Something about the news…

H.A. BRADLEYFORD
Local Editor and Business Manager

THE PRESS OF THE COUNTY

Miller County has five weekly newspapers, all of which merit the substantial support given them.

The News is an eight-page, five-column paper, published at Olean. It was established nearly nine years ago, has a bonafide circulation of nearly six hundred and claims to have the finest equipped job office in any country town in Central Missouri. Politically, it is a straight-out Republican. W.E. Allen is proprietor and H.A. Bradleyford local editor and business manager.

The Autogram is published at Tuscumbia by Mord. McBride. It is the oldest paper in the county and Mr. McBride is one of the founders. The paper was first established at Aurora Springs but was moved to Tuscumbia about twelve years ago. It is a five-column, eight-page paper and staunchly Republican.

The Impetus is owned, edited and published at Iberia by Dan Frazer Thompson, who has run more papers in Missouri than any one else, and is the only paper in Miller County published south of the Osage River. It is a neat five-column folio and deserves and receives a substantial patronage from the business men of Miller County’s metropolis.

The Record is edited and published at Tuscumbia by Warren M. Barr, who is also a lawyer, and figures prominently in local politics. It is the only all-at-home-print paper in the county and is Democratic from the word “go”.

The Advertiser at Eldon is published every Thursday by Maude and Rawleigh Shepherd and edited by N.J. Shepherd, who is also a well known contributor to the leading agricultural papers in the west. The paper is independent politically and devotes its efforts to give the local news. It is a five-column quarto and receives a good patronage from the business me of the town in which it is published.

The Western Preacher is a 16-page religious monthly published at Tuscumbia by James P. Wright and edited by Eld. H. Crennen, of Seymour, Mo. Mr. Wright is one of the oldest printers in the county and has probably been in the business longer continuously than any man now engaged in the printing business in Miller County.

THE OLEAN ROLLER MILL

A community without a mill is like a ship without a rudder, very incomplete. A good flouring mill in a wheat producing country is not a luxury, but a necessity and is one f the most important enterprises to town and country that can be operated. Olean is to be congratulated upon having within her borders one of the best roller mills in Miller County.

It has a full roller process, and has a capacity of about fifty barrels per day, and is being conducted by men of long experience. In fact, Mr. Goodman, one of the proprietors, built the first mill in Olean in the early sixties. The mill is owned by Messrs. Joseph Gattermeier and Josiah Goodman, both of whom are old residents and well known in this community.

The mill building is a two-story frame with basement and contains all the latest machinery and appliances for the manufacture of high grade flour. This mill is headquarters for farmers for a radius of 18 or 20 miles because they not only buy wheat but do an extensive exchange business, giving the highest weights and values according to the grade and value of wheat and grain. It speaks well for the mills that the local trade is all they can handle. It is with pardonable pride we speak of the Olean Roller Mills. Let us continue to encourage home enterprise by patronizing the mill whose name captions this article.

Joseph Gattermeier was born in Austria in 1848. He came to American in 1855 with his parents and settled seven miles west of Versailles, Morgan County, Missouri. They located on a farm and there Joe remained until he was 14 years of age when he went to work in the carding mill at Cave. He worked at different carding mills until 1869 when he began work in a flouring mill which he has followed every since.

It was in 1880 that he in partnership with Ben and Ed Zwanzig bought the Olean Roller Mills and conducted the same under the firm name of Gattermeier & Co. until in the winter of 1894 when the building and all machinery as well as their stock of grain, flour, feed, etc. went up in flames. There was not a dollars insurance and the firm suffered a loss of about $10,000. The old building was hardly in ashes before talk of rebuilding was commenced.

The Zwanzigs had suffered a severe loss as well as Mr. Gattermeier and had become discouraged, consequently declined to make any effort towards rebuilding. But Olean business men realized that to the mill they owed a large portion of their trade and the rebuilding of the mill was the topic of every conversation all through the long winter evenings in Olean business houses. The people had implicit faith in Joe Gattermeier as a gentleman and his ability as a miller, so steps were taken to rebuild the mill.

