Phelps

African American Heritage in the Ozarks Collection, 2021-2023 (SP0078)
31 oral history interviews

 Finding Aid

The African American Heritage in the Ozarks Collection contains oral history interviews, transcriptions, and photographs related to the African American Heritage in the Ozarks project coordinated by the State Historical Society of Missouri from November 2021 to November 2022. The interviews cover a wide range of topics related to the African American experience in the Ozarks including family, community, education, religion, travel and leisure, labor, and military service.

Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service Aerial Photographs, 1938-1979 (P0335)
107.5 linear feet

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Missouri county aerial photographs produced by the Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service.

Jimmie Allison Papers, 1988-2013 (R1444)
0.5 cubic foot (9 folders, 3 CDs)

 Finding Aid

The Jimmie Allison Papers contain materials related to the bluegrass career of Jimmie Allison and his bands. This includes bluegrass event and festival fliers, photographs, news articles, and song lists and lyrics.

American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Company Records, 1901-1965 (R0010)
157 cubic feet (3700 folders, 27 rolls of microfilm)

 Finding Aid

The American, Lead and Smelting Company (commonly known as "American Zinc") was a large nonferrous metals firm which mined, processed, smelted, and marketed basic zinc and lead products. It had major mining and milling operations in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, smelters in Kansas and Illinois, and interests in ore processing machinery. Founded in 1899, the company became a leader in the zinc industry.

George Clinton Arthur Papers, circa 1914-1939 (R0244)
0.3 cubic foot (3 folders)

 Finding Aid

The George Clinton Arthur Papers contain the reminiscences and personal papers assembled in connection with George C. Arthur’s work on “Bushwhacker” Bill Wilson during the Civil War in Phelps County, Missouri. There is also genealogical information concerning the Arthur and Turnure families, and correspondence regarding Arthur’s books, Backwoodsmen and Bushwhacker.

Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. Records, 1997 (R1406)
0.1 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. Records contain the book Win-Win: A Information History of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., written by Russ Holt and published in 1997.

Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company Records, 1876-1877 (R1288)
(1 oversize volume)

 Finding Aid

This Atlantic and Pacific Railroad volume is a register of warranty and quitclaim deeds by the for lands
sold by the company in Barry, Franklin, Gasconade, Greene, Lawrence, McDonald, Newton, Phelps,
Pulaski, Stone, and Webster Counties in Missouri.

Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company Records, 1870-1880 (R0086)
(2 rolls of microfilm)

 Finding Aid

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company Records contains a microfilm copy of the records for the company. The records include indexed accounts of operating expense and revenue.

Atlasta Service Station Road Map, 1934-1935 (R0592)
2 cubic feet (1 oversize map)

 Finding Aid

This is a road map of Missouri and calendar published for the Atlasta Service Station on Route 66 in St. James, Phelps Co., Mo. The front features a photograph of the Atlasta station, a highway map of Missouri, and fragments of a calendar for 1934-1935. The reverse bears an "Aeronautical and topographical Map of the United States," and census data for the state of Missouri.

Lindsay Bagnall Collection, 1900, 1994-1995 (R1510)
0.5 cubic foot (7 folders, 1 photograph)

 Finding Aid

The Lindsay Bagnall Collection contains materials collected by Lindsay Bagnall. The materials include the family Bible with genealogical information of the Brown and Burton
families of Kansas and Missouri, copies of The Good Life, and a photograph of women in a garment factory.

Clarence E. Bardsley Road Survey Collection, 1928-1932 (R0859)
(2 folders)

 Finding Aid

These are survey reports, field notes, and plats regarding relocation of the Old St. Louis-Springfield Road near Arlington in Phelps County, Missouri. The surveys were performed by Clarence E. Bardsley, Special Highway Engineer and Deputy Surveyor of Phelps County. Plats show road right-of-way, the line of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, the former site of the Ozark Iron Works, and the village of Arlington, Missouri.

Barnitz Family Photograph Collection, circa 1910-1980s (R1296)
0.05 cubic foot (1 folder, 43 photographs)

 Finding Aid

This collection consists of twenty-three black and white and twenty color photographs that were loaned for scanning. The photographs include agricultural activities and rural farm life from the early 1910s to 1980s in Phelps and Dent Counties. The photographs include subjects such as cattle and hog raising, baling hay, showing livestock and the Lake Spring Homemaker's Club in 1953.

