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HAMILTON BUSINESS MEN BEFORE 1860
HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE AT HAMILTON, MO
JAMES M. KEMPER HAMILTON MERCHANT IN THE SIXTIES
A DAUGHTER OF A HAMILTON PIONEER
HAMILTON IN 1860 AND LATER
TAYLOR ALLEE IN HAMILTON IN 1865
THE HARRAH FAMILY OF HAMILTON IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES
HAMILTON MERCHANTS IN 1868-69 
HAMILTON BUSINESS MEN IN THE 70'S 
THE OGDEN FAMILY AT HAMILTON IN THE 70'S 

HAMILTON BUSINESS MEN BEFORE 1860
Narrator: Mrs. Anna Brosius Korn of El Reno, Oklahoma

Mrs. Korn (grand daughter of A.G. Davis, founder of Hamilton) has the old
record of the town, kept in a painstaking way by her grandfather. She says:
The Lone Star Hotel was the first business house in town, built 1855 and
operated April 1856 by A.G. Davis and wife. He then built a house or office
for Henry Holmes a brick maker at the site of present Iron Clad Implement
House. Bricks were needed for the foundations and chimneys of the homes to
be.

Then the first store was built by Mr. Davis on the present picture show
corner which continued to be the leading store for several years under
different names. As clerks, he had John Burrows (Burroughs) of the town
company, Dr. McClintock (his brother-in-law), Wm. P. Steele (nephew-in-law),
James Kemper and Judge Otis Richardson. In 1874-5 account books of Mr.
Davis show he was using the old building for a grain store room, renting it
at 2 cents a bushel per month to Frank Clark. In the eighties it was a
barrel hoop factory and later the Davis family removed it to the Joe Davis
farm north of town where it is still doing good service as a barn. During
1858-60 Mr. Davis was station and freight agent at the depot.

A blacksmith shop owned by Mr. Davis and operated by Presley Thomas was put
up in 1857 but no one recalls the site; this too was an essential factor in
the new town life where farmers could supply their needs. Joseph Elliott
came as a second blacksmith in 1859 and P. Claypool the third in 1860. The
Claypool shop was probably located in present site of Leslie Clark shop.
John Ardinger of Richmond kept a restaurant probably on a short street north
of the depot 1857-61, then went to Kingston. Lumber was also necessary for
the quick growth of the new town and Samuel Badwin started the first lumber
yard in 1858 where the present lumber yard is located. Before long he sold
it to Mrs. Julia Davis and she to J.A. Brown.

In 1858 David Buster had a saloon in the site of the Methodist parsonage and
soon transferred it to the right of way on Broadway where it was known as
Saloon-grocery, a common thing those days. Uncle Davy is suppose to have
used his home (site of Davis Motor Co.) for a hotel in those days before
1860. Rufus B. Mitchell came as a carpenter in 1859.

Dr. Thomas K. Kavanaugh was the doctor and his office was probably in the
Davis store where he served as Post Master a few months. The young attorneys
Junius A. Holliday, and Marcus A. Low came about 1860.

The old Davis Hotel by 1859 had passed into the hands of P. Claypool and the
purchase of thirty one sacks of flour in three months from the Davis Store
shows he was feeding his boarders well.

There may have been other business men in Hamilton before 1860 but neither
records nor memory brings them to Mrs. Korn's mind.

Interviewed December 1933.

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HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE AT HAMILTON, MO
Narrators: Mrs. Maude Harlow of Hamilton and Mrs. Anna Korn of El Rene, Ok.

Mrs. Maud Harlow, who has been a milliner here at Hamilton for over 35 years,
and who has lived here ever since her birth, was for some years before her
marriage to Frederick Harlow, a clerk under two different postmasters in the
local post office. With the help of data furnished by Mrs. Korn who has the
records of her grandfather A.G. Davis, founder of the town of Hamilton. Mrs.
Harlow has given the following account of the past of the postoffice here.

Previous to the establishment of the Post Office at Hamilton, the nearest
postoffice was found in Daviess county, named Orion with John C. Lantford as
first postmaster, appointed April 1st 1856 and Samuel Balding as second
appointed November 5, 1857.

By the efforts of A.G. Davis founder of the town of Hamilton, the postoffice
was removed to Hamilton Jan. 12, 1858 and established in the Davis store,
west of the depot, near the site of the present Courter theater. Mr. Davis
was appointed postmaster but finding he had too many duties, he had the
office transferred to Wm. P. Steele (his nephew in law) who served till May
1858, when he was succeeded by Dr. John H. McClintock (brother in law of
Davis) who served till De. 29, 1858 when he became manager of the Davis
branch store at Kingston. He was succeeded by Thos. K. Kavanaugh who served
till Aug. 16, 1859 when he was succeeded by John H. Burrows (manager of the
Davis Store) who served till June 28, 1861. He was followed by John H.
Booher who served till Aug. 15, 1861. He was succeeded by Wm. E. Jones who
served till Nov. 16, 1861.

