How many of you have been to Flag? I'm sure many of you go through it often and a number of you live there. Where is Flag? Well, Branson swallowed it up in the late 1920s. Back in the day, Flag covered the area west of Branson, present day Highway 165 from Green Mountain Drive south all the way to present day Table Rock Dam. And Highway 265 from the area of the Chateau north to the Stone County line. Today, the Flag Cemetery, known as the Lewallen Cemetery, is located next to the Branson Craft Mall.
Now that ya'll have an idea of the area that Flag covered, the townsite was up on the south side of Compton Ridge, just above the present-day Welk Theater. My family lived on the east side of Fall Creek on a hillside that offered a fabulous view of Compton Ridge. My great-grandfather Lige Fullerton married Martha Coffelt and settled on the property that would remain in our family until the summer of 1992.
To this day my dad, Cowboy Jim, can tell you his perspective of what the neighborhood was like in the early 1950s and the major change he witnessed while a young boy, as Table Rock Dam was being built to the south. He can name every family homestead out there in an eight- square mile area.
I treasured the stories my Grandpa Wallace shared, growing up on their farm, one of eleven children. He shared several personal memories as his Mother Martha the last mail carrier to run the mail route on horseback from Branson to Flag in the late 1920s. The route took half a day to complete, as she rode west out of Branson on her horse Tom. She was responsible for all deliveries and outgoing mail from farm to farm. Near Possum Holler, she took the Cooper Creek Road, a wagon trail that today the Fall Creek Road closely follows. She crossed Fall Creek near the present day Fall Creek Steak House and proceeded up the hill to the Flag townsite. Her salary was $30 a month.
Grandpa Wallace recalled the fun with their horse Tom, long after he had been retired from carrying the mail in the 1930s. It seemed anytime you rode him from the old home place to Branson, 'ol Tom would suddenly stop beside any mailbox he happened to pass!
I don't really have any details on how or who founded Flag. I do know that the U.S. Postal Service commissioned the office on January 12, 1900, with Flag resident Benjamin C. Pyles as the first postmaster.
Levi Morrill (Uncle Ike) operated the post office at the Forks, which was Notch, in Stone County. Levi's son Oscar talked about a humorous situation involving Flag Postmaster, Ben Pyles. Oscar recalled in a piece he wrote in 1948, "The coming of the post office at Notch had made it a center, with outlying settlements depending on it. Smaller post offices were established further out in the hills. Ben Pyles was the Postmaster at Flag settlement and Lou Gordon carried the mail from Notch to Flag. Lou had no certain trail to follow while transporting mail to these points. All that was required of him was that he reach Flag within a certain time of leaving Notch. He would take his choice of three routes—Compton Ridge, Fall Creek, or Jake's Creek. He was as likely to take one as the other.
One day Lou received a letter in the mail at Notch. It was from the Postal Department, complaining that Lou was not delivering the mail to Flag settlement on time. The complaint had been made to the Postal Department by Ben Pyles, Postmaster at Flag. A few days later another letter arrived...and another...
Lou was almost in tears protesting the complaint. At last he said to Father, "Can't ye do sumpin about this here foolishment? These here danged gov'ment fellars is a-pesterin' me distracted! There ain't a word of truth in it, but I'm plumb juberous as to how to go on this-a-way. I can't find no shorter route to get there, so what am I gonna do?"
"Ba thundas! What!" Father exclaimed. "I'll put a stop to it!"
Then he sat down and wrote a letter to the Postal Department, saying that Ben Pyles the Flag Postmaster neither had a watch or a clock to his name, so how was it possible for him to tell whether Lou was late or not? Should Ben say whether Lou was late if he didn't even know the time of day?
Father went on to say that Lou had never been late at Notch, so he reckoned Ben must have looked wrong at the sun!
The Postal Department never answered the letter, nor did they write more to Lou. We always wondered if they wrote to Ben Pyles, suggesting that he buy a watch..."
Flag would have a school built by J.K. and Charles Ross in 1902, District 61. It was located down the hill from the townsite overlooking the Fausett farm. See the photo.
For twenty-eight years, the Flag Post Office served the residents of the community. Eight postmasters held the position. Here's the complete list with the dates they were commissioned.
Benjamin C. Pyles - Jan. 12, 1900
George W. Wommack - Oct. 14, 1901
Ernest Moance - Dec. 3, 1907
Albert L. Hulsey - Jan. 13, 1913
Iva L. Barton - June 2, 1914
John W. Barton - Sept. 14, 1915
John T. Grinstead - June 20, 1919
John T. Ford - March 4, 1920
Discontinued Feb. 15, 1927
With the closing of the post office in February 1927, Branson took over. Things didn't improve until the early 1950s when the construction of Table Rock Dam began, even though there had been major talk of the Dam since the 1920s.
The Flag Cemetery, later known as the Fall Creek Cemetery, now known as the Lewallen Cemetery sits up at the top of the hill, on the north side of where the Branson Craft Mall is today. The oldest graves date back to 1876; today there are 260 laid to rest there.
So just remember, while driving down Highway 165 on your way to Table Rock Dam, you're in the heart of my family's neighborhood—Flag, Missouri.
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