The REAL Dutchtown Tavern

Dutchtown Used Furniture 04-25-2015_6812Back on April 4, I did a post on a foundation down in Blomeyer that I thought was the Dutchtown Tavern. I hedged my bets by putting a question mark in the headline. Some readers had memories of the tavern, but at least one of them thought it was at the base of the high hill in Dutchtown proper, not across from the Montgomery Drive-In.

Saturday afternoon, I stopped in at that building, which now sports a sign that reads “Dutchtown Used Furniture.” Painted on the side is a Coca Cola ad and a sign that says, “Slaughter’s Stor.”

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Don and Cathy Heuring own the place

Old Dutchtown Tavern - Don and Cathy Heuring 04-25-2015Don and Cathy Heuring established the Dutchtown Used Furniture Store in 2004. The building, which is more than a hundred years old, they said, was the Dutchtown Tavern until 1993, when it closed after owner Jim Slaughter died. His widow sold the place, and it served several different businesses until the Heurings took over.

Was tavern and liquor store

Dutchtown Used Furniture 04-25-2015_6814The Heurings said the bar was on this side of the archway, and the liquor store was on the other side.

I’m still a little confused. The previous story mentioned that Raymond John “Tiny” Ford owned and operated several regional bars and nightclubs, including Tiny’s Danceland, The Jamna, The Ozark Corral, Dutchtown Tavern, and Edgewater Bar. Mr. Ford died in 2002 at 85, so he may have been involved in the tavern business before Mr. Slaughter.

Can anyone clear that up?

15 Replies to “The REAL Dutchtown Tavern”

  1. Anyone know where the shooting matches were held around Dutchtown/Blomeyer? My dad went to those and ones at 7 Cedars. I know that was on HWY 34 outside Jackson. There were also some at a few other places. Keith Robinson, did your dad go to those?

  2. There was a shooting match at the Dutchtown tavern at the intersection of HY 25 and Hy 74. & Ceders was on highway 72 past Jackson. There was also a shooting match at Star Light at the intersection of 34 and 72. I never did go there. I did go to one in Happy Hollow near Egypt Mills. There was also one off of 177 near Cape Rock Drive. We went there but they were only shooting for Turkeys, so we went to Dutchtown and I ended up winning third place of a hind leg of beef.

  3. Ken, et al, according to my dad, who did participate in the shooting matches there, the Dutchtown Tavern and Rau’s Store shared the building back in the 50’s and 60’s. The tavern was in one half of the building and Rau’s Store was in the other with a solid wall separating the two, and two separate entrances at angles in the central alcove of the building facing Mo-25. He said that was before the Mo-74 intersection was moved to where it is today. The original 25/74 intersection was on the north side of the building.
    He also said the shooting matches there in Dutchtown were held behind the building. I have a recollection of having gone with him one time and remember what I though of as somewhat of a party atmosphere (after all it was behind a tavern). I remember him going inside to buy boards to shoot at while my great-uncle Fred Robinson supervised me. Uncle Fred’s wife, Erna, was related to the Rau’s that owned the general store there.

    Phyllis, did you graduate from Central with me?

  4. Keith I graduated from CHS in ’64. Your dad went to matches with my dad. Did you go to Trinity Lutheran Church?

    Frank, thanks, you hit all the places dad used to frequent. We never bought any meat because he always won enough for us and the rest of the family! In fact as a kid I hated steak because we had it so often. Now that I have to buy meat or settle for elk and deer, I wish I had some of that meat I hated! 🙂

  5. I believe the road connecting Cape Girardeau to Dutchtown, Allenville and on to Bloomfield, MO, was the Bloomfield Road and entered Dutchtown then interesectd with Highway 25, north of Rau’s store and tavern,then crossed the bridge over Hubble Creek. Highway 74, when built, began at the intersection with South Sprigg at the Viaduct, continued west to join the Bloomfield Road which at that time crossed the area where Strack Quarry is today, improving and straightening, and relocating Bloomfield Road when needed, and joined Highway 25 at the location it is today. The original Bloomfield Road bed can still be seen today in front of the Pecan Grove School, then crossed the creek on iron bridge which was moved to bordering farm, finally crossing the only remaining stone bridge in front of the Geiser House, then behind the Overbeck shop building and house, across the open field and dropped down to enter Dutchtown at the present location. Highway 74 never went through Dutchtown. My post today is a repeat of the Rau store and gas pumps story I can remember from the mid-1940’s.