He was followed by Otis B. Richardson who served till March 31, 1875. He
was followed by Rollin G. Whitman who was succeeded by W.A. Morton with his
niece Miss Maud Morton as assistant. He relinquishes the office to a
Democrat, John Marens who kept Miss Morton as assistant. Marens gave way to
a Republican Nathan Clarkson who had Miss Lilla Martin as assistant. Then
John Marens again served with Mrs. Maud Morton Harlow. He was succeeded by
E.E. Low. On the latters death Mrs. E.E. Low became postmistress. W.J.
Clark was the next incumbent, followed by the Democrat Dr. Tinsley Brown,
who in turn was succeeded by Harley Shively, the present Republican
incumbent. These statistics have been verified by Mrs. F. Korn through the
Post Office department at Washington D.C.

The early appointees of Hamilton postoffice held office but a short time
until Mr. Richardson who moved the postoffice to his own store building
north of the depot. In the four following years, the postoffice was located
on the site of the present store of Ollie Howard. With the building of the
Morton Block (corner north of Penny store) Postmaster W.A. Morton moved the
office to that site. Later under John Marens it was moved to its present
sit where for many years it occupied only the rear of the building, the
front being the postoffice bookstore or other small business.

From the ledger kept in the Davis store 1859 is to be found charge accounts
for stamps by Wm. P. Steele.

