• Woodrow Wilson has been elected president and the nation has entered the Age of Reform. Gallatin struggles to stay up-to-date. Tunsten street lights are installed around the square. “A cross arm of two lights is put on each post, and they give the Gallatin business district the appearance of a white way….It is a very cheerful improvement. (June 12, 1913)
  • Another big improvement is being made in Dockery Park — the home of the Daviess County Chautauqua. “The contract has been let for the installation of modern toilets on the grounds…” (July 30, 1914)

Tents were erected during Chautauqua festivities of yesteryear held at Dockery Park in Gallatin, MO (date unknown)

  • Most houses are now wired for electricity.
  • “Penn Love has installed an electric washing machine for Homer Feurt this week and from all reports this machine makes wash day a picnic and a pastime instead of a drudgery and nerve wrecker. The wash is put in the machine with the hot water and soap, you press the button and the machine does the rest. With the electric washer, electric irons and an electric range, housework is made a pleasure. Mr. Love will supply you with any of these accessories to marital happiness.”
  • Gallatin is mightily behind times when it comes to street improvement, and must wake up to the necessity of paving. “No other town in N.W. Missouri, the size of Gallatin, is without street paving…Just why Gallatin does not pave we cannot understand with natural resources or rock and sand on hand.” (July 19, 1917)
  • Car maker Henry Ford introduced his Model T automobile in 1908. The horse gives way to the automobile, the horse trader to the car dealer, the blacksmith to the mechanic. In the summer of 1913, the Maxwell was the popular vehicle in the area.
  • “What we term a real auto record was made in a new Maxwell 35-4…J. T. Cope returned from Kansas City Tuesday night in a new 1913 beauty…made the run of 106 miles, registered by the speedometer, and used only five gallons of gasoline, an average of 21 miles to the gallon.” (Aug. 14, 1913)
  • Keeping up the roads was a community affair. Every able bodied citizen took up a pick and shovel. Good Road Days in Missouri was a proclamation with dates fixed by the Governor Major. “George Lockridge, county highway engineer, is now engaged in organizing the county for the two days work, and everybody should get their road tools ready for big doings on the roads.” (Aug, 1913)
  • Rural schools with those endearing names — Shady Grove, Brushy Creek, Prairie Valley, Roasting Ear — have begun to consolidate. “The schools included in the consolidation are Jameson, Laswell, Brown, Beck, Brushy Creek and Grant. This will be the first consolidated school district in Daviess county…The Coffey district, including Coffey, McClary, Burnes, Feurt, Freeport, Shady Grove and a small part of the Everly district, will vote on the question of consolidation next Monday…The Blake district, including the Goodbar, McClung, Mann, Prairie Valley and Fairview schools, will vote March 18.” (March 5, 1914)
  • Upset with “that pile of brick and mortar in the southeastern suburbs of Gallatin now known as Grand River Academy” the Commercial Club committee was appointed to see what could be done in the matter of compelling William Jewell to return the property to the people of Gallatin. An infirmary was considered.
  • “There is a strong sentiment in the county favorable to disposing of the poor farm and the building of a home that will properly house the unfortunates kept at the farm. (July 17, 1913)
  • Ultimately, the property was purchased by Dr. E.W. Dow for an exclusively girls’ college. (April 23, 1914)
  • The farming community refuses to lag behind the rest of the world. Floyd Tuggle, one of Daviess county’s most progressive farmers, last week purchased an all steel gas tractor, “the modern farm horse,” the first in Daviess county for use on his farm and the roads…. It will run about five miles per hour on high speed and more than two miles an hour on low speed. (Aug. 14, 1913)

Yesteryear farm scene in Daviess County, MO (date unknown)

