Celebrating National Historic Districts & Places That Matter

Mary Kirk Kelly: Joplin Junior College Teacher

Legendary American Ceramic Artist (aka as ceramist)

The second woman to be highlighted this year is Mary Kirk Kelly.  Coincidentally, she also lived at 101 North Sergeant Avenue between 1958 and 1963.  Mary Kirk had no relationship or association with Dora Kneeland or the Williams family. 

Mary Kirk was born in Axis, Alabama on December 24, 1918 and died on May 6, 2013.  She had two daughters, Mary Elizabeth and Ruth.  We interviewed Mary Elizabeth by phone in May 2021 and she said her father was “out of the picture” when she was seven years old, but that didn’t stop her mother from achieving a remarkable career.  Mary Kirk had a Bachelor of Arts from Alabama College; a Master of Arts from Vanderbilt University; and graduated from George Peabody College for Teachers. 

Mary Kirk was on the faculty at Joplin Junior College (precursor to Missouri Southern State University) between 1957 and 1963.  She taught American history, U. S. government and sociology; and was the faculty advisor for the student senate.  She was the faculty advisor for the first Model United Nations Convention that Joplin Jr. College attended in 1963 and accompanied the student delegates from Joplin to St. Louis for the event.  The Model UN languished at the college in the 1970s but in 1984, Dr. Paul Teverow restarted the program which continues today.

Mary Kirk was also chairman of United Nations Day in Joplin, which was held at the city’s famed (nonextant) Connor Hotel roof garden.  In October 1962, she was presented a service award for her efforts in promoting interest in the observance of United Nations Day.  The plaque was signed by President John Kennedy and Robert Benjamin, president of the U.S. committee of the U.N.  She was commended for her outstanding job in promoting Joplin’s first U.N. Day.  The U.N. works to improve the lot of mankind and maintaining world peace. 

The Joplin branch of the American Association of University Women also benefited from her involvement, membership, and chairmanship in international relations. 

She retired from teaching in the early 1970s and moved back to her ancestral home, Kirk House, in Alabama.  There she was prolific in creating ceramic art pieces from clay that she gathered from nearby Gunnison Creek.  Before long, Mary Kirk produced realistic, true-to-life size ceramic fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries, eggs, pineapples, mushrooms, potatoes, leaves, magnolia blossoms, Osage oranges, and even shrimp.  She also produced utilitarian porcelain art pieces such as tureens, bowls, plates, and tea sets that looked like cabbage, lettuce, or melons; ceramic plaques with daisies; candlesticks fashioned after banana stalks; and trays that looked like banana leaves.  People from all over the world purchased and collected her art pieces.

Mary Kirk Kelly

According to the Worth Point website, “Both her artistry and painstaking attention to detail are obvious.  Each is made by hand from earthenware or porcelain clay in liquid form (slip).  Ms. Kelly hand sculpts the greenware, then paints it before bisque firing.  After firing, she brushes or sponges metallic oxide colorants to capture the realism so highly prized by collectors.  Each piece is signed by Ms. Kelly.  They range in size from 3” to 6”.  Generally, her works sell in the $175 to $300 range (per piece), depending on the intricacy of the design.  These look beautiful in just an ordinary fruit basket.  People WILL try to eat them…”

To view or purchase some of Mary Kirk’s works of art, just search the internet under Mary Kirk Kelly, American Artist.

United Nations Day, celebrated every year on October 24th, marks the anniversary of the UN Charter that was ratified in 1945.  There is no other global organization with the legitimacy, convening power and normative impact of the United Nations.  Today, the urgency for all countries to come together, to fulfil the promise of the nations united, has rarely been greater.

Mary Kirk Kelly

Enclosed roof garden on the Connor Hotel pictured in 1916.  Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum.

The Connor Hotel pictured courtesy of the Mark & Paula Callihan archives

Missouri Southern State University, Joplin has continued the Model United Nations class.  Every November they take students to the American Model United Nations conference in Chicago.  According to Dr. Chad Stebbins, MSSU professor of journalism and director of the Institute of International Studies, “The students usually represent the country that is the focus of MSSU’s themed semester that fall.  In Fall 2022, they represented the Czech Republic.  In Fall 2023, they will represent Ireland.”  Dr. Stebbins is also the author of Joplin’s Connor Hotel; first published in 2021.