Josiah Goodman, one of the wealthiest men in the North part of the county, was interested, a bonus was raised by the business men and the firm of Gattermeier & Goodman, comprised of Joseph Gattermeier, Josiah Goodman and C.D. Goodman, began the erection of the present mill building.

In May, 1895, work was begun. In August of the same year the Olean Roller Mills was ready to attend to the wants of the trade. September 25 of this year Mr. Gattermeier purchased the interest of C.D. Goodman and now the mill is the property of Joseph Gattermeier and Capt J. Goodman.

The fact that farmers come from within a few miles of other mills to have their grain ground here is only one of the evidences of the mill’s popularity for courteous treatment, a square deal and good flour.

John S. Jackson is a farmer and live stock dealer. He was born near Olean, December 24, 1861, and has lived in this community during his whole life. He was educated in the public schools and is the possessor of a good, practical education. He owns a well improved farm just west of town and deals in live stock extensively. In fact, we doubt if there is a dealer in this section who ships more stock than does Mr. Jackson. Since the first of June he has shipped on an average about a car a week.

Friend Jackson is a hale fellow well met and to know him is to be his friend. Such men as John Jackson go to make up a moral and prosperous community.

J. B. Franklin, head of the firm of J.B. Franklin & Co., was born in the village of Pleasant Mount, Miller County, Missouri, on the 10th day of July, 1868. He was reared in the town in which he was born and educated in the public schools there. At the age of twelve he entered the store of his father, assisting in attending to the wants of the trade and has been engaged in active business continuously since that time.

In 1855 his father, in partnership with R.S. Harvey, opened a store here and John came here to manage the business. Two years later his father retired from the firm and Charles P. Franklin purchased an interest in the business. The firm name was then changed from R.S. Harvey & Co. to J.B. Franklin & Co., and so it reads today.

With one exception this is the largest mercantile establishment in Miller County, carrying a stock of from twelve to fifteen thousand dollars. Three salesmen, besides two of the firm, are kept busy every day in the week attending to the wants of the firms many friends and patrons. J. B. Franklin Co. is a familiar one to every reader of The News. They are liberal advertisers and but precious few issues of the paper have been made during the past year that did not contain their advertisement.

Charles P. Franklin, junior member of the firm of J.B. Franklin & Co., of Olean, one of the largest mercantile establishments in the southwest, was born in the town of Pleasant Mount on August 23, 1873. He was educated in the public schools and from the time he was tall enough to chin a counter he filled the position of salesman in the store of his father, Capt. W.T. Franklin, one of the pioneer merchants of Miller County. In 1890 he came to Olean and accepted a position in the store of belonging to his brother, John B., and R.S. Harvey. He worked on salary for a year and then became a junior member of the firm, the firm name being changed to J.B. Franklin and Co.

RESIDENCE OF CHARLES P. FRANKLIN

A.E. WALSER

With one exception Ad Walser is the oldest clerk, in point of service there is in the town of Olean. Ad was born near Lohman, Cole County August 31st 1869. He was raised on a farm until 17 years of age. He attended public schools until 17 years old and then went to work in the general store of Ellis Elston, at Elston, Mo., where he remained two years.

He resigned his position there and became a student at the Otterville College, Otterville, Mo., where he completed a course of study two years later. Then, in co-partnership with J.S. Lapsley he engaged in the mercantile business here was Currence & ______. They remained in business for ___ years and then sold out and Ad accepted a position with J.B. Franklin & Co. where he has remained ever since. To Mr. Walser is accorded the responsibility of buying much of the stock for this big firm. He enjoys the confidence of not only the firm but of everybody with whom he has had business dealings.

To James E. Hite belongs the distinction of being, in point of service, the oldest salesman in the town of Olean. Mr. Hite was born about a mile west of town and there made his home, tilling the soil and pailing the cows until the fall of 1891 when he was engaged as a clerk by the firm of J.B. Franklin & Co. He remained with that firm during the months of November and December only and then accepted a position in the drug store of Dr. W.S. Allee and there he has remained every since. Without “Jim” the town would seem unlike itself. Like the rivulet it seems, men may come and men may go, but Jim stays forever.