  • Cattle, hogs, sheep, having nothing to crow about when the big Daviess County Poultry Show is in full force. More than 40 person made entries with approximately 400 birds in the show.
  • “Step into the Alexander building on the west side of the square — you’ll hear music — not piano or violin, but rooster and hen music, made by blooded birds from everywhere….There you will find the best the poultry industry produces housed in pretty little coops… pleasing little tags on each coop to tell you what kind of chickens… an elaborate state exhibit in the northeast corner of the room, incubators, courteous attendants who will tell you all about it….” (Jan. 22, 1914)
  • The Daviess County Farm Bureau or Farmers Association is organized at a meeting in Gallatin. Hon. Wm. Hirth of Columbia, editor of the Missouri Farmer, addressed the assembly:
  • “For a long time there has been something radically wrong with farm conditions. It has been a case with the farmer of accepting the other fellow’s price for everything they sold and accepting the other fellows’ price for everything they bought….The farmer is a mere helpless producer. He has nothing to say as to what his commodity shall bring.” (July 5, 1917)
  • Resources are still being discovered in the area, including a vein rich in silver on the McCrary farm is in the south part of Sheridan township and on Marrowbone creek. (Jan. 1, 1914) and: “What is supposed to be a good flow of natural gas was accidentally brought in while drilling for water at the farm of James Realing…five miles northeast of Lock Springs….Mr. Realing left Sunday for Kansas City to secure the services of an expert — as he does not know whether to “shoot” the well or not. (April 11, 1918)
  • The income tax and Federal Reserve system are created in this decade. Not everyone fares so well in the new world of commerce and consumption.
  • “The failure of George & Robinson, the rock crusher people, has been made more complicated by bankruptcy proceedings. (April 27, 1911)
  • The American railways already faced ever increasing costs of operation. The European war which started in Aug. 1914, suddenly brought American railroads face to face with the gravest crisis in their history.
  • “…with the financial markets of England, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and Holland indefinitely closed to them — it means that they must henceforth finance all their requirements within the U.S. Not only that, but in their frenzy for ready gold these countries are frantically seeking to dispose of big blocks of the nearly five billion dollars’ worth of American railroad securities that they now hold. It was this “dumping” process which forced the closing of the New York Stock Exchange some weeks ago.” (Oct. 1, 1914)
  • Nature creates her own difficulties for the people of the region. Daviess County is swept by flood twice this decade. In 1915 it was a May flood and a July flood, too. In 1917 it was a June flood.(June 17, 1917)
  • Heat records are broken in the days before air conditioning. “Electric fans, hand-fans, the cool water pitchers and the ice man have all been working overtime this week in their efforts to give the people some relief from the extremely hot weather. The mercury has been above the 100 mark at many points…The courthouse yard is one of the favorite places for those looking for a cool spot. (July 17, 1913)
  • Deadly small pox is rampant throughout the US early in the decade. There is an outbreak in the community that results in widespread alarm. “Dr. Chas. Pipkin, president of the Board of Health for the City of Gallatin, informs us this week that there is not a single case of smallpox in Gallatin, the last case having been dismissed from quarantine Tuesday….Parties who for a time were alarmed and afraid to come to Gallatin by reason of the exaggerated reports of the disease, now are coming to realize that Gallatin is in fact the safest place they could go because the authorities have had successful experience in handling the disease…(Dec. 15, 1910)
  • For the most part things are swell. Daviess Countians dance the tango and listen to ragtime. Five cents is now the price of admission to the movies at the Gem.???? Baseball is truly the national pastime and draws 30,000,000 people a year.
  • “There are over 35 leagues under the National Commission, with six to eight clubs apiece, playing an average, possibly, of 130 games to the season…..And even the figures don’t begin to measure popular interest. Where is the town that doesn’t get the returns by wire? Think of the playographs in every major league city and the crowds they draw. (An extract from the American Magazine)
  • Citizens hunt, fish and seem to undergo a craze for the great outdoors.
  • “The “New City of Providence” is nearing completion at Wynne’s dry dock, east side square, and will soon be ready to launch for pleasure traffic on Grand River. It is built on more artistic lines under the nautical skill of that “old river rat” Frank Wynne and looks as graceful as a swan and its builder claims will ride the rolling waves of Grand River with as much ease and as little likelihood of turning topsy-turvy. Only an experienced bare back rider could stay in the old “City of Providence” when it was in motion and it was always considered policy to steer her into shallow water and hold her when Charley Myers changed his cud of tobacco from one side of his mouth to the other. The launching of the “New City of Providence” will be an epoch in Grand River navigation.”
  • J.C. McDonald of Jameson has the distinction of establishing the first summer camp on the banks of Grand River.” His camp is equipped with modern conveniences and his steel row boat affords means of pleasant river tips as well as proper care for his lines…Frequently there is a pilgrimage of Mormons from Utah to the scenes as of their early day settlements near Mr. McDonald’s camp…”
  • Women strive to keep the move toward progress wholesome. Soldiers of family values and virtues, they march down the streets of Gallatin to stamp out untoward social vices.
  • “Prohibition must eventually win,” states the editor of the Gallatin Democrat, “The Fight is on to a finish.” “The prohibition amendment was defeated by a large majority in the state at large, although Daviess County gave the amendment a majority of nearly six hundred….” (Nov. 24, 1910)

