September 1997 - Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

September 1997

This series of posts on each Friday during 2015 continues the stories of “The Homeplace Saga” series of family saga, historical fiction families in the area of Oak Springs following the novel “Christmas at the Homeplace.” Here is a peek at ‘Life in Oak Springs,’ and the surrounding valley, in September of 1997.

Oak Creek Outfitters, Inc., announced that float service on the upper Oak Creek at Big Thunder Lodge was now open for business. Completion of all facilities took a little longer than expected, but service all the way down Oak Creek from the Lodge in Dent County to the facilities at the south end of Oak Creek Township are now open (further south, of course). Portage is available around the falls at the Mill, by appointment. Jonathon Offutt, General Manager, offered his thanks to all the parties involved in making this possible.

The wedding of Scott Gates to Rachel Nixon was held at the First United Methodist Church with Rev. Clarice McCauley officiating. The church was filled with family and friends. The reception was held at the Homeplace Country Inn Heritage Room in order to accommodate everyone. Following the traditional cutting of the cake, lunch was served to all guests. Music for dancing was provided by the local band, Black Magic.

The Bevins Trust announced the donation of an additional 320-acre-tract of land in the east valley to the McDonald Conservancy. The announcement noted that additional lands would continue to be donated when certain metrics of the Trust and the Conservancy were met. This was just the most recent donation resulting from those metrics being met.

City Manager Jacob Howell reported that city sales tax receipts for the first six months of the year were up 4.5% over the same period in the previous year.

Sullivan End-‘O-the Road Livestock Auction advertised a special auction for Wednesday, September 17, featuring a premium selection of cow-calf stock from several breeders in the area. This is the time to upgrade herds, the ad noted.

Locals:

Heather Gates, a junior at the High School this fall, earned a Blue Ribbon on her FFA Annual Project from the past school year at the FFA State Convention held the end of last month in Kansas City.

The September meeting of the Oak Springs Historical and Genealogical Society was very well attended. Six new members were welcomed. Each had learned of the Society’s program from the exhibit at the Fair in August. The report of the first exhibit was presented with overwhelmingly positive response. A few recommendations for next year were entered into the minutes for the planning committee for the Fair exhibit in 1998.

A notice in the Oak Springs Enterprise thanked those who had ordered “The Founding” book and reminding others of the need to get pre-orders in by the 30th of September.

The Oak Springs Savings Bank reminded everyone that it was not too late to start a Christmas Club Savings Account.

Social Notes:

Scott and Rachel (Nixon) Gates returned from their honeymoon trip to Branson after four days so that each could get back to their respective jobs. They said they had a great trip but were happy to be back home to start their new lives together.

Lori Winslow attended a Residential Real Estate Development workshop in Springfield the first week of September. Karen Winslow accompanied her and they enjoyed visiting some the Springfield sites and restaurants while they were there.

Cop Shop:

Local police arrested two juveniles following the investigation of a fire at the playground in Patton Park, in the southwest part of the city, two weeks earlier. The fire destroyed the wooden swing set as well as the rubber pelts on the ground. An empty container of flammable fluid discovered near the fire was found to have fingerprints of both individuals charged with the crime. Eyewitness reports placed the individuals in the vicinity near the time of the act. The fingerprints confirmed their involvement. When the evidence was presented to them, they both confessed to having set the fire. They claimed to have a grudge against parents of some children who regularly played there. Juvenile court will decide their punishment.

"May everyone have a homeplace, if only in your mind."




Dr. Bill  ;-)

July 1997 - Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

July 1997

This series of posts on each Friday during 2015 continues the stories of “The Homeplace Saga” series of family saga, historical fiction families in the area of Oak Springs following the novel “Christmas at the Homeplace.” Here is a peek at ‘Life in Oak Springs,’ and the surrounding valley, in July of 1997.

The 4th of July Gala Celebration at the Oak Springs Country Club was a weekend to remember, according to those who attended it this weekend. Good golf, good food, and fun games for the kids were the highlights most often mentioned in the news article.

Scott Gates completed the requirements for the Farm Operations Associates Degree at Ozarks Community College and took part in graduation exercises on Saturday, July 18, at the end of the summer term. A total of 35 persons took part in the graduation exercises and over 250 persons attended the graduation ceremony.

