Karen Schweighauser stands next to the 1960 Map Project display that is in the Peak Performance window. The display shows photographs of the businesses on the north side of square and a list of businesses that the 1960 Map Project committee — of which Schweighauser is a member — has identified. Other displays of the map project will be set up soon at businesses on the south, east and west side of the square. In addition, a draft of the 1960 map will be on display at the Fayette Senior Center nexBy Mike Mueller
1960 Fayette Map Coordinator

The news is nearly all good. I made a pitch last week at a Fayette City Council meeting for some money for the map. Norma Mounter and Karen Schweighauser kindly came along. The City Council approved $250. We were speechless, as we had adjusted our hopes down to $100. In the past week, we have also received donations from Carlyle Foley, Gardell and Karen Powell, Exchange Bank, and Bill and Martha Skinner. We are nearly to $3,000.

We still need an estimated $2,000. I had hoped we could cover all expenses with $4,000 to $4,500. However, in addition to the cost of the art-map and copyright fees, we will produce framed write-ups to hang at the sides. There’s also the cost of poster-size copies and postage to send to donors not residing in Fayette. A very realistic estimate of the final cost is $5,000. Again, we do not expect donations from seniors living on Social Security or from working people trying to make ends meet. Please send a donation if you can.

I have thought to group donations. Those donating $200-$250 would be in the Fayette 1960 Club. There are five so far. Next, there’s the $100-$150 group - the Courthouse 100 Club, as I think of it. There are sixteen in that group at present. Those donating $50 might form the Twin Bridges 50 MPH Club (was that the speed drivers tried to reach between the twin bridges in 1960?). Currently, one contributor is burning rubber on that stretch. Everyone else is in “The Kiss and a Hug on the Square from Mike Mueller Club.” There are no members yet, but it’s just been announced. Give it time.

Next, Mary Ann Riggs has produced the first full-size draft of the map (partially labeled at present). She displayed it at our Feb. 5 meeting at which a remarkable 15 people were present. The full-size draft is impressive and required many hours of work. Volunteers are terribly underpaid. Those present at the meeting included Bill and Martha Skinner, Jimmy Diggs (from Fort Worth, Texas), Al Lynch, Lealure Tindall, Pansy Kean, Ron McMillian, Don and Gail Mounter, Norma and Karen Schweighauser, and, of course, Joan Baysinger, Mary Ann Riggs, and Bill Pruitt.

Peggy Guest called me and we hammered out various details; hopefully, the map committee will have sufficient materials to hand over to Peggy by early March, when we would sign the contract. Some critical material will be handed over next week, including a CD with 24 images for Peggy to draw upon for art cameos. Mary Ann will provide additional photographs (for example, the old Givens Barn between Wilhoits and Tick Ridge Road). We are in the process of identifying 12 buildings of greatest interest for the art. The most likely art cameos would depict Daly School, Lincoln School, a Central College building, the observatory and pool at the park, the Fayette Library, the Givens Barn, the Courthouse, the Grand Theater, Lee Hospital, Hotel Howard, and a couple of churches. A secondary list — backup possibilities — includes Mac’s, Wilhoit’s, the Silver Bell Motel, the Lagoon, the Fairgrounds, the Skelly Station, a water tower, and the Grain Elevator.

We have heard that the oldest church in Fayette is an African-American church in the southern part of town. Could someone tell us more about that? Does anyone have any photos that show it in 1960?

Peggy called me and explained we would need a much bigger map to put everything on it that I have been proposing. Yes, perhaps I have raised expectations too high. My visions do get grandiose. So let’s come down to earth. Our community was rich in businesses in 1960, and there are many notable landmarks (notable in our minds, anyway) and much might be illustrated. But not everything can get on an 8-foot by 4-foot map.

Of note, Mary Ann has prepared an alphabetical list of business, churches, etc., identified to date. There are over 200 listings. That list will grow. Thus, we need a List A and a List B. List A is what we would most like to see on the map. List B is everything else, identified on the map if there is room. We might find a way to accommodate some businesses and landmarks using the framed write-ups that flank the map.

Thus, the map will have to be a little simpler than we originally planned. It will still be a rich portrait of 1960 Fayette. We will collect as many details as we can — provide those and our best thinking and art source materials to Peggy — and it will then be in her capable hands to depict what is near and dear to so many hearts. I am confident it will turn out fine and we will have left something important to posterity.

Gardell (Karen Sweighauser’s brother) and Karen (who I remember as a Gose) sent many memories with their check. Gardell wrote about the Powell Brothers truck line, gas station, weigh scales, and office, where Casey’s is currently located. “Powell Bros.” — that would be Russell and Madison — was painted on all their trucks. In Gardell's words, they “also had a hog barn located out of town on the corner below the county sheds (now known as the Sale Barn, I believe). They used to buy hogs from the local farmers and bring them in to the barn and weigh them and pay so much per pound.” The very busy brothers shipped the hogs in trailers to a St. Louis packing company.

“I distinctly remember,” Gardell wrote, “saying to myself on one really hot afternoon while working with the hogs and trying to sort and load them into and out of the trucks (especially the big ‘possum belly’ trailers — we loaded 208 head of hogs on one trailer one time, as I recall) that there surely was an easier way of making a living than this. It was really hard work and our dads and hired hands Earnest Gaines and Buster Burton among others did that for many years in the Fayette area (before, during and after the 1960s).”

Gardell and his cousin Gary worked on Saturdays for several summers at the gas station, truck line, and weigh station during their earlier years in high school. “Windshields were always washed,” Gardell wrote, “and any other services performed such as checking oil, transmission, water levels or tire pressure on anyone’s vehicle that stopped for service — for free. Derby and Bowser gasoline and MFA oil (and probably other names as well) were sold at the station for many years.”

As for Karen, and I hope I don’t embarrass her too much, she was the Marie Osmond of Fayette High School. What a beauty. There was a Hix girl who was our Doris Day.

Lastly, I want to turn to a difficult issue: the effort to put Segregation Era Fayette on the map. Fortunately, we have had some excellent help from Marsha Broadus, Lealure Tindall, and a few other kind ladies and gentlemen. Several businesses, churches and other places have been identified.

That said, I was naive — too simple in my thinking — in what I thought we could show on the map. Picturing segregation and the self-sufficiency that produced separate businesses and places of worship in the African-American parts of town is not easy. Piped water and the city sewage system did not extend to many of the homes; there were public taps. Gravel roads waited decades for asphalt. When I worked at the Grand Theater, African-Americans sat in the balcony.

I have been told stories that opened my eyes. Some are heartbreaking. How could children of two races lead such vastly different lives in a small town?

How could I have been so unaware? How could I think that the passing of 50-60 years would be enough for all of us to look back and picture the old days? Fortunately, we are a long way, in some respects, from 1960.

An African-American man helped me understand (in part, anyway) the resistance I sometimes met in trying to picture Segregation Era Fayette. I did not know if any African-Americans would come to our meetings. I was so happy to see Lealure Tindall at the Feb. 5 meeting that I wanted to give her a hug, but I thought that might scare her off. The issues are deeper and older and more complex than I can grapple with. I just want a map that embraces all of us.

As you know, February is Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month. There is a large poster in the CMU Student & Community Center that says "Black History: Rooted In The Past - Growing Toward The Future." We have details about some of that past as experienced in Fayette. More are welcome. Another question: Was there an African-American grocery store or stores? Please help. Feel free to write or email. My address is P.O. Box 269, Fayette, Mo. 65248. And the next meeting is March 11, 1:30 p.m., at the Keller Building Library.