Join us in restoring JOLLY MILL PARK and forever be a valued part of the park’s history by reserving your personalized commemorative brick paver with your chosen wording to be placed within the newly restored park!

Choose to contribute as a business, as an organization, as a family, in memory of a cherished loved one, or with a personalized message.

By reserving your personalized commemorative brick paver through our Jolly Mill Brick Project, your generous contribution will support the replacement of both bridges over the children's stream, new concrete picnic tables, a new parking lot, and needed repairs as a result of the devastating flood on December 27th, 2015.

Commemorative bricks can be reserved until April 30, 2016.

Additionally, Jolly Mill Park is proudly hosting our 1st Annual Jolly Mill Challenge - Fun Run & 5K - 2016 on April 23rd to raise funds for restoration and support of Jolly Mill Park! Our 2016 Official Business Sponsors of the Jolly Mill Challenge are proudly featured on our supporters page as contributors to the restoration of our beloved park. Please visit our Jolly Mill Park Facebook page for race registration and information regarding the event. #RaceToRestore

The Jolly Mill Park Foundation is made up of "Friends of Jolly Mill." If you are interested in becoming a Friend of Jolly Mill Park you may make a contribution of $50 or more. Friends receive annual parking passes for free admission to the park for the year they contributed. Friends also receive newsletters containing park news, updates, and information on upcoming events. Of course, donations of any amount less than $50 are accepted and appreciated. Annual contributions made by Friends pay for the park's operating expenses; such as grounds maintenance, lighting, insurance, and equipment.

Levels of Friendship include:

Friends: $50 Includes annual parking passes and newsletter.

Sustaining Friends: $100 - $500 Includes a commemorative brick paver with your chosen wording handsomely engraved with two lines reserved for your name, that of a friend, or your organization within the "Walk of Friends" sidewalk.

$100 contribution will secure a commemorative 4" x 8" brick paver within the "Walk of Friends" sidewalk.

$250 contribution will secure a commemorative 8" x 8" brick paver within the "Walk of Friends" sidewalk.

$500 contribution will secure a commemorative 12" x 12" brick paver within the "Walk of Friends" sidewalk.

Friends of Silver: Contributions of $1,000 or more will secure a personalized 16" x 16" brick paver within the "Walk of Friends" sidewalk. The marker will include your chosen wording handsomely engraved with two lines reserved for your name, that of a friend, or your organization.

Friends of Gold: Contributions of $3,000 or more will secure a personalized marker and naming rights to a new concrete picnic table. These concrete picnic tables will be prominently placed along the bank of the mill pond and will replace the damaged wooden picnic tables.

The Jolly Mill Park Foundation has been recognized for tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to the Foundation are tax-deductible. Questions regarding the Brick Project may be answered by calling 417-476-5421 or 417-489-2030.

HISTORY OF JOLLY MILL:

The 1848 structure containing Isbell's Distillery and Jolly Mill has been a landmark in Southwest Missouri for 168 years. Built with slave labor by Thomas Isbell and his son John, the 3 floor structure still retains the original hand-hewn and pegged framing timbers and limestone slab foundation.

In the beginning, Isbell's Distillery was both a source of spirits and grist milling. The first road from Springfield to Southwest Kansas and the Indian Territory passed its door. A village named Jollification quickly developed around the distillery/mill to serve as a rest stop and re-supply point for wagon trains and stagecoaches.

In 1862, during the Civil War, military scouting parties twice clashed near Jollification. Later, bushwackers burned the village but spared the distillery/mill. The village tried to revive but never regained its prosperity partly because of the arrival of the new railroad through nearby Pierce City to Indian Territory in 1872. Because of new taxes on whiskey which owner George Isbell refused to pay, the distillery was closed in the 1870's and his attention was turned to the milling of flour.

Three generations of the Haskins family owned and operated the Jolly Mill from 1912 until its closing in 1973. The Haskins family is still very active in the operation of the park and serve on the Jolly Mill Board of Directors.

In 1983, a group of interested citizens applied and received a state charter for a non-profit corporation, the Jolly Mill Park Foundation. Using donated monies and volunteer labor, the Foundation bought the 32-acre mill site and began work to reach its objectives of restoring and preserving the Jolly Mill as a nucleus of a public recreational park for picnicking and fishing. Later that year, Jolly Mill was accepted and entered on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mill restoration was completed in 1998 when the repaired water-powered machinery began grist milling demonstrations. The Foundation had the good fortune to find an excellent millwright, John Lovett from Tennessee to oversee and do much of the work on the machinery. Milling demonstrations are still put on by the Haskin's family on the first Saturday of the month from May to October.

On December 27th, 2015, Jolly Mill Park suffered extensive damage from the worst flood in generations. Water rose several feet deep in the park during the height of the flood. The flood damaged several buildings, including the park's covered bridge, which was pushed on its side; and left the floor of the historic Jolly Mill full of mud, water damage, and debris. The parking lot, bridges over the children's stream, front porch of the mill, and many of the sidewalks were heavily damaged by the flood and need replaced or repaired.

Jolly Mill Park is a privately supported, non-profit, recreational and historical park just south of Pierce City, Missouri in Newton County. The purpose of the park is to restore and preserve the history of the Capps Creek valley to be enjoyed by the people who live in the area and for those who have an interest in the valley. Everyone is welcome at the Park. Jolly Mill Park is totally supported by private contributions and receives no money from any county, state or federal source.

The Jolly Mill Park Foundation has been recognized for tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to the Foundation are tax-deductible. The Jolly Mill was accepted and entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

We are looking forward to rebuilding our beloved park and to creating new memories with each personalized commemorative brick placed within the newly restored park!

Thank you for your support!

JOLLY MILL PARK FOUNDATION

A recreational park for the people and by the people.

Fundraising Campaigns

RESTORE JOLLY MILL PARK