Brian Kirk, President of the Oak Springs Historical and Genealogical Society (Society), reported that members of the community had continued to provide very interesting documents and artifacts from their closets and attics that the review committee had been processing. He noted an interesting sidebar to the review process was that many of the items brought to the attention of the committee were related to others in the community, not necessarily to their own family, of the people providing the materials. Many folks noted they felt these items were important, but didn’t know what to do with them. The donation rate, he added, was running above 75 percent. The others, of course, were items families wanted to keep in their possession. He said that those were especially appreciated, and each was recorded and added to the database of information being gathered. The Society, he added, is still accepting donations of material so do not stop bringing what you find to the Library. Judy Watson will be happy to process it, he said.

Locals:

Ozark Communications, Inc. formally applied to the City Council to be the exclusive cable television provider to the City of Oak Springs. This was in response to the Request for Proposal sent out by the City earlier. Theirs was the only application received by the time of the deadline set for application.

The Oak Springs Enterprise ran a front-page article feature the opportunities for kayaking and canoeing on Oak Creek that featured photos of Oak Creek Outfitters providing services to their customers on a summer outing.

Social Notes:

A graduation reception was held at the Homeplace Country Inn Heritage Room honoring Scott Gates following the graduation exercises at the Ozarks Community College on Saturday, July 18. Scott’s parents and sister hosted the reception: his father, Paul Gates, his mother and her husband from Jackson, Mississippi, Beverly Bevins Gates Threshold and Winnie Threshold, and his sister, Heather Gates. Total guests in attendance exceeded 70 persons including family, friends and co-workers at The Bevins Corporation.

On July 26th, Bart and Diane Bevins returned from a week long vacation trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. They told friends it was great to just sit on the balcony of their condo and stare across the lake for long periods of time. Bart especially enjoyed, he added, taking in several new restaurants they had not tried on previous visits. Diane concurred in that. They highly recommended such a get-away to anyone feeling stressed in their job.

Cop Shop:

Jeremiah Loomis was released from the state penitentiary after having served over twelve years of an original 20-year sentence on drug charges based on his operation of a meth lab in the hills southwest of Oak Springs. The story went on to tell how his brother, Jasper, was charged in the murder of the public defender that represented Jeremiah in court on the drug charges. Jasper was killed by police officers, acting in self-defense, when they attempted to arrest him for the murder and he attacked them with a hunting knife. {For 'the rest of the story,' see: "Murder by the Homeplace:" http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Homeplace-William-Leverne-Smith/dp/1469926652/} 

Vandals reportedly did extensive damage to three cars parked along west Maple Street overnight on July 17-18. Police are still investigating the incident.

"May everyone have a homeplace, if only in your mind."




Dr. Bill  ;-)

Feb 1997 - Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

Feb 1997

This series of posts on each Friday during 2015 continues the stories of “The Homeplace Saga” series of family saga, historical fiction families in the area of Oak Springs following the novel “Christmas at the Homeplace.” Here is a peek at ‘Life in Oak Springs,’ and the surrounding valley, in February of 1997.

The Bevins Trust announcement in the Oak Springs Enterprise in early February was direct and to the point: “As of the first of the calendar year, The Bevins Trust put into effect a reorganization plan which included the formation of a non-profit land trust, the McDonald Conservancy, and, a new for-profit corporation, the Bevins Corporation. Henceforth, all commercial agricultural activities of the Bevins Trust will operate through the Bevins Corporation, which will be headed by CEO, Bart Bevins. The McDonald Conservancy will be the recipient of selected assets of the Bevins Trust, over the next five to ten years, and be governed by a nine-member board operating under a mission statement and operating plan approved by the board. The mission will relate to stewardship of land and water along several miles of Oak Creek in eastern Oak Creek Township. Three board members will represent the Bevins Trust and the other six members will represent the general public selected for their expertise in land stewardship and conservation practices including the use of the water and land assets of the land trust for recreational and educational experiences. At a future date, an Executive Director will be hired to carry out the policies set by the Board of Directors. Peter Bevins will serve initially as Coordinating Director as the McDonald Conservancy goes through its initial organization.”

Karen Bevins, Chair of the Bevins Trust, said that this reorganization has been in the planning stages for several months and implementation steps will be spread over the first several months of the current year. The changes were prompted by the growth of the organization and the family, as well as by tax considerations.

