Neil Heimsoth was born in 1934 in Stover, Missouri, a son of John and Fannie Heimsoth. As a boy he attended St Paul’s Elementary School.
Probably one of the most life changing episodes occurred when the Stover Public Grade School decided to host an art contest and invited the Parochial School to participate. Neil had always loved to draw and create pictures so he took to the challenge like a duck to water.
He decided to recreate the large portrait of George Washington that hung in his class room. There was one first place award and Neil won it. The Church’s Pastor was very pleased Neil had won and told him, “Son you have been given a talent from God, be sure you make the most of it.” That admonition left Neil feeling like if he didn’t paint, it would be a sin, “So I’ve always wanted to paint,” he concluded.
Neil shared that his father greatly admired Cole Camp all his life. He said his dad was about the only Heimsoth that didn’t want to farm and chose to attend the Sedalia Business College. From there he went to work for a large clothing store in St Louis. When Boeschen decided to open a mercantile in Cole on what is now north Maple Street he hired Neil’s father to work in the new business.
His father attended a barn dance northwest of Stover one evening and there he met his future wife Frances (Fannie) Kipp he was nine years her senior but that didn’t matter and they were married moving to Cole Camp as newlyweds.
When the old town of Stover was dying on the vine and new Stover was being built to meet the Rock Island Railroad line, the Fajen family decided to build a big mercantile and they offered Neil’s father a job he couldn’t turn down. Nevertheless Mr. Heimsoth never lost his love and admiration for the town of Cole Camp and when he would read of some significant happening in Cole Camp he would always state, “Just look at what they are doing over there in Cole Camp.” Neil said his dad never ceased to admire the town and he feels that’s why he’s always had such a warm spot for the community too.
Neil graduated from Stover High School and joined the United States Navy. He served from 1953 to 1957 but never left the states. He served as an instructor out in California and then was sent to Hutchison, Kansas where he was an instructor on a flight simulator.
After the Navy he went to Springfield, Mo and attended Drury College on the G I Bill. While there he was hired as an illustrator for U.S. Forest Service and spent twelve years working at the Mark Twain National Forest and stationed in Springfield.
When that position was terminated he was sent to Whiteman as it was a federal job and he spent approximately 25 years there. His illustrations for the Forest Service caught the attention of Silver Dollar City and they hired him to do fall shows as an artist for eleven years.
When Robert Owens and Leonard Brauer decided there should be a history book written about Cole Camp’s Low German heritage and history, they drove to Sedalia and approached Neil to design the cover and do some additional art work on the book in 1989.
Neil then actually moved to Cole Camp. From the very first he loved it and felt for the first time in a long while that he was finally home. A great friendship developed between Neil and Mayor R.E. Harris and Bob Owens.
Mayor Harris was always seeking ways to promote Cole Camp and so was Owens. R.E. pushed having regular festivals to bring newcomers to town and Owens began the process of getting the downtown area on the National Register of Historic sites. This was also the period when the first walking tour maps were created to encourage visitors to enjoy the community on their own.
Every Friday morning Neil had breakfast with Mayor Harris and Will Gunnerson about the dream of a golf course in Cole Camp. At that same time several other locals were working for the same goal. Vern Dean Miesner donated the land and the dream began to take shape creating a course that draws people from far and wide to play.
Other things began happening. There was the Low German Club that welcomed a large group of visitors from Germany as Cole Camp celebrated it’s Sesquicentennial in 1989. A group founded the Low German Theatre that was locally produced and drew attendees from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Illinois. It ran for 12 years, skipped one year and then had their final performance for a total of 13 years.
The Sangerfest began in 1992 after a group began meeting at the school on Sunday afternoons and singing. There was a need for German Song books and Bob Owens contacted a German General he had known while stationed there. The General sent them 24 song books. Later they ordered folk song books to add to their repertoire. The group hosts the German Christmas Music program at St Paul’s each December and it is a very popular program under the direction of Jeanette Von Holton. The German singers still function and to date have sung in 325 performances.
