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THE MARTINS AT LOVELY RIDGE
CRAWFORD MIRABILE MILL - THE LOVELY RIDGE SCHOOL
THE STREETERS IN DODGE DISTRICT
EARLY HAMILTON SCHOOLS
THE FORD FAMILY IN THE DODGE DISTRICT IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES
THE STREETER FAMILY IN DODGE DISTRICT IN 1855
MRS. FRANCES CLARKSON AND THE DODGE FAMILY OF THE DODGE DISTRICT
SAMUEL HILL PIONEER IN CALDWELL COUNTY IN 1833
HAMILTON'S FIRST BUILDING
THE HAMILTON TOWN COMPANY

THE MARTINS AT LOVELY RIDGE
Narrators: Mrs. Carrie Royer and Lottie Martin

Farm Conditions
School matters

George B. Martin and his wife Lydia Duncan Martin (the first born in
Illinois, the latter in Ohio) came to the Lovely Ridge Community three to
five miles west of Hamilton in 1877. They had been poor people in Illinois
and could not buy a farm but hearing that land was much cheaper in western
Missouri; they came out and bought an eighty (80) acre tract. The family
stayed at the Van Volkenburg Hotel (Broadway Hotel) located where the
present Davis Motor Co. is, until Mr. Martin bought a place.

The Martin Post Office was Kidder and they rode there once a week to get
their mail. Often one man would get mail for all his neighbors along
the way, so they could get it more often.

The farm conditions were back of those in Illinois but that was to be
expected of cheaper land. There were many unfenced lands till the 80's when
the stock law required people to restrain their stock - a law rather
unpopular at first, because it cost money to fence. Up to that law, Miss
Lottie used to get on her pony and go after the cattle late in the afternoon.
They might be a mile away feeding on the open prairie. Miss Carrie the
elder sister was the housekeeper. If by chance Mrs. Martin went, she would
go on foot because she hated horse back riding. In the days before 1880,
one could go across the prairies from Martins house for miles without
meeting a fence.

The Martin girls went to school at Lovely Ridge School. They attended when
the second one was burnt 1878 by the carelessness of Mr. McAtee the teacher.
He was followed by Hettie Martin (Brown) who walked out from Hamilton every
week end. She was followed by her sister Addie Martin who boarded with Dan
Jones. Boys and girls went to school till they finished their books and
then maybe came back to review. They learned the State Capitals in a song.
There was a tardy roll on fools cap paper on the wall to be viewed by
visitors. Corporal punishment was frequent especially by the above McAtee.
School was often started by a song:
"O where have you been tardy boy, tardy boy
O where have you been all the morning?
O to school I have been and they would not let me in
And so I have lost all the morning."
The roll of Lovely Ridge pupils of their day include many familiar names:
Carrie and Lottie Martin, Lizzie Booth, Anna and Belle Rogers, Simon,
Jake and Chas. Hendricks, Ida Lane (Rauber), Kate Esteb, and always some of
the large Bennett family.

Interview taken March 1934.

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CRAWFORD MIRABILE MILL - THE LOVELY RIDGE SCHOOL
Narrator: Mrs. Emma Eckelberry Alden, 71, of Kidder, Missouri

Mrs. Alden is the daughter of Valentine Eckelberry and Mary Jane Cornelius.
This couple came from Muskingam County Ohio sixty eight (68) years ago (1866)
attracted by the talk of Missouri land in this community. They went to the
Mirabile community and rented there for thirteen (13) years. In 1879 they
came up into the Lovely Ridge neighborhood and bought their farm there.

In her Mirabile youth, she recalls three doctors, Dr. Oakley Brown who came
to Mirabile Township about the time her father did and Dr. Klepper, both of
whom had their offices at home. Then there was Dr. Wm. Crawford who besides
being a doctor there since before the Civil War was a store keeper and a
miller. He bought the mill and the store from the pioneer Marquam. The
Eckelberrys always carried their grist to Crawford, no matter where they
lived and paid one-sixth of the grist for toll. He also ran a carding mill,
where folks could have wool carded if they did not use home-cards; he had a
saw mill where much of the lumber in that part was prepared. He was the man
who kept a lantern swinging in front of his mill to guide prospective night
customers to his various business enterprises. This mill stood for 100
years, being razed 1933.