Locals

News from the Oak Springs Historical and Genealogical Society: Penny Nixon and Brian Kirk announced that the Society Committee examining the manuscript found in the Oak Springs Enterprise office back room was indeed a History of the Founding of Oak Springs and the surrounding valley dating back to the first settlement in 1833. On closer examination it now appeared that the manuscript was prepared for the Centennial celebration in 1876, but was shelved because of the financial difficulties related to the Panic of 1873 in the nation and the community. It appeared that the stories were collected and compiled by Jerry Potts, publisher and editor of the Enterprise, at the time, and his assistant, future editor Alex McDonald. Plans were begun to arrange to have the manuscript edited and published by the Society, for the community, in the near future.

Social Notes:

At the Bevins Corporation hosted Valentine’s Day party held at the Homeplace Country Inn Heritage Room on Friday evening, February 14, two couples announced nuptial-related dates. First, Scott Gates and Rachel Nixon announced their official engagement with a wedding planned for September. In addition, Dr. Jennifer Bevins and Brian Kirk announced that they planned a June Wedding, with a date set of June 14.

"May everyone have a homeplace, if only in your mind."




Dr. Bill  ;-)

Hometown Monday - S is for Scott, Sheila, Susan and more

Hometown Monday - S is for Scott, Sheila, Susan and more

We are continuing this series of posts of excerpts from the novels, novellas, and short stories of "The Homeplace Saga" family story-telling, with a new twist. We have adopted a format from the: "Blogging From A to Z Challenge." Each week we will share a published except related to a person whose name begins with that letter. 

This series of posts is to provide an insight into the story lines that may not be clear from other promotional pieces about "The Homeplace Saga." These will also be coordinated with the content of the developmental Wiki, "Beyond the Books" - to expand the information available there, as well. [Links in the text, below, provide more information on that person or entity]

Today we look at names beginning with the letter S.

For S, we have (with two excerpts, below):

Sandra Cooper - Social Worker - in Oregon - introduced in "Christmas at the Homeplace"

Scott Gates - son of Paul and Beverly Gates

Sean - caterer for Karen

Sheila Gates - daughter of Paul and his first wife

Steve Ingalls - director of training at the college

Susan 'Susie' (Norris) WInslow - Mrs. Matt Winslow

This excerpt is from "The Homeplace Revisited" is from Chapter 21, Tuesday, September, 1996:

In the afternoon, after classes at the college, Scott and Bart had an opportunity to discuss the farming related job description statements. Scott appreciated the opportunity of become involved and offered some useful suggestions to the statements Bart had drafted. It again reminded Bart of the many elements that were actually involved in the process, some that others would not think of if they were not directly involved in the operation. 

Scott took the opportunity to talk to Bart some more about longer-term considerations… beyond his graduation next spring from the two year Farming Operations program. He also mentioned his girl friend, Rachel, and that they were asking some of these questions, as well. Bart asked Scott about his level of interest in continuing his education beyond next year. 

Scott said he had already discussed this with his dad, Paul, and they had agreed it would be all right not to go off to further schooling if he could become more involved with actual farming operations here. He would continue to be interested in short courses and workshops to continue to keep up with new developments, but he had little interest, ‘no interest, really’ in further classroom work.

As they continued their conversation, Bart suggested that this was actually a good time to be talking about this, because some changes were likely coming along in the operations of the Bevins Trust farmlands that would provide more opportunity for Scott if he was really committed to that. They agreed to continue these discussions as the fall and winter season progressed. 

This excerpt is from "Christmas at the Homeplace" is from Chapter 10, Wednesday, November 13, 1996:

Harry Flanders at the bank, acting this time as a Bevins Trust trustee, had invited Matt and Susie Winslow to meet with him and trustee Lyle Cunningham as well as retired trustee George Chambers in the bank conference room at 1:30 in the afternoon to talk about the reorganization activities the trustees were working on. 

George took the lead in talking about the work that he, Harry and Lyle had been charged with regarding the ‘central administrative office’ concept that had been presented at the earlier trustee meetings. He summarized what they had done, to date, including conversations with both Matt and Susie, individually, over recent weeks.

“We are at a point where a more detailed, specific proposal needs to be developed. Each element needs to be explored in more depth, questions asked, answers obtained and incorporated into the proposal,” George stated. Harry and Lyle commented their concurrence and each added their own thoughts.

