The Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) at Missouri State University recently collaborated with the Christian County Museum to develop a new exhibit featuring the Mullins-Taylor farm in Christian County.
The exhibit will debut Saturday, April 20 from 3-5 p.m. at the museum, which is part of the Christian County Historical Society.
The museum is located at 100 E. Elm St., Ozark, Missouri.
CAR director to speak at exhibit opening
The director of CAR, Kevin Cupka Head, will speak at the exhibit’s opening April 20.
Cupka Head will outline the research methods and findings from CAR’s initial examination of the Mullins-Taylor farmstead before it was demolished by its current owner, James River Church, in Sept. 2022.
He first learned about the site in May 2022 when he received an email from P.J. Logan.
According to Cupka Head, Logan who—along with the late Keith Kissee—conducted much of the preliminary archival and historical research about the site, then compiled an Eligibility Assessment (EA) report.
Then in August 2022, CAR then built on this initial research and compiled an addendum of the site’s archaeological, historical and cultural value.
The team presented their findings to James River Church representatives, who granted permission to conduct a preliminary examination but denied permission to excavate the site.
Reports confirmed site worthy of further exploration
After obtaining permission from James River Church officials, Cupka Head and research archaeologist Michaela Conway visited the site on July 29, 2022.
They encountered a two-story farmhouse, agricultural barns and a small brick building that they estimated once housed enslaved persons.
“When we first visited the site, I found the buildings to be in rather excellent shape given their age, especially the Taylor house,” Cupka Head noted.
The team mapped and photographed the architectural landscape and assessed the site’s integrity and potential for subsurface archaeological deposits, he said.
“Our methods were rather limited, as we were not permitted to conduct any excavations,” Cupka Head explained. “We used GPS to map the buildings, structures and any other obvious surface features on the property and photographed each building and the architectural landscape.”
Cupka Head and Conway took several interior photographs of the buildings as well. They also examined a garden plot on the site and were excited by what they found.
“[The garden] yielded several 19th-century artifacts—for example, fragments of ceramic dishes, glass containers, square nails, etc.,” Cupka Head said.
Several of the items, such as glass bottle fragments, ceramic tableware, buttons, part of a porcelain doll and even a fragment of a 78 rpm phonograph disc, all dated from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
But the team also found artifacts dating from the pre-Civil War era.
“A few earlier artifacts were encountered that could date to the antebellum occupation of the site, including square nails, mold-blown bottle glass and a glass bead,” Cupka Head said.
“This tiny glass bead may be the most compelling artifact, as it is consistent with a bead type that is frequently found in relatively high proportions at sites associated with enslaved persons throughout the South,” he added.
Farm connected to region’s African American community
The farmstead was located on a parcel of land first patented by Thomas Horn and registered at the Springfield Land Office posthumously in 1844, according to CAR’s report.
The site was next owned by G.W. Taylor and his heirs for over 150 years before being purchased by James River Church. The farm was listed as a historic Missouri Centennial Farm in 1976.
The CAR report described how in 1850 a Joseph Miller was living on the land. One enslaved person was listed as living on the property as well.
But even after the American Civil War ended, the team noted that Black Americans were still present on and around the farm site.
“The association of the farmstead with the post-war African American community of Christian County should be further explored,” the CAR team recommended in their report.
“It is important to note that although the institution of slavery was formerly abolished after the Civil War, many formerly enslaved African Americans remained in their respective communities, often working as hired hands and servants on the farms of white landowners,” the report continued.
The team noted that several African American households were listed as tenants of Taylor’s immediate neighbors in the 1870s and 1880s.
“The Mullins-Taylor farmstead straddles and entangles multiple historical worlds, including the emergence of Reconstruction Era tenant plantation culture from the chattel slavery of the antebellum Upland South, and the progressive agrarianism of post-bellum Midwest” the report observed.
Site owners declined further preservation
Beyond their first permission to conduct a preliminary review, representatives from James River Church did not extend any additional permission or access to the CAR team and demolished all of the site’s buildings in Sept. 2022.
Cupka Head said he had hoped to convince the church to support a full research effort at the site.
“As an archaeologist, I was just as interested in what might be preserved beneath the ground,” he added. “I suspected that the property could make an excellent site for a field school, given the archaeological potential, historic context and vicinity to our campus in Springfield.”
“The church was quite gracious in allowing us access to the site and in agreeing to donate recovered artifacts to the museum,” he added.
Cupka Head remains optimistic, however.
“There is still the potential for important archaeological information to be preserved beneath the pavement and manicured landscape at the site today,” he observed.
Exhibit celebrates Ozarks history and culture
Cupka Head emphasized the historical and cultural significance of the upcoming exhibit.
“The objects and stories collected for this exhibit are a compelling record of the old Ozarks as a dynamic and vibrant cultural landscape,” he said. “There is also an important reminder here of the many Black pioneers whose vital contributions to the history of the region have been erased from the established heritage discourse.”
Cupka Head and Conway assisted in the initial selection of materials for the exhibit, but the majority of its design and implementation was completed by Shannon Mawhiney of the Christian County Museum and Tory Pegram of the Christian County Public Library.
“Without further work, it’s impossible to know what additional information might remain buried at the site,” Cupka Head explained. “A more systematic, thoroughly documented disassembly would likely have yielded more insight into the timing and thinking behind individual construction and modification episodes and likely allowed for the recovery of additional objects of interest to the museum.”
Still, emerging from the site “is a compelling story of persistence against the backdrop of the most transformative periods in American history,” Cupka Head said. “And there is a story of how new ideas entangle with new practices to reshape the physical world around us.”
“I hope,” Cupka Head continued, “this exhibit serves to inspire Ozarkers to take an active role in identifying, appreciating and protecting our irreplaceable cultural resources.”
The Christian County Museum is located at 100 E. Elm, Ozark, Missouri. Hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
RSVPs are encouraged but not required to attend. To RSVP or for more information, contact the Christian County Historical Society and Museum at christiancohistorical@gmail.com.
Photos provided by Kevin Cupka Head.
Updated 17 April 2024.