A fanciful pitcher for “John Barleycorn”

  • Daviess County women formed their own temperance movement, combining religious fervor with the fight to ban liquor. Service was held at the Methodist church last Sunday night, under the direction of the Community Interest League. It was a temperance service of marked interest and zeal…(July 3, 1913)
  • These are women of action: “A little company of Gallatin women who were standing on the sidewalk near the Andrews racket store Saturday afternoon during the festivities of the stock show noticed that quite a number of men, young and old, were going up the stairs leading to the Odd Fellows’ hall and the upper rooms of the Hamilton buildings adjoining. The actions of the men convinced the women that a drinking joint was be operated upstairs, and they decided to interfere with the procession of burning thirst. The women lined up across the doorway leading upstairs, and after two or three appeals form men to let them through the line, which they turned down, they noticed that no further effort was being made to get in….they discovered that the procession was gaining admission to the upper refreshment chamber by a back stairway. …the women made an investigation of the upstairs. But if there had been any booze up there, the boys had either drank it all or had sneaked it out the back way, because the crusaders found neither bootleggers or booze. The raid created quite a little excitement, and has put a real scare into the local booze dispensers. And now is a mighty good time for the law violators of this town to quit business. (Oct. 1, 1914)
  • Men are more or less appreciative of the women trying to keep them in line. “Josephine — that’s my wife — is most generally with me after dark. I reckon they is a reason. I got a cow the home place that I named Josephine, because she is so stubborn. Josephine had a bull calf that was allus breakin’ through the fence, a gittin’ into the clover. I seen Josephine — that’s my cow — many a time stand in front of the weak spot in the fence and keep that thar caff from goin through. Just like Josephine — that’s my wife — many a time has she stood between me and temptation by pullin’ me past one of them cheap theaturs.” (Jan. 26, 1910)
  • Women may be moving toward a new independence, but men are still inclined to protect them the old-fashioned way. “…The young men… followed the Sheriff’s daughter and a young girl friend, Miss Fay Elmore, home from the Gem, annoying them by fresh remarks. When informed of the matter Sheriff Blair came back up town with the girls and finding the young men in the office of the Windsor hotel did a little “mashing” of his own account. He knocked one of the fresh ones down twice and gave him a severe pummeling, but while so engaged the other masher, who had been the more persistent in his advances with the young ladies, rushed out the door and saved himself by fast foot work.” (Jan. 2, 1911)
  • The friction between the United States and Mexico had threatened for two years or more to result in open warfare. Mexicans employed by the railroad were apt to run into wholesale prejudice by the locals: “There was great excitement in the Mexican colony here Monday. Two of the natives came up from St. Joseph looking for one of their fellow country men who had left the camp near there and took one of the other fellows wife. From the excitement and jabbering among them it would seem that the unwritten law would be in full force and effect should they overtake the guilty Greaser. (Altamont items)
  • The Mexican “crisis” faded from public view with the entrance of the U.S. into the world war in 1917. Times changed. Prosperity would revert to shortages and rationing. Still the country entered the war with considerable enthusiasm. This is, after all, the war to end all wars and to make the world safe for democracy.
  • The Daviess County quota for the draft was raised from 80 to 130. (Aug. 2, 1917) One young man — Leonard Patterson — is the first man, number 258, to be drafted into the national army after a lottery held in Washington, D.C. (July 26, 1917)
  • Over 50,000 Yanks die in combat “over there.” Even more die of disease.
  • “The first young man from this county to give up his life in the great international struggle was Daniel Collier of Jamesport who died at Camp Funston, Kans, of spinal meningitis. (Nov. 29, 1917)
  • Daviess Countians take the discomfort of war in stride. A local fuel committee is organized to “investigate prices and supply in the county.” (Nov. 22, 1917)
  • The food conservation plan is “directed toward saving wheat, meat, fat and sugar, because these are staple products of which there is an immense shortage.” (Oct. 25, 1917)
  • The coal situation in Gallatin is acute and with zero weather in our midst, the problem of fuel is a serious one. Many homes are practically without coal….Local dealers are expecting a shipment every day. No dealer in town has a pound on hand. (Jan. 10, 1918)
  • Women begin to work in factories. Everybody does their bit. They “give until it hurts” — the slogan of the Red Cross campaign. (June 20, 1917)
  • They help Uncle Sam by investing in War Certificates, Thrift Stamps, Liberty bonds and the Y.M.C.A. War Fund Campaign.
  • The Star Theatre, is showing the popular movie, “The Kaiser, Beast of Berlin.” (June 13, 1918)
  • Congress outlaws criticism of the government. Spies and saboteurs are everywhere.
  • “The newspapers over the country are warning everybody against purchasing articles — such as court plaster, mending tissue, etc., from peddlers. Many instances are reported in the U.S. that enemies are selling this stuff and that it contains the germs of leprosy, tuberculosis, typhoid, etc., etc. DO NOT purchase anything from an agent that you do not know — not even lead pencils. (July 26, 1917)
  • Farmers are asked to raise more poultry. “No other source of animal food offers such quick returns as the raising of poultry.” (Nov. 29, 1917).
  • A decade earlier, it was horse thieves that met swift justice. Times have changed. “Because of recent depredations of chicken thieves in the neighborhood, the Prairie Hill Co-Operative Club of Jefferson township is offering a cash reward of $100 for the arrest and conviction of any person stealing chickens, or other property from any of its members. The Club members declare they are going to employ every possible means to bring the guilty parties to justice.”
  • The soldiers who do make it back, having survived new and bloody technology — armored tanks, machine guns, poisonous gas — now face the Spanish flu pandemic which will result in the death of 550,000 Americans.