He is popular with all who have occasion to buy anything in the line of drugs or druggist’s sundries and he deserves to be. Accommodating courteous and obliging, he makes friends by the score, and better than all, he retains them after he has made them. He is an active church and Sunday school worker and for three years past has been superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school. An honor well bestowed.

Lindley Hite saw the first light of day on March 15, 1876. He was born on a farm four miles west of Olean and when six years old moved with his parents to the town of Olean. He attended the public school until 1892 at which time he accepted a position in the store of the Conlogue Lead Co., some four miles from Pleasant Mount. He remained there only a few months when he secured a position as a salesman for the firm of J.B. Franklin & Co., of this city, which he has retained ever since. He is one of the most popular young men in North Miller and by his courteous attention has won many friends. He is one of the young men of whom Miller County may feel justly proud.

(unfortunately there are several holes in our copy of this old newspaper so we can only offer this partial article.)

Willard P. Simpson, who “makes” this territory for Gildenhaus-Wulfing & Co., wholesale grocers of St. Louis, is known to most every man, woman and child in Central Missouri, and for that reason we felt this Christmas number would not be complete….began work in the shop with his father C.C. Simpson until he reached the age of 18, then went to Tuscumbia and secured a job as roust-about on the steamer Frederick, a boat then handling the trade on the Osage River between Osage City and Tuscumbia. There he hustled wheat sacks, dry goods boxes and every other class of merchandise for fifteen long months.

It was on a dreary, rainy day that the Frederick had landed at Tuscumbia with a big lot of freight to unload. The banks were slick and shoe-mouth deep with mud; Willard was tussling manfully with a barrel of oil, trying to roll it to the top of the bank, when Fernando Hooker, a merchant, stepped up to him and asked him how he would like a job in a store. Willard replied favorably; Hooker named the wages which were accepted on the spot. Now, says Hooker, you are in my employ, turn that barrel of oil loose. Willard remonstrated, saying he would roll it to the top of the hill. But Hooker insisted, and the barrel was let go. Willard went and washed up and changed his clothes and that afternoon stepped behind the counter.

Three later the firm changed to read W.P. Simpson & Co., Mr. Hooker, his former employer, being the company. He continued in business for some time…

Willis M. Burris, Proprietor of the Olean livery stable, was born near Tuscumbia on March 10th 1855. He was born and reared on the farm and followed farming until three years ago. He received his education in the public schools and is an earnest church worker.

On the 10th of August 1896, he, in partnership with his brother, W.J., bought the livery stable at Tuscumbia, which they still own. In June of this year they bought the Olean livery stable and Willis moved here to take charge. He has one of the best livery outfits in Miller County and enjoys a large patronage from the traveling public.

Dan Frazer Thomson first saw the light of day 60 miles east of Memphis in Tennessee, near the Mississippi state line April 23, 1850. His ancestors landed from the Old World at Baltimore prior to the war of the Revolution and lived in Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas for several decades, finally scattering westward from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific slope, one member of the family, whose father was a Confederate Chaplain during the Civil War, being with Admiral Dewey’s squadron at Manila when the Spanish fleet went down under the American fire. Dan’s great-grandfather, Rev. Thomas Thomson, was a Revolutionary hero.

Dan Thompson also has a war record of his own. He enlisted in the 48th Mo. Infantry Vols., at Jefferson City in August 2864 and served as drummer of Co. B until in March 1865, having done duty for his country in the regular volunteer service for more than seven months prior to attaining his 15th year. In 1866 he held a position with the Mo. P. railroad in the shops at Jefferson City; 1867 came to Miller County and in 1869 taught his first school; 1870 found him clerking in a general store in Fulton and later an employee of the state Lunatic Asylum there. He was appointed Ward Master, U.S. Marine Hospital, St. Louis in 1871 but soon resigned for a position in the St. Louis County Insane Asylum.

He returned home in 1872 and was married to Miss Eliza C. Melton in Tuscumbia and soon afterward bought a lot in town, built a modest home and entered the Osage Valley Sentinel office with J.G. Lemen to learn the “art preservative”. He was the first Miller County boy to learn to “stick type” and “got his start” in the first printing office ever brought to the county.

