Life interrupted - From Enon church pews to factory floors, the life of Harold Shikles was cut short

Harold Loyd Shikles (1931–1951) is shown here in his late teenage years, standing beside an automobile that symbolized the independence and promise of postwar youth. Raised on a Moniteau County farm during the Great Depression, he attended Lincoln School near Enon and later Russellville High School. A member of Enon Baptist Church, Harold was working at the International Shoe Company factory in Eldon when illness cut his life short at age 19. Courtesy of Karen Farris O’Farrell

Harold Loyd Shikles was born in 1931 near Russellville, Missouri, at the very beginning of the Great Depression. It was a time when farm families measured survival not in comfort but in endurance. Crops were uncertain, markets were unstable, and every able hand mattered. He was the son of Rado N. Shikles and Gladys B. (Bond) Shikles, both names long rooted in the Enon and Spring Garden countryside.

Harold and his sister, Wilma, began their education at the one-room Lincoln School near Enon. In that modest schoolhouse, students of multiple grades studied together under a single teacher, sharing books, lessons, and responsibility. From there, Harold transferred to Russellville High School, carrying a steady discipline learned at home and in the country classroom.

Life on a Depression-era farm required early maturity. Children were expected to help feed livestock, repair fences, haul grain, and adapt to whatever the season demanded. Harold’s father was a farmer, and Harold grew up knowing that work was simply part of daily life.

Faith became an early part of that upbringing. At just 12 years old, Harold became a member of Enon Baptist Church, affirming the beliefs that shaped his family and community.  

The depth of the Shikles family’s roots is preserved in the 1980 volume Moniteau County Missouri History, where Harold’s mother offered a glimpse into the family’s story. “Rado and I have lived on our farm in Moniteau County near Enon, Missouri, for 45 years. Rado was born in Cole County near Enon,” she wrote. She added, “I was born in Cole County near Spring Garden, Missouri.”

A surviving photograph of Harold shows a young man standing beside an automobile, dressed in work clothes, confident and composed. For teenagers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a car symbolized independence and possibility. World War II had ended a few years earlier and factories were hiring. Opportunity seemed within reach.

The April 19, 1951, edition of the Eldon Advertiser offered a snapshot of his young adulthood: “He attended grade school in the Enon community and Russellville High School. At the time he was taken ill, he was employed at the International Shoe Company factory at Eldon.”

Those simple lines reveal a young man more than willing to step into the workforce and join many in the area who transitioned from farm life to steady industrial employment. Yet behind that progress was a quiet struggle. Harold’s death certificate noted that he had suffered from his liver ailment for two years. Even as he worked, worshiped, and planned for the future, he endured a prolonged illness. For two years, he carried his burden without withdrawing from responsibility. 

When his condition worsened in April 1951, he was admitted to Latham Hospital in California, Missouri. At the time, Latham Hospital served as one of the region’s primary medical facilities, treating families from Moniteau and surrounding counties. His death certificate was signed by Dr. Kenyon S. Latham, a Washington University School of Medicine graduate and longtime community physician.

The hospital itself would later become part of local history. The Feb. 27, 1972, edition of the Sunday News and Tribune reported, “Dr. Kenyon Latham still has his office in the Latham Hospital, although the hospital itself was closed two years ago. The hospital was closed because the staff and the building failed to qualify it for Medicare payments, according to Dr. Latham.”

Changing federal standards and financial pressures brought an end to the small rural hospital. Decades later, the property was demolished, and the site eventually became Latham Memorial Family Park—a transformation from hospital corridors to open community space.

But in April 1951, the hospital still stood as a place of hope for those battling illness or injury. Despite medical care, Harold Loyd Shikles died on April 10, 1951. He was only 19 years old.

Nineteen is widely recognized as an age defined by beginnings. It is a point when young men imagine careers, families, and futures. Harold had grown up during the hardship of the Great Depression and reached adulthood in a time of renewed national optimism. He had joined his church as a boy, studied in a one-room schoolhouse, worked at a regional factory, and stood ready to build something lasting.

That he did all of this while quietly battling illness makes his short life even more poignant. He was laid to rest in Spring Garden Cemetery in Miller County, near the same countryside that had shaped his parents and grandparents. His gravestone bears the simple span 1931–1951 and the beloved designation of “son.”  

Harold Loyd Shikles did not live long enough to accumulate a lifetime of accomplishments. Instead, his legacy rests in something more silent and is the example of a young man shaped by Depression-era hardship, strengthened by family and church, and resilient even in illness. He belonged to a generation forged in difficulty but prepared for opportunity.

 In remembering Harold, we remember more than one life cut short. We remember a farm family rooted in Moniteau County for decades, a one-room schoolhouse near Enon, a church congregation that nurtured faith, and a young man who stood on the threshold of adulthood with promise still ahead of him.
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The years he lived were but few, yet it was a life that mattered.  
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Jeremy P. Ämick is author of the historical compilations “Moments on the Moreau” and “Beyond the Moreau.”