— researched and presented by Wilbur Bush of Gallatin, MO


 

A flower parade was part of the 1901 Gallatin Street Fair.

Details shown in this scene of the Gallatin Street Fair of 1903 include a large clock (foreground) and a bandstand and tents on the courthouse lawn. The street clock was located in front of Davis Drug Store on East Main Street. Thus, the view of this photo is from the storefront, looking west.

This photo of the Daviess County Savings Association, on the southwest corner of the square, was taken in 1903. Standing from left: Robert Foster, Allen Place, John Roney, John Leopard, A.M. Irving, James Hunter, Wm Sheets (brother of Capt. John Sheets), J.T. Day, Jacob Mettle (in doorway), Wm Yeisley, Wm Pendleton, James Vandyke, Thomas J. Crain, Arch Cope, Joseph Koger, J.B. (Pole) Brown, Samuel McDonald, E.M. Mann, Charles McCoy, Thomas Hemry; seated from left: Wm Fisher, Mathew R. Mann, S.P. Cox, Benton Miller, D. Harfield Davis.

This GHS football team posted a perfect 5-0 record in 1904. Shown are: Coach Jack Grover, Vincent Brandom (LG), Ralph Cline (LT), Clarence Beck (HB), Ralph Davis (HB), Preston Alexander (HB), Ed Sawyer (C), Alex Richardson (FB), Capt. Boyd Dudley (QB), Rufus Howard (RG), James Gillispie (E), Prof. Fred Haynes (mgr.) Harry McClure (E), and Fred Harrison (mascot). Scores were as follows: GHS over GRC, 21-0; GHS over Trenton, 5-2; GHS over Cameron, 11-0; GHS over Hamilton, 52-0; GHS over Trenton, 16-0. [identification by Mrs. Alberta Brown]

