Mary Burge, friend of Arrow Rock

Mary Burge, sole surviving founding member of the Friends of Arrow Rock, holds her great-grandson, William Paul Hogge Burge, 2. (Eric Crump/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Appropriately, Burge was at the first meeting of the organization, June 14, 1959, as a representative of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The DAR was instrumental in boosting Arrow Rock's preservation efforts when it lobbied the Missouri legislature to buy the J. Huston Tavern in 1923, and became the first custodian of the historic building.

Friends of Arrow Rock was created by a group of people who saw a problem and shared a mission. Their historic village was beginning to crumble around them and they hoped to stem the tide of deterioration and to foster preservation and education.

"People saw that something needed to be done," Burge said. "Buildings were being torn down instead of being repaired."

Today, Arrow Rock is a center of art, education and history, a possibility created by the half-century of work done by the many people who volunteered time and provided money for the organization's work.

Burge is the first to credit the people who shared that initial vision, often noting the commitment and energy of past officers and members and frequently lauding the efforts of the current executive director, Kathy Borgman.

But Burge has been contributing to the effort longest. She has been on the organization's board of directors the whole of its existence, serving as reporter for many years and now as secretary.

The retired teacher has a passion for the organization's educational mission, and she lends her acting talent to the project, portraying Mrs. Sites, wife of gunsmith John Sites, whose home and business are preserved and featured on tours of the village.

Dressed in period clothes, Burge brings Nanny Sites to life for visiting school children.

"I talk to them about how they got to school, what they wore" in rural 19th century Missouri. She paints a picture in children's minds of schools warmed by wood stoves, of students doing lessons with quill pens and homemade ink.

"They didn't have a lot of material to work with" back then, she said. "The main idea is to let them know what it was like."

She's seen the organization succeed in its mission, the village now a thriving and well-tended historic site visited by thousands of people each year.

"I think it's been almost a miracle that a small town has improved like it has," she said. "It amazes me that a small group of people got this together and it developed into something this big."

The organization now has an established fundraising operation and attracts grants to help it continue its work, but Burge remembers early days when volunteers put on "a lot of bake sales and yard sales" to generate the resources they needed.

Arrow Rock's success may be based partly on the rich history it had to work with -- its role as a supply stop for Santa Fe Trail traders, home to Missouri governors, renowned artists and innovative physicians.

"We have so much history here," Burge said. "Not many small towns can say that."

Making the most of that history, though, Burge attributes to the hard work -- a term she employs often to describe the people who saved Arrow Rock for future generations.

"People are so generous to give money," she said, "but money can do only so much. People give their time and their energy and their vision. That's what kept it going."

Contact Eric Crump at marshalleditor@socket.net