Woman’s History Month…Two Untold Stories

Dora Annabelle Jesse Kneeland…The woman behind a famous seasoning

Dora was born in Diamond, Missouri in 1879 and moved to Joplin in 1895.  Her husband, Guy Kneeland was an engineer for a zinc mine and passed away in 1923.   Dora eventually came to live at 101 North Sergeant Avenue with a daughter, son-in-law, and grandson until her death on July 29, 1945.   Dora was a member of the Zinc Rebekah Lodge and First Baptist Church.

Why is Dora’s story special and carries on to present day?  The answer begins with Dora’s son-in-law, Cecil LeRoy “Roy” Williams, who was the founder of the C. L. Williams Chili Seasoning Company, now known as Williams Foods, Inc.

According to the Williams Foods website, a 1998 article in the Biz Journal (Kansas City), and a 2008 article in Ingram’s magazine, Mr. Williams started the Williams Chili Seasoning company in Webb City in 1937 and began by “…selling his mother’s chili seasonings…” in small brown paper bags and selling them out of his home.  However, there are two wrinkles to this account.  According to Dr. Benjamin Rosenberg, it wasn’t Roy’s mother’s recipe—it was Dora’s, his mother-in-law’s recipe.  The other wrinkle is the location and date.  According to a 1972 Joplin Globe article, “Many years ago, in a small garage in Joplin, (at Roy’s home) using a blender just about the size of today’s coffee blender, the original formulation of pure spices and seasonings were combined by C. L. Williams, the beginning of Williams’s Foods, Inc.”

The 1939 Joplin City Directory shows the Williams family living in Joplin at 101 North Sergeant Avenue.  The Rosenberg family lived across the street at 101 South Sergeant.  

Dr. Benjamin Rosenberg is a long-time Joplin resident, former City Councilman, and local dentist.  Dr. Rosenberg says the seasoning was made in the (extant) detached garage behind the William’s house on Sergeant Avenue.  While attending Columbia Elementary School (five blocks north at E Street and Sergeant Avenue) “Benji” would often ride his bicycle home for lunch.  At that time, Columbia did not serve lunch.  On some days Benji would eat chili for lunch served by the Williams family.  During the cooking, Dr. Rosenberg said, “You could smell chili all over the neighborhood.”

It appeared that no one else was selling packaged seasoning mixes for home use.  Later Mr. Williams was the first seasonings maker to put the product in aluminum pouches.  Once established, Mr. Williams approached the City of Joplin for a special use permit so that he could legally continue the process in his garage.  According to Dr. Rosenberg, City officials denied the request.  Mr. Williams moved his operation from the “small garage” to Webb City around 1942, although some reports site 1945.  However, the family continued to cook chili and the aroma filled the air.     
Interestingly, Roy continued his “real job” as the purchasing agent for Myers Motor Supply Company at 5th Street and Wall Avenue between 1925 and 1952.  Roy died in 1975 and his wife Ida in 1988.

The seasoning’s popularity grew and was distributed throughout the Midwest.  Mr. Williams sold the firm to Conrad Hock, Jr. in 1963 (although some reports site 1961) who continued operating under the Williams brand at the 1502 South Madison plant in Webb City.  By 1972, the seasoning was sold in some 30 states, many countries, and military commissaries.  In 1984, Hock moved the company to Lenexa, Kansas, which was not well received by Webb City residents and is still lamented today!  The company was sold again in March 2008 to C. H. Guenther & Son, LLC.  The manufacturing plant is still in Lenexa with the Guenther corporate office in San Antonio, Texas.

Thank you, Dora Kneeland, for creating a chili seasoning mix that started in a humble Joplin garage and continues to help people get dinner on the table some 86 years later.

The Fred & Red’s chili (spaghetti red) recipe is closely guarded, but many cooks believe the secret ingredient is Williams Chili Seasoning.  Fred & Red’s restaurant is located at 1719 South Main Street, Joplin.

Williams Chili Seasoning packets can be purchased at G & W Cash Saver Grocery Store at 811 West 7th Street, Joplin and across America.  Visit https://williamsfoods.com for the product locator then type in a zip code.