Mrs. Alden began her education in the Mirabile one-room school and finished
it over in Lovely Ridge. She knew all about the school house history there.
There was for the few earlier settlers a small building located near the
Esteb farm hence called the Esteb School. She of course did not go to this
but her husband C.C. Alden did. Then a larger one was needed when the land
became more settled. Some one bought the house and moved it to Kidder where
it now serves as a good little home - first door west of the Kidder Public
School. The new school was built a mile east of the old site. It was burnt
one night 1878 when Mr. McAtee the teacher piled hot ashes in ash barrel too
near its front. The third was built on the same site and faced east instead
of south. It is still used.

Interview taken August 3, 1934.

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THE STREETERS IN DODGE DISTRICT
Narrator: Mrs. Josie Borden, 70, of Hamilton, Missouri

Cox Family
Half Way House
Stage Coach and Women's Styles of the 70's

Mrs. Borden is a daughter of Judson Streeter, the eldest son of Horace
Streeter who came into Caldwell County 1855. Her mother was Maria Frances
Cox daughter of Daniel L. Cox who lived this side of Kingston. He had three
children, Mrs. Streeter, Fred who was struck by lightning and John Cox who
drove a stage coach from Lexington to Gallatin. Judson Streeter lived on a
farm west of the "Half Way House" and later on a farm east of the "Half Way
House." During his service in the Civil War his family lived with Grandpa
Horace Streeter, Grandpa Daniel L. Cox and with Betty Dodge at Kingston.

The "Half Way House" (half way between Kingston and Hamilton) has always
been a familiar landmark to travelers along the road. Mrs. Borden did not
know the first owners; but she knew that in the late sixties it was owned by
Sam Lane whose wife on her death bed gave her baby to Mrs. Mary Edminster to
raise. The baby now is Mrs. Ida Lane Rauber of Hamilton, Missouri. Lane
sold it to Mr. Ford (see Sigman papers) who tore down the log house and
erected a good frame house.

Mrs. Borden recalls seeing her Uncle John Cox driving the stage coach past
her home. The coach was high with steps at the back, railing at the top to
hold baggage and aisles at the sides. The driver sat outside the front of
the coach with a long whip to drive the four horses.

The old stage road ran from John Whitt's house north; and at the south west
corner of the present Borden ten acres (then owned by Fred Gibson), it went
diagonally to join the south end of Main Street. In later days Billy Dodge
drove a hack daily from Kingston to Hamilton and later moved to Hamilton and
started his hack out from that town to Kingston with mail and passengers.

She recalls some of the long ago styles in clothes. Hoop skirts were very
fashionable and Mrs. Borden wore them. She was fond of riding horse back so
she slipped a hoop over the saddle horn and the hoop skirt gave her no
trouble. Every woman wore a chemise (often pronounced shimmy) for every day;
drawers extending below the knee were made of brown muslin in summer and
canton flannel in the winter. Three or four starched white skirts were not
at all uncommon. She recalled that J.F. Colby's wife and Mrs. Van Slyke
both wore white pantelettes showing under their dresses and she wondered if
all Adventists (to which church both ladies belonged) had to wear them.

She attended school at the Dodge (Independence) School then on the present
site of the Ollie Dunlap home. Some of her teachers were Hannah Ford
(Schartzer), Mary Kingsbury's father, Willis Allee and Louisa Leavitt.

Interviewed July 31, 1934.

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EARLY HAMILTON SCHOOLS
Narrator: Mrs. Mamie Eldredge, 75, of Hamilton

In the early seventies and late sixties, schools here in Hamilton were held
in a little brown frame school house of two rooms on the lots where now
stands the Methodist parsonage. In later years, a part of it was moved to
the site of the present South Side School and became known as the "Little
Brown School", even after it was painted white. In its first location, the
teachers were Miss Sarah (Dot) Morrow, lower teacher, and Mrs. Place, the
other room.

Other grades in the school were in the Whitely Building (or the old Windmill)
opposite what is now the City Park, directly east and across Highway 10.
After going a while to the first mentioned school, I went to the Whitely or
Windmill building, with the following teachers - Mr. Chadeon, Henry Gee, and
Miss Clara Van Slyke (afterwards Mrs. Daley, mother of Dr. Lyle Daley).