Franklin Hoke Barnitz Papers, 1860-1894 (R0164)
(1 roll)

 Finding Aid

This collection consists of correspondence and miscellaneous papers of Franklin H. Barnitz of Lake Spring, Dent County, Missouri. He was a native of Pennsylvania and freighter who operated from the railhead of the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad in Phelps County before moving to Lake Spring. The collection includes letters from his family in York, Pennsylvania, and from friends and business associates in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri.

Israel J. Baumgardner Photograph Collection, 1880-1940 (R1299)
5 cubic feet (58 folders, 18 CDs, 3,685 negatives, 14 glass plate negatives)

 Finding Aid

The Israel J. Baumgardner Photograph Collection contains the negatives created by Baumgardner, a photographer in Rolla, Missouri. Many of the images are studio portraits, but others include roadside landmarks of Route 66, World War I and II era images, and the local area. He also engaged in commercial and advertising photography.

H.C. Beaumont Photographs, 1948 (P0783)
15 photographs

Photos of the State Trachoma Hospital, Rolla, 1948.

Beaver Creek United Baptist Church Records, 1866-1888 (R0219)
2 volumes microfilmed

 Finding Aid

These are minutes of meetings and membership records of the Beaver Creek Baptist Church in
Phelps County, Missouri. The church was founded in 1866 as Willow Spring Baptist Church, and
was relocated and renamed in 1874.

Mary Alice Beemer Photograph Collection, circa 1885-1955 (R0496)
0.1 cubic foot (1 folder, 37 photographs)

 Finding Aid

These are photographs of the town of Newburg and vicinity in Phelps County, Missouri. Included are views of employees, equipment, and facilities of the "Frisco" railroad, businesses, buildings, and street scenes, and miscellaneous photographs of locations near Newburg including the Dana Lead Mine and Stonydell Swimming Pool.

Lyman G. Bennett Papers, 1857-1865 (R0274)
0.5 cubic foot (10 folders)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The Lyman G. Bennett Collection contains photocopies and original diaries and topographic maps of a civil engineer, member of the 36th Illinois Infantry, and civilian employee of the U. S. Army. The materials concern homesteading in Minnesota in 1857; campaigning in Missouri and Arkansas with the Army of Southwest Missouri, 1861-1862; mapping in Kansas and Colorado in 1865; and the Powder River Indian Expedition in Nebraska and Wyoming in 1865.

Big Bridge School, Phelps County, Missouri Record, 1894-1908 (R0596)
1 roll ( 1 volume)

 Finding Aid

This district clerk's record book for School District No. 2 (Big Bridge School), located west of Rolla in Phelps County, Missouri. Included are minutes of annual meetings of the district and the board of directors, teachers' contracts, estimates of expense, records of warrants, and enumeration of tax payers and students.

Big Piney Regular Baptist Church Records, 1834-1891 (R1352)
(1 volume)

 Finding Aid

This Big Piney Regular Baptist Church minute record book contains membership rolls, articles of faith, rules of decorum, and minutes of meetings May 10, 1834-April 6, 1861. The bulk of the record book is from May 1834 to April 1861 with one additional entry October 31, 1891.

Wayne Bledsoe Papers, 1972-2013 (R1355)
0.05 cubic foot (1 folder, 1 DVD)

 Finding Aid

The Wayne Bledsoe Papers contain materials related to Bledsoe's career in bluegrass. A noted host and program producer of Bluegrass for Saturday Night, KUMR. This collection includes bluegrass festival program booklets from Dixon, Missouri and a DVD containing the KMST radio station 40th anniversary show introduced by Wayne Bledsoe.

Blooming Rose School, Phelps County, Missouri Photograph Collection, 1916 (R0577)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder, 1 photograph)

 Finding Aid

This is a copy photograph of a class group in front of Blooming Rose School in Phelps County, Missouri, November 29, 1916.

Ronald Goggin Papers, 1936 (RA1644)

Boller Brothers Architectural Records, 1910-1982 (K0065)
9.31 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Architectural drawings and other supporting documents for the Boller Brothers firm who specialized in theater design

Leonard Valentine Bolon Papers, 1865-1866 (R0313)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Leonard Valentine Bolon Papers contain photocopies of two Civil War letters, from Rolla and Benton Barracks in St. Louis, written by Leonard V. Bolon of Co. F, 49th Wisconsin Infantry. Also included is a photocopy of verse written in Cuba, Illinois, Bolon’s hometown, in 1866.