His first ballot was cast at Tuscumbia in 1872 for Greely and Brown and the Democratic ticket and he claims never to have changed his politics; but when Clevelandism dominated the party he ceased to affiliate and acted with the People’s party which was so much more in accord with the true principles of Democracy. The party in Miller County went down in defeat in 1872 and the Sentinel was moved to Richland, Mr. Thomson only assisting Mr. Lemen to put it on its feet in its new home.

In 1873, conjointly with his brother, A.A.F. Thomson, Mr. T. invaded Camden County establishing the pioneer paper at Linn Creek in February of that year. He again accepted a position with Mr. _____ and had charge of the Richland Sentinel from 1873-6. Established the Gasconade Valley Plain Dealer at Waynesville in 1876 which was destroyed by fire. _____ Thomson & Co. started the _____ at Lebanon in 1877, the _____ at Lebanon in 1877, the _____ W. Armstrong constituting _____ The Richland Sentinel was re-established in 1878 and the same year Mr. Thomson moved to south Arkansas and engaged in school teaching. There he was soon promoted to County School Examiner of Garland County, at Hot Springs, held the office of Deputy Assessor and also assisted the circuit and county clerk. HE was bookkeeper and general manager at Hot Springs of a large retail grocery and feed store for about two years. He joined the Knights of Labor in 1882, perfected an organization among railroad and mill men, mechanics and laborers, women and men of the best classes in al the cities and large towns of the state about 10,000 strong, and represented the state in the international councils of that Order from 1883 to 1890. He was State Master Workman when the great Southwestern strike came up and prevented what must have been the most total destruction of the Iron Mountain Railroad Bridge across the Arkansas River at Little Rock after the dynamite had been placed in the piers by some reckless strikers.

He was editor and manager of the Arkansas Industrial Liberator at Little Rock which sold on the streets, in the stands and on all trains.

In 1888 he returned to Missouri, and lived at Washburn, and from there to Miller County in 1889 where for nearly eight years he devoted himself principally to taking care of his parents in their dotage.

He established the Eye-Opener at Tuscumbia in 1889 and in 1890 was nominated by the Democrats and Populists for County Attorney but beaten by the Republican nominee 21 votes, official returns which, however, were not satisfactory to Mr. Tomson’s friends who believed that about 80 votes for their friend were thrown out on mere technicalities. He has been nominated several times since, each time being beaten by the “skin-o’-the-teeth.” He served as deputy collector under J.L Blackburn 1897-8. He published the Sentinel at Linn Creek in 1892-4, but did not move there.

He is now a resident of Iberia and the publisher of the Iberia Impetus, “the only paper in Miller County south of the Osage River,” and while he is not advanced in years, he is probably one of the oldest men in the county at his age.

James R. Proctor, proprietor of the big lumber yard at Olean, was born near Decatur, Cole County, on the 30th day of August, 1868, and worked on the farm until 1891 when he began teaching school. He was educated in the public schools of Cole County and at the Hooper Institute at Clarksburg. HE taught five years and was elected to the office of Commissioner of Schools of Cole County in 1895. He held the office until 1896 when he resigned and engaged in the lumber business at Olean.

Since coming here he has erected one of the best residences in the town and a mammoth shed for the protection of his immense stock of building material has just been completed. He is one of the most progressive businessmen in the town and it is men like Proctor that make Olean the good town that it is.

The briefest biography in the congressional directory is that of a Missouri congressman. It simply says:

Dorsey W. Shackleford (Democrat), of Jefferson City, was elected to the Fifty-sixth congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Richard P. Bland, June 19, 1899, receiving 19,331 votes.

The longest biography is that of Chauncey M. Depew. It occupies nearly a page in the directory and would fill half a column of the Post. Nothing has been allowed to escape from the time he was born to the day he was elected to the senate.

