By Pauline Masson
A 1906 photo of the old Franklin Road crossing two sets of tracks in Dozier – that former mayor and Pacific history guru Jeff Titter shared with a Eureka day tripper – inspired a search for the old road and the community of Dozier .
Franklin Road between Allenton and Pacific once entered Pacific at present day Union Street. A fragment of the road exists behind the East Osage Plaza but does not connect to the old road.
The most visible signs of the former community of Dozier today is an entrance marked Dozier Crossing, 3 miles east of Pacific, opposite the Eureka Fire Protection District Training Center (Route 66). It leads to a paved section of the old road, and is the entrance to a private horse farm, the St. Louis Skeet & Trap Club and Pacific Palisades conservation area.
For a hundred years, after the arrival of the Pacific and Frisco Railroads in 1852, Dozier was a thriving community, centered at the rail crossing, that enjoyed weekly shooting matches, a school house where families gathered for box suppers and entertainment, a patchwork of large wheat fields and a train depot, aptly named Dozier Station.
Far and away the most exciting community events were the annual Threshing Days when Emil Wallach fired up his threshing machine and separated the wheat grain from the shocks for area farmers.
Local resident Bob Myers recalled the event as, “the most fun you could ever have working.” As a small boy Myers helped his Uncle Phil harvest wheat on the Baumgarten farm, which they took to the Wallach threshing operation.
“It would be days,” Myers said. “There would be people from everywhere. You’d throw the wheat shocks into this big machine and it would shoot out the grain on one side and the straw on the other. Off to the side from where the men were working the ladies set up rows and rows of tables filled with more food than you could imagine. And lots of kids. The Wallachs had lots of sons and those boys worked like men. I can tell you it was fun.”
Myers was a frequent visitor at Dozier. His mother Helen Kreienkemp Myers was born on the Kreienkemp farm at Dozier and attended Dozier School. The schoolhouse – old newspapers tell us – was the heart of the community, hosting frequent box suppers, dances, entertainment, auctions, and farm equipment sales.
In 1928 when the State began consolidating school districts, St. Louis County tried to absorb the Dozier district, which sparked a law suit and a special election. Pacific and Dozier voters – and the judge – sided with Pacific, and Dozier was the first school to be combined with the Pacific School becoming Consolidated District 3.
The school was closed in 1931 and students from as far as Fox Creek were transported to Pacific Public School. Later occupied as a residence, Dozier school house burned to the ground in the 1950s.
The train station, which was located north of the school, was the spot where Union troops descended from the train on Oct. 1, 1864 to engage the Confederate forces that attacked Pacific in a raid aimed at the Pacific Railroad.
We were unable to find photos or specific dates for the station. Jim Schwinkendorf, retired BNSF vice president says railroad route books today still identify Dozier as a Flag Stop on Allenton Road (Franklin Road).
He began by looking at Google earth maps and could see traces of the old road swallowed by Mother Nature and occasional signs of it peaking through the trees.
The road, aka Allenton Road, Allenton to Pacific Road, was laid out in 1856 to accommodate the increased traffic between Allenton and Pacific after the arrival of cheap train rides increased business between the two communities. The road followed an old Indian trail, later adapted as the Wagon Road that ran along the Meramec River. It was paved and accepted as a St. Louis County road in 1862. It was so close to the river that it was always a ‘fair weather’ road, which flooded and became impassble after every heavy rain.
Paving the old road next to the river was an agreement between St. Louis County and the Pacific Railroad that allowed the two railroads to lay their tracks on higher ground near the sandstone bluffs.
St. Louis County promised to improve the road, but never did and by the early 1900s newpapers chided the County for failing to make the promised imporvements. But in 1929, miracle of miracles, the Missouri Highway Commission announced that they would build a new concrete road from Allenton to Pacific on high ground above the two sets of tracks. After Route 66 was completed in 1932, the old Franklin Road was surrendered to the elements.
It was the photo that Jeff Titter shared, showing where Franklin Road crossed both sets of tracks of the BNSF and UP railroads in Dozier, that prompted Konopacki’s adventure. His goal was to travel the entire length of old road from Allenton to Pacific.
