The Perfect Christmas Present

Harrisonville was founded in 1837 upon land donated to Cass County by Congress for county purposes, and was named for Congressman Albert G. Harrison, who was instrumental in obtaining the land grant. The area suffered greatly during the American Civil War, though Harrisonville was one of the few places exempted in Union General Thomas Ewing's notorious General Order No. 11 (1863), which ordered the depopulation of three entire Missouri counties and part of a fourth. In 1972, Harrisonville was the site of escalating tensions between a handful of would-be hippies—mostly Vietnam veterans—and town elders, which culminated in a brief rampage by 25-year-old Charlie "Ootney" Simpson.