A History of Dora

History Dora

A History of Dora

by Bess Sweeton Cropper, pioneer Dora merchant

On June 10, 1875, James K.P. Dobbs received a deed from the United States government to the forty acres of land he had homesteaded. That was the beginnings of the town of Dora. On December 7, 1875, Dobbs and his wife, Margaret, sold this forty acres to Nellie Maupin. On May 17, 1878, Nellie Maupin and James P. Maupin sold the forty acres to Anton Fisher. Fisher built the first store in Dora, acquired the post office and named it Dora after his daughter. He built a two-story dwelling and joined it to the log house already there. He operated the store until his death.

About 1900 a roller mill was built for grinding wheat and corn into flour and meal. In the 1930s, E.A. Deupree and his son, D.B., put in the first planer mill in the area. They sold finished lumber for several years. A few years later, a room in the building was used for a canning factory. The farmers raised the tomatoes and picked the berries, and the women worked at the factory. One night in 1939, the planer caught fire. The town was awakened and everyone was up carrying water in buckets trying to put the fire out and keep other buildings from catching fire, but the planer mill burned. That fall a room in the flour mill was used for the canning factory and it continued in operation for a few years.

An Oddfellows Lodge hall was in Dora for many years. The Oddfellows Lodge held its first community picnic on July 25, 1910 or 1912. This became an annual event, one looked forward to by young and old.

In 1917, E.A. Deupree, Dave Wells, and Mart Reary built a hardware store which was operated by Wells until it was sold to John Cropper in 1925. In 1917 Dallas and Sylvia Mayberry moved to Dora and built a clothing and shoe store, which they operated until 1923, then sold it to my husband and me. After a few years of running two stores, one on one side of the street and one on the other, my husband and I decided to move the shoe and clothing store across the street and annex it to our hardware store. This store is still in operation at the same location.

The first garage was built by Cecil Mayberry and Troy Hunt. It was later sold to Bob Maynard and then sold to Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Glass to be used for a theater, and movies were shown once a week.

Dora Update
by Marideth Sisco

Bess Cropper and her store are gone. Dora's school burned one winter night, and has been rebuilt. Dora's post office has its own building just down the road from Roy's Store, and Roy's continues to supply local residents and tourists with the essentials and quite a bit more. The Dora Picnic has not been held for years now, but is still talked about in places far distant from Dora.

Source: Reprinted with additions from A History of Ozark County 1841-1991. Used with permission of the Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society.

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