The Time a County Seceded From a State: The Story of McDonald County, Missouri

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1961, McDonald County, Missouri found a unique way to show their dissatisfaction with their state government. Dwight Pouge, who saw it all from the ground, tells the story.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites up next. A story on
a unique protest that happened in nineteen sixty one in
McDonald County, Missouri. A little slice of heaven right in
the Ozarks. Here's our own Monty Montgomery with a story.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
On April twelfth, eighteen sixty one, a crisis was brewing
in Charleston, South Carolina, as Fort Sumter began to be
shelved by Confederate forces, kicking off the Civil War. One
hundred years later to the day, another crisis was about
to reach fever Pitch in the state of Missouri, as
a state senator prepared to introduce a controversial piece of legislation,

(00:59):
Yours Dwight with more.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
At the State House in Jefferson City, Missouri, on April twelfth,
nineteen sixty one, State Senator Lee Aaron Batchelor introduced a
legal document for a resolution to form a fifty first
state that would consist of McDonald County, Missouri, and the
adjoining counties of Benton County, Arkansas. And Delaware County, Oklahoma
bachelor stated, I subscribe fully to and am a pioneer

(01:26):
in the world of new frontiers. Missouri is my native state,
and McDonald County my place of birth, and in this controversy,
I must go with her. I cannot reroot my affection.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
But what controversy could possibly cause a piece of a
state to want to secede? We have to take a
step back a few days to find out.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
In April of nineteen sixty one, I was sixteen years old,
working after school with my brother and sister in our
family's weekly newspaper, the McDonald County Press, in the Little
Ozark resort town of Noel, Missouri. When the Missouri State
Highway Commission unveiled their new nineteen sixty one Vacation Highway map,
it was discovered that almost all the towns of McDonald County,

(02:13):
including the resort town of Knowell and the only highway
leading to it, were missing. This omission was not only
a shock, but would be detrimental to the economy of
McDonald County and truly devastating for Knowell, since its livelihood
depended solely on vacationers. My father, Ralph Pogue, invited Noel, Mayor,

(02:35):
Dan Harmon, and Missouri Senator Lee Air and Bachelor to
join him to ask their state elected officials for an
explanation and a solution. Unfortunately, they received an apology, but
little else. Dad told Harmon they at least had the
power of the press, and the press was the voice
of the people. They soon decided their only course was
to legally secede from their parent state. The Chairman of

(02:59):
the Chamber of Commerce C. L. Mcgallan was elected president
of the new territory, Dan Harmon, Vice President, Ralph Pogue
Press secretary, and Missouri State Senator Lee Aaron Bachelor Secretary
of State. The entire town, including mayors and officials of
several sister towns in the county, joined in the effort,
and the session was often running. It turned out to

(03:20):
be a summer I have yet to forget. I was
invited out into the community to assist my father on
his travels to photograph and record Seceession events in the area.
I also volunteered to drive my first car, a nineteen
thirty one Model eight Ford five wind a coup with
rumble seat, to transport members of the newly famed Territorial

(03:42):
Border Patrol. Border Patrol members were armed with muzzle loading
guns and powder horns to hand out special territory visas
to all persons entering the town of Noel. Visitors were
required to carry the visas at all times and to
show them when departing the county. The three most lebrated
McDonald's Territory Border Guards were Jim Squeak Horrton, Jim Stevens

(04:05):
and Jim Riley. Over the summer, hundreds of tourists asked
to have their photographs taken alongside these three stalwart Territorians
with their muzzle loading guns and powder horns. Territorial Border
Guard Lieutenant Jim Squeak Howerton was brought up operating bulldozers
and road graders in his family's bulldozing business. He was

(04:25):
nicknamed Squeak because he was skinny with a high pitched voice,
and was well liked for being quick witted and outspoken.
Squeak was adventurous and fearless, and I would guess to
say the fifty caliber bullets wrapped around his body during
the secession days were live rounds. Border Guard Sergeant Jim
Stevens furnished his well known silver model a Ford pickup

(04:46):
truck as the official territorial transport for the border Guards.
The summer of sixty three, they were granted special permission
from the Kansas City Southern Railway to check passengers on
the Southern Bell at the Nole depot for territorial visas.
The border Guards would occasionally get on the train at
Knowell and get off at Silom Springs, Arkansas, where they
had arranged auto rides back to Knowell. They were a

(05:08):
big hit with the passengers. Suddenly, secession was on everyone's minds,
and new ideas seemed to come out of nowhere. The
provisional government of McDonald's territory had thirty thousand stamps printed
in several colors, and although not legal, all stamps were
sold and the US Post Office allowed them to be

(05:30):
attached to backs of maled envelopes. McDonald County Native Rivers
Wilie suggests that Knowell and the county by the leftover
signs that Texas had when Alaska was admitted to the Union.
All we'd have to do is change the word largest
to smallest, and then the signs would read Welcome to
the smallest state in the Union. He advised, when we

(05:50):
succeede everyone will want to live here, we will be
tax free and will sell nickel beer. He also recommended
the following tax program no reason sales tax, no corporation tax,
no income tax, no inheritance tax, and no thumb tax.
By early July, even the Kennedy administration took notice of

(06:13):
McDonald's territory's rebel spirit when it decided it was time
to restrain the secession idea, as it was spreading to
include all the Ozarks and more than just one county
in Missouri. By the time August of nineteen sixty one arrived,
the residents of McDonald Territory were in a positive mood
and were looking back on their summer with hope and
a degree of satisfaction, with livelihoods no longer in jeopardy

(06:36):
and running quite smoothly. Happiness and good cheer abounded. For
my part, as a sixth generation Missourian born and raised
in the southwest corner of the Shome State, I learned
to love and appreciate the folks who lived there.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
And a great job as always by Monty Montgomery and
a special thanks to Dwight Pogue for telling us this story.
Check out to White's book nineteen sixty one Ozark Breakaway,
the year McDonald County seceded from Missouri on Amazon, and
of course all the usual suspects Dwight Pogue's story the
nineteen sixty one Ozark Breakaway here on our American Stories Folks.

(07:30):
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