In the earlier years, before city delivery of mail was started, waiting for
the mail to be distributed was an exciting feature of the day, and the
postoffice was crowded at such periods.

~~~~~~~~~~

JAMES M. KEMPER HAMILTON MERCHANT IN THE SIXTIES
Narrator: W.T. Kemper, 68, of Kansas City and Others

Wm. T. Kemper, the Kansas City banker, is a son of James Madison Kemper, a
pioneer of Hamilton and Sallie Paxton both natives of Kentucky. James M.
Kemper came to Hamilton at the age of seventeen in 1858 to be a clerk in the
A.G. Davis store - the first store here - located at the site of the Courter
Theater facing south. He was a clerk under John Burrows of Mirabile, who
managed the Davis Store. When he came, people called him Jimmy and for
years he was thus known. When about twenty one he and Wm. Stone started a
General Store in the Davis Building for themselves and it was in this store
that the Casey-Bristow killing began.

Later the firm was made up of John Ballinger, S.P. Cox, and J.M. Kemper,
still down by the railroad. An old ad in the 1864 Kingston Newspaper said
they had a good supply of flour, salt, dry goods, groceries and took produce.
They had a salt yard just north of their store building.

In 1865, Kemper and Paxton built a two-story frame on Main Street on the
spot where the Bram Store now stands. James Whitt lately of Daviess County
was the head clerk and above the store lived the young George Lamson and
wife and baby Harry, who was then depot agent.

This store was popular and a money maker as all the early old timers recall
it. It burnt sometime about 1870 and Kemper sold the site to Anthony
Rohrbough and son-in-law Moore who built on the site the brick block which
still stands.

When James Kemper decided to leave town a farewell dinner was given in his
honor and B.M. Daley a prominent young lawyer sang a funny song with a
refrain, "Jimmy Don't Go." Where upon every one present was supposed to
weep in fun and ended by weeping in earnest.

During the rest of his life Mr. J.M. Kemper's heart was always in Hamilton.
Here in this county he had met and lost the bride of his youth Sallie Paxton
and they are both buried in the Kemper-Paxton lot in the Highland Cemetery.
While living here he owned the big white house on the hill in the west end
of town, now the James Kautz home.

He left here to enter a Mercantile business in St. Joseph where he stayed
forty years. His first wife having died, he married again. He died in
California 1928.

He was related to the Kemper family which have lived for years in the
Mirabile neighborhood. He was also related by inter-marriage with the
Paxtons of Mirabile and with the A.G. Davis family and the Penney family of
Hamilton.

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A DAUGHTER OF A HAMILTON PIONEER
Narrator: Mrs. Clara Prentice of Hamilton, Missouri

Mrs. Prentice was in Hamilton in the years of its very early history, coming
here from Daviess County with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Otis Richardson in
1859. Mr. Richardson had served as a soldier in the war with the Florida
Indians in the New Jersey Dragoons, enlisting from Maryland his home. The
story is told that a shyster lawyer volunteered to get him a pension with a
commission as pay for this service. He could find no Government record of
it so he found another Richardson name who served in the Mexican War and put
that in the application, but of course Mr. Richardson refused to sign it.
Mr. Richardson built the home for his family, now the property of James
Deems, which is one of the oldest houses in town. A few years ago when the
house was remodeled, it was found that it had been made with wooden pegs not
nails.

He was appointed Post master here November 1861 and held the office till
March 31, 1875. Many of the old timers tell of him in that office. At
first he gave out the mail at his home, then at the Kemper Store, then he
built a shack at the east end of the Kemper store where he also sold
groceries and candy.

He had a big family of boys and girls come to maturity - some were Alice
(Singleton), Clara (Prentice), Minnie (Price), who was born 1860 after the
family moved here, Mrs. Hemry and George the baby. One son was killed while
serving as a special guard at the lumber yard by a mistake. Mr. Richardson
became Justice of the Peace and some yet call him Squire Richardson. He was
quite determined in his speech and actions and rarely stopped on his way, to
talk. He carried a cane by habit and put it down on the side walk every
three steps. People on his way home always knew he was coming.

Clara Richardson went to school here in town to a school located on a lot
just south of her fathers home, then she went to the school on the Methodist
church parsonage site. There she was a pupil at the subscription school
kept by Andrew McClelland in the early seventies. She was also a Davy
Ferguson girl in the big north brick.

She married Gideon Prentice who had come here as a timer for the Morton
Bros. and finally branched out into a business for himself. His first
location as a Hardware man was in the block north of the Penney Store; then
he moved to a brick on the south east corner of Main and Mill where he was
burned out.

Mrs. Prentice was probably the most successful "canvasser" that the town
ever had. She sold corsets, toilet articles, spice etc. and made it a
regular business. Her ice cream for Congregational lawn socials was an
institution in the town and the same was true of her cakes and pies.

Her youth was passed in primitive ways. She used to tell of letting butter
and milk down on ropes into the well to keep them cool in summer time--
sometimes the rope broke and then the food was lost. Those earliest days
few people had even heard of kerosene lamps, and she told of making tallow
for candles and stringing the candle molds with candle wicks. She told
about going out to the creeks and getting reeds and rushes which when dried
scoured milk pans. There was a favorite practice of soaking quince seeds in
water and wetting the hair with it before doing it up in curl papers; and a
butter milk face-wash was good for the complexion. (Real butter milk it was,
too.)

Her stories of the Civil War days came from her own experience. One night,
a band of Union Soldiers on the way from the Battle of Lexington stopped at
the Richardson home and demanded food. Word had already been passed of
their coming this way, so the Richardsons had cooked a lot of food from
their store. For an hour they shoved out victuals through the front window
of their home to the soldiers out side.

During the war many stores were held up at night for money by bushwhackers
on both sides. Every afternoon Alice Richardson used to carry the Post
Office money in a box out to Judge Wm. Bristow north of town. No thief ever
guessed that the girl on horse back was carrying money. She was just a
school girl with books. The family never knew whether she was safe till
they saw her horse over the hill the next morning. Most of the country to
the north of their house was empty and their view was unhindered.

Interviewed 1933.

~~~~~~~~~~

HAMILTON IN 1860 AND LATER
Narrator: Wm. Hemry, 84, of Hamilton

Mr. Hemry was eight years old when his father, Israel, moved form Carroll
County, Ohio, to Caldwell County in 1859. Both Wm. and his father were born
in Carroll County. The Hemry family came to Ohio from Pennsylvania. Israel
located on land two miles south and half-mile west of Hamilton. The son,
Will, began to make his living by working in the Harper and Goodman livery
barn which faced the alley running north and south back of the depot. He
recalled the custom of keeping a goat in the livery barn, the idea being
that the odor was good for horses. The goat from the barn of Bill and Bob
Paxton was taken over to the new brick schoolhouse and Prof. Ferguson had
quite a time in driving it out. The Paxton stable stood on the present post
office site and a little north. The Green stage line horse barn was where
Mrs. Caroline Thornton lives.

When Mr. Hemry first recalls Hamilton in 1860, Kemper and Stone ran a
general store on the present movie picture corner. Later O.B. Richardson
(whose daughter became the wife of Will Hemry) put up a shack to the east
of the Kemper store and used it for a post office. Most of the business in
1860 was on the short street back of the depot. Next in line was Dr. James
McAdoo - office and drug store - who had the first soda water for sale. It
was made by a suction pump. (Some time later John Minger made soda pop from
an acid pressure tank.) North of the Kemper store and facing west was a
salt lot, the salt being shipped in barrels from Michigan and Virginia.

