"I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia."
- Woody Allen
I started out in undergrad as a history major. I ended up changing to something I thought was more economically promising. Sometimes I wish I'd have stayed the course but that's not how the story was written, so c'est la vie. But, I do enjoy the subject.
We moved back to Springfield, MO in 2022 where I went to Southwest Missouri State in the 80s. It's been a pleasure to reconnect with old friends and also delve into the history of the region. One of my buddy's from back in the day is Clayton Moore of Nixa, just south of Springfield. Clayton's family goes back many generations in the area with numerous local connections. Clayton, like me, likes some history and a good yarn. We have breakfast together every little bit and share some stories. One morning he got to telling me about this bad dude named Alf Bolin who was a notorious murderous outlaw here in the Ozarks during the Civil War. The story went that Bolin and his band reigned terror down on the civilians of southwest Missouri, killing and robbing indiscriminately. He was such a menace that the Federals put a bounty on his head, $4,000 ($80,000 today), dead or alive. He was eventually killed in the backwoods and in order to collect the reward, his head was brought to Ozark, MO for verification. There it was stuck on a stake in the town square so the people could know that the vicious thug was no more. Clayton told me that his family lore held that his grandmother generations back was witness to the gruesome display.
I've seen it referenced that for civilians during the Civil War, Missouri was the most dangerous place to be. Being a border state, there was no clear allegiance to either side in the conflict and guerrilla fighters were everywhere terrorizing the populace. This was especially true in the Western part of the state along the Missouri-Kansas border.
Clayton's story about the murderer Bolin interested me so I did a little research. Sure enough, he was indeed a bad, bad man. It was such a good tale I wanted to tell it in a song. Who doesn't love a good killin' song? If I've done my job you should know the story of Alf Bolin by tune's end. Thanks, Clayton!
RP
Birthdays in Music: Weird Al Yankovic (1959)
Name That Movie: “You don't look like anybody.”