Hometown Matters

By Pauline Masson –  The Missouri Pacific (MoPac) commuter train, the Pacific Local, ran between Pacific and Union Station in downtown St.Louis for 100 years. At its height seven coaches carried 1,000 riders on its daily run. By 1961 the family car, Route 66 and the new Interstate 44 had reduced the number of rail commuters to 250, not enough to cover the cost to operate the train. It is uncertain when the daily commuter train, known locally as the … Continue reading “Forgotten Pacific / Commuter Rail Service to St. Louis Ended Sixty-Three Years Ago This Month”

By Pauline Masson – A twenty-foot tall lighted inflatable witch towers over a jungle of scary companions in Dan McClain’s yard at South Payne Street and Arbor Lane. It is Mr. McClain’s latest symbol of Halloween – his personal passion for celebrating what he thinks is the favorite dress-up holiday for children of all ages.  Halloween, a holiday celebrated around the world each year, will occur on Thursday, October 31. Sx times a year a hodgepodge of lighted inflatable characters … Continue reading “Twenty Foot Tall Witch Joins Bats, Black Cats & Creeping Spiders In Dan McClain’s Halloween Show”

By Pauline Masson – A small-by-any-measure wood building that now stands near the front of the Engelhart Farm flower/pumpkin/produce stand on West Osage was once the busiest structure in Pacific. After two separate lifetimes, it was set to be demolished recently when history buff Harry Engelhart thought it was worth saving. “Historic means old and worth remembering,” Mr. Engelhart said. “I just couldn’t see it demolished. It was part of the history of the town.” So here is the story. … Continue reading “Tiny 150-Year-Old Building that Was Once the Hub of City Life in Pacific Rescued From Demolition”

By Pauline Masson –  I am entering my 27th month of the fatigue syndrome associated  COVID, aka Long COVID. Except for a rare car ride to Liberty Field with my walker for a short trek on the driveway –  and an occasional car ride from my driveway to the driveway next door at the school district office to attend a Safety Net meeting – I have been largely hibernating at home. As an unreconstructed workaholic, my greatest discomfort is guilt … Continue reading “The Worst October, 1946, Pacific Faced An Epidemic More Frightening than COVID”

By Pauline Masson – Parrett’s Restaurant, with its steeply pitched roof and row of awning adorned windows stood on Osage at Fifth Street for more than thirty years. In the early years gasoline pumps stood on the paved front drive. Parking was in the rear. The restaurant opened one year after the Pacific stretch of Route 66 opened and three years before the famous road was paved all the way to California. Known today as the I-44 business loop, Pacific’s … Continue reading “Parrett’s Restaurant, One of Fifteen Eateries On Our Leg of Rt 66 Also Charmed the Home Crowd”

By Pauline Masson – “I don’t know if anybody realizes what a big part Pacific played in the war (WWII) effort,” the late Ed Brundick said in an oral history interview for the 1993 Pacific Pride Day celebration when he was 86 years old.  Mr. Brundick, retired at the time, had been an engineer with St. Louis Material and Supply Company that dredged gravel from the Meramec River. A thirty-year career there enabled him to send his three children to … Continue reading “How Pacific’s Sand and Gravel Helped Pave the Entry to the Nuclear Age “

__________________________________________________________________ By Pauline Masson In the last week of September 1864 Pacific resident William J. Stuhlman faced a serious decision. The Civil War was in its fourth year. Sherman and soldiers from the Pacific area were fighting in Georgia. Most people thought the war in the west was over. But in North Arkansas there was one holdout. Confederate General and former Missouri Governor Sterling Price entered Missouri from Northeast Arkansas, with the contingent of 12,000 cavalry troops and 14 cannons. … Continue reading “Heroes a Plenty – He Gave Up a Small Fortune to Prevent Pacific Property from Damage and Protect Women From a Ravaging Horde “

By Pauline Masson –  When a Catawissa Women’s Group first met in 1921, Catawissa was a railroad boom town, St. Patrick’s Rock Church was still an active parish and Frisco Railroad crews serviced a dozen passenger and freight trains a day that stopped at the bustling hamlet’s railroad depot. Today the town of Catawissa is a remnant of its former self, but descendants of the 1921 ladies’ group, now calling themselves ‘Catawissa Ladies,’ along with more recent immigrants continue to … Continue reading “A Catawissa Group That Saw Women As the Heart of Rural Life Is Still Active After 102 Years”

By Pauline Masson – He may be best remembered for being critically wounded when he was shot as he thwarted a burglary in progress, but in an era of a new interstate highway, new personal behavior laws, recurring hitchhikers, and a flurry of stray dog bites, he brought a heart warming touch to law enforcement. Peter H. “Pete” Albertson, a former Pacific Railroad foreman and popular Boy Scout leader, was elected Pacific town marshal, aka police chief, in April 1960. … Continue reading “Old News Clippings Offer Glimpses of Popular Police Chief Pete Albertson “

By Pauline Masson – Photos from Mary Helen Beren Collection The late Neil Brennan chastised me more than once for writing so much about the vast Dailey clan, and the McHughs, but never mentioning James J. Dailey, who, Neil said, was one of the greatest men in Pacific’s history. Neil remembered James Dailey as a man of generosity and curiosity immeasurable even for a man of his wealth. “He helped a lot of families during the depression, a lot of … Continue reading “James J. Dailey – Landmark Building Founder, Philanthropist and Fur Trader”