James Andrew Mears

it was in the Ozarks and the soil was full of rocks. It was subsistence living only.  Claude Mears moved his family down there in the 1940s and stayed about 15 years. Claude raised prize cattle. Tommy Mears (Clalude's son) once said, "All you can raise down there is billy goats and monkeys." She said she isn't sure why James Andrew Mears moved his family to Bates Co. - he moved first. Jasper Mears later moved his family to Amoret in 1918-1919, and it might have been as much as 8 years after James Andrew moved. Jasper moved because he didn't want to be a farmer; he wanted to be a blacksmith and couldn't do that in Douglas Co. as there weren't enouogh people to support a blacksmith shop. He moved his family from Douglas Co. to Bates Co. in a wagon and when he first got to Amoret, he worked on the railroad until he was able to start the blacksmith shop.