"About This Blog

Rich Hill is a small town in Bates County, Missouri, known as the "Town That Coal Built." Since 2008, this blog has been digging through old newspapers, county histories, family photos, and community memories to piece together the stories of the people, businesses, churches, and events that shaped Rich Hill — from its coal-mining boom years to the present day. Here you'll find everything from town-defining moments (train depot ambushes, natural gas jubilees, the founding of local churches) to the quieter stories of the people who called Rich Hill home — including a few who went on to leave their mark on the wider world. Have an old photo, a family story, or a correction? I'd love to hear from you — reach out at beardonme@gmail.com

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Rich Hill History From the Wichita Newspaper Dec.1898

The Wichita Tribune December 24,1898
Killed in a Rich Hill Mill Collapse 
Rich Hill, Mo.Dec 21
A portion of the Rich Hill mill collapsed at 1 o'clock this morning.Homer Kimbrough a transfer man, was caught by timbers and crushed.The building was badly damaged.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Email on Droz and the USS Little Rock

I received this E-mail yesterday from the blog, the guys name is Tim Kavanaugh 

I served with Don Droz on the U.S.S. Little Rock CLG-4 (1967-68) before he went to Viet Nam. I was an enlisted man RD2 and he was an officer but I stood watches in Combat Information Center and on the bridge many times. He was a good officer. I remember him well. Unfortunately I did not know much about him. I left the Little Rock in 1968 and served on two destroyers on the east coast before returning home to Minnesota. I watched a program on a river patrol boat attack in Vietnam in 1969. I looked him up on the Little Rock crew roster, knowing he had been killed in Vietnam. Funny how those memories are so clear more than 40 years later.

Tim