He tells how his political life began in 1861, and narrates with careful detail all the offices to which he was appointed and declined. He notes with equal thoroughness the three great national and international occasions upon which he was the chosen orator—the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, the centennial celebration of Washington’s inauguration, and the opening of the World’s Fair. His other oratorical efforts are also catalogued. He does not forget to state that he was a candidate for the presidential nomination in 1888—Washington Post.

Grant D. Walker is a native of Miller County and is by no means ashamed of the fact. He was born July 8th, 1867, and reared near Pleasant Mount. In the days of his youth he plowed corn, grubbed stumps and pailed the cows on his father’s farm during the spring, summer and fall and attended the district school in the winter months.

He made hay while the sun shown as it were and by closely applying himself became the possessor of a good practical education. He determined early in life that he would educate himself as a physician and this was accomplished when he graduated at the American Medical College of St. Louis in June 1890 at the age of 22. After securing his “sheep skin” he returned to Pleasant Mount and there hung out his shingle.

He built up a good practice, but believing that Olean was a better location he removed to this place in July 1894. Here he has built up a large and lucrative practice and is not only recognized as one of the most successful practitioners but a citizen of sterling worth as well.

Not only has he built one of the most substantial dwellings in the town since he came here but he, in co-partnership with Mr. A.H. Foote, has built a good business house and filled it with a full line of drugs and druggist’s sundries. This store was built in the fall of 1897 and opened for business in November of that year and now enjoys a splendid trade. From the week they opened their store for business there has never been an issue of the NEWS that did not contain their advertisement, and the doctor is very positive in expressing his belief that they have got good returns for every dollar so invested. More such practical business men would prove a boon to the town of Olean although at present we stand head in our class.

W.M. STARLING

W.M. Starling is the head of the firm of Starling, Wieneke & Scott, of Olean. He was born one mile west of Olean and raised on a farm. He received his education in the public schools and at the Hooper Institute at Clarksburg.

He began teaching school in 1879 and followed teaching and farming until 1889 when he was nominated by the Republicans of the county in which he was born and raised for the office of county clerk. He served for four years and in 1894 was re-elected to succeed himself. He enjoyed the distinction of turning into the count treasury more fees in excess of his salary than any clerk ever elected in Miller County. His term expired the first of last January at which time he, J.E. Wieneke and B.A. Scott formed a co-partnership, bought the general store of H.A. Wieneke of this city. By earnest efforts and hart work he is succeeding ther just as he has in all business that he has engaged in years gone by.

J.E. Wieneke is a member of the firm of Starling, Wieneke & Scott, one of the most progressive and up-to-date business houses in Central Missouri. “Ern”, as he is usually called by all his friends and associates, was born and raised in the city of California, Missouri, and was educated in the public schools of that city. As he states it himself he is a German by birth and a Republican by choice.

He began his business career when he accepted a position as salesman in the general store of J.G. Ehrhardt at California in 1884. He remained there three years and then came to Olean and accepted a similar position with his brother, H.A., who was merchandising here at that time. Here he remained for five years and then went to California and engaged in business for himself and continued for two years when he sold out and accepted a position as traveling salesman for Wm. Heck, the harness manufacturer. Ern says with considerable pride that Mr. Heck told him that at that time he was the best salesman he had on the road—but he only had one. He remained with Mr. Heck through 1898 when he returned to Olean and again became a salesman in the store of H.A. Wieneke. January 1st, 1899, the firm of Starling, Wieneke & Scott of which he is a member, was organized, buying the store of H.A. Wieneke, and there John Ernest’s smiling face may be seen every day in the week, ever ready to attend to the wants of their large and increasing trade.

Bayard A. Scott is the junior member of the firm of Starling Wieneke and Scott, proprietors of what is conceded to be the fastest growing store in Miller County. He was born near Pleasant Mount, this county, in the year 1869. In 1877 he moved with his mother to the farm which adjoins the town of Olean and there he was reared. He was educated in the Olean public school and at an early age learned the painter’s trade which he followed for several years.

It is now nearly six years since he accepted a position as clerk in the general merchandise establishment of H.A. Wieneke. There he remained until the 1st of last January when the firm of Starling, Wieneke & Scott, of which he is the junior member, was organized, buying out the stock and good-will of the firm of H.A. Wieneke & Co.

