Pioneer photographer of the Ozarks
Ozark Journal
by Uriel B. Stokes (1893-1984)
The Fields of Boaz
Intro
Uriel Stokes, my uncle, was the step grandson of Calvin Davis. Instead of a camera he used the written word to paint images of the Ozarks and the people who lived among its rolling hills. It seems appropriate that the person who first opened the door to his life of writing was Calvin Davis.
"My appetite for reading was never satisfied. I read in my spare time and then thought about what I had read when I was working in the fields. It made the corn rows seem shorter and the toughest sprout could be grubbed out a little easier.
"Then came the great day in my life. It was brought about by my step grandfather who was an itinerant photographer. He had met the editor of the Nixa News, Mr. Stanton, and introduced me to him. It mattered not to me that the Nixa News was a small paper in a country village, that it was published upstairs over a store, or that the editor did most all the work of gathering news and ads and then editing them; then printing the paper and putting it in the mails. What did matter to me was that I had met an editor and had mustered up enough courage to ask him if I might write up the news each week from my neighborhood. Of course he said, 'Yes.' What overworked country editor would not? Mr. Stanton was a young man, a kind man, and it seemed to me a very great man."
That was from a series of five essays , The Fields of Boaz, which according to his daughter Rosemary he wrote was he was about 75 or 80 years old. He died in 1984 at the age of 91. He wrote about the people who lived and worked in hills of the Ozarks, about his love of writing, and about the death of his mother when he was only 10. And woven throughout the essays like a thread is the Wilderness Road.
"A few miles to the east of Boaz was the old Wilderness Road leading from Springfield to Harrison, Arkansas. Over these roads came the people of the hills hauling cord wood and a few farm chickens and eggs to buy store clothes and farm implements in Springfield.
"Over these roads my father hauled dry goods, groceries and hardware for the general merchandise store in Boaz. While in town, the Arkansas Wagon Yard was his headquarters."
The Wilderness Road was obviously an integral part of the commerce and life blood of southwest Missouri at that time. And both commerce and life blood flow more smoothly with music.
"Up and down the old Wilderness Road, from Springfield down into Arkansas and back and forth on rougher dirt roads, Uncle Jim covered that portion of the Ozark country for a music house in Springfield. The firm did well when they selected a man from the hill country to solicit business in the rural districts of the Ozarks."
Uriel Stokes writes about "Uncle Jim" Faris in his essay called The Fiddler.
"It was Uncle Jim and his family who introduced more and better music into our little country church. It was an adventure for Uncle Jim. Some folks were against a fiddle any time and having one in church or Sunday School was not even mentioned. They 'lowed' the devil was in a fiddle and 'no good could come out of one no how.' But Uncle Jim's fiddle had never known a drunken dance. Sometimes he even called it a violin. So it was with faith, hope and charity that they added the music of the violin and coronet to that of the little organ of the church. Later came a piano."
In 1918 after moving to Indiana with his bride Rose, Uriel Stokes fell victim to the influenza epidemic of that year. He was bedridden for several months and advised by his doctor to move to a drier climate or face a future of serious medical problems. So his wife's parents sold their house and they all picked up moved to the mile high city Denver, Colorado. There he began a career with the Postal Service, raised his daughter and continued with his love of reading and writing. A bedtime story that he wrote for his daughter was published. He sold greeting card verses for $1 each and sold articles to several national magazines.
Calvin Davis and Uriel Stokes were both artists in their own way. Together they painted a picture of an earlier time, a simpler time, a gentler time in the rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks. In the words of Uriel Stokes, "A picture of this country is more than a geographical statement of its location, altitude and size. It's more than a long list of its resources. To get a true picture we must sometimes leave the broad highways for the gentle country that lies along rough, narrow roads and even beyond any roads."