Charles E. Boulson Papers, 1928-1990 (R0404)
2.5 cubic feet (55 folders, 2 oversize folders, 3 VHS)

 Finding Aid

The Charles E. Boulson Papers contain the personal and professional papers of an electrical engineer in Missouri. Boulson was the general manager of the Sho-Me Power Corporation from 1954 to 1974 and a member of the Board of Directors of Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. The collection includes correspondence, scrapbooks, professional and historical writings, speeches on rural electrification in Missouri and corporate manuals and annual reports of Sho-Me Power Corporation and Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc.

Bourbois Baptist Association Records, 1877 (R0221)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Bourbois Baptist Association Records contains photocopies of the annual report of the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Bourbois Baptist Association. The Association included rural churches in Phelps, Crawford, Maries, and Osage counties. The minutes include statistics from the constituent churches.

John F. Bradbury, Jr. Postcard Collection, 1889-2022 (R1551)
4 cubic feet (122 folders, 4,432 postcards)

 Finding Aid

The John F. Bradbury, Jr. Postcard Collection contains postcards collected by Bradbury, containing images from the Ozarks and Southern Missouri. The postcards consist of real photograph, commercially printed, and illustrated postcards. The images mainly feature Missouri towns, railroads, Route 66, resorts, and rivers.

John F. Bradbury Papers, no date (RA1652)

Bradford Family Papers, 1722-1998 (R0647)
8 cubic feet (160 folders, 9 oversize folders, 2 oversize maps)

 Finding Aid

These are papers collected by Dr. Vance A. Bradford while conducting genealogical research on the Bradford family. Included are six boxes of correspondence with and about descendants of Samuel Bradford of Snow Hill, Maryland, and two boxes of papers from the Duncan homestead in southern Phelps County, Missouri.

Louise Bradford Collection, 1919-1985 (R0468)
28 folders

 Finding Aid

This collection includes correspondence, printed material, and ephemera collected by Louise
Bradford (1898-1986), and Eva Ann Bradford (1900-1966), during their careers as teachers in
Missouri schools. Included are letters from former pupils, and printed materials from education and
teachers associations, schools in Berkeley, Rolla, St. James, Salem, and Sullivan, Missouri, and
women's clubs and service organizations in Dent and Phelps counties.

Moses J. Bradford Letters, 1863-1865 (C2727)
0.04 cubic feet (2 folders)

 Finding Aid

The collection contains Photostats of letters from Moses J. Bradford to his wife in Rolla, MO, from various Union prison camps expressing fears about the war and about the safety of his family and describing prison life and conditions.

Moses Jasper Bradford Papers, 1861-1865 (R0360)
0.02 cubic foot (2 folders)

 Finding Aid

The Moses Jasper Bradford Papers contain original and photocopied Civil War letters of a native of Relfe, Phelps County, Missouri, and an officer of the Missouri State Guard and the 10th Missouri Infantry (CSA). He wrote from camps in Missouri and Arkansas, and, after his capture in 1863, from Union prison camps in Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, South Carolina, and Georgia.

George Bradley Papers, 1863 (R0566)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The George Bradley Papers consist of a photocopied letter from Little Rock, Arkansas, dated April 13, 1863, by Confederate soldier George W. Bradley from Phelps County, Missouri. In his correspondence, Bradley comments on camp life, changes in command of the army, fellow soldiers from Phelps County, and the course of the war in Arkansas.

Bridge School Records, 1895-1910 (R0508)
1 folder

 Finding Aid

This is the district record book for Bridge School, a few miles west of Rolla in Phelps County,
Missouri. The records include the minutes of annual meetings, proceedings of the Board of
Directors, teachers' contracts, financial records, and enumeration of taxpayers and children in the
district.

Bristol Shoe Company Collection, 1928 (R0939)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a certificate for six shares of capital stock in the Bristol Shoe Company at Rolla in Phelps County, Missouri. The certificate was issued to E. H. Kraft on August 18, 1928 and was signed by William Pennington, president and Hazel E. Knapp, secretary.

Joseph Brown Marriages Records, 1886-1920 (R0168)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Joseph Brown Marriages Records contain photocopies of records of marriages performed by an itinerant Baptist minister. Most of the marriages recorded took place at Newburg in Phelps County, Missouri, and involved residents of Phelps, Pulaski, and Dent counties.

Christian Johann Burki Papers, 1861-1886 (R1416)
0.1 cubic foot (4 folders)

 Finding Aid

The Christian Johann Bürki Papers contain materials related to his service during the Civil War. Born in Bern, Switzerland, Bürki moved to the United States prior to the Civil War and enlisted at St. Louis in the Missouri Volunteer Infantry, 15th Regiment, known as the ‘Swiss Rifles,’ where he rose to the rank of captain.

