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.
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
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This material includes the following historical documents, reproduced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:
Teachers: Download the lesson plan
(PDF format, easy to print)