Dora, Missouri
Dora is an unincorporated community in northeastern Ozark County, Missouri. A school, post office, a couple of businesses, five churches and several homes are located there. The Dora Reorganized (R-3) School District provides an education for approximately 360 students in grades 1-12. The Dora Falcons basketball team competes with other single-A schools in Ozark, Douglas, Wright and Howell counties of SW Missouri. Dora is located at the junction of Route 181 and Highway CC about thirty miles northeast of Gainesville.
Coordinates: 36°46′37″N 92°13′03″W / 36.77694°N 92.21750°W
Local History
On June 10, 1875, James K.P. Dobbs received a deed from the United States government to the 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land he had homesteaded. That was the beginnings of the town of Dora. On December 7, 1875, Dobbs and his wife, Margaret, sold this 40 acres (160,000 m2) to Nellie Maupin. On May 17, 1878, Nellie Maupin and James P. Maupin sold the 40 acres (160,000 m2) to Anton Fisher. Fisher built the first store in Dora, acquired the post office and named it Dora after his daughter. He built a two-story dwelling and joined it to the log house already there. He operated the store until his death.
About 1900 a roller mill was built for grinding wheat and corn into flour and meal. In the 1930s, E.A. Deupree and his son, D.B., put in the first planer mill in the area. They sold finished lumber for several years. A few years later, a room in the building was used for a canning factory. The farmers raised the tomatoes and picked the berries, and the women worked at the factory. One night in 1939, the planer caught fire. The town was awakened and everyone was up carrying water in buckets trying to put the fire out and keep other buildings from catching fire, but the planer mill burned. That fall a room in the flour mill was used for the canning factory and it continued in operation for a few years.
An Oddfellows Lodge hall was in Dora for many years. The Oddfellows Lodge held its first community picnic on July 25, 1910 or 1912. This became an annual event now known simply as the Dora Picnic.
In 1917, E.A. Deupree, Dave Wells, and Mart Reary built a hardware store which was operated by Wells until it was sold to John Cropper in 1925. In 1917 Dallas and Sylvia Mayberry moved to Dora and built a clothing and shoe store, which they operated until 1923.
The first garage was built by Cecil Mayberry and Troy Hunt. It was later sold to Bob Maynard and then sold to Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Glass to be used for a theater, and movies were shown once a week.
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