To his untiring efforts to make the business a success, the present firm owes much of their acknowledged success in making their store one of the best in Miller County. He is a firm believer in the use of printer’s ink and the firm attributes their heavy fall trade to fact that they patronized the newspapers and job offices liberally.

W.H. Posten, salesman for Starling, Wieneke & Scott, was born near Barnett, Morgan County, on December 16, 1877. His parents resided on the farm until he reached the age of five then removed to Olean. Mr. Posten received his education in the public schools and enjoys the distinction of “slinging the best fist” of any man in the town of Olean.

His first experience as a salesman was with Mr. Hamlin, who conducted a general store here a few years since. When President McKinley called for volunteers in April, 1898, Will was one of the first to tender his services to the Government and enlisted in Company L., Second Missouri Volunteers. He was given an honorable discharge on March 3rd of this year and after recuperating for a few weeks he accepted a position in the mercantile establishment of Starling, Wieneke & Scott and is there today to await your needs and wants. He is an inveterate reader and can discuss any kind of a topic you may produce for argument and is not particular which side of the question he takes—politics excepted.

John A. Robertson, undertaker and embalmer, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, September 21, 1841. He received his education in the public schools, between working times on the farm where he was born and raised.

He came to Missouri in 1870 and settled in Moniteau County and engaged in farming. He resided there for several years and moved to Olean in 1889.

He keeps one of the largest and finest assortments of coffins, caskets and burial robes to be found in any small town in the central part of the state and has many calls from neighboring towns. He is a thorough gentleman and counts his friends by the score.

Arthur H. Foote is agent for the Missouri Pacific Railway at Olean and we do not believe a more accurate, courteous and accommodating agent and one who has the respect of everyone with whom he comes in contact can be found on the entire system—and that is saying considerable.

Mr. Foote is a native of Ohio and is 32 years of age. His parents moved to Missouri while he was quite young and located near Eldon. He worked on the farm through the spring and summer months and went to school in the winter. In this way he became possessed of a practical education and in 1882 became a student at the Southwestern Telegraph School of St. Louis, where the following year he completed a course and was given his diploma as a competent telegraph operator and station agent.

He worked extra for a short time only and was soon assigned the office at Edmund, Kansas as regular station agent. He remained there for about two years and was then assigned the Olean office where he has remained ever since.

September first he rounded out his ninth year of duty here and in the entire nine years he has asked for but three short lay-offs. It is a record of which but precious few station agents can boast.

Who is there in Miller County, Central Missouri or you might say the entire state that does not know Hon. W.P. Freeman—our Perry? He is one of the men to whom Miller County people point with pride and say, “Perry was born and reared in Miller County.” He was born on a farm near Brumley, June 15, 1858, and worked on the farm until twelve years of age when he accepted the position of “devil” in the old Miller County Vidette office at Tuscumbia. He worked there for some time and then became local editor and manager of the Lebanon Journal and later published the Richland Sentinel.

In 1881 he was appointed deputy collector by C.P. Myers. He continued as deputy collector until in 1886 when he was elected to the office of circuit clerk and recorder by the largest majority ever given a man in a Miller County election. He served two terms, during which time he read law, and was admitted to the bar at or about the expiration of his second term.

Since that time he has represented Miller County in the legislature one term. As a politician he has a state reputation and in 1896 was the nominee for Secretary of State on the Republican ticket. In 1897 he received recognition for the hard work and many services rendered the party and was appointed to the office of Secretary of the Indian Territory by President McKinley.

Charles M. Callahan, who owns and conducts the Olean barber shop, was born near the town of Olean April 30th 1866. He was reared on a farm and educated in the public schools of Miller County and at the Hooper Institute at Clarksburg. He began teaching in the public schools in 1890 and followed the profession of teacher for some three or four years.

Tiring of the arduous duties of teacher, he bought a drug store which he conducted for several years. He was then advanced to the position of deputy county clerk which position he filled most satisfactorily during the second term of W.M. Starling as county clerk. At the expiration of his appointment he assumed charge of the law and abstract office of L.N. Musser while Mr. Musser was attending the last session of the legislature as representative of Miller County.