Later on for a short time school was held in a two story frame building on
the east side of South Main about where the barber shop and shoe shop now
stand. The upper rooms were two - the front one was a school room, the back
was where the Hamilton paper was printed. Leander Theodore Hill was the
teacher.

Then came the occupying of the new brick school building on the north side
with Prof. D.M. Ferguson as principal, and Miss Fouk as assistant. She
taught one month and married; then came Miss Ella Griffin who was the
assistant for several years. Prof. Ferguson taught nine consecutive years
1873-82 and his age was about 41 when he left. He left here to go to
Gallatin where he received $720.00 a year.

The upper floor of this grand building was one large room with a recitation
and entrance at the north end. The lower floor had two rooms with two
entrance halls at each end. These housed the intermediate and primary
departments. C.S. Shellabarger was the intermediate and Miss Anna Smith
primary teacher.

Classes were divided in the upper room into A,B,C,D,E Classes. The E class
sat upstairs but recited downstairs. School duties were carried on by
system. The 1-2-3 signals meant, rise, go to the recitation seats, be
seated, and the dismissal from class was by the same signal. Classes were
seated in the room according to merit in scholarship; those having highest
grades had the back seats.

Monitors were appointed for different duties: Water monitors passed the
water around at stated intervals; pen and pencil monitors and copy book
monitors distributed these articles before a writing lesson and collected
them giving them to Prof. Ferguson.

Prof. Ferguson was so anxious to help his pupils learn that he offered a
Latin class. Several boys and girls wanted the course; so he not being able
to get it in the program, taught it after supper. Many a night we went over
to the north side to get our Latin lessons, till some of us finished the
first book and the Latin reader.

(That was the last chance that Hamilton High School pupils had at Latin till
Prof. Gentry came 1891 as superintendent - Interviewer's note.)

Interview October 1933.

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THE FORD FAMILY IN THE DODGE DISTRICT IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES
Narrator: Mrs. Margaret Sigman, 84, of Hamilton, Missouri

Plowing with Cattle
Dodge School
Play Parties
Hamilton Mill

Mrs. Sigman's parents were David Ford and Nancy McIntosh formerly of
Scotland, who lived in Canada. The Ford family came to Missouri in 1868
because the Tait family of Canada had come here and praised Caldwell County
highly. When Mr. Ford came, he bought the property mid-way between Kingston
and Hamilton on the Stage road, later to be generally known as the Half Way
House. The family were terribly blue for awhile, for this country was so
different from Canada. Here was nothing but work to break up the prairie
grass; some of their farms had been cultivated but not much.

Mrs. Sigman recalls in 1870 seeing old William McCoy who then owned a ten
acre tract on the Kingston road about one half mile south of Hamilton (now
Booth land) break up the soil with five yoke of oxen hitched to a plow.
This Wm. McCoy in 1870 moved to town to two lots (present Hawks Garage site)
and on the east end built a two-story frame with a grocery store on the
first story. This store stayed for three generations in the McCoy family -
Wm., Clark and Roy.

Mrs. Sigman attended Dodge (Independence) School, where long benches were

placed around the walls and low writing desks fastened to the walls. D.G.
McDonald (later a merchant at Hamilton and still later a conductor on the
Hamilton-Kingston Railroad), Celia Tattershall, Wm. Church (who married a
Lunn) were some of her teachers. They had to cross Tom Creek everyday to
get to school. They crossed on the trunk of a fallen tree without any
railings. One day, they went across when Tom Creek was up level with the
log, but they went bravely on.

They attended church and Sunday School at Dodge School and also at the
Joe Williams school near Kingston. Walking a few miles meant nothing to
them. They often walked to Hamilton to trade or mail a letter or get mail.
Perhaps they might catch a ride with a passerby. Wm. Curp, a near by
teacher was also a music teacher and held singing school in the winter at
night in the school house which helped their social life.

Mrs. Sigman spoke of "play parties" as a type of amusement. This expression
came also from three other old people as a term for social evenings which
seemed to have been devoted to singing and skipping games or a form of
disguised dancing allowable to strict church members. (Even an old Darky
used the expression "play party." Saying "the negroes used to jig
individually or in a set at play parties." Interviewer's note.)

