When Lock Springs native Jerry Litton was five years old, he told his mother he wanted to marry Peggy Wickizer.
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The Jerry Litton Memorial in Lock Springs, Missouri.
Peggy was already taken, but when Jerry grew up and got married to Sharon Summerville, Peggy and husband Bob went to their wedding. They were life-long friends with the Litton family, played cards and went on fishing trips together.
For those too young to remember, Jerry Lon Litton was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Missouri. He served two terms in the House. He had just won Missouri’s state Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. He boarded a small plane in order to attend a victory party in Kansas City when it crashed during take-off. He died with his wife Sharon and two children, Linda and Scott, along with pilot Paul Rupp Jr. and the pilot’s son, Paul Rupp III.
“The night it happened we drove by the airport and saw his plane where it had crashed,” Peggy said. “We turned the radio on and heard what had happened. We drove to the hospital in Chillicothe thinking there might be survivors, but heard there weren’t any.”
There is a saying in Lock Springs that if you could think of the most tragic story to tell, the Litton story would be it.
“It was a terrible, terrible tragedy,” said Peggy. “His mother, Mildred Litton, was a good friend and many times I had stayed all night at her house in Chillicothe. I don’t know how she held up through it all.”
Peggy Wickizer, 92
Peggy Wickizer, 92, was born and raised in Chillicothe and graduated from high school there in 1940. She married Bob Wickizer in 1942 and they moved to Lock Springs in 1945.
A young war bride, Peggy though Lock Springs was a really tiny town.
“It’s smaller now; there are no businesses there now,” she said. “Back then there was a grocery store and a garage on the east side of the street, a masonic hall, and my mother ran a café.”
Peggy’s folks moved to town after she did and opened the Lock Springs Café on the east side of main street and ran it for 20-25 years.
Peggy wrote feature articles for the Chillicothe paper for 20 years, starting in 1981 until she moved to Marshall in 2001.
“I wrote dozens and dozens of stories, one every week, and kept copies of them all,” said Peggy. “I was always searching for topics to cover. When I got short of topics, I started in on other towns in Livingston County. I would write about the town’s history and the businesses there. I believe I got most of them covered before I left there.”
Three springs ran out of a hillside at the edge of the Grand River bottom. For hundreds of years Osage Indians made an annual trek across the bottom land to the northern plain to hunt. A favorite camping spot was near these three springs. In 1839 John D. Lock received a government grant of 320 acres which contained the three springs. Early white settlers began identifying the area as “Mr. Lock’s springs,” where women came by wagon to wash wool fleece while making cloth. Hence the town’s name.
Mr. Lock died in 1869. His land was divided and sold to Joseph Offield and Nathaniel Houston. In 1870 a hamlet called “Old Greasy” (because of its location near a particularly treacherous hill road) was moved — all three houses and one small store — to Mr. Houston’s portion of the ground near the springs.
In 1872 Houston had the town of 14 blocks platted. A post office was established in 1871.
Note: — Written by Peggy Wickizer for a 1995 Lock Springs Historical Calendar
For more about Lock Springs visit the Daviess County Historical Society website where the Lock Springs Post Office Centennial booklet, 1871-1971, will be published, along with accumulated pictures and a list of postmasters beginning in 1871.
Her husband Bob was postmaster at Lock Springs. He began in 1947 and retired in 1980.
For Peggy, the famous coffee pot atop the stove pipe was not the most memorable thing about the small post office.
“The building used to be on the east side of the street,” she recalled. “While my husband was post master, he got the hot west sun. It was such a small building, they moved it with a big tractor. My husband’s dad owned a lot on the west side of the street. They pulled it over there because it was shady.”
The move of the Methodist Church topped even the move of the post office.
“The Methodist Church was moved on skids from the southeast corner across the street to the northwest corner, with steeple and everything,” said Peggy. “That was the most excitement the town ever had.”
The church was moved to the place where a two-story school building used to sit. The school had a basement. The church was moved over the foundation so it would have room for a fellowship hall. Peggy was treasurer of the Methodist Church for 45 years and also served as the janitor.
Peggy doesn’t remember that old school house. It either burned or was torn down before she moved to town. But the present brick school building was built in 1940. Bob’s class was the first to graduate from the new high school.
When Bob retired as postmaster, Peggy took over and was acting post master for a couple of years. When she resigned, the post office was made a contract office.
The Lock Springs Post Office celebrated its centennial in 1971.
“That was the biggest thing that happened in the whole town,” Peggy said. “They had a parade and Jerry Litton spoke downtown.”
To learn more about historic Lock Springs and see submitted photos of days gone by,
view our gallery HERE.
Bob died in 1994. Peggy stayed on the farm until the yard got too big to mow. She moved to Marshall to be near her daughter and son-in-law, Becky and Paul Porter, in 2001.
She does get back to Lock Springs once and a while as her husband and folks are buried in the Lock Springs Cemetery. She keeps in touch about every day with Vic and Rosy Litton. Vic, a cousin to Jerry Litton, is one of the few native-born members still living in the Lock Springs community.
“I give them a call so I know what’s going on,” said Peggy. “There isn’t much going on.”
Peggy said her best memories of Lock Springs are the people.
“Lock Springs is a very close-knit community,” she said. “The town has changed, but the people haven’t changed.”