Information Sheet
R Newburg (Mo.).
1203 Photographs, ca. 1870s-1910s.
Forty-one views, copied on 35mm black and
white negatives.
These are copies of stereoviews, photographs, and
postcards from the collection of the William H. Harris family, proprietors of railroad
hotels at Dixon in Pulaski
County and Newburg in Phelps County, Missouri. Included are views of hotels, businesses, street
scenes, and Frisco railroad roundhouses and turntables at Dixon and Newburg.
William Henry Harris was a native of Virginia, born in 1833. He came to Missouri with his family while still young. Harris married Mary Ann Backhues in 1857 and farmed
in Osage and Maries counties until after the Civil War. In the 1870s, Harris built three hotels in
the new railroad town of Dixon in Pulaski County.
When the St. Louis and San
Francisco (“Frisco”) Railroad determined to move its division point
from Dixon to
Newburg in 1883, the Harris relocated and built the Railroad Hotel Eating House
in the new town. The hotel opened on 1
January 1884, the same time that the Frisco’s new roundhouse at Newburg was
ready for operation. The Harrises lived
in the hotel with their extensive family.
Two of the sons worked for the Frisco railroad, and a daughter, Martha
Elizabeth “Matt” Harris, married another railroader, Jerry Huston, in
1875. The elder Harrises returned to Dixon after one of their
sons, William Harris, Jr., was killed in a train wreck in 1884, after which
Matt and Jerry Huston managed the hotel.
Jerry Huston’s work with the Frisco took him to the roundhouse at Springfield, where he
added an “o” to his name to differentiate it from other Hustons. When he moved to Indian
Territory and another Frisco project, Matt Houston returned to
Newburg to operate the hotel, thereafter known as the Houston House. Matt operated the Houston House until her
death in 1920, after which her son, Homer, and daughter, Helen, operated it. After Helen’s death in 1983, the Houston
House was sold outside the family and other operators briefly opened it
again. A Newburg landmark since 1884,
the building still stands, awaiting restoration, in 2007.
This selection was copied from originals owned by the
late Carol E. Muennig, a descendant of William Henry and Mary Ann Harris. The collection consists of views of Dixon and Newburg from
the late 1870s to about 1910. The
earliest images are from stereoviews produced by photographer John W. Hansard
of Verona, Missouri.
Presumably made sometime before Newburg replaced Dixon
as a Frisco division terminal in 1883 and before Hansard relocated to Fayetteville, Arkansas,
in 1884, the views show Dixon,
railroad tracks on Dixon Hill, and the entrance to the Frisco’s Big Beaver
Creek bridge west of Rolla. The stereoviews
of are among the earliest known views of Dixon, and show the Frisco’s nine-stall
roundhouse, turntable, and coaling chute, as well as the Frisco House, the railroad
hotel operated by the Harrises.
The earliest view of Newburg is also a stereoview. Made by an unknown photographer, the view is
mounted on a different backing than the Hansard stereoviews. It shows the Newburg House (later the Houston
House), and probably dates to 1884 when the hotel opened. The collection contains several other views
of the Houston House as well as the boarding house adjacent to it known later as
“the annex.” Most of these views probably
pre-date 1900. One dated 1899 (A24)
features a brass band in front of the Houston House and may show a July 4th
celebration. The remainder of the
collection consists of photographs and postcards of buildings around Newburg. They include the Frisco roundhouse built in
1883, the Teasdale building on Main Street, buildings on First (also known as Front)
Street, and two postcards featuring “birdseye” views of the town (one is a view
by M. L. Zercher of Topeka,
Kans.). There are also two group photographs of the
Harris family, two views of steam locomotives operated by veteran Frisco
engineer and Newburg resident, John Weckerley, and another showing a Frisco locomotive
(No. 455) and caboose (No. 489).
Negative Sheet C consists of detail views from the
original images. They include enlargements
showing the roundhouses at Dixon
and Newburg, and First (Front) Street in Newburg. The images of a Frisco inspection train in
1947 (C6) and Newburg in 1957 (C8) were not originally part of the Harris
family collection.
Index Cards for this collection
Shelf List for this collection
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