Mrs. Sigman was married 1875 to John Sigman (b. 1825 in Ohio) a Mill Wright
who came to Hamilton 1868 and built the Hamilton flour-mill which he sold to
Austin and he to Henry Clark and he to his son Frank Clark. It was under
the Clarks that the mill explosion occurred, killing Alex Crow, a farmer in
the mill yard. The mill was burnt 1878 rebuilt and finally abandoned as a
mill. It now 1934 serves as an ice plant.

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THE STREETER FAMILY IN DODGE DISTRICT IN 1855
Narrator: Geo. W. Streeter, 81, of Hamilton

Mr. Streeter is the son of Horace B. Streeter and Cornelia R. Gillett and
grandson of Josiah Streeter and Ruby Stebbins of New York and Massachusetts
respectively. Horace Streeter was born in Cayuga County, New York and came
to Caldwell County as a prospective settler in 1855. He made the first trip
prospecting. He came as far as Palmyra in the train (that was the end of
the railroad) and "hitchhiked" the rest of the way to Caldwell County where
his old neighbors, the Dodges, had already settled. He bought land from the
government for $2.50 an acre near the Dodge farm and across Tom Creek; his
land being the present Silas Dodge farm; and went back after his family.
They came in 1857 by train and by water up to Camden and then by wagon to
their new home. At this time, George W. was four years old and has but a
dim memory of the trip out here.

He recalls his first experience at school. On his first day, the teacher
was angry with him because he did not know his letters, for at that time it
was customary for parents to teach the A,B,C's to their children before they
started to school. The teacher sent him home and his parents kept him there
until he was in the Second Reader. That was an old log school, then a
better one was a frame which stood on the site of the Tom Creek Coal Mine.
It was formerly called the Dodge, but now the Independence district. The
present site is changed. In those days of the early sixties, children from
Hamilton used to come out and go to school there at Dodge because there was
no school in town. He recalls some of these children-the Formsby children,
the Richardson children, (not the Squire Richardson family). This must have
been about the time that A.G. Davis had a governess come to teach his
children. The town was very small. Two early teachers at Dodge School were
Jap Carter and Henry Gee. Seats were placed all around the sides of the
room with a writing desk against the wall. If the children wanted to write,
they turned toward the wall.

Walking wasn't much of a chore those days. Children not only walked to
school but to Hamilton to trade or to Kingston to Sunday School which was
between three or four miles. Nobody had buggies out there; few had farm
wagons. The Streeters had an ox-cart about 8 feet by 3 1/2 feet used with
oxen for farm labor. Sometimes a farmer owned three pair of oxen,
especially if young ones were being broken in. They used a heavy ox yoke
which was held by a bow-key to a log and a ring to the plough. If this
slipped, the oxen became loose. Mr. Streeter told of his near escape from
death in an ox-cart. It was during the Civil War when one day the yoke-key
loosened and the oxen almost threw him into the creek.

There was a covered bridge one hundred feet long which once stood over Shoal
this side of Kingston where the road then ran. In fact, the later bridge of
the 90's used the same buttresses and stone work that belonged to the old
covered bridge. It was about twelve feet high above the floor. George B.
often took grist to mill over at the Spivey Mill at Kingston and passed over
this bridge. He carried a full bag on each side of the horse to balance the
load.

He recalled Bennett Whitely avaricious elder of the Hamilton Baptist Church
in the late 60's, the old Baptist Chapel, east of the park, the Whiteside
store which stood by it and later became a barn. He knew old Wm. McCoy when
he was not old, and when he ran a little farm on Kingston road into Hamilton.
He knew the Paxton boys, the Kempers, father and son, Geo. Lamson, the depot
agent and banker. He said Geo. Lamson was the next to the best banker ever
in the county. Dan Booth was the best. He recalled that picturesque
character of the early days, Sam Hill, who lived out his way for a while.

An old graveyard was on the Dodge farm. It now lies behind the Diem house
in a pasture. There were several graves there in his youth. A Union
soldier was buried there without a stone; his own little brother lies there
without a stone. Possibly some transients lie there. Some say that started
as a Morman burying ground. Mr. Streeter said that might be so, for the
Mormons once lived on the Dodge farm and a Mormon log cabin was still there
in his youth. Mrs. Nellie Snider, a daughter of Dwight Dodge, said that
they always spoke of one part of their land as the Mormon field because it
belonged to the mormons in the Mormon period.

