Memories from the Homestead: Hollister's first post office and the Kirkham family [part two]

Last week I took y'all back to June of 1904, the opening of Hollister's Post Office. Their first postmaster was merchant Reuben Kirkham. It was named Hollister because his daughter Willard was born in Hollister, California, on December 18, 1889. She was fourteen when the post office opened here.

Miss Willard's personal memories were documented when area historian Edith McCall interviewed her over sixty years ago. I'd like to share some of that, as it brings some unique facts that can't be forgotten. 

An early photo of Hollister and its original buildings looking southwest. From the Johnson family collection.  (Photo courtesy of the City of Hollister)

Reuben Kirkham's store and post office quickly became popular with the railroad workers who were building the line into Arkansas just yards from his business. His store carried everything that a typical mercantile would sell. He sold farm supplies, groceries, boots and cloth.

Willard recalled there were some rough moments occasionally as well. One day she was helping her father in the store when one of the railroad workers walked in "carrying his jug as he usually did." A number of customers were in the store and suddenly the worker made an impolite remark to Willard. She said she didn't recall exactly what was said, but her father's reaction was quite vivid. "Dad picked up a chair and knocked him out flat. It scared me terribly, for I was afraid the others would turn on Dad. But from the remarks that were made by the worker, he got just what he deserved."

She also recalled how Turkey Creek could quickly change due to heavy rainfall and the railroad camp would quickly evacuate to higher ground while the water of the creek splashed against the door of their store. At the time her family was living in the Harden Warren house, fortunately Warren had built it on a rise to the south of the store. There was never a flood extreme enough to reach the house while they lived there.

During the 1904-05 boom of the railroad construction, Mr. Kirkham hired a couple of men with a freight wagon to haul supplies sixty-five miles to and from Springfield. A trip up would include local produce to eggs, a return trip included inventory for the store—sugar, crackers, coal oil and other items. In those times with the rough trails, the round trip journey took up to a week and in the spring when there was flooding the trips took longer.

 In 1905, a tragic circumstance occurred. Mrs. Kirkham and fifteen-year-old Willard were on a trip to Green Forest, Arkansas, making arrangements for Willard to finish her schooling there. They received word that their store and post office building had burned to the ground. Rushing back as quick as their team could get them there, Willard recalled her and her mother finding her dad in the house asleep with his gun beside him when they arrived.

 "That's when we learned that the store had been robbed before it had been destroyed by fire," Willard remembered. "There were watches left in the store being sent to Springfield for repairs that were among the loot of the robbers. Evidence along the river indicated that they had made their getaway by boat.  They were never apprehended.  Of course we had no insurance, and we were ruined."

"We stayed there in our house, which served as a temporary post office, collecting what money we could on bills owed us; we paid wholesale debts, then borrowed five hundred dollars from my father's brother, Bert Kirkham, who was farming near Denver, Arkansas. My mother sewed the $500 in her petticoat, we boarded the train at Branson, went to Kansas City, and were off to homestead 160 acres near Dog Pound, in Alberta, Canada, aboard an emigrant train."

So because of that circumstance the Kirkham's stay in Hollister wasn't long, but their time along Turkey Creek was long enough to get Hollister established as a permanent settlement with the name official for U.S. Post Office purposes. In no time Jim Holliday built a new store with Thomas F. Jennings taking over the operations. Jennings became Hollister's second postmaster officially on November 2, 1905. He remained until August 22, 1914, according to the U.S. Postal records.

So, what happened to the Kirkham family?

As of May 1907, Willard was back in the area near Green Forest where she married Charles G. Capps. They had a daughter, Mydas, born in 1908. Charles and Willard later divorced and in 1934 she married Raymond Byam in Spokane, Washington. He died in 1945 and Willard spent the remainder of her years in Missoula, Montana, living with her daughter's family. She passed away there on February 20, 1974 at 84 years of age.

Her parents Rueben and Orleana were back in the Ozarks within a few years; their stay in Alberta wasn't long. They moved to New Mexico. Orleana died in July 1913 at the age of 45 in House, a small community in northeastern New Mexico today that only has fifty residents. Reuben returned to the Missouri Ozarks and was in Willow Springs in 1920. Later on, he relocated to Exeter, California, passing away there December 30, 1941, at the age of 75.

And now you know a little more about Hollister's early beginnings. Happy trails, everyone!