He recalls as a boy the very early Buster House located at the corner of
Mill and Broadway back from the street and facing south, which took in
travelers. This same Dave Buster kept a saloon-grocery on the right of way
south of the tracks on Broadway. He says that Buster was a good man despite
his saloon. He also said that the Buster House was later moved northeast on
the same block and formed a part of the Hamilton House built by Dudley.
However, Dudley's son declares this is an error.

He recalls when the Morton brothers, John and "Cap" returned from the war
and started up (1865) in hardware and tin (north end of the lumber company
lot); the people said they were way out of town.

The Covington family came here from Gallatin and started a restaurant on the
west side of North Main. Phil Covington would never sell the last of any
kind of candy from his candy jars. He recalled the only three-story
building ever on Main - the Kelso block. (Mr. Kelso was the father of Mrs.
W.J. Ervin.) The fellows called this building the Buzzard's Roost. Later
this became the Phoenix Hotel. It stood where the Mo. Dry Goods Store now
stands.

The old Cochran brick bank (later Spratt-Houston) stood in 1868 on the
present C.A. Martin corner. To the north of it was the Claypool Hotel.
There was also a Claypool blacksmith shop on the site of the Leslie Clark
Shop. To the south across the street was the frame Kemper store which was
soon to burn down and be replaced by the Rohrbough brick. Rohrbough earlier
was in a frame store on the present Penney site.

The earliest church building was the Methodists. There was held a Union
Sunday School with Sam Martin (C.A.'s father) a Presbyterian, as
superintendent. The first church on the site of the Presbyterian Church had
a peculiar history. Col. Pace (a South Methodist preacher and lawyer here)
had begged the money for the church-house. But they would not hire him to
preach. So he charged them for this services in collecting the money and
took the building on the debt which somehow their church laws allowed.
Then he sold it to the Presbyterians, and he became a Presbyterian. Before
the Methodists had a church, they met in the public schoolhouse which stood
on the site of the present Methodist parsonage. He also recalled the talk
about Rev. Wm. Wilmot, who was sent here as a Congregational missionary.
The report was that he raised money to build a church and then he put some
money of his own with it and built a home on Kingston Street with a chapel
on the south for religious purposes. There was some trouble about it and
the Congregational people left and met in a hall uptown, while the Wilmots
left the Congregational Church forever. That house still stands south of
the park.

The Christians (or Campbellites as they were wrongly but commonly called)
met first at the home of James Whitt, then at the Schoolhouse on Kingston
street, then in a McCoy's Hall about 1876, then in their first church home,
(a small building northeast of the north school which has been changed into
a dwelling) and lastly into their present church which was the first of a
series of fine churches built about thirty-five or forty years ago. There
seemed to be a contest as to which church should put up the nicest building.
To that era belonged the brick Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregational
Church-buildings.

He recalls how the Baptists drifted around from one meeting place to another
till they finally bought and built. For years, the Baptist church, while
not the nicest, was the biggest church where union meetings were apt to be
held because of its size.

Mr. Hemry was a witness to the Casey-Bristow fight in Civil War days in the
Kemper store and the Buster saloon. He was also a witness to the Brosius-
Davis shooting on north Main about 1870, when Jim Brosius (who was a son-in-
law of Squire A.G. Davis and separated from his wife) and Squire Davis shot
at each other, with wounds on each side. This shooting occurred near the
site of the Penney store, he says; the Davis family at the time lived in a
house on the next corner now occupied by the north bank building. The older
Brosius (father of the above) was at that time proprietor of the Hamilton
House, south of the depot. Mr. Hemry was sworn in as a deputy to help keep
peace between the two sides that night after the shooting.

Interviewed April 15, 1934.

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TAYLOR ALLEE IN HAMILTON IN 1865
Narrator: Taylor Allee, 85, of Hamilton, Missouri

Mr. Allee's parents were Isaac Reed Allee (1812 War soldier) buried at
Kingston and Mary Ann Parks Allee buried in Highland Cemetery Hamilton. He
was born in Henry County Indiana. In 1865 Taylor Allee, his sister and half
brother came to Caldwell County, the father and mother came 1866. The
children had come because a near relative Sarah Smith and her husband
Philander Smith had located in the county. Their father's farm was a half
of the later Waterman farm three miles west of Hamilton, the other half was
the P. Smith farm. Later Allee sold to W.H. Henry, a relative, and bought
in Daviess County. Isaac Allee was an herb doctor and doctored many people
here and in Indiana. In Indiana he had his own herb garden and always
compounded his own medicine. The Taylor Allee family still have some of his
old bills in which his charges are shown as 12 1/2 cents for medicine, 16
2/3 cents for a visit.