Interviewed July 15, 1934.

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MRS. FRANCES CLARKSON AND THE DODGE FAMILY OF THE DODGE DISTRICT
Narrator: Mrs. James Kautz, Hamilton, Missouri

Mrs. Kautz is the daughter of Nathan Clarkson and Frances Nevada Dodge 1853
to 1920. Mrs. Clarkson the daughter of Silas Dodge and Mary Ann Hull was
born 3 miles south of Hamilton where her father settled in 1846 and the farm
remained in the Dodge family for more than 70 years. He cut the walnut
shingles for the first [house] that was built in Hamilton. Silas Dodge was
the son of Dwight Dodge and Susan Monroe, also pioneers. Dwight Dodge came
into the country in 1844 and settled near Mirabile. He was not only a
farmer but a Christian Minister. Thus the Dodge family was among the very
early settlers in the county and the community school for many years was
called the Dodge School. The Silas Dodge home is mentioned by old timers
as a landmark between Hamilton and Kingston.

On her mothers side Mrs. Clarkson was descended from the Alvord families
which made her related to Mrs. George Walters, a very early settler. The
Walters family came to the Mirabile Kingston neighborhood in 1836 and are
buried in the old section of the Kingston Graveyard.

As a girl, Mrs. Clarkson attended the District School on her fathers farm
and enjoyed the few social opportunities of those early times: district
school literary societies and dances. Fourth of July was a day always to be
observed in the big wagon, one spring seat, the rest chairs. She said they
always had a wagon full by the time they left Kingston. But there always
had to be room in the wagon for the wonderful picnic dinner which was a part
of the Fourth.

Like most young people of her time, she went places horseback. One day she
and her brother, Dwight, were going through Kingston when her horse being
scared acted up and broke the saddle girth, letting her fall to the ground
in sight of the whole town, much to her embarrassment but to her brothers
amusement.

She married Nathan Clarkson Feb. 20, 1874 and had four children three now
living - Mary C. Kautz, C.D. of Kansas City, and Egbert of Nettleton,
Missouri.

The companion of her youth died in 1906 and in 1911 she married Jackson
Edminster.

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SAMUEL HILL PIONEER IN CALDWELL COUNTY IN 1833
Narrators: Mrs. Mamie Eldredge, Fielding Hill, George Streeter and Others

In building up the life and traditions of this well known character in the
pioneer life of Caldwell County, it has been necessary to talk with many
people, both his descendents and outsiders, to get the meager information
given. Everyone of the older outsiders quoted have seen him and knew his
peculiarities well. The younger people quoted heard about him in their
childhood.

Samuel Hill came from Tennessee into Caldwell County as early as 1833 for
then he entered a quarter section of land in present Kingston township from
the government. He entered other tracts of land from time to time and
became very land rich. In 1859, he owned 40 acres southeast of the new town
of Hamilton, which he and his son, Greenberry, had entered. This was
divided into town lots and sold as Hillsborough, being later included in
Hamilton as Hill's addition. The present Eldredge home (old Dr. Tuttle
property) is in Hill's addition. Much trouble came from these deeds; for
Greenberry Hill someway entered the land in his own name and Sam Hill sold
the lots in his own name, so Greenberry's name had to be given the property
owners.

While Sam Hill was well off, at least in land, reports say that his way of
living was frugal. F.W. Hill recalls him when he lived between Hamilton and
Kingston and says he lived in a hovel of two rooms. They had so many
children that he drove pegs into the log-walls and put boards on the pegs to
sleep his little children. His few comforts seemed to satisfy him. At that
time he was living with his second wife, who claimed to be part indian.
They parted and they divided the farm straight up and down. It is said by
George Streeter that she took the girls and he the boys. That farm was the
present Bob Minger farm (part of the old Gibson farm). This second wife
used to tell the informant about eating raw bear meat which swelled up
inside her after being eaten. His children as this informant recalls were
as follows; John (married a Ross and lived near Polo), Lucy, Greenberry
(child of first marriage), Dave, Bill, Harriett, Gim (Probably Gilbert), and
Peter. Some served in the Civil War.

