Local donors make good on promises, launching Historium's fund-raising drive

Fund-raising for the new Ozark County Historium has begun, and three Ozark County natives have made good on their early pledges of support, said Historium president Janet Taber.  

“At our Feb. 11 meeting, when the Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society voted to buy the McDonald building, Steve Morrison and Benton Breeding spoke up and said they would be our first contributors, and we’re very grateful – and delighted – that both of these men have made good on their promise with very generous donations to our effort,” Janet said.

 A third donor, who asked to remain anonymous, has also contributed a generous financial gift, she said. All three contributors asked that the amounts of their gifts not be revealed, “but I can assure you, these are all very generous gifts,” Janet said.

Benton Breeding’s gift is in honor of his wife, the late Genelle McDonald Breeding, daughter of the store’s founders, the late Alva and Delphia Martin McDonald. In a previous account of the store’s history in the Ozark County Times, the McDonalds’ only surviving daughter, Mary Ruth McDonald Landers of Raymore, shared  stories about how the McDonalds’ children grew up playing in the store. Genelle sometimes set up a lemonade stand there to tempt customers with refreshments as they shopped, Mary Ruth said.

Later, Genelle would teach in Ozark County schools for 35 years, from 1947 until her retirement in 1983, taking brief time off when the Breedings’ two children, Mike and Faunlee, were born.

 “I’m glad this is being done, preserving this building and the county’s history,” said Breeding, a retired teacher and superintendent of Gainesville schools. “I think it’s a good thing.”

 Steve Morrison and his wife Carolyn also designated their gift as a memorial, honoring Steve’s parents, the late Afton and Earlene Morrison, as well as Steve’s ancestors, who settled in Ozark County in the 1800s.

The Morrisons spent most of their married life in Kansas City, where Steve worked for Hallmark, and then in Kansas, where he operated an oil-field service business with this brother, Dave Morrison. The brothers sold the business in the early 1980s, and later both moved back home to their native Ozark County to be closer to their families here.

 “Steve was especially proud of his mother and her lifetime of work as a teacher, all the influence she had on so many people in Ozark County over the years,” Carolyn said. “Earlene was always into family history. I wish we could have gotten more of that history from her, but you don’t think of that when you’re young. We’re glad the Historium is going to help save our county’s history, and so many family histories, so others can learn about it and enjoy it before it’s lost forever.”

One of the Historium’s goals is to make audio and video recordings of Ozark Countians as they recount the area’s early days, said Historium board member John Ault. “We’re already working to set up a project with students to do some of the interviewing and recording.”

Details of the Historium-school partnership will be shared in an upcoming issue of the Ozark County Times. The two groups hope to have a video presentation ready to show in the Historium during Hootin an Hollarin in September, said Ault, who, like Breeding, is a retired superintendent of the Gainesville schools.

Ault and his wife Susan, who serves as secretary of the Historium board, have already begun much of the physical work of renovating the McDonald building with the help of their grandson, Cody Swearingen, and other friends, including Gainesville teacher Mike Harlin.

“Thanks to that hard work, and Benton’s and Steve’s generous gifts, as well as the gift from our anonymous donor, we’re off to a great start, and we can get going on the renovation work, ” said Janet Taber.

The Historium is sponsored by OCGHS and the Ruby Robins Trust for the Preservation of the Local History. All OCGHS members are automatically members of the Historium, Janet said. The Historium’s governing board, which also includes Mike Sparks, Sue Ann Jones and Tom Cline, is now asking others who love Ozark County history to help fund some of the group’s renovation-wish-list items.

 “It’s a lot to ask, but our dream is that some generous person will come along and say, ‘I’ll pay off your $35,000 mortgage,’ or, ‘I’ll give you $25,000 to set up the genealogy library in memory of my family,’ or ‘I’ll give you $12,000 to put on the new roof,’” said board member Mike Sparks, whose wife, Mary Ruth Luna Sparks, edits the popular OCGHS newsletter.

 “But we’re also grateful to those who give us smaller gifts, anything at all, to help us do things like pay the light bill and fill the propane tank,” he said.

The Historium is a member of the Ozark County Community Foundation and its parent organization, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, so all gifts are tax-deductible, Janet said.

“All of us are new to fund-raising, but we’ve already learned that there are some very innovative ways to give charitable gifts,” she said.

“For instance, one of our gifts came in the form of stock that our anonymous donor transferred to us through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks,” she said. “The stock had increased in value, and by transferring it to us directly, the donor received a tax deduction for the full value instead of selling it and having to pay capital gains on the increase.”

Another donor wanted to transfer stock that had decreased in value, but learned that instead of transferring the stock directly to the Historium, it would be more beneficial to him to sell it, creating a loss for tax purposes, and then donating the proceeds to the Historium, gaining a tax deduction for the full amount.

“It’s a double benefit,” said OCGHS program chairman John Harlin, retired president of Century Bank of the Ozarks. The donor is one of CBO’s banking clients, and the bank helped him connect with a financial-advisory service that could help him process the sale of the stock, Harlin said.

For more information about tax-deductible gifts to the Historium, contact any board member. Checks to the Ozark County Historium, Inc., can be mailed to P.O. Box 4, Gainesville, MO 65655.

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