In 2000 Neil and Marilyn traveled to Germany and while there they experienced a Fest Baum tree at a summer solstice. Fresh flowers decorated the rings and it was hauled to town and raised. Schnapps were passed around in abundance, accompanied by lots of accordion music. Neil brought the idea back to Cole Camp and Fred Grabau took the project on by furnishing a pine pole, stripping its bark and making it ready to be raised in Cole Camp. At first it was raised four times. Maifest, Sangerfest, Oktoberfest and Christbaumfest. It is now done only on Oktoberfest and Christbaumfest.
Another touch of Germany created by Neil and displayed in the downtown area are the Nutcrackers that stand at all four corners of the 4-way stop during the Christmas season. They were created and painted by Neil and truly represent the German heritage of the community to all who pass through Cole Camp each December.
Perhaps one of Neil’s most significant contributions is the German memorial that draws attention far and wide. A few years ago Neil had the opportunity to purchase a house in a foreclosure. He purchased the property that sits on the corner of 52 highway & Olive Street and it became his Art gallery. As he says, “I was really getting tired of mowing all that lawn on the big lot when Marilyn and I chanced upon a German Memorial in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.
Neil and Marilyn came home and kept checking into ways to create one in Cole Camp. After much study they devised a concise way to list the original immigrant and then their descendants . Then the real work began with figuring costs and a lot of engineering to make it pleasing to the eye. Also, on how to not disturb the root system of the existing pine tree. Others working on ideas included Bob Owens, Milton Von Holton, Eldon Harms and eventually Mike Chavers that would do the masonry. The projected start up cost was $30,000 and Carol Junge Loomis stepped forward and gave a check for $15,000 to get the project moving forward.
A coat of arms of Brandenburg and another of an old helmet were added to the ends of the curved wall. They had been on an old barracks in Germany that dated back to the Prussian Army but had been destroyed by bombing in WWII. Robert Owens had dug them out of the rubble shortly after the war and then shipped them back home. They lay almost forgotten for years until suddenly they were needed in the Memorial.
Several dignitaries attended the dedication of the Memorial and bricks are still selling with some on order presently. The memorial has been turned over to the German Club and will probably be given to the City of Cole Camp sometime in the future.
Neil has painted several large pictures for public areas around Cole Camp. When Mildred Junge and her daughter, Carol Loomis built and donated the Cole Camp Boonslick Library for the town, Neil painted a picture of the Junge home on Hickory Street and it proudly hangs in the meeting room.
The first restaurant to receive a painting was done for Sam Cole. It is the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany and it hangs on the wall of The German Table. Second one was a cheeseburger for the Classic Restaurant, east of town. Next was a Venice Canal Scene for Calgaro’s Pizza. Neil stated, “I really had fun doing that one because it had four young art students each painting a section of it. Each evening, I would correct mistakes but it was their creation and they even signed the work.”
Then Judy Smasal opened Wine, Women and Song and Neil painted a setting containing beautiful young women at a garden party that included a surprising quote from Martin Luther, the great reformist “He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long.” Next came another large painting for The German Table of the medieval German city, Rotenburg. It is a walled town with only four ways in and only one that a car can enter. Neil’s last creation was painted and hung in the Handel Haus and features an elegant dinner party with the hostess painted with Judy Smasal’s face. Neil plainly states he is very happy with those public pieces of art, saying “I really enjoyed painting and gifting each and every one of them.
Several other artists in the area have created very public works on display and Neil has designed a brochure showcasing those creations titled, “Public Art of Cole Camp.” Neil, at an early age knew that small town Cole Camp had big dreams. An idea reinforced when he would hear his father say, “Just look at what they are doing over there in Cole Camp.” Hearing his father say that planted a seed in him that has grown to an overwhelming love and pride in the community he calls home.
