as other newspaper items of local interest.

 

 

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