About the Washington Township

The Washington Township is located in 32N - 33N Range 15 - 16 West.  This township is on the borders Webster and Wright Counties.  The main communities are as follows:

Pease, Harris & McCulloch Family Old Time Gathering - about 1901

This photo was provided by Joe McCulloch, son of Ray McCulloch, of Lebanon, Missouri.  It was also published in 1967 in the Record and Rustic newspaper.  The newspaper article is at the bottom of this page.

This photo was taken at Harve Lindsay's store at Morgan about 1913.  Identified in the photo were:  Joe Hilton, Ethel Price, Floyd Rader, Ollie Price, Eliza Price, Bess Price, Coy Lindsay, Frank Lindsay, unidentified, Nina Price, Ira Montgomery, Harve Lindsay, Charley Montgomery and Ruth Price.

This photo of a group fishing at the Osage Fork at Pease Mill in Laclede County was taken in the 1920s. 

This photo of the Morgan Store and Post Office in Laclede County was taken in the 1930s era.

The E. D. Harris Family Pioneers of the County

Record and Rustic, Thursday, October 19, 1967

By Lois Roper Beard

Pioneers are those who go before to prepare the way for others.  Many times our fore fathers suffered hardships aplenty to make the way better for us. 

The Harris family were true pioneers who came to Laclede County with the building of the railroad.

Ephriam Dunningam Harris and his wife Susanne Dawson were married in Illinois in 1863.  The following year their first little girl, Frances was born.  Two years later they were blessed with a second daughter, Lizzie.

Being a good worker and a successful manager, Mr. Harris had by then become owner of two good teams of horses, and he secured a job in the building of the railroad as it progressed westward.

Not wanting to leave his family behind, preparations were made to bring them along to camp where ever he worked, Mrs. Harris and the colored lady who lived with them cooked meals for other laborers.

Everything was going well, the Harris family were camped at Dixon when their third daughter Minnie was born there.  Again fortune smiled on them for mammy was there to assist at the birth of the baby and to keep all things done in the ordinary manner, as well as to care for mother and the three little girls.

While work was being done on the railroad at Dixon, rumors were started that the road would be built to go through Piato.  So Ephriam moved his wife and family on to Plato, Mo., and found a house where they would be more comfortable and also not be too many miles away from his work.  But it was learned the railroad was to be built through Lebanon and not Piato, so Mr. Harris moved the family to Lebanon, to a home that was then where we call Old Town.

Mr. and Mrs. Harris were tired of moving with their increased family, so his work which the railroad ended when they finished at Lebanon.  They decided to look for a farm about 15 miles (as the crow flys) south and last they found good rich river land located along the Osage Fork.

The had a few good neighbors, Stony Point school was located on the hill across the hollow and a trading center, Pease Mill in walking distance from the farm made it a very desirable place to call home.

The large double log house, built with two rooms in the attic with a full length porch across the front was one of the better houses in the country of that day.

Of the six children, one little girl, Martha Lou died at the tender age of six.  But a nephew Joe Dawson made his home with the Harris' and was raised as a son.

John became a school teacher, attending summer normal between teaching and for several years was teacher of the home school.

After the death of his father in 1900, John lived on in the home with his mother.  One of the times looked forward to in the lives of the grandchildren was when they were privileged to spend a few days with grandmother and uncle John.

One granddaughter remark was that it was truely a special time when I could visit grandmother, for it was the place where love abounded like the good times when we sat around the fireplace with a basket of apples to eat at night.  Sometimes we roasted some in the hot coals.  There were the little red winesaps, the large northern spie, the Ben Davis, but best of all were the Genitan.

And then for breakfast there was always the delicious sweet apple preserves to eat on hot biscuits.  Many times when several of the grandchildren visited at the same time they would make molasses taffey.  How much fun it was to pull and pull it until it was white and ready to cut into pieces to harden before eating. 

Although it has been almost one hundred years since Ephriam and Susanne (later called aunt Pet) Harris moved to the farm in the Pease Mill vicinity.  It is still owned by one of the great-grandsons.  The farm has known several owners throughout the century, but Leo and Mealy bought it several years ago and raised their sons on the old homestead.  Few can boast of that heritage.

So it is with pride we speak of family who gave to our land families who gave to our land families who have loved the good earth and have learned in life the joys of making a living from it.

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Last updated 03/04/2010