Douglas Ritchie Bushnell Papers, 1861-1866 (R0675)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Douglas Ritchie Bushnell Papers contain the photocopy letters of an officer of the 13th Illinois Infantry, written during campaigns in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Bushnell was killed in action at Ringgold, Georgia, in November 1863. There are also a few letters from his wife, Emily, and other correspondents.

Campbell, Love and Company Records, 1868-1869 (R1266)
(1 volume)

 Finding Aid

This is "Petty Ledger B" of Campbell, Love & Company, a general merchandise firm at Rolla in Phelps County, Missouri. Joseph Campbell and Robert A. Love were general principals. The entries show the accounts of various individuals for groceries, tobacco, spirits, dry goods, hardware, and lumber, July 1868--August 1869.

Carnahan Family Oral History Collection, 2001-2002 (SP0050)
0.5 cubic foot (9 folders, 19 cassette tapes)

 Finding Aid

The Carnahan Family Oral History Collection consists of nineteen cassette tapes featuring interviews with family members of Governor Mel Carnahan. They were interviewed by Alex Primm two to four months following the Governor’s death in a plane crash on October 16, 2000. 

Robert Huston Carnahan Papers, 1861 (R0627)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Robert Huston Carnahan Papers contain a letter from Robert H. Carnahan, an officer in the 3rd Illinois Cavalry stationed at Rolla in Phelps County, Missouri. In the letter, dated December 3, 1861, Carnahan commented on winter quarters and camp life.

Isaac Carter Bill of Court Costs, 1860-1861 (C1485)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The collection consists of an itemized bill of court costs in the case of STATE OF MISSOURI vs. ISAAC CARTER for grand larceny.

Charles Monroe Chase Papers, 1861 (C2371)
0.08 cubic feet (4 folders)

 Finding Aid

Letters, Civil War diary, and musical composition book of a band director from DeKalb County, IL. Chase enlisted in the 13th Illinois Regiment in July 1861 and was sent to Camp Rolla in Phelps County, MO. The diary describes camp life, the routine and practice that the band followed, military engagements, and Chase's opinions on the war. The letters to him were written by friends from Sycamore, IL.

Christ Church Episcopal, Rolla, Missouri Records, 1899-1985 (R0161)
26 folders microfilmed

 Finding Aid

These are records of Christ Church Episcopal in Rolla, Missouri, and its women's auxiliary, St.
Margaret's Guild. Included are records of church services, minutes of committee meetings, and
financial records, 1899-1970, the records of St. Margaret's Guild, ca. 1910-1983, and miscellaneous
historical materials, ca. 1910-1985.

Church Baseball League, Rolla, Missouri Collection, 1909 (R1144)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This single-sheet pamphlet contains the rules, schedule, and list of officials adopted on June 22, 1909 by the Church Baseball League at Rolla in Phelps County, Missouri. Teams representing the Catholic, Christian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal, and Methodist churches participated in the league.

Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1732 Blooming Rose, Missouri Collection, 1935 (R1089)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

These are five copies of 'The Oak Tree', the weekly newsletter of the Civilian Conservation Corp's company 1732 at Blooming Rose in Phelps County, Missouri. The issues are dated between October 17 and December 12, 1935.

Coleman Family Papers, 1862-1865 (R0619)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Coleman Family Papers contain original and photocopies of letters written to Elizabeth C. Coleman and her parents during the Civil War, by relatives and friends in the 6th Missouri Infantry. Included are letters from Otterville and Rolla, Missouri, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, one from Washington, D.C., in 1865, and two from Pilot Knob, Missouri. The letters contain camp news and information on mutual friends. The letters from Pilot Knob concern postwar employment.

Colon School, Phelps County, Missouri Collection, 1911 (R1103)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This collection contains a photocopy of a souvenir booklet for the school year 1910-1911 for Colon Public School in Liberty Township in Phelps County, Missouri. Charles E. Brown was the teacher and A. C. Gabel was president of the district school board.

Committee for Historic Preservation Collection, 1983-1985 (R1380)
0.25 cubic foot (7 folders)

 Finding Aid

The Committee for Historic Preservation Papers documents the projects of a committee that makes up part of the Phelps County Historical Society. Detailed records of meetings and projects, including a two-year long fight to save a railroad depot, are included in the collection.