National fiscal policies favoring national banks originated in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the National Currency Act. A national bank could circulate notes with a total value that depended on the value of securities if deposited with the U.S. Treasurer. Local banks could loan 90 cents for every dollar paid. The currency was delivered in large sheets to the local bank where individual bills were cut; irregularities make these bills extremely valuable to collectors today. Not all banks, even those chartered as national banks, issued money. A charter was good for 20 years. When a bank bought out another bank or holding company, the buying bank’s name might be shown on the bill with the purchased bank’s charter number. This example was issued by the First National Bank of Gallatin, when Chas. Henry was bank president operating facilities on the south side of the Gallatin business square. (circa 1897-1901; courtesy Jim Mogg, Hamilton)

This church was formed by the union of the First Presbyterian and Cumberland Presbyterian churches in 1905. The Presbyterian Church union was merged and the name Cumberland was dropped. The new brick building was 60’x57′ with the auditorium at 32’x50′ and lecture room at 20’x42′ with a classroom in front. The lecture room and auditorium were separated by a door which could be raised or lowered from the ceiling. When raised, nearly 500 hundred people could be seated.

A basketball team of notoriety was the Allen Brothers, circa 1905. Shown here are Home P. Allen (A1), Elmer M. Allen (A2), Harry “Pete” Allen (A3), Forrest “Phog” Allen (A4), Hubert Allen (A5), and Richard Allen (A6) with Homer White Allen as team mascot. Phog Allen was born at Jamesport, MO (the “Allen Addition” in Jamesport was organized by Phog Allen’s father). Phog Allen became known as the “Father of Basketball Coaching” and was inducted as a Hall of Fame Basketball Coach in 2006. He learned under the game’s inventor, Dr. James Naismith, and lettered at the University of Kansas in 1905-07. Phog Allen coached Central Missouri State University to a 102-7 record from 1912-17 with championships every year. His Jayhawk teams at KU won 24 conference championships and one NCAA title in 1952. He was a driving force in getting basketball accepted as an official sport in the 1936 Olympics. At his retirement in 1956, Forrest “Phog” Allen held what was then a national record of 746 coaching victories. He died at age 88 in Lawrence, KS. The home of Jayhawk basketball bears his name today: Allen Field House.

Postcard scene of groundbreaking for the Daviess County Courthouse in Gallatin, MO. In the background is the northwest corner of the square, including the Oddfellows Bldg. (center) and the Gallatin Hotel (right).The back of this card is postmarked Dec. 24, 1906.

This Shultz Studio photo shows the laying of the cornerstone for the Daviess County Courthouse. Former Missouri Gov. A.M. Dockery of Gallatin is standing next to the cornerstone. Dockery was involved in nearly every local event of note. He was cashier and secretary of the Farmers Exchange Bank for 13 years before entering politics and elected office.

Members of Masonic Lodge led a ceremonial procession as part of the setting of a cornerstone of the Daviess County Courthouse on May 24, 1907. This scene unfolded on the east side of the Gallatin square after the courthouse foundation was pronounced satisfactory.

Gunfighter Jim Warford (alias Jim Lambert)

Jim Warford, alias Jim Lambert who grew up at Pattonsburg, MO, became a well-known and much feared gunman in Cripple Creek, CO, from 1903 to 1912. These were times when gunplay and dynamite punctuated showdowns between the Mine Owners Association and the Western Federation of Miners. Lambert was born in Liberty, Clark County, Iowa. But in 1868 beginning at age 3, he spent his childhood on his father’s farm west of old Pattonsburg and Elm Flat Station in Benton Township, Daviess County, MO. (Daviess County records indicate that Jim tried farming on his own in the summers of 1886-87; he may have gone west in 1888 at age 23.)

Gunfighter Jim Warford of Pattonsburg, MO, alias Jim Lambert, became a well-known and much feared gunman in Cripple Creek, CO, from 1903 to 1912.

1908: Model T car maker Henry Ford introduces his Model T automobile. By 1927, when it is discontinued, 15.5 million Models T’s will be sold in the U.S. Ford owes much of his success to his improved assembly line process, which by 1913 will produce a complete Model T every 93 minutes.

