Olie Thilking_Bank of Augusta_Paul Kamphoefner_Morris Muschany_Jim Pitman_not a golfer!_Curtis Fulkerson_Rod Fulkerson_Lisa Miller Reed
Hey gentle readers!!! I think we’ve got a good show for you tonight!!!. We’re gonna put our heads and hearts together and resurrect Olie Thilking. We’re gonna investigate or invest in the Bank of Augusta.
Is paulO the grim reaper?_Jim Pitman_Eric Pitman_Tarlton and Anetta_the Mercantile_embalming in the home_egg and hide business_Bank of Augusta_Olie Thilking_Paul Kamphoefner_Tony Hepperman
Wine sampling??_Katie Dieckhaus_Gottfried Duden_Fred and Lucian Dressel_T. V. Munson_Georg and Georg Muench Jr._Paul Hopen_Bill and Mary Ann Sadler_Gabe Miller_Gerard Eisterhold
Submitted by Paul Ovaitt
Gentle readers, on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, Tell It Like It Was celebrates our nation’s 250th birthday with guest speaker, Cathie Schoppenhorst, on our stage. Cathie, a local historian and docent at the Warren County Historical Society, will connect the legendary Daniel Boone with this national celebration.
Layton Holt_Enid Holt Struckhoff_Crosby Brown_Augusta Bottoms Consort_W. C. Holt_Ben Filla
Gentle readers, when I wrote my blacksmith story in April of 2022, I wasn’t able to get my hands on this Washington Missourian article regarding the dismantling of the Augusta smithy. I had heard that it existed, but I couldn’t find it going through newspaperarchive.com.
Henry Longfellow_Darold Rinedollar_ Wilbert Conrad Holt_ Fritz Schmidt_ plowshares_bucket to drink beer_forge welding_ George Miller_Crosby Brown
paulO: Henry, would you kindly start this story off?
Nick & Rupert_Simple Gifts_She did not like me_Game show host_Gold mine of history_Tecklenburg_Top shelf
Gentle readers, I’m showing my age here, but, like Jim Lowe, I had to ask, “What’s behind the Green Door?” On the evening of Saturday, December 20, 2025, I walked through the green door in Femme Osage to see for myself.
Rita Voss Struckhoff_Friends of Historic Augusta_pretty good dancer_broom dance_Virginia Nadler_Augusta Bottoms Consort
Adapted from the original email-letters from paulO - Original date March 22, 2022
Gentle readers…I know there are a few of you…when last I wrote, Aloys was telling us about hunting in the floodplain. In this final installment, we’ll cover baseball, dancing and Aloy’s wife, Rita Voss Struckhoff.
Diane Jasper Kessler_Sherman tank_St. Francis Borgia_Carol Jasper Riegel_International and Deb_Roseland Ballroom
Gentle readers, sometimes things just fall into place. On the Thursday after Veterans Day (Nov. 13, 2025), I stopped at the Augusta Branch Library and noticed that the coffee clutch was still going on, so I asked the ladies what they were chatting about.
Binding-shocking-threshing_first pack of cigarettes_hired lady?_Nona depot_Farmers Elevator Company of Nona_flooding_Chris Arnold_farewell to Jan Bruckdorfer
Grandma Parks_Volodymyr Zelenskyy_Ruth Heman_Washington Creamery_mules could take the heat better_ferry to Washington_landing at Charette Creek
Gentle readers, it was the fall of 1927. Calvin Coolidge was the president; Pius XI was the pope. American dancer, Isadora Duncan, had recently died in a freak strangulation accident on a road in Nice, France. Babe Ruth had already hit the 400th homerun of his career and was soon to hit his 60th homerun of that season, a record that would stand until 1961.
Rev. Doyle_Donna Ruether Hellebusch_Franz Krekel_Giessen Society_Howmet Aerospace_twin spires
Gentle readers, by the time you read this article, the 150th anniversary celebration of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Dutzow will have come and gone. That’s okay; we’re still here, right? And some of you may enjoy a little historic perspective on current events, just like I enjoy my compulsion to write about them.