    1. My sisters and I grew up in the Geiser house, at that time was the Moore farm as my grandpa Oscar geiser gave it to my mom his only daughter my sisters and I still have most of the farm we have an old oil painting that shows the old Bloomfield road on our farm with a big log that was a toll stop

  6. Funny that despite going to school at Pecan Grove for, I think, four years, I never noticed the road bed in front …The other day I was reading about some members of the family ( the Keller family ) who had farms x miles from Cape on the Bloomfield road – Puzzled me, because I couldn’t place where it must have been. Your post just made me realize it must have been along present day Hwy 74. I know an African American family, the Cardwells, also had a farm down that way, and knew my grandfather … Wonder what happended to them.
    My grandfather and my uncle, I think, sometimes went to those shooting matches behind the Dutchtown tavern, – more for the entertainment that the meat …

  7. Tim — I have a copy of Quinton and Jo Ann Keller’s hard cover book “The Keller Family of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri” — 1992. The Keller farm on Bloomfield Road probably was the Albert Keller farm located where Cape Electric & Postal station is now (across the road from Menards).
    The Cardwell family home was located on State road A west from Dutchtown to Whitewater. About 1/2 mile west of where CR 241 exits A, left to Allenville, the Silas Cardwell family lived in log, two story house on hill side. Nearer the road was their Sorghum Molasses mill, long gone. Their house burned, Silas and wife moved into the Louis Rau house across A 1/4 mile west. Louis Rau and wife moved after the 1949 tornado flattened their barn and outbuildings. Cardwells moved to Cape Girardeau. Silas was the caretaker of the Shady Grove Cemetery that I have worked with his daughter Louise Cardwell Duncan and Dr. Frank Nickell, to clean the cemetery with much work still to be done. Louise and daughter and others still live in Cape Girardeau. Sorry…there is no way to make a short answer to your questions. If you are on Facebook or if you know Kim Keller Riker at KFVS get in touch with me…My sister married Delmer Keller, father of Judy, Vicki, Larry, Rita and Connie.

    1. Elroy, my dad was born in the Albert Keller farm home. It was a little further west than the Postal Center, on the west side of the Ramsey Branch. Access to the Albert Keller place was gained from CR206, commonly called Benton Hill Road. I’m pretty sure the name of the lane down to the farm was Bobcat Lane.

      1. I stand corrected by my dad. The Albert Keller place was about where Cape Electric has a building now on Bloomfield Road. My grandfather, Elmer Robinson was born in the Keller house. My dad was born in the George Schwab home which was at the east end of Bobcat Lane.

  8. could you please show the Flood wall with all the pictures of famous people and all from state of Missouri Beautiful and A wall of honor Thanks

  9. hi there our family is moving to dutchtown soon i’m just messaging a few places after doing a fb search for the town name.We have inherited a house but have no pics nor money to travel to it from south TN. I doesn’t even show on google earth. Would love to find someone brave to also find out if it is haunted like I’ve heard from my family and also just check it out a little, please. No i’m not crazy, just cant afford to get there right now and maybe it might be our salvation for us if it ends up not being evil or needing to be condemned.FB ASKIVY or Ivy Tatum

  10. I know some of the history of Dutchtown Tavern.

    I would love to go back there for the first time since 1961. Dutchtown Tavern was owned by my father, Jim Slaughter ( James Calvin Slaughter).

    My parents owned and operated Slaughter Stor

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