HARRY D. DURST
Harry D. Durst is pictured while serving as a second lieutenant with Springfield, Missouri's Company K, 2nd Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment while they were stationed at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park in Georgia during the Spanish-American War.
Born in Springfield in 1869, he quit school when only fourteen years old to work for a local iron works company. In the evenings, he studied law under the tutelage of his grandfather and was later admitted to the bar. He joined Company K, 2nd Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment for service in the Spanish-American War and was appointed brigade ordnance officer shortly after they mustered into service at Jefferson Barracks. His regiment spent several months in training in Georgia before mustering out of the service on March 3, 1899.
He married Evelyn Dickerson on January 10, 1900, and for a couple years they operated a law practice and mercantile in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. Returning to Springfield in 1902, he established his law practice in the city and soon entered local politics when elected a councilman for the first ward. From 1932 to 1940, he served as mayor of Springfield and is reputed to have guided the community through a period of spirited civic development.
Durst's wife passed away in 1934 and Durst later moved his law practice to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to be closer to his son who was at the time head of the art department at the University of Arkansas. Durst was 90 years old when he died on September 21, 1959, and is interred in Hazelwood Cemetery in Springfield.