Another informant says that he always understood that Sam Hill could not
read or write. He married a third wife, a very young girl and he, by this
time was in the late sixties. By this time, he was living in Gomer township
on the present Foley farm. One old lady now past ninety says she saw his
children there being rocked in the top of a trunk as a cradle. That house,
too, was more or less of a shack.

About 1870, he had a very serious sickness, and Dr. King and Dr. Tuttle
(father of Mrs. Eldredge who recalls him as grey, old, and decrepit with
rheumatism). All his sons and daughters by now had families of their own
and were greatly upset when he married the third wife, for his mind seemed
to be somewhat affected. In connection with his illness, Mrs. Eldredge
tells a story of the first lemons in Hamilton. The doctors had ordered them
from Kansas City for Mr. Hill, and kept them uptown in an office, taking
them out to Sam Hill as needed. But it got around that there were some
lemons in town and about half of them were stolen; for lots of people did
not know what a lemon tasted like. Surely Hamilton in 1870 was thirty miles
from a lemon! (A saying used in those days.)

One of Sam Hill's peculiarities according to F.W. Hill was wearing an old
tall silk hat, no matter what his other clothes were. He was a vigorous
walker and people could recognize him down the road at a distance by his hat.

His name used to be the cause of many jokes for in this community the words
"Sam Hill" were used as a common saying to express something extreme without
reference to him. Therefore, when Mrs. Lottie Anderson (as a girl) was told
that old Sam Hill lay buried on the other side of the hedge, she thought it
was only a joke referring to the old saying. A man recently told of his
father, a contemporary of Sam Hill, meeting him as a stranger. The first
told his name and asked the second his name. The second said "I'm Sam Hill",
whereupon the first, taken back by the answer said, "Well, I'm sure glad to
meet you for I have always heard of you." Hill said "How?" and the other
man said, "People are always saying that it is as hot as Sam Hill or as cold
as Sam Hill and, at least, I know who Sam Hill is."

At Sam Hills death, he asked to be buried under a certain tree by the hedge
on his place. Even today, people speak of attending that burial probably in
1870. Another says that in her girlhood, in going to Locust Grove school,
the grave was pointed out to her, and people told her about the peculiar old
man. James Murrell moved into the neighborhood in the 70's and used to have
the mound pointed out to him.

Mr. Taylor Allee recalls that Sam Hill was a good hearted man but a hard
drinker, as pioneers often were; and that when half-full, he was ready to
fight all comers but few people took him up.

