bellflow

Welcome to our Bellflower Page

Old Steam Engine Thresher - compliments of Janet Percy.

October 2003 - new pictures in Bellflower Album. Thanks to Bobby and Janet!!

....We have pictures!!!!!!!!! There are others that I will post very soon. Since I haven't been back to Bellflower since 1956, I really love looking at these. Almost as if time has stood still. The Post Office and Hicks store and the Liege building - they look so familiar and it was such a long time ago that I looked at them. I know for those of you who have moved far away and unable to attend the Reunions, these photos will bring back many memories, hopefully all good!....Thanks again, Bobby and Eileen.....

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Bellflower, Missouri is a tiny little town about 80 miles northwest of St. Louis.

I graduated 8th grade and High School in that little town. There were 11 of us that graduated in May of 1952.

I would like to have pictures of the town if you would just email them to me: smitty@swnm.com or go to my home page and click the rural mailbox.

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Bellflower had about 360 people in the town when I lived there. We had 2 grocery stores and a feed store. A gas station and garage, a mortuary where I use to type upstairs surrounded by coffins! and a couple of small shops, one was a small appliance repair and one a music store.. One tavern. I had a friend whose mom owned and ran the tavern, - Nellie Mozier.

Nellie had a motorscooter. We would both get on this thing and ride all over. We would go to Montgomery City and every time we came to railroad tracks we would have to get off and lift the little bike over. It only held 1/2 gal. of gas so we would carry a gallon with us so we could fill up. That was a real old scooter but still we sure enjoyed the freedom of going "out of town." I was 14 and 15 at the time. I think 90lbs each was about all we weighed.

And we had a lot of churches. Most Christian denominations except Catholic. We had to go to the little town of Hawk Point to attend Catholic Church. They had great summer festivals in Hawk Point. Music and Dancing.

Actually I didn't drink alcohol and I don't know of any kids in my school that did. The parents and grandparents would though. They had a big beer keg and lots of food and a raised wooden dancefloor outside. Lots of pretty colored lights and a real live band. It was just a lot of fun. And, we did a lot of Square Dancing.

There was a small town of Liege across the tracks which had 81 people and it finally merged with Bellflower.The town of Liege had a bar and a dancehall which was about the only entertainment to be found outside of the high school basketball games and class plays. Various city people would move out and run the bar and dancehall and then give it up and someone else would come along and do the same. See pictures sent to me by Bobby Harman.

I had a friend who lived with her parents in an apartment above this building. Wilma Hill, Class of 1949, she worked at a local church running a Linotype machine to print the church paper. What a contraption that was. Wilma made the best fudge I have ever tasted and she didn't need a recipe. She made chocolate and vanilla fudge - delicious and it was made the old fashioned way. See picture of Liege which has been a part of Bellflower for years now.

II do remember that my brothers and I would spend part of our summers at Bear Creek. That was a long walk down the railroad tracks. We would take our lunch and play in the water, climb the bluffs. There was fresh water from a natural Spring

There was a train that ran right through town. It picked up milk and dropped off mail. It ran other days too and if you wanted to ride, you just stood on the tracks and "flagged down" the train. I took this Burlington train to St. Louis every summer to visit my grandma. Also, I would catch this train going the other direction to Mexico, Mo. and also Wellsville, where I learned to dance at the Sugar Bowl! I went by myself, and I loved it. The conductor knew me and always took the time to remind me where to get off. See pictures below! The building in the center, (2 story), is the building where the Sugar Bowl was located. There were booths on the right side, soda fountain on the left side, and a half partition in the back with a dance floor and juke box. ....Click!

Thanks to Bobby Harman and Eileen Means for these nice big pictures of Bellflower and the part on the other side of the tracks that we used to call Leige. The tracks are gone and the towns have merged, so Leige is no more but these pictures are fantastic.

The post office looks the same to me as it did 50 years ago!! I am sure that it has suffered some wear and tear through the years. That is where we went everyday to get our mail. Our Postmaster Mr. Schowengerdt was so friendly and always teased me about how well or how badly I played (basketball), he did that with all the kids. He was very generous with his compliments. Once Nancy Guinard and I were both in the Post Office at the same time and he said "Here are the two prettiest girls in town" - He would say that to all the girls too!!! What a sweetie!

My classmate George told me that the town has not improved with age. You would think that the town would be flourishing because St. Louis has grown by leaps and bounds (the county that is) and it is just over an hour's drive to Bellflower. Good, rich, farmland out there. The nearest town being Montgomery City- 10 miles, and that is easy to locate on the web.

Ok, These pictures Bobby sent of some of our old houses is a bit depressing. They were all so neat and clean and well kept and it appears they are primarily used as rentals now. A couple of these homes have survived the years and you can see them in my little Albums.

I am trying to find information about the town on the web. I did find that Hicks Grocery Store is still there and the Baptist Church and Methodist Churches are still there,but our high school moved to Montgomery City and now that 3 story building houses the elementary school, grades K thru 5, which now has 144 students and 18 teachers. I found out that there is an ISP so you can get internet access. Actually I am anxious to see what else I can find about our little town.

Bobby says the Baptist Church is now a Tavern! (2003).

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I found out that there are 176 families living in Bellflower today. 427 people, 229 males and 198 females. 3 service stations and/or auto repair shops, one beauty salon, that's in addition to Hicks Market. Oh, and a young man from Bellflower, whom I will not name, has joined a dating service and I ran across that on the net. Looking to meet a girl. He is 20 years old! Since the town has more men than women, that figures! There is a Square Dance Group called the "Squircle 8s" and they meet in the Bellflower Community Building, Hwy. E, that is the main street in town.

I loved to Square Dance! Maybe I would never have left if the Squircle 8s had been there way back when.

Did you know???? ....The Square Dance was officially adopted as the Missouri State Dance on May 31st, 1995! This is a picture of some Missouri Square Dancers!

There are farms of course, prosperous no doubt. I will keep checking to see what I can find.I found a residence on Bellflower road for sale for $7,900 but no descriptionwas available. They have a police chief now, I found him on the net.

And,think I heard that the Mayor was impeached last year? I will have to checkthat out. What he could have done?? Maybe it was what he didn't do?

Had a wonderful email from Janet Percy. She also sent pictures of the school, gym and people at the Reunion last year. I am posting them on my BHS page.Wonderful pictures. Also, she told me that the Tavern where Nellie lived has been torn down and that the railroad no longer goes through town. Well, it was a long time ago and things do change.

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There is a 1885 Map of Montgomery County. I cannot find Bellflower on it, but it appears to be located near what was then called Beersheba. Maybe the name changed or perhaps this map did not include all communities.

Well, I have received a very interesting letter concerning the community of Beersheba. This spelling is probably incorrect and should be Bearsheba. The letter is from Muriel Kaiser who says "Bearsheba is the name of the place where my parents and I lived. I have an old print made from metal that they found in the walls of the old house they tore down before building their new one. It is the T.J. Baugh farm." Murial goes on to say that "The farm is 5mi NE of Bellflower, on Hwy DD.." ..This is very interesting news about the area. Thank you so much Murial for sharing this information.

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