Taylor Allee with five other Allees enlisted in the Union army from their
county in Indiana. He declared he was 18 but really was 15. He was a big
boy five feet seven inches weighed 143 pounds, and got by with it. They
examined him by giving him two big thumps on the chest and having him jump
over a box. His job was to hunt down bush whackers.

He well recalls Hamilton of the 1865 day - which was the time he first saw
the town. Then, Kidder was a better town than Hamilton. There were not
five hundred people here. He came fresh from the war - age 16.

He as all the other older citizens begins the description of early Hamilton
by going to the corner now occupied by the Picture Show north west of the
depot. This in 1865 was occupied by the Brosius Brothers (George and Jim)
in a general store and Otis B. Richardson had his Post Office in the store.

Then came a space and then Charley Manuel Saloon, then a space and Aiken Dry
Goods and Saloon then a space and a Drug Store which might be Jas. A. McAdoo
or he might have come a little later.

On the south east corner of this little street in 1865 was a vacant lot but
it was soon to have the Dry Goods Store of Bye and Gibson. Due south of the
depot on a high bank was the Hamilton House with Uncle Jake Brosius (father
of George and Jim) as landlord. On north Main just north of Bye and Wilson
was the Van Buren grocery. It was a few years later that Phil Covington
opened a restaurant in a poor building located where Hopson is now (and
about the same time John Minger had one across the street). About the time
of Mr. Allee's coming, the Goodmans had built a hotel south of Covington and
Sain had a saloon in the back room. It was in the brick now owned by
Whitman and erected as a part of the Goodman block.

On the east side of Davis (Main) was the Kemper-Paxton store (a frame on the
Bram site) first building in 1865, then came a space and the livery stable
of Thurston Green brother of Harvey who ran the stage coach line which
originally ran from Richmond to Gallatin with Hamilton as a middle point.
As the railroads developed to the north it was shortened from Richmond to
Hamilton.

In the middle sixties Dr. Nunn was the only doctor. Before 1870 Bennett
Whitely built a mill due east of what is now the park on the south west
corner of the block. This was afterwards used for church and school. He
was an ordained Baptist Elder, a merchant and Editor in his time. There was
the Goodman lumber yard on Broadway on present Ralph White home.

Before 1870, on Mill street about the site of Parker's grocery, Austin Dodge
had a blacksmith shop. His wife soon opened up a millinery shop on the
corner of Mill and Broadway. At his death, she married R.D. Dwight and the
shop became known as Mrs. Dwight's Millinery Shop.

After Mr. Allee's father bought the Daviess County farm Taylor went there
and worked ten years, so he knew little of Hamilton in the seventies. It
was about 1870 that the elevator by the right of way on Main was put up, Guy
and Naugle ran it, Love and Lamson, Love and Eugene Low, were some of the
early men there.

When he came back to Hamilton after living in Daviess County he worked for
Schaffer-Tanner in the hard lumber business, site of Alec Warden's home
south of the tracks on Broadway. Then he worked seven years for Lamson and
Love in the elevator. Then he began clerking for Emmet White who bought
out Deaerick on north Main.

Mr. Allee played on the first baseball team in Hamilton about 1870.
Dr. King was captain, another player was Roy Bowman (Alston Bowman's son).
They played in Dudley's pasture. There were some differences in the old
game. The pitch was underhand pitch, not a throw. The pitcher had to give
the batter whatever kind of a ball he asked for, as a knee ball, a waist
ball.
Interviewed June 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

THE HARRAH FAMILY OF HAMILTON IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES
Narrator: Mrs. Mollie Logan, 75, of Denver, Colorado

The Old Harrah Home on Mills Street 
Lady Clerks - McCoy's Store 
Harry Logan's Band

Mrs. Logan is the widow of Harry Logan well known blacksmith in
Hamilton over fifty years ago. Even better known was he as leader of
the Hamilton Comet Band when the band wore bright green and white
uniforms. Logan was an all round natural musician, also giving violin
lessons. He also played leading parts when the band put on Home
Talent plays in Anderson's Opera House back in the eighties.

Mrs. Logan is the daughter of Andy W. Harrah who was here before the
Civil War closed. He was a horse buyer, having headquarters later
with the Paxton Livery barn. Mr. Harrah and family once lived in the
house later occupied by Wm. McCoy facing on west Mill. At that time,
before 1870 it was the only house on that block, the rest was open
commons. There was a much used road (of course not legal) cut
diagonally across the block from the Kingston road (or street now) to
get to Mill at present Hawk's corner. Mrs. Logan said that often a
high spirited horse driven by a high spirited driver would go over
this path and come within an ace of hitting the east corner of their
home.

