Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> In the fifties there were many abandoned store fronts in the weeds  
> or along
> side the road.  Even then I had an interest in history and would  
> ask my
> father about them.  He told of small stores where people on horses  
> could
> shop, get mail, use the telephone and later get a few gallons of
> gasoline.

In the south-central Missouri Ozarks, that paradigm continues. In the  
thirty years I have owned my land there, horse-spaced rural stores  
have died at the same time as their elderly proprietors. Area  
churches have approximated the same pattern, although, religion being  
a more emotional purchase than canned goods, one still finds churches  
with only three or four cars out front on Sunday morning.

My Ozark county has 9,542 people (9,514 in 2003)on a land area of 742  
square miles (50 acres per person). Primary income sources are  
farming, tourism and retirement checks. Average farm size is 343  
acres. Many farmers have supplemental jobs. Gainesville, our county  
seat of a few more than 600 souls, has three large churches, two  
banks, an investment service, one supermarket, one building supply,  
one excellent hardware store, a Chevy dealership, a motorcycle and  
lawn-equipment sales and repair business, two gas stations, two auto  
parts stores, one tire shop, six "restaurants," one "package store,"   
three insurance stores, five real estate offices, three hair  
dressers, a pawn shop, a card shop and a lawyer. Ford force-closed  
the local dealership a few years ago because it didn't sell enough  
"units."

Here are my favorite Ozark County statistics:
Average value of agricultural products sold per farm: $31,978
Average total farm production expenses per farm: $31,995

We Ozark Countians don't much care to pay taxes.