Never a boy scout_News Tribune_Governor Blair_John Danforth_Dave Klaas_walk in the time of Covid_Paul Kemner_Leeman Duebbert_Benny Moseley_Mary Ruether Werth
Gentle readers, I was never a boy scout. I wanted to be one, but I was a middle child, number 4, in a family of 8 kids. The oldest daughter and son were enrolled in scouts, piano lessons and, if they wanted, little league sports.
Brent Mallinckrodt_degree in journalism?_the professor_Charles Kuralt_Berg’s Crossing_Hubie Mallinckrodt
Adapted from the original email-letters from paulO - Original date January 10, 2022
Hello again, gentle readers. The writing of this interview came from 4 separate conversations with Ellen, and 3 more with Brent Mallinckrodt. During a preliminary call before our hour-long session on 10/22/21, Ellen turned the tables by interviewing me.
Bob Marstall_St. Vincent de Paul Church_Dan Mudd_Tom Marstall_cholera_Washington Monument Co._Blumenhof Winery
Gentle readers, in 1966, a young art student at Webster College was assigned the task of rubbing gravestones. According to the student, Bob Marstall, “Maybe it’s still done. It was a thing, particularly for art students.” https://www.marstallstudio.com/.
Squatter in Augusta_Velora Moseley_Salem Schoolhouse_seized by the feds_Arthur Berg_Augusta Shores_Leslie Meinershagen_flour sacks
Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date January 2, 2022
Gentle readers, my latest interviewee is Ellen Berg Mallinckrodt. Perhaps I wouldn’t even know her were it not for certain idiosyncratic circumstances of my life in Augusta. A few of you may know that I was once a squatter in Augusta.
Ball bustin’ work_Game of Thrones?_first American Viticultural Area_Dee Dann_Ruth Flynn_Paula Klaas_David Hoffmann
Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date October 31, 2021
Hello gentle readers. If today’s work was a musical composition, then this would be my overture, or intro.
Let me ask you a question. Did you ever want to tell a story, but you knew you must proceed with caution? Before I get back to my August 31, 2021 interview with Lucian Dressel, let me tell you about my first one-on-one encounter with Lucian.
A Man In Full_Francis Bacon_2 garages_2 grocery stores_2 taverns_1 blacksmith_you own it, you zone it_Clayton Byers_Tony Kooyumjian
Gentle readers, do you know that author who always wore white suits? …No, not Mark Twain, that other guy…Tom Wolfe. In 1998, his novel, A Man in Full, hit the bookshelves.
Gustav de Laval_Leroy Nadler_no more than 25 flies_Ellen Knoernschild_Kathy Kessler_Bernice Kemner_Ellen Berg Mallinckrodt_Dr. Walter Kamphoefner - Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date October 4, 2021
Carolyn and Bob Kemner - ship-ins - George Muench, Jr. - Clayton Byers – Montelle – Eva Dressel - cream drafts – Bill Baggerman
Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date 9/24/2021
Shhh! The Libraries of Augusta - Lynne’s Little Free Library - Augusta Branch - Alden Scott – previous library on Walnut St. – bookmobiles - Dr. Anita Mallinckrodt - Dr. Mary Robertson - Augusta Shores
Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date 9/9/2021
Hello gentle readers, I’m back, and I hope all of you are well…and curious. Many of you will think you already know all there is to know about our Augusta libraries, but others may learn something new here. And speaking of new, I wish to start with what’s new, and work my way back to the 1800s.
(Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date 7/31/21)
Gentle readers, until now, my written stories for Tell It Like It Was, have stayed on our side of the Missouri River, but today my mind travels to Washington, MO. I want to commemorate my friend, George Bocklage, who passed away February 27, 2021, in Washington.
Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date 7/24/21
Hello again, gentle readers. Once upon a time…but not so long ago…in a not-so-distant land called Matson…lived a royal family…the Koenigs. Okay, I jest, but Koenig is, after all, derived from the German word, könig, which means king or royalty. In 1958, Barbara and Frank Stanley Koenig moved their family to Matson, to live in a land dripping with history. Matson belongs to the history of Native Americans, Spain, France, the United States, the Boone family, the Darst family and the Matson family.