William Hemry tells another story showing the families queer ways. He is
reported to have buried money. He had a son also who is said to have done
the same. At any rate, one day when William Hemry was working at the
Blacksten place, a daughter of the son came out and dug around a spot in the
orchard in the Greenberry Hill farm, saying that she was hunting two pots of
gold which her father had buried there for her and a sister. Mr. Hemry saw
the torn-up-places where she had dug but everyone said that she found
nothing. No marker has ever been put up at the grave of the old pioneer Sam
Hill, as far as the interviewer has been able to ascertain.

~~~~~~~~~~

HAMILTON'S FIRST BUILDING
Narrator: Joseph Davis, 77, of Hamilton and Others

Mr. Davis is the first white child born in Hamilton, having been born June
13, 1856 in the first house erected in Hamilton. This was the old Davis
Hotel or Lone Star Hotel, built by his father Capt. Albert G. Davis in the
summer 1855. It was a two-story frame on lot 2 block 21 east side of Davis
(Main). It had a frontage of 22 feet, and the lot is the north half of the
Chet Martin store site.

For some months it was the only house between Richmond and Gallatin, and was
a landmark to travelers along the pioneer road. It was intended as a
residence for the Davis family but became a hotel by necessity to
accommodate transients who came by stage or horse to look around and stay
all night. The pine timber cost $70 per thousand feet, shipped from St.
Louis up the Missouri river to Camden, Ray county and from there by ox teams
to Hamilton.

It was finished by October 1855, and probably gave meals to those attending
the first sale of lots. His family did not come up from Mirabile till April
1856. His three youngest children were born there and two children died
there. The building cost $1000 when finished. The only town well was on
the premises.

In 1858 Davis sold it on time to Joseph Elliott and he to Jacob Brosius and
he to Perry Claypool, whose hotel Claypool House became well known. While
the Claypools were there Dr. Tuttle had a suite of rooms for a doctor's
office on the second floor. A.G. Davis seems to be the owner again by
January 1876 for in his rent books, he speaks of $3 a month rent from Mrs.
Mattie White and $2.50 rent from Dr. G.W. Tuttle for rooms there.

In 1875 E.H. Bishop had his drug laboratory in the building. By 1878 the
Grange (Farmers Store) was there under M.S. Kellogg until 1879. Then A.J.
Rhodus had it a few months as a general dry goods store, Dr. King being the
owner.

George Rogers was the next owner. In the eighties Rogers and Wyatt had a
real estate office above and a gallon store on the north room. In May 1887,
it caught fire while occupied in the south room by Rush McKenzie baker - the
fire being put [out] with some damage. In October 1891 it was burnt so
badly that it was torn down.

Then Mr. Roger sold the lot (22 feet) to C.A. Martin for $1300, when the
Martin brick was built. With the passing of time changes became so rapid in
the building that Mr. Davis can not recall all who used the building for a
place of business.

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THE HAMILTON TOWN COMPANY
Narrator: Mrs. Anna Brosius Korn of El Reno, Oklahoma

Mrs. Korn is the grand daughter of Captain Albert Gallatin Davis the founder
of Hamilton and lived in his home till she was married, hence hers is
reliable information of the town company who first owned the town.

She says the plan began with her grandfather then a resident of Mirabile and
he talked it over with E.M. Samuels of Liberty to start a town along the
right of way of the projected line of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad,
then only surveyed. Accordingly the town company was formed. Mr. Samuels
was President. A.G. Davis trustee, G. Bird, John Berry, Michael Arthur, S.
McGaughey, S. Ritchie of Liberty, John Ardinger, Ephriam Ewing of Richmond,
A.G. Davis and John Burrows of Mirabile, Chas. J. Hughes of Kingston, Thos.
T. Frame of Gallatin and Jeff Thompson of St. Joseph.

Most all these men had streets named for them. The present Main Street (not
meant to be Main) was named for Mr. Davis because his house was already on
it. The Main street at the start north of the depot was named for S.
McGaughey but he eventually gained little, for the name is rarely used and
the street is unimportant. John Ardinger's street is commonly called
Broadway and John Berry's street usually Mill; while Chas. Hughes got a bad
deal, for the north end of his street is treated like a back alley and the
south end is called Kingston avenue.

Some of these men who invested their money in the land of the town company
never saw the town. Some came here for the lot sale. Some lived here.
John Ardinger started a restaurant here in 1858 but in the Civil War we
find him at Kingston with a store which was the gathering place of Southern
Sympathizers. His daughter married Tilton Davis, a nephew of A.G. He is
also related by marriage someway to the Menefee family. The Ardingers were
fine people.

John Burrows was an early post master here in the Davis store. He also
managed the Store about 1859-60 (so active was he that some people in their
interview call it the Burrows Store). Ephriam Ewing lived here 1858-60
although his occupation is not known. His family kept a maid Julia
Larrimore who became the wife of Dr. Clayton Tiffin here.

Jeff Thompson of St. Joseph was such a close friend of Mr. Davis that he
called him Albert and wrote often to him. Mrs. Korn has some of these old
letters. One dated 1857 speaks of the Scarlet Fever epidemic which had
taken off two of the Davis children. Another dated 1857 speaks of the
Kansas-Missouri trouble over slavery. He was Mayor of St. Joseph in 1859
when the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was completed and he helped start
the Pony Express. When the war broke out he became an able leader in the
Southern Army. Mr. Davis looked on him as one of the biggest men in western
Missouri.

But of course as Mrs. Korn says, the biggest man in the Hamilton Town
Company was her grandfather A.G. Davis who built the first home (called the
Lone Star Hotel or Davis House), who surveyed the town lots, built the first
store (present moving picture site) was the first post master, the first
station agent, the first freight agent and before he had a depot to hold his
freight would hire a man to watch it till the owner came. He named the town.

Mr. Davis was a loyal Mason and in his Masonic regalia as shown in a picture
he was impressive. He did not join a church till in his last years, then
convinced that Masonry did not equal church membership he was taken into the
Methodist church - a very impressive sight. At his death in 1908 he was
accorded every honor possible by the citizens of Hamilton.

Interviewed January 1934.

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This page was last updated September 24, 2006.