About

With the establishment of the first US Land Office in Springfield in 1835 came a migration of rugged pioneer families into the virgin Ozark wilderness of Southwest Missouri.

Malinda Fortner was one of these early pioneers. Little is known of her past or why she chose the demanding life of a homesteader. The original 120 acre tract of land on which she established her claim in 1867 was the beginning for a crossroads settlement along the West Bank of Turkey Creek in the early 1880's.

Around the turn of the century, Rueben Kirkham opened a general store and applied to the Post Office Department for permission to establish a Post Office suggesting the name HOLLISTER after the birth place of his daughter in Hollister, California. Permission was granted and in 1904 the name of the Ozarks settlement was established.