From Reed’s Spring to Reeds Spring: The stories that shaped a community

If you’re like me and grew up in the Reeds Spring area, you probably learned about the spring and our community’s heritage in school. I remember learning an easy way to spell the name: two Reeds, one Spring.

But recently, sitting down with Jim Holt and Ken Henderson, I learned there was much more to the story.

The spring that gave Reeds Spring its name continues to connect the community to its earliest roots and history. (Photo courtesy of Keith Chaplain/Reeds Spring Community page)

Holt and Henderson are local icons who have become unofficial go-to sources for local history, with deep family roots and a lifetime of knowledge about the people, places and events that shaped Reeds Spring.

Holt said his great-grandfather, James Fielding, came to Missouri from Tennessee sometime around or after the Civil War and settled in the Railey Creek area. His grandfather later moved into Reeds Spring around the time railroad construction was beginning.

Henderson said his great-grandparents came to the Walnut Shade area around the 1890s, where oak timber provided work. His grandfather, Newt, attended Railey Creek School.

“If you don’t know the history of an area, you repeat things, and you make mistakes that maybe you wouldn’t have to go through,” Henderson said.

One of those stories begins with Fitzhugh Reed, a cattle drover from Texas who came through the area and discovered the natural spring. Henderson said Reed stayed for several months while his cattle grazed and fattened, choosing to remain when the other drovers returned to Texas. Reed owned the spring, which became known as “Reed’s Spring.” According to the Stone County Historical Genealogical Society and Museum, the town was officially organized in 1906 as Reeds Spring.

Henderson and Holt said they were unsure exactly when the apostrophe disappeared, but over time “Reed’s Spring” became the Reeds Spring known today.

The spring would later play another important role with the arrival of the railroad. Construction brought workers to build the tracks and nearby tunnel using steam-powered drills and dynamite. Henderson said spring water was used to operate the drills.

Holt said the railroad transformed the community, bringing workers and travelers, creating businesses and giving farmers and producers access to outside markets.

“When the railroad started coming through, businesses started in here,” Holt said. “The train was the market. They’d bring their product from the field, put it on the train and ship it out.”

Holt’s grandfather operated a livery stable with another man, providing horses, mules, teams and drivers for travelers arriving by train who needed to reach surrounding communities.

The railroad also carried the mail. Holt’s father, Nelson Holt, worked as a clerk at the Reeds Spring post office before receiving his permanent appointment as postmaster in 1949. Before becoming postmaster, he met the trains on Sundays, collected the mail and brought it to the post office.

But the history discussed around the table was about more than the railroad or spring. It was about the people who built their lives here.

“They were hardy, hardy people,” Henderson said. “My generation, we wouldn’t know how to do it. We would even now struggle.”

Preserving those stories becomes increasingly important as generations pass. Holt recalled bringing his father and longtime resident Walker Powell together for a program where the two shared memories of Reeds Spring.

“That still, in my opinion, is one of the best programs we ever had,” Holt said. “Just let them sit there and tell stories.”

Today, many of those voices are gone, but their stories remain.

Reeds Spring continues to grow and change, but the spring remains, the railroad still runs through town and stories passed from one generation to the next remain part of its foundation.

Preserving those stories gives future generations the opportunity to know how Reeds Spring came to be and the people whose lives made it home.