Mrs. Logan soon was to see Wm. McCoy move into that house and build a
frame store on the north east corner. She soon saw the young George
Rohrbough family build what is now the Mrs. Mary Kautz home, and his
brother-in-law Moore build on the south east corner next door (the
house later was moved on the east side of the street and belongs to
Earnest Snape). About 1882 she recalls that Dan Booth who had
recently been made Cashier of the Savings Bank bought the remaining
open lot south of the McCoy's store and built a home.

Mrs. Logan's grandmother Harrah lived for some time in what is now the
Jordan home on north Broadway. Her aunt was Mrs. Hattie Alexander,
later Mrs. Billy Dodge. Her brothers were John and Andy Harrah, names
familiar to the social young set of the eighties.

She recalled others of that crowd. There were the Brown girls,
daughters of Double O. Brown, a Broadway Merchant, Pem Vorhees, a
clerk in the Anderson store married one of them. He was the perfect
beau here in the late seventies and early eighties.

Lady clerks were rather rare those days. Of course, the women members
of the merchants family might sometimes wait on customers with
propriety. Miss Rhene Harvey worked in the Harvey and Rosenthal
store, Mrs. Franke always sold goods in the Franke (Jew) Store. Mrs.
Farabee helped her husband Harve Farabee in the P.O. Bookstore. Mrs.
Brown and the girls helped O.O. Brown but few women outsiders worked
out in stores. You hunted up the lady clerk, as they said, when you
wanted to guy garters, stockings, a corset or underwear. Trying on
shoes in a store was horrible because the man-clerk had to see your
ankles; so most women took a bunch of shoes home to try them on.
There was always a problem too of setting the shoe buttons over one
way or the other.

As to Logan's band; in those days nothing was thought of the fact that
after a certain number of pieces were played on the streets most of
the band probably marched into a saloon to "wet their whistles" with
some kind of a drink. Playing in the band then was a man's business;
no women or children were in the picture.

