The story of Fruitville Farms serves as a framework for learning from primary documents in the classroom. Students will explore how one man, Col. Jay Torrey, attempted to develop a planned community in the early 20th century just outside West Plains, MO. Col. Torrey is a fascinating and colorful figure in Missouri and United States history.

In the early 1900's, he owned ten thousand acres of land in Howell County, Missouri, and decided to build a planned community, named Fruitville. The plans were based on the European model, where people would live in town and and raise crops or livestock on nearby small farms outside of the town. Colonel Torrey had big plans for Fruitville, and he did sell some lots, but the planned community never actually thrived.

The primary sources used here come from Torrey's personal scrapbook. Students use these historical artifacts to see the economic opportunities available to rural residents of southern Missouri in the early 1900s. Download the complete lesson plan suitable for 4th grade Missouri history studies.

This material includes the following historical documents, reproduced for the Web:

• A Fruitville Farm brochure  (11 pages)
• Map of Fruitville
• Map of Torreytown
• Warranty deed for farms/town lots
• Postcard to show interest in receiving brochure
• Cattle auction advertising card
• “Mammoth Jack” donkey advertisement
• Newspaper clipping on goats sheared at Fruitville
• Paper summarizing peach harvest in the area
• Obituary of Colonel Torrey (from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 12/6/1920)
• An excerpt from The Life of Colonel Jay Lynn Torrey

Teachers: Download the lesson plan (PDF format, easy to print)