| Note |
McMurty Spring
Trail of Tears Stop
Located on Hwy 37
A little over two miles southwest of Cassville in
Barry Co., MO
Donna Cooper posted: The water from the spring flows across the meadow and joins Flat Creek. Sometimes beavers build dams across the stream in the meadow and it backs up over the pasture. During the wet weather the spring overflows the pool but most of the time it looks just like it does in the photo.
Not only the Cherokees stopped and camped here on their journey
on 'The Trail of Tears', but also the North and South armies both camped here during the Civil War days.
During the early days when people were traveling by wagon from Washburn or Seligman to Cassville, the county seat, they would sometimes stop at McMurty Spring and camp. They would water their horses, get fresh water and then they'd go their way to do business in Cassville or Monett.
On their way back home, they would often stop, rest, eat and camp in the field to the east for the evening. There were always other travelers camped there, too. Most of the folks lived in the south part of the county, but sometimes there were people there from Arkansas and the Indian Nation.
The Cassville Democrat reported a murder at McMurty spring in the 1907 historical section of the paper.
In June 1868, Daniel Lowery, his son and Robert Mann of Washburn came to Cassville and spent a part of the day, and on returning home in the evening, having imbibed freely of whiskey, and when a few hundred yards from McMurty Spring, toward this city, in the valley, where the old road used to run, under a lone apple tree, Robert Mann murdered Daniel Lowery and Young Lowery in turn, killed Mann. Nothing was ever done with Lowery for the killing of Mann. These men all formerly resided in Bentonville, Ark. April 13, 1907, Cassville Democrat |