Before constructing a new brick facility across the street, Gallatin Motor Company operated a Ford dealership from the McClaskey Building (later to house Woodruff Ice Cream Factory) at 211 North Main Street. New Ford Model-T cars are shown at right. The newspaper office of the Gallatin North Missourian was next door at left.

Gallatin Motor Company moved its Ford dealership at 211 North Main across the street into this larger, new brick building at 212 North Main Street. New Ford Model-T cars are shown.

This building was constructed in 1908 when Gallatin was the smallest town in the U.S. to have such a YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) building. It operated as such for nearly 20 years before its activities waned. Gallatin Mayor Henry J. Lynch led a civic effort to purchase (for a nominal fee) and convert the property into Gallatin City Hall by 1930. (1915 photo)

This postcard shows Grand River Academy, postmarked 1909. Grand River College became Grand River Academy and served as a preparatory school for William Jewell College when William Jewell College agreed to pay off the mortgage and provide an endowment for the institution. The school was directed at that time by Dr. Dow. In 1909 a $6,000 dormitory was erected but the Academy closed the following year in 1910.

A shootout with law officers followed by an extensive manhunt occurred on March 29, 1909, in Daviess County, MO. Three bandits, running from burglaries at Spickard, MO, were traveling on an eastbound freight train when they were discovered while the train stopped at this depot in Jamesport. The bandits used bottles of nitro to steal jewelry, loot and equipment and thus were named the “Nitro Chism Gang.” Earl Chism died from gunshot wounds. Once caught, Roy Chism served a 5-year sentence at Leavenworth, KS; Harvey Chism was later arrested in Bloomington, IL.

This post card scene shows the junction of two railroad lines east of the Grand River at Gallatin, MO, in 1909.

This is the Wabash Depot at Pattonsburg, MO, soon after the 1909 flood of the Grand River. (courtesy Carman Antiques)

Built prior to the 1909 flood, this bridge spanned the Grand River south of Jameson on Kodiak Road (County road 586). The high water mark of the 1909 flood was painted on the northeast truss of the bridge. The bridge had a single 180’ steel through truss main span. The total length of the bridge with approaches was 280.9 feet. It had a 15’9” wide wooden plank roadway deck. In February, 1980, the bridge was deemed inadequate for the school bus to cross. The bridge was swept downstream during the flood of 1993 and replaced with a concrete span in 1996. The replacement bridge crosses the river upstream of the Guthrie Bridge pictured.

This scene shows East Side Lake Street in Lock Springs after a major fire on Aug. 29, 1909. The estimated property loss was $25,000. The J. F. Brown Lumber Company is shown in the background. The postcard photo was taken by Moren [postcard shared by Peggy Wickizer].

The 1909 Grand River Academy “Invincibles” football team photo of Gallatin, MO.

1910: Halley’s comet. China abolishes slavery. Thomas Edison demonstrates “talkie” movies. In Seattle, Washington women win vote. Aviator Charles Hamilton flies first heavier-than-air flight here. Union Pacific arrives.

The Braymer Concert Band is shown at Lock Springs on this postcard photo dated 1910. The only identification marks Irvin Eads, among those standing before the business building for groceries, hardware & implements.

The Winston Bank and Odd Fellows Lodge I00F in 1910. (courtesy Jim Mogg, Hamilton)

The Thompson Blacksmith Shop operated in 1910 in Coffey, MO. The business was located north of the city park. Henry Monroe Rector Thompson built a new house next to this shop in 1918. Lewis Paul Thompson, son of Henry Thompson, also operated the shop (courtesy Tommy Thompson, Pattonsburg)


1910 Missouri Farmer Away, Led Astray

A Missouri farmer away from home and Josephine. The farmer was in Dalhart, Texas. He was a railroad official, there to help the agriculture commissioner run the farms in the 14 states along the Rock Island. The Missouri farmer was Thomas Jefferson Putnam. Here’s the story, as presented on Jan. 26, 1910:

“I must tell you all somethin’ about my trip down here. Cottrell told me to go it along till he could come from the land show at Chicago. While I ain’t so overly religious and set in my ways, I’m pretty dern kearful around home where I go of a evening’. Josephine — that’s my wife — is most generally with me after dark. I reckon they is a reason. I got a cow the home place that I named Josephine, because she is so stubborn. Josephine had a bull calf that was allus breakin’ through the fence, a gittin’ into the clover. I seen Josephine — that’s my cow — many a time stand in front of the weak spot in the fence and keep that thar caff from goin’ through.