The Arthur Waite House

Waite arrived in Joplin in 1880 at the age of 27. He grew up splitting rails in Nebraska and at the age of 21, applied and received a job at the country bank in Brownville, Nebraska. Thus began a lifetime career in the banking industry. Eventually he rode a “hog train” to St. Joseph, Missouri, and worked as a book keeper at the Merchant State Bank for Thomas Tootle. Tootle, meanwhile, was a partner of Joplin founding father, Patrick Murphy, in the ownership of the Miner’s Bank. It was a job at Miner’s Bank, located in the same building as the old Joplin Hotel, that brought Waite to Joplin.

Later on, Waite took a job as cashier at the Joplin National Bank, which for a time was located in the Keystone Hotel building. Eventually, Waite rose to the position of president of the bank. Established as a major figure in the Joplin banking community, he was the president of the Joplin National Bank and Trust Company, the Missouri Bankers Association, Jasper County Bankers’ Association and was a member of the Elks Lodge in Joplin.

Waite remained involved in banking and in the house that Garstang & Rea designed until his death in April, 1934.

Susie Chase Leonard Waite worked on the Y.W.C.A. board for many years, was a member of the Woman’s Club, Ridpath Club, Curtis Club, and Buddy Club.  At the time of her death in 1956, she was a member of the Health and Welfare board, on which she had served since its establishment in the early 1900s.  After Mr. Waite’s death in 1934, Mrs. Waite moved to the Olivia Apartments where she lived until the time of her death.

Credits to Historicjoplin.com

The Fletcher Snapp House

Fletcher Taylor Snapp was a member of Joplin High School’s first graduating class of 1887, the first president of the Joplin Automobile Club, Joplin’s mayor from 1922-1926, one of the founders of the Citizens State Bank, a cashier of Cunningham Bank and building chairman during the long process of constructing the Scottish Rite Cathedral at 505 S. Byers Avenue.This house has suffered several devastating fires. The first of which claimed Mr. Snapp’s life when he was 79 years old and that of a handyman. The tragedy occurred when the oil furnace exploded while being repaired. His wife Elizabeth Belle (Betty) Mayes Snapp survived. This brown brick clad house has a porte cochére that provides covered access for visitors arriving by motorized transport—or back in the day for the horse and carriage. The portico, consisting of Ionic columns and a triangular pediment, beckons visitors to enter this stately home. The wrap-around covered porch with its turned balustrades serves as the venue for outdoor gatherings. The main entry door has cut glass sidelights with transoms. Furthermore, the beautiful historic wooden door is enhanced with a decorative oval arched transom. Each story has a curved bay window and all windows have limestone lintels.

The John Johnson House aka Schifferdecker Gardner’s House

The John Johnson House
419 South Jackson Avenue Caretakers House and/or Schifferdecker Gardener Cottage

The house was built by Charles Schifferdecker and is located directly west of the Schifferdecker mansion at 422 South Sergeant Avenue. Research and restoration are. ongoing and it is believed that the structure could have also been an office for the Schifferdecker businesses.

The original residents of this house were John Richard Johnson (1882-1946) and Louisa K. Martens Johnson (1884-1985). Born in Sweden, John came to Girard, Kansas as a young boy and then to Joplin at age 21. He secured a job as a gardener for Charles Schifferdecker and soon oversaw the extensive Schifferdecker property holdings.

He married Mrs. Schifferdecker’s niece in 1903, thus becoming a Schifferdecker heir after Charles and Wilhelmina’s death in 1915. John became a naturalized citizen in 1920.

In John’s obituary, the Joplin Globe newspaper reported that he was orphaned at seven years old when both parents and siblings died. However, the 1910 and 1920 U.S. Census shows John’s father, Andres Johnson residing with John and Louisa at 419 South Jackson Avenue!

This mystery is undergoing further research and may be a story for another day. Several years after Charles, Wilhelmina, and Wilhelmina’s mother died, the Johnson Family moved into the Schifferdecker mansion, but it was short lived. According to Johnson descendants, Louise was uncomfortable living at the house because she claimed to hear the rustling of petticoats on the staircase and believed it to be the ghost of her departed aunt!

Another mystery, although much more salacious associated with this house is the 1916 unsolved murder of Samuel C. Davis of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The mystery intertwines with the adultery trial of Mr. Davis and his mistress, Mrs. Daisy Carter. Daisy was living at 419 S. Jackson when Samuel came to visit. Shots rang out and Samuel lay dead inside the house! Mr. Davis was a wealthy, alcoholic half-breed Creek oilman that was also associated with the grand conspiracy to defraud Native American Indians of their oil lands.