(Group #-03-Letters published in the 1980s by Edna Drexler)



Group #-03-Letters
published in the 1980s
by Edna Drexler


After my aunt, Ruth Komis, died in the fall of 2002, I found that she had collected and pasted so now very faded news clippings from the The Jimplicute, Scott City, MO, and pasted them on pages which she was keeping writings of her mother, Edna Drexler.
These documents are very difficult to read because they are so faded.
However, I have been retyping them into documents and making them available to other family members by posting them on this Internet page.
Many include memories from the very early 1900s of Scott City.
Submitted by Donald L Williams Poster-#-25-



Group #-03-Letters published in the 1980s by Edna Drexler

  • Editor

    The Jumplicute

     

    Dear Editor:

     

    The years 1905-1906 and 1907 were busy ones in our towns.

    The clang of saws and bang of hammers were heard all around as the building of homes and business places were being rushed to completion. The homes were new and nice and the people were happy. Business came from Grayspoint to locate here. There was a fine jewelry store owned by Mr. Pickhorn. Emil Steck was a teller in the bank located in the Emil Hillman building. Then there was a big general store A & D Schiefer (Ed and Dana Schiefer) who came from Indiana. The Bollinger butcher shop and Weilputz Bakery were some of the other businesses in town. The little white church was up on a hill and the school was held in the city hall building and taught by Lois (Smith) Williams.

    There were doctors who came to our town. A young doctor by the name of Shell Hutton came from Kelso. Also, Dr. G. S. Cannon came from Grayspoint to practice here. Dr. Cannon became a leader in the community and many will remember him. (He served on the school board and he also served as mayor.)

    Edna Drexler

     

    Editor

    The Jimplicute

    Scott City, Mo.

     

    Dear Editor,

    I want to tell the story of the beginnings of our three towns, Illmo, Scott City (Edna-Fornfelt) and Ancell. I lived not more than three miles from all the happenings that were taking place in these towns. It was so exciting to me to hear all the stories about the new people and the new buildings in town.

    Scott City was as Edna then. I was fascinated with this queer little town. Large numbers of railroad men and their families were coming into town and there were no houses for them. So all sorts of buildings were hastily put up for them; some were no more than sheds. But the people lived in anything they could find until better houses could be built. Business came, too. They had to use makeshift buildings at first. People had to have food and clothing.

    In 1905 I moved to Scott City, and I saw many changes take place in the three towns. In Scott City, know at this time as Fornfelt, The main street was divided by the railroad into the north and south main streets. On the south side of main street, there were quite a few businesses. A big two-story building had a grocery and clothing store on the first floor, and the Methodist Church held services on the second floor. (Aunt Lois and Uncle Grover lived on the south side and had a very nice house which burned down.) Then there was a butcher shop. Mr. Bollinger, who came from Grayspoint, ran the shop. There was the shoe repair shop of Mr. Gibson. On the street behind South Main Street was the McGaugh Boarding House and the Losse Saloon and Dance Hall (My mother knew Juanita Losse, whose father was Al Losse. May Losse, her mother, later ran a boarding house on the north side after the other place burned down and they also had a saloon over there. Juanita married the banker�s brother and this was considered quite a step up for her. She was a nervous girl who had allergies. The boarding house was next door to the saloon and housed men who frequented the saloon.)

    The rest of the area had tents and shacks scattered about. North Main Street had a bank and a drug store and the big Baudendistel store that had everything for sale: clothing , groceries, and furniture.. (It was Coy Drug Store, and the Tomlinsons ran the bank. The Baudendistel was a general store that had dry goods and groceries and they delivered your goods. People bought there on credit.) Also, there were about five saloons located about the town. (There was a lot of drunkedness.)

    Illmo was named in honor of the big railroad bridge across the Mississippi River joining the two states of Illinois and Missouri.

    Ancell was hardly a town in those days. As a child of five years old going with my father to the railroad depot there, my father backed his wagon up to the freight platform of the depot to pick up a trunk belonging to my aunt. She had come to visit us. Only a few houses were built here and there in Ancell, and it was later on that Mr. Arnold set up a business (a general store). It is my opinion that his brothers were in business with him then.

    It was a happy time for me watching three towns grow. Many, many changes had come with the years. More homes, nice ones, had been built and the coming of the big railroad roundhouse and the box factory gave people more jobs and brought new people to the towns. All the improvements today (approximately 1983) make me remember yesteryears.

     

    (Notes in italics represent information and comments made by my mother as she listened to this letter.)



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