“Just like Josephine — that’s my wife — many a time has she stood between me and temptation by pullin’ me past one of them cheap theaturs. But just as soon as Josephine — that’s my cow — had turned her back, that caff would be through the fence. And as soon as I got out of sight of Josephine — that’s my wife — I got into one of them cheap theaturs.

“…and there was a leetle gal a-dancin’ till I thought her feet would break off. I felt sorry fur her right on the jump, and I thought of how the poor gal must suffer in them thin duds on such a chilly night… Well, by and by the show was over and I do say I was a deal troubled by conscience if I done right or not in seein’ such goings on. When I got on my train the conductor says they got nothin’ left but uppers… I clumb in and was soon snorin’ I drempt about that consarned show all night. About 8:30 I heard the porter callin’ me, sayin’: “What’s the mattah wif you all?” I riz up and there I was with my feet twisted around the brass rod, a trying to de a slack wire stunt and the hull car up and gigglin’ their fool heads off.

“That’s what a old fool like me gets fur breakin’ through the barbwire fence.”


This 1910 postcard scene displays Altamont Main Street, looking north.

In 1910 fire gutted the Woodruff Hotel, located on the south side of Gallatin’s business square.

Fire which occurred in 1910 damaged the Woodruff Hotel, located on the south side of the Gallatin square. Reconstruction assured continued use during the ensuing years.

Looking south on Davis Street in Winston, MO, circa 1910. (courtesy Jim Mogg, Hamilton)


Fitterer Grocery & Bakery was founded by Enos Fitterer in 1877. By 1900 the bakery was producing some 5,000 loaves of bread each week. But times changed. Factory-prepared cake or panroll mixes were being sold directly to households. Other factors were the large city bakeries and their daily truck deliveries. By 1949, less than 1,000 loaves of bread were being produced and pastry-making had dwindled accordingly. Then the Fitterer sons, Frank and Oscar, renamed the business named the M.E. Fitterer’s Sons Grocery and Bakery. In 1903, some of the store’s features were 57 varieties of apple butter kept in stone crocks and sold by the pound. Farmer’s products were purchased and they often received 12 cents per dozen for eggs which could be used either for cash or for trade. The old brick ovens became cold and unused in 1949.

This is the men’s side of the Rosenthal & Haas General Store (ca 1900) with Alex Haas and Homer Brown pictured. The door at left led to the groceries; on the right was the women’s and more general merchandise.

Note: Printed editions of the Gallatin North Missourian and the Gallatin Democrat are preserved on microfilm and available for viewing at the Daviess County Library, 306 West Grand Street, Gallatin, MO 64640


1910-1920 National News Notes

1910:

  • Halley’s comet.
  • China abolishes slavery.
  • Thomas Edison demonstrates “talkie” movies.
  • In Seattle, Washington women win vote.
  • Aviator Charles Hamilton flies first heavier-than-air flight here.
  • Union Pacific arrives.

1911:

  • Roald Amundsen first to South Pole. In Seattle, Port of Seattle created.
  • Broadway High grad Arthur Freed opens music shop, later becomes
  • Hollywood producer of “Singin’ in the Rain” in 1940s.

1912:

  • Woodrow Wilson elected president. Titanic sinks.
  • Geologist Aldred Wegener proposes continental-drift theory.
  • In Seattle, bill posters organize, halibut fishermen strike, miners locked out.
  • Grace Presbyterian Church founded, joining Mount Zion Baptist Church as centers for black community.

1913:

  • Panama Canal opens
  • Sixteenth and 17th constitutional amendments create income tax and Federal Reserve system.
  • In Seattle, NAACP chapter formed.
  • First auto ferry, Leschi, tested.