On a clear sunny morning, Konopacki loaded his cellphone – with video running – GPS and a bottle of chilled electrolytes onto his bicycle to begin his search for a long lost community on the old Franklin Road.
Starting at the Allenton Bridge, he crossed and immediately missed the entry to the old road. This was not going to be easy. After walking his bike for five minutes he reached the Fox Creek Bridge and found the old roadway.
The video he recorded shows him moving along an overgrown trail, a remnant of the Indian trail and the old Allenton Wagon Road that was paved for the Franklin Road in 1856. He passed no ‘trespassing signs’ and worried that he might not be welcome but kept going.
Finally he reached the paved section of Franklin Road that still exists and, eventually, Dozier Crossing. After a rest he rode past the St. Louis Skeet & Trap Club and into the Pacific Palisades, the most beautiful leg of the trip, where large trees line both sides of the roadway with branches intertwining and shading the still paved road.
After the Clear Creek Bridge he ran out of pavement and entered a rough brushy area where he was forced to walk his bike. He tugged his bike up the slope to the railroad tracks, and looking across the river could see Beacon Car Wash. He had reached Pacific.
After spent a couple of hours riding his bike through Pacific, he headed back to Dozier Crossing. He decided to take Route 66 to get back to the section of Franklin Road that he missed at the start.
On his search, he got lost, saw ‘no trespassing signs,’ rode along tilled fields, on banks so steep and through brush so thick he had to walk his bike, and got lots of chigger bites. But he completed his adventure. He hinted that he might take the trip again, but this time he will walk the whole way.
And, he recorded the adventure on YouTube. You can watch it at his link. https://youtu.be/h7Umn3JBNgk
Just to clarify the picture of the road crossing the tracks is not Dozier Crossing. It is where Franklin Rd crossed the tracks just east of town and turned west to connect with Union St.
That clarifies some of my thoughts. Much has changed since the rail roads have built us a nice levee by raising the road bed several times. They eliminated several uncontrolled crossings for safety reasons. I remember in the late 70’s driving an old pick up under the tracks, which had a trestle there , to take my four year old son fishing. It was about where the siding and mainline merge now. That was a short cut instead of going down to Doozie Crossing and coming all the way back west to The Palisades .
I remember using the road under the concrete bridge to go to the Palisades. The concrete bridge is still there just past Red Cedar on the right side, and if I remember correctly, Clear Creek runs through there to the river, and the road is somewhat still there, though I would not try to drive it today.
I always enjoy reading Bob Myers’s recollections. He definitely knows a lot about Pacific history and is a great guy.
My friend Dan used to work at the skeet shooting range by Dozier Crossing in the 1970s. He showed me an old photo of where there was a railroad grade crossing almost directly across from the range’s driveway. Dozier Crossing did not exist at that time. He said they would cross the tracks there to eat lunch at the Red Cedar Inn. But if a train was blocking it, they would drive down Franklin road to the Clear Creek bridge and go under it in order to get to Osage.
I found a 1909 Platbook map photo that includes Dozier, Mo. It shows where the school, depot, and stockyard used to be. I have it as an overlay to Google Earth so I can see where exactly those places used to be.
URL to the full map image and zoom into the Dozier area are below. You will need to copy/paste the URL into the address bar of your browser.
https://www.konopacki.us/misc/006u07_1909_PlatBookOfStLouisCounty – STLGS – FULL.jpg
https://www.konopacki.us/misc/006u07_1909_PlatBookOfStLouisCounty – STLGS – DOZIER MO.jpg
The guys at the skeet and trap club told me they moved there in the 1960s. Not sure what the date of the old photo you mentioned is. Dozier School stood in the clump of trees on the east side of entrance to Vitali Farm, exactly where the crossing is now. The steps are still there. Old newspaper clippings say the station stood a few feet from the schoolhouse. Dan Wallach told me about 20 years ago that he watched the school burn to the ground in the 1950s.
No one that I talked to (in their 80s) could remember ever seeing the station or depot building. My railroad friend, Jim Schwinkendort, retired BNSF vice president (which the Frisco became part of) said he could find nothing referring to a station building there. He said in railroad parlance – back in the day – there could be a railroad stop that did not have a depot building but was still called a station. I’m not giving up on a station building, though. Someone in the area may have an old photo of the station, or the school and surrounding structures.