Interviewed October 1933.

~~~~~~~~~~

HAMILTON MERCHANTS IN 1868-69 
Narrator: Irving Harper, 72, of
Hamilton, Missouri

Irving Harper was born 1861 in Illinois, the son of Joseph W. Harper
and Frances Allen. His father came to Hamilton prospecting in
December 1867 and arranged to buy a livery stable. In April 1868, the
whole family came. They stayed at the Western Hotel (George M.
Goodman owner) until Mr. Harper built a home. He had bought land to
the west of town, a mile out. Property which is still in the family
belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hooker (Minnie Harper).

Mr. Harper went into the livery business with Wm. Goodman of the
Hotel. The barn was back of the Hotel and faced on the alley (now
running back of the McLean Hotel). Livery barns did a rushing
business and they kept fifteen to twenty horses for hire and two or
three drivers and hostlers. His rival in business was Weldon who had
his barn on Main, occupying the space from the present Baker Drug
store to the Post office. The Weldon barn was the stage stop for
state coaches from Lexington to Gallatin, a thing which had already
stopped before Mr. Harper came. In the early seventies Weldon sold to
the Paxton Brothers who kept it till the 1875 fire. The Paxtons later
had a site two blocks up north and still later on the present Tiffin
Building site. Henry Thornton opened up his livery barn about 1870 on
the site of the Mrs. Carrie Thornton homes.

There were many gaps then in the various business sections of
Hamilton. The Goodman block embracing the Western Hotel and a grocery
stood where the Whitman building is now. Right north of it was Phil
Covington's restaurant, a mere shack and on its north was another
Shack - the first location for John Minger's restaurant, but he soon
moved into a similar shack on the east side right opposite. At the
north end of the block was the Rohrbough store. That finished that
block in 1868. On the opposite block to the east - was the Kemper
store, the Ervin Drug Store, Reed's Dry Goods, William Drug Store,
Goldberg the Jew (not long), Minger, Weldon's livery. North of this
block was the "Brick Bank" which Cochran had just sold to J.F. Spratt
his son-in-law who soon took in R.B. Houston as partner.

On the block opposite stood McAdoo Drug Store, the Harper Furniture
and Higgins lumber yard; across to the north was Reddie Lumber yard
and further north the Morton Brothers in Hardware and Tin shop.

South of the track, Main Street was beginning also to build up. At
the north east corner (site of First Bank) was the office of Squire
A.D. Davis, facing north. Then came a long space; at the south east
corner was the Witwer Wagon yard. On the opposite side by the tracks
was an elevator owned by George Lamson and Charlie Goodnow. Then came
a grocery store lately owned by Spratt who sold it I.J.C. Guy. There
were several frames along there which changed hands so often that they
defied remembrance but in one of them on the upper story Professor
Hill had a school, and above another the Congregational people had
church after they had left the Wilmot home until the old brown church
was built.

Broadway was quite a business section too. Mrs. Dodge (later Mrs.
Dwight) had a Millinery shop (on site of Hawks Filling Station) in her
home while her husband Austin Dodge had a blacksmith shop about where
the Parker grocery stands, just across from the home. Goodman and
Lamson had a lumber yard on the present site of Ralph White house
which Chandler ran for them. Further north on Broadway a little west
of the present library was a Shack where O.O. Brown began his store
and home. He was soon to build two good store rooms to the south, one
of which the brick stands yet belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Lee Souders.
At the library corner was the small Millinery Shop of the Clark
Sisters. North of the tracks on Broadway was the old corner store in
1869 belonging to one of the Brosius boys. Going on north to the
corner opposite the present Deems home was a small frame - the old
Green Stage office, used for different uses.

Back of the depot to the north, was the original Main Street, already
in 1869 losing its prestige. Next to the Brosius corner store to the
east was the little Richardson store and Post Office and several of
the earlier buildings to the east. Here was Manuel's Saloon. Another
Saloon was on the Broadway right of way belonging to Dave Buster.

Directly south of the depot and standing on a high ridge on the
present location of the library was the Hamilton House with an
extensive front porch and a long flight of steps leading to the depot.

Even on Kingston Street, there was business. Bennett Whitely had a
little general store on the south east corner opposite the park in the
building often called the Baptist Chapel those days. This building
was soon to have a windmill attachment for the Shellbarger mill and
also to house some of the grades of the Hamilton School. It ended its
existence as a barn.

Interviewed July 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

HAMILTON BUSINESS MEN IN THE 70'S 
Narrator: C.A. Martin of Hamilton

Mr. Martin came here as a boy in the late 60's with his father, Sam
Martin, and has seen almost every business change in Hamilton. He
told me about the business men between 1870-80.

He began on Kingston street east of the park. There was the
Shellbarger Mill. North of it was Ben Whitely's grocery store.
(Hamilton stores had a bad time at first deciding to stay on Main.)

On Broadway, on Ralph White's present home, was the Goodnow-Lamson
(conducted by W.H. Chandler), and later the W.F. Colby lumber-yards.
Up a block was Wm. McCoy's grocery store, opposite him was Mrs. Dodge
(later Dwight) in a millinery store. Her first husband Austin Dodge
had a blacksmith where O. Parker is now. North of McCoy's was a block
of frame buildings, Nash Produce, A.G. Howard Drugs, Geo. Hastings
grocery. On the east side at the north end was the millinery shop of
Alma and Lou Clark; then the brick and frame store of O.O. Brown and
the Broadway Hotel, kept for some years by L.D. Van Volkenberg and
later by Mrs. Harry. Some place in that street was a shoe shop
(McCammon) and a tailor shop.

Just south of the right of way on Broadway was the old Buster saloon,
occupied sometimes by a Jew jeweler, sometimes by a family; the place
was going back. On the site of the present Alec Warden home was a
hard wood lumber yard run by _________ Schaeffer. Going on north, on
the corner south of the Presbyterian church was Henry Thornton's
livery barn. On the opposite side, was a blacksmith shop, the
calaboose, (jail) another old building and the old Davis store
building used by him in the 70's for storing grain, later a hoop
factory. Along the old street back of the depot, formerly Main, few
races were left of the old activity. There was in the early 70's a
saloon, kept for awhile by Dort, and a restaurant by Hoagland, and
some minor business done there.

On the side street running east from Main was the Hare Photograph
Gallery (S.E. of present Martin Grocery), a blacksmith shop
(Claypool?) and on the opposite side was the Logan blacksmith shop.

Now for Main Street.

Far to the north end of Main Street on the west side was John Morton's
hardware store in the middle of the block where the lumber yard
stands. South of him was the Reddie lumber yard. Across the street
south was the Higgins lumber yard, a furniture store belonging to
Harper who sold to another who sold to Hiram Tilley; Dr. Jas. McAdoo
Drugs; Patterson's hardware store, then a space at the end occupied by
A.G. Davis home.

On the opposite block, in the late 70's was the Stone-Menefee
warehouse for wagons and implements. South of them was a home built
by __________ and later the Higgins home. The Red Front drug store -
B.P. Doddridge, later R.W. Napier. The New York store and Harvey Dry
Goods in the big Kelso building. The old Grange store and later the
Rhodus store; then Houston-Spratt bank. The first block on the north
of the railroad west side had several changes and some stores may be
omitted. In the J.C. Penney store site was a dry goods store
belonging successively to Rohrbough, Davis and Brosius, Davis and
Gunby, and O'Neil and Wilson. Above the store, was De Stevens,
Dentist. Along that side at various times were Claypool and Rymal,
meats; L.M. Love, music store; Harry Dickinson, Tailor; C.B. Franke,
Dry Goods; Wm. Goodman, hotel; grocery and saloon; C.C. Greene, meat
market; (and Greene and Sain) Frank Van Buren, grocery at the south
east corner of the block.

On the opposite side at the north end were (not all at one time) the
new brick of Rohrbough and Moore, south of it was the Reed Store,
Ervin Drug Store, Jacob Goldberg, Dry goods; Bob Williams, drug store,
Minger Restaurant, Simon Bernheimer, General store; the Paxton livery
barn at the south corner. South of the tracks on the west side was
the office of Squire Holliday. There was a gap. John Marens had his
News Graphic on the row. Later, a building from up town was moved
down for an office of Penney and Dildine, the south corner was empty
for a while but later J.W. Fowler had a shed grocery there. Set back
in the lot was Witwer wagon yard.

On the east side opposite was the elevator-Lamson-Love, Love-Low, etc.
just south of the tracks. To the south ran Griffing wagon shop, a
saloon kept by Tanner awhile, law offices of B.M. Dilley, W.W. Chapel,
Seth Young, Eugene Lowe, etc. Hamiltonian office, R.H. Benedict,
grocer; Harve Farabee, post office followed by bookstore, C.A. Greene.
White's grocery. To the south was the Daley and then Harper, then
Colby lumber yard and McBrayer livery barn.

All has now been told in an imperfect way perhaps, except the street
with the Hamilton House south of the depot. The Brosius men kept it
up to a high standard, but after they left it began to lose out. East
of it was a grocery called the "Oasis" in slang probably with
something to drink there. The next was Hugh Buford (colored) barber.

Of course Frank Clark's flour mill ran east of town. Interviewed
February 1932.

