|
Get Up to 95% off laptops, electronics, jewelry, and even cash at Zeekler Penny Auctions with Our Silver Preferred Customer Program at only $10/mo and 20 bids/mo worth $1 each. Click Here!
|
|
|
Shell Knob Missouri is located on the shores of Table Rock Lake, on Highway 86, in Barry County, in southwestern Missouri. The intertwining of three of the Mid-Ozarks first settler families comes to play strongly in the early history of this small town. Originally the town was begun by Henry and Elizabeth Yoachum Schell (that’s Schell, not Shell) who settled on the shore of the White River in 1835 and built a trading post there. Others of the Yoachum family, principally two brothers and their children, were among the very first white persons to inhabit the James River area of this Mid-Ozarks Region. The elder Yoachums were hunter/trappers, trading with the native Indians. Later they became well known when they began casting the first “trade dollars” in the area, the famous “Yocum Silver Dollars.” Peninah Yocum, daughter of the hunter/trader Yocum, married the famed Joseph Philibert, another of the very first white settlers and equally historically famous. A century or so later a descendant of the Schell family married a direct descendant of Joe and Peninah Philibert. Thus the intertwining of these three noteworthy families. (Yes, this old German descendant family was known by several derivations of the Yoachum name, including Yocum.)
In 1872, when a post office was established, somehow the ‘c’ in Schell was dropped and the post office and the town became “Shell Knob,” as it is to this day. Jack and Cordelia Kearney built and operated the first store in the early Schell Knob in the 1860’s. In 1869 the couple was murdered in their store and that murderer was the last person hanged in Barry County. In those days the little remote town grew slowly. After the turn of the century there were three stores, two churches, a blacksmith shop, a small school, a public well and a public scale for commerce. In 1932 Missouri Highway 86 was completed connecting Shell Knob to Cassville, some twenty miles distant, drivable in far less than one hour. Before that time, the round trip to and from Cassville took up to three days by wagon and team of horses or oxen.
In 1959 Table Rock Dam was completed and the lake filled. Shell Knob soon became a resort, fishing and retirement town. Today the little town has grown with a population of about 10,000 living in the town and the surrounding settled areas, mostly retirees, vacation home residents and young families with children. In 2000 there were actually about 1,400 people living in the town limits proper.
By: Jim Barrett
If you are interested in historical photos and stories about the Ozarks area contact Jim Barrett at RT's Restaurant in Kimberling City.
|
|
|
|
