Greene County Archives and Records Center

📜 Featured Collection of the Month: The Goad Ballinger Collection!

This month, we’re highlighting The Last Man’s Club of World War I from Goad Ballinger Post No. 69.

This remarkable set of records preserves the organization’s founding documents and meeting minutes from its beginning in 1933 all the way through 1979. Formed by World War I veterans, the club gathered each year for an annual banquet to honor their shared service, remember those who had passed, and uphold a tradition of camaraderie that stretched across decades.

One cherished custom was to honor the final surviving member with a symbolic bottle of champagne that had been saved since the club’s founding - a tribute to both memory and brotherhood.

The last surviving member of Post No. 69’s club was V. Homer Wilson, a U.S. Navy veteran who served as a stevedore during World War I, helping load and unload military cargo at a time when Naval logistics were crucial to the war effort. Wilson served as the club’s first vice admiral, then as paymaster in 1934. He also attended the very first banquet held in November 1933, and his name appears on the original membership roll featured in this month’s collection.

When Wilson became the final surviving member, he received the club’s traditional bottle of champagne on February 13, 1992, at the age of 97. Though honored with the champagne, Wilson chose to donate it back to Post 69’s museum so future generations could preserve and understand its history.

This collection offers a rare look into how WWI veterans chose to preserve their memories, honor their comrades, and pass their stories forward.

🏰 Discover the Storied Legacy of the The Mansion at Elfindale

From romance and heartbreak to philanthropy and preservation, the mansion’s past reads like a novel:

After her 1901 divorce settlement, Alice was awarded all 400 acres of the O’Day property along with up to $200,000 in stocks, giving her the means to bring her grand vision to life. She named it Elfindale after elves she imagined dancing in the fog over the dale on misty mornings.

The limestone mansion covers 27,000 sq ft, with a three-story layout plus tower, full basement, 35 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, built in bookcases, copper chandeliers, intricate stained glass, and a spectacular French mantle from the 1904 World’s Fair. The grounds were designed for leisure with a dammed creek creating an island with a pagoda and bridges, stocked for fishing, canoes for guests, peacocks and even llamas roaming the estate.

After lavish construction exhausted her resources by 1905, Alice received offers up to $259,000 but chose to sell Elfindale to the Sisters of the Visitation for just $30,000, which was the exact price the sisters sold their home for in St. Louis. Alice believed her mansion was destined for a special purpose by God. It became St. de Chantal Academy for Girls in 1906 and served as a boarding and day school until 1964.

On this day in 1990, the mansion opened as a bed & breakfast, after changing hands and undergoing a major renovation, preserving its Victorian charm and historical features!

Mentor was once a thriving little town in Clay Township, and its story goes back to the 1880s. In 1895, the community opened its own post office with Cornelius Burton Finkbiner as postmaster—though he technically operated from just over the line in Christian County. A year later, the post office officially moved into Greene County, where it served local families until 1906.

Some of the businesses that kept Mentor buzzing included the Tom Langston general store, a gasoline‑powered mill owned by Tom Bonner, and Gabe McMullin’s blacksmith shop. The hall above the Langston store became a gathering place for lodge meetings and community events, making it a true hub of small‑town life.

Education played a big role in Mentor’s identity too. The first school, called Dodson, was built in 1885 as a simple log structure. Around the turn of the century, it was replaced with a two‑room schoolhouse. One room even served as a high school from 1924 into the mid‑1930s. The elementary school continued on until 1953, when it was consolidated into the Logan‑Rogersville School District.

Photo of the Mentor School undated courtesy of the Kinser Collection

On this day … in 1931, the new two-story red brick Lincoln School building was dedicated.

On that historic day, teachers led students in a parade down Central Street to their new school. When they arrived, the children sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” marking not just the opening of a building, but the beginning of a new chapter for Black education in Springfield.

With support from the Rosenwald Foundation, the new Lincoln School featured 15 rooms, including a gymnasium, mechanical arts shop, domestic science room, and a library—making it one of the best‑equipped schools for African American students in Missouri at the time.

More than a school, Lincoln was a community hub. It hosted scout troops, dances, plays, concerts, talent shows, and even a community library and child‑care center. The building later became Eastwood Junior High, then a vocational center, and today it lives on as Lincoln Hall on the Ozarks Technical Community College campus.

Fun Fact: It wasn’t actually the first Lincoln School. In 1884, Jonathan Fairbanks donated land for a new school for Springfield’s African American community, and that’s where the original Lincoln School building was constructed and named. The second Lincoln School, built in 1931, also stood on his land!

There is a fun note on the back of this picture of Lincoln School!