~~~~~~~~~~

THE OGDEN FAMILY AT HAMILTON IN THE 70'S 
Narrator: Minnie Ogden, 75,
of Hamilton, Missouri

The Ogden Property Trees and Dances

Robert Ogden, father of the narrator, lived in Ontario County, N.Y.
He decided to make a western trip in 1871 to prospect. He went to
Illinois and Michigan where he had relatives and then to Hamilton,
Mo., where his relatives Dr. Robt. Brown and Mrs. Geo. Barlow lived.
He was delighted as he watched Brown plough all day long and not hit a
stone (plenty of stones in N.Y.) and here was plenty of grass for
cattle on the open prairie. He straightway hunted up a town house for
sale. He bought the property of R.B. Houston, banker, for $3,000.00.
There were six lots and a two story house. This stayed Ogden property
till Dec. 1910 when Miss Ogden sold it. The Parr and Whitman homes
now stand on the land. This half block was originally part of the
A.G. Davis holdings. She says that he once had a great pile of rocks
there intending to build a store; and in 1867 when the agitation arose
to move the courthouse from Kingston to Hamilton a foundation for the
courthouse was actually built there. She recalls that when her father
built an addition to his home, he used the rocks of the so-called
courthouse foundation.

Mr. Ogden supported his family mostly by the interest on his money.
He had about $10,000.00 and this he loaned at 10 percent. Also, they
always had room in the big house for boarders, teachers preferred.
Some of their boarders were Judge Holliday, Ella Griffith, a high
school teacher, and Miss Anna Smith, a grade teacher. A story shows
how few trees were here then and also it shows how slow the trains
were. Miss Smith always went home to Kidder for the week-end. From
the upper window, she could see the train leaving Breckenridge. When
it left Nettleton, she would start for the depot, some seven blocks
away and get there in time to buy a ticket. When the Odgens came,
trees were very rare. The Menafee family who lived across the road
(Dr. Eads' home) had several soft maples in their yard. Minnie and
her sister Cora were amazed at the maple pips (they did not have soft
maples in New York). They collected some and planted them in a box.
Later, their father set them out and from that origin all the trees on
those six lots started. There were plenty of dances then. Among
the good dancers were George Hastings ( a grocer on Broadway in the
70's) who often led girls out on the floor; John Minger and wife who
in German style waltzed straight ahead without reversing. Mollie
Davis Brosius, Clara Reddie, Mollie Harrah, Maude Goodman (Hosmer),
Reila Aikens were all good dancers. Dances were held in the new brick
school before the seats were fastened in, later in Rohrbough's Hall
and Kelso's Hall. The waltz and the square dance were favorites.
Organ and fiddles made the music. The walls were lined with
spectators. 

Interviewed March 1934.

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This page was last updated September 24, 2006.