Upon Mr. Messer’s return in the month of May, this year, Mr. Callahan began to look for a suitable location to engage in business and in August purchased the Olean barber shop of G.G. Walker. This is one of the finest equipped shops to be found in a small town in Central Missouri and we predict that Mr. Callahan will succeed here as he has in other places.

F.W. Inglish was born on a farm three miles north of California, Moniteau County, November 24th, 1863. His father moved to Morgan County when Ferd was quite a young lad and located near Barnetts. It was BArnettsville then, but a cyclone a few years since blew the “ville” away.

There Ferd grew to manhood, working on the farm a portion of each year and attending school the balance of the time. He received his education in the public schools, at the Clarksburg College and at the State University.

At the age of 21 he engaged in the mercantile business with his brother, Sumpter, at Barnetts, remaining there for four years. Selling out there he engaged in buying and shipping live stock which he followed for two years.

At the end of that time the firm of F.W. Inglish & Co., composed of F.W. Inglish, Dr. W.S. Allee and S.R. Inglish, was organized and engaged in the hardware and implement business at Olean. Mr. Inglish has charge of this the largest hardware store in Miller County.

Near California, Mo., September 12th, 1861, Sumpter R. Inglish, now cashier of the Miller County Exchange Bank, was born. He followed farming until he reached his majority and then engaged in the mercantile business at Barnett, Morgan County, where he continued in business until 1889.

In that year the Miller County Exchange Bank was organized and the stockholders were on the lookout for a man suitable to fill the responsible position of cashier. Mr. Inglish was suggested, and upon being informed that he would accept, the stockholders held a meeting and elected him. That they made no mistake in the selection of a cashier has been demonstrated on more than one occasion and the substantial business of the bank today testifies that he is the right man in the right place.

Dr. W.S. Allee has lived in Olean longer than any other person now making their home here and has watched the town grow from a single farm house to a thriving village of more than three hundred inhabitants. It was in 1882 when the Bagnell Branch was in course of construction that Doctor Allee moved here from High Point, where he was then practicing, and built the first residence in the town. To no other one man is there due the credit for the good schools, churches and business buildings we have here today as there is to Dr. Allee.

W.S. Allee was born in Moniteau County, Missouri, January 20, 1852. He attended the district schools, attained a good practical education and began teaching long before he attained his majority. With the money he so earned, he attended the Rush Medical College at Chicago and the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, from which he graduated in 1875. He immediately began practice, locating at California where he remained one year, and then moved to High Point. He moved to Olean in 1882 and is not seeking a change of location.

He has been President of the Miller County Exchange Bank continuously since its organization in 1889, owns one of the nicest and most up-to-date drug stores in Central Missouri and is a member of the firm of F.W. Inglish & Co., proprietors of the largest hardware and implement house in the county.

He is a firm believer in the advancement of educational interests, a Mason, Odd Fellow and Woodman. Politically he is a Democrat of the Jeffersonian type and has taken an active interest in county and State politics for years past.

Olean’s Oldest Son

To Logan Allee, the third son of Mr. and Mrs. Dr. W.S. Allee, belongs the distinction of being the first boy born in the town of Olean. He was born November 1st, 1882, and is now a student at the Iberia Academy.

ELSTON E. ALLEN

Elston E. Allen, jeweler and optician, was born and reared near the present site on which Eldon is located. He was born October 3rd, 1869. He received his education in the public schools at the Aurora Springs and Eldon Academies and long before he had attained his majority was teaching in the district school. He taught for six years and then entered the employ of Franklin and Harvey at Eldon in the capacity of salesman.

There he remained for nearly two years and then entered the Parson’s Horological Institute at Peoria, Ill., to master the profession of watch-maker and optician, which course he completed September 1897. Then he returned to Miller County, the garden spot of the world, and sought a location.

After giving the matter considerable thought he arrived at the conclusion that Olean offered better inducements than any other Miller County town, consequently December 1st of that year, he located here.