George then said, to Susie, directly, “We’d like to ask you, Susie, to consider a contract with us to develop this proposal in detail. We are suggesting about a ‘half-time effort’ extending over probably two or three months, as we go through the end-of-the-year processes. We want you to look at our accounting, tax work, personnel and recruiting, payroll, all human resources activities, risk management and whatever else needs to included to be comprehensive, whether we now buy these services or do them internally. This includes all these activities across all of the things The Bevins Trust is now doing and is contemplating. This would include what we are coming to call ‘The McDonald Conservancy’ concept and setting up a ‘Bevins Corporation’ of the agriculture and related for-profit businesses we conduct. It also includes the Stables, The Mill and our agreement with Matt’s ISP business, of course.”

He continued, “From what we have learned, your background actually has prepared you very well to do this, possibly better than anyone else we could ask. We are fortunate to have you available, at this time. There is one more thing to consider, which is a bit unusual, as well. We are thinking of an Executive Director to head up this new unit, under The Bevins Trust and the Board of Trustees. We assume that by the time you finish the proposal, that you would be better qualified than anyone to fill that position. So, it will be acceptable, and nearly expected, that the proposal read that way. If you feel that is inappropriate, it will be up to you to tell us that.”

George stopped for a moment, as he often did. “What do you think of this idea? Will you do it?”

She was careful to respond carefully and not too quickly. “It would be hard to turn down. I am flattered and humbled that you would make me this offer. It is far more than I had hoped for, but I do feel, as you said, that my prior work has actually well prepared me for most of the assignment. You must have talked to some of my former bosses, to even know that.” Susie smiled, and stopped to catch her breath.

“Yes, we did.” Harry said. “You were highly recommended as a matter of fact. Hearing what we did made us very proud to have you in our community, and in this family, for that matter.”

George then offered, “Shall we get into some details and get to work?”

“Yes,” Susie replied, “Let’s get to work on it.”

"May each of us have a Homeplace to hold onto, if only in our minds."

Bill  ;-)

Wiki Wednesday - Oak Creek Mill and Paul Gates family

Wiki Wednesday - Oak Creek Mill and Paul Gates family

Monday we began our discussion of the Oak Creek Mill and Mill Market with an excerpt from the 1996 novel, "The Homeplace Revisited."

We learned that Paul Gates had been primarily responsible, during the preceding nine years, for restoring the Mill and making it a leading tourism attraction in the area.

In "Back to the Homeplace" we had learned the initial problems that Paul, and his wife, Beverly Bevins, had when they came "Back to the Homeplace." In "The Homeplace Revisited" we see the results of their resolutions of their problems, for each of them, and their children, Scott and Heather, as well as his daughter, Sheila.

"May each of us have a Homeplace to hold onto, if only in our minds."

Bill  ;-)

Surname Saturday - GATES

Surname Saturday - GATES

This is a guest post by Karen BEVINS WINSLOW (a fictitious character in "Back to the Homeplace"). Karen is the oldest daughter of Frank and Mildred (MCDONALD) BEVINS, one of their four children. These four siblings and their families are the major characters of the novel: Back to the Homeplace. [This blogging exercise is a part of the research for the upcoming novel, "The Homeplace Revisited" by William Leverne Smith]

The Paul and Beverly (BEVINS) GATES family

Paul GATES was born on 17 Mar 1945 in Jackson, Mississippi. He graduated from Mississippi State University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1968. From 1968 through 1986 he worked for several firms doing engineering work.  He has worked with the Bevins Trust in Oak Springs since 1987.

Beverly BEVINS was born 14 Apr 1941 near Oak Springs, Missouri, the daughter of Frank and Mildred (MCDONALD) BEVINS. Beverly graduated from Oak Springs High School in the Class of 1959 and immediately moved to Jackson, Mississippi. There she was engaged in clerical and secretarial employment.

Paul and Beverly (BEVINS) GATES were married in Jackson, Mississippi in June of 1977.

Paul and Beverly GATES had two children:

1. Scott GATES, born 1978 in Jackson, Mississippi

2. Heather GATES, born in 1982 in Jackson, Mississippi

Paul GATES has as daughter, Sheila GATES, born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1968, to a previous marriage. She moved to Oak Springs with Paul and Beverly and their children in 1987.

Paul and Beverly were divorced in 1988.

Beverly subsequently returned to Jackson, and married Winston T. THESHOLD, III - 'Winnie' - in 1991.

Families are Forever!  ;-)