JOPLIN HIGH SCHOOL
During the fall of 1915 Joplin voters passed a $350,000 bond issue to purchase property, as well
as construct and furnish a new high school. In 1916 the Kansas City architectural firm of Smith,
Rea, and Lovett, along with Austin Allen, were selected to design the high school. At the time
Mr. Allen had offices in Joplin and Kansas City. Less than a year later, school officials were
saddened by the news concerning the death of Austin Allen.Ten out of twenty school district buildings were damaged or destroyed by the 2011 Joplin
Tornado, but this historic building was spared. Today it houses Administration, the Gifted
Center, Franklin Technology Center-Adult Education, and Memorial Education Center. The
building will continue to serve Joplin into the next 100 years.Unfortunately, Mr. Allen never saw
the completion of this three-story red brick structure. Classes began at Joplin Hight School on
January 21, 1918, with 31 teachers consisting of 22 female instructors. Their maximum salary
was $80 a month. The august structure has been the most versatile building in the Joplin School
District. Students, representing ages from preschool to high school, passed through the storied
walls. For a decade the building was the home of Joplin Junior College. (1958-1967) – Excerpt
from the Joplin History & Mineral Museum 2021 calendar.
The Joseph S. Walker House
Joseph Scott Walker, Sr., along with his wife Mary Ellen, were original owners of this house. They moved out in 1903. Joseph was considered a “capitalist” and an ore buyer for the Edgar Zinc Company of St. Louis. He was superintendent of the Sunday school at the First Methodist Church of Joplin and for six years was president of the Jasper County Sunday School Association.
Next came Charles W. McAbee, and wife Louella. He was vice-president of Independent Powder Co. of Missouri and later president of Independent Candy & Manufacturing Co. at 4th and Missouri Avenue.
George Washington Moore resided at the house from 1931 to 1937. However, in 1938, he and wife Ida moved across the street to the “old Schifferdecker home” at 422 S. Sergeant. It is noteworthy because he “swapped houses” with the Hurwitz-Luecke Family that had lived at the mansion since 1920. According to the Webb City Sentinel, George was elected the mayor of Webb City in 1904 and was credited with lifting Webb City out of the mud and otherwise modernizing what was then a rough mining community. George was also an ore buyer and associated with numerous mining and smelting industries. The Moores lived at the Schifferdecker house until 1947 when it was sold to the Hurlburt-Glover Mortuary—a saga onto itself—eventually settled by the Missouri Supreme Court!
Postscript: George’s “palatial home” at 903 S. Madison Avenue in Webb City, built in 1908, is slated to be demolished in the summer of 2023 to make way for new commercial development. Thankfully, the two historic houses in Joplin that are associated with George and Ida listed above have been preserved. After extensive renovations to the Schifferdecker Mansion by Joplin Historic Neighborhoods, George W. Moore remains engraved on the front step.
Bertha Hurwitz Luecke moved into the house in 1938 and remained until her death in 1952. Bertha’s husband, Julius died in 1933; he was a jeweler. Her brother, Dr. Leon Hurwitz also lived at the Schifferdecker House with the Luecke Family. Dr. Hurwitz died in 1936, ten years after being convicted of selling morphine illegally, serving three years in Leavenworth prison, and understandably losing his medical license! At one point, he was also appointed as the City Physician. All of this could explain why Bertha was ready to “downsize” by moving to 411 S. Sergeant.
Bertha’s son, Carl Luecke continued living here until his death in 1969. He was an engineer for the Empire District Electric Company for 41 years. Carl’s wife, Ruth Fleischaker Luecke held a master’s degree in special education and was the first teacher of the sight-saving classes in the Joplin school system. Carl and Ruth continued living here until their deaths in 1969 and 1973 respectively.
In the spirit of keeping the house in the family, Ruth’s nephew, William “Bill” Fleischaker moved into the house in 1975. The extended Fleischaker Family factors prominently in Joplin’s early history and that of the United Hebrew Congregation of Joplin. Several family members continue to serve the community today.
ARCHITECTURE
The two-and-one-half-story Queen Anne house has a limestone foundation, a hip roof with lower cross-gables and a side-wrap porch with a gabled pediment. It has brick piers, round wood columns and dentil molding. A transom can be seen over the front door.
William Henry Picher House
421 South Sergeant Avenue
Colonial Revival, circa 1899
Features: Porte Cochère and Stained Glass Transom
William Henry Picher (1851-1924) was married to Susan Brummel Jones Picher (1851-1904).
The Picher name has long been associated with Joplin’s lead and zinc mining history. In 1875,
William and his brother, Judge Oliver Hazard Picher organized the Picher Lead and Zinc Co. and later they merged with Eagle Paint Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio to become the Eagle-Picher Lead Co., one of the largest lead smelting concerns in the world. The City of Picher, Oklahoma was named after the Picher family.
By 1920, Mr. Picher was living at the Olivia Apartments. He bequeathed $500 per year for 20 years to the City of Joplin. The $10,000 ($176,000 in 2023 dollars) was to be “used for caring
for the poor of the city.”
ARCHITECTURE
The two-and-one-half-story Colonial Revival house has a limestone foundation and hip roof. An enclosed shed roof porch projects from the east elevation. Three gabled dormers rise from the west slope of the roof. The center dormer is larger with a scrolled parapet. A single gabled dormer rises from the north and south slopes of the roof. Two brick chimneys rise from the roof. A wide wood cornice with modillions ornaments the roofline.
Paneled wood columns articulate the corners. A full-width flat roof porch spans the primary (west) elevation and continues north as a porte cochère. It has wood Doric columns and a turned wood balustrade. This elevation has three symmetrical bays. Bay 2 has a wood door with multi-light beveled glazing and a stained glass transom on the first story. A band of two single windows, separated by a medallion pierces the second story.
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