1914:

  • Black South Africans protest white land grab. Nine million Japanese starve.
  • In Seattle, Nellie Cornish, Boston-trained music teacher, founds Cornish School.
  • Ahavath Ahim (Jewish) congregation founded. West Seattle’s
  • Youngstown steel-mill strike

1915:

  • Ocean liner Lusitania sinks.
  • D.W. Griffith’s film “Birth of a Nation” opens.
  • Somerset Maugham’s book “Of Human Bondage” published.
  • In Seattle, Herbert Munter builds first airplane on Harbor Island.
  • Coliseum, first American grand movie palace, opens.
  • Longshoremen, ship workers, road workers strike.

1916:

  • Wilson re-elected.
  • Mexican Pancho Villa loses at Chihuahua.
  • Easter Sunday Irish patriot uprising.
  • Author Jack London dies.
  • Montana’s Jeannette Rankin, formerly active in Seattle social services, is first U.S. congresswoman.
  • Boeing launches Aero Products Co., later The Boeing Co.

1917:

  • U.S. enters World War I.
  • Bolshevik revolution.
  • In Seattle, Lake Washington Ship Canal opens.
  • In addition to other strikes, building trades strike construction jobs to protest lumber from mills with 10 hour shifts.

1918:

  • War ends in armistice.
  • World flu pandemic.
  • In Seattle, railway terminals consolidate, ending travel chaos.

1919:

  • Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata killed.
  • First atoms “split.”
  • In Seattle, Boeing and pilot Eddie Hubbard deliver first international air mail to Vancouver, B.C.
  • City acquires streetcar system.
  • The movement to ban liquor grew from the temperance movement out West, where alcoholism and lawlessness were rampant after the Civil War and Gold Rush days. In 1874, the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement formed to combine religious fervor with the fight against liquor.

1913

  • 5,000 suffragists march in Washington, D.C. for the women’s rights movement.

1915

  • A petition with 500,000 signatures in support of women’s suffrage amendment is given to President Woodrow Wilson.

Despite its novelty and its rudimentary audio quality, the telephone took a quick and fierce hold on American society, and soon became a necessity.

The first telephone operators were boys, who soon earned a reputation for being rude and abusive to each other as well as to the customers. The young women who replaced them did not swear and were said to be faster, and by 1910, New York Telephone had 6,000 women working on its switchboards. While the telephone joined teaching in finally bringing significant numbers of women into the workplace, there were rigid codes of dress and conduct the women had to follow. “You could only use certain phrases — ‘Number please’ and ‘Thank you,'” recalls a former operator,  98-year-old Marie McGrath. “The customer could say anything they wanted to you, and you would say, ‘Thank you.'”

By 1915, the wiring of America was complete. In an undertaking as  Monumental as the construction of the trans-American railroad, AT&T strung 14,000 miles of copper wire across the country. Thirty-nine years after the first demonstration of telephone, the 68-year-old Bell was summoned by AT&T to New York to recreate his first call — this time calling his friend and partner Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

1908 Model T

  • Car maker Henry Ford introduces his Model T automobile. By
  • 1927, when it is discontinued, 15.5 million Models T’s will be sold in
  • the U.S. Ford owes much of his success to his improved assembly
  • line process, which by 1913 will produce a complete Model T every
  • 93 minutes.

1911

  • Self Starter Charles F. Kettering, who developed the electric cash register while
  • working at National Cash Register, sells his electric automobile
  • starters to the Cadillac company. This device increases the
  • popularity of the gasoline-powered car, which no longer needs to be
  • started with a hand crank.

1914 Panama Canal

After 36 years’ labor, the bankruptcy of thousands of investors, and the deaths of more than 25,000 men, the Panama Canal is finished. The canal cuts the sailing distance from the East Coast to the West Coast by more than 8,000 miles.

1917 War U.S. troops arrive on the battlefields of Europe, where new technologies have created the bloodiest conflict in history. Armored tanks, machine guns, poisonous gas, submarines and airplanes will force military commanders to rethink traditional strategies of war.

1919 Hydrofoil

Alexander Grahams Bell’s “Hydrodome IV” sets a world record of 70 mph for water travel. The boat weighs over 10,000 pounds and uses underwater fins to raise the hull of the boat and decrease drag between the hull and the water.

— researched and presented by Wilbur Bush, Gallatin, MO