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From its founding in the early 1830s, Springfield was a rough frontier town where whiskey flowed freely, gunplay and fistfights abounded and gambling thrived. The Civil War not only brought the horror of warfare home to Springfield but also introduced worldly vices like prostitution that were scarcely known in previous years. Yet throughout its history, Springfield has managed to maintain a veneer of respectability not shared by certain other towns of southwest Missouri that were founded as wild, wide-open mining camps, like Joplin and Granby. Join Larry Wood as he digs beneath the surface of Queen City history to expose notorious characters and capers that would make even Joplinites blush.
About the author
Larry Wood is a retired public school teacher and freelance writer specializing in the history of the Ozarks region. His magazine articles have appeared in publications like America's Civil War, Blue and Gray, Gateway Heritage, History Magazine, Kansas Heritage, Missouri Historical Review, Missouri Life, Ozarks Mountaineer, Ozarks Reader, Show Me the Ozarks, True West, and Wild West. His previous books include The Civil War on the Lower Kansas-Missouri Border, The Civil War Story of Bloody Bill Anderson, Other Noted Guerrillas of the Civil War in Missouri, Ozarks Gunfights and Other Notorious Incidents, and two historical novels entitled Call Me Charlie: A Novel of a Quantrill Raider and Showdown at Baxter Springs. Wood and his wife, G.G., live in Joplin, Missouri.