Being a watch-tinker and a competent jeweler are entirely two different things. The former guesses and cobbles not knowing half as much about the intricate workings of a good time piece as does the blacksmith. The latter does his work scientifically and in a manner that you at once conclude that he knows what he is doing, and why it should be done that way. Mr. Allen belongs to the latter class. Not only is he prepared to regulate or repair watches and clocks and repair your jewelry in the most substantial and approved manner, but at his place of business you may have your eyes scientifically tested and lenses made that you may see just as well as you did when you were young and in your prime.

Mr. Allen now has on display a fine line of holiday presents that will prove useful as well as ornamental and extends to you a cordial invitation to call at the store where Santa Claus has established headquarters.

THE OLEAN HOTEL

It is an old saying, and a true one too, that a good hotel is a town’s best advertisement, and no town realizes this fact more than does Olean. Can you name a town of three hundred inhabitants in Central Missouri that has a better hotel than Olean? It is a home in every sense of the word and has written its own eulogy in words more emphatic than our pen can trace. The superior character of the Olean has secured for it a leading place in the favor of the public.

Its splendid guest rooms have just been refitted and refurnished and everything is neatly and well kept. The tables are always found loaded with the choicest food, which include all the delicacies that the market affords. We take pleasure in speaking of the Olean and its excellence and recording it among the best country hotels in the state.

The Olean is owned and conducted by Mrs. Victoria Currence, and the fact that the traveling men who “make” Central Missouri, always so arrange their routes that they may Sunday at Olean is only another evidence of the popularity of the Olean. Here are traveling men provided with a good sample room, a comfortable office and all the accommodations usually found at a hotel in a town of 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants.

At present time extensive improvements on the building are under way which it will take until spring to complete. A large commodious sample room the entire length of the building is to be added on the east side of the present hotel building. The dining room is to be extended and enlarged and on January 1st nothing but new furniture, carpets, etc. will be found in this popular inn. No hotel in a town the size of Olean in Central Missouri enjoys such a good patronage as does the Olean, and there is probably no hotel proprietor in the lane who has the good of their home town at heart more than has Mrs. Currence. It is this spirit of enterprise that has endeared Mrs. Currence and her hotel to every hotel patron as well as every business man in the town of Olean.

THE CHURCHES

This number would be incomplete without a mention of the churches, for deep religious feeling seems to pervade the community, as a result of which the town possesses church organizations and buildings that are a credit to it. The denominations represented here are Christian, Baptist, Methodist and colored Baptist.

The Christian church has about 60 members and owns two lots and a substantial church building. It has been under the pastorate of Elder H. Drenan for the past year and holds regular preaching services on the first Sunday in each month.

The Baptists own one of the prettiest little churches in the county and are out of debt. An excellent Sunday school meets every Sunday at half-past nine and prayer meeting is held each Thursday evening. Regular services are held the third Sunday in each month by Rev. John Robinson, the pastor.

The Methodists own a good church building here. The church has a smaller membership in Olean than any other denomination but have a pastor, Rev. Keenan, who preaches regularly on the second and fourth Sunday in each month. Sunday school is held every Sunday morning at 9:30.

FORMER MILLER COUNTY NEWSPAPERS

Since 1870, eleven newspapers have been established in Miller County that are now numbered among the has-beens. The first paper established in Miller County was by Lemmon and Hitchcock who ran the paper from 1871 to 1875, the name being the Osage Valley Sentinel.

In the year of 1871, Mc—stin, ---nght started The Republican, and sold it in a few months to I.M. Goodrich of Tuscumbia who sold the outfit to a Mr. Vincent of Lin Creek and with this outfit the first issue of The Stette, Camden County’s first newspaper was printed. The good reliable Reveille succeeded the Stette and Mr. J.W. Vincent, the present editor, is the son of the founder of Camden County’s first paper.

In 1872 J.P. Wright and J.H.D. Thomson founded The Gospel Proclamation, a religious monthly. This paper continued for several years—up until 1874—when Mr. Wright bought the interest of Mr. Thomson and made the paper a Republican paper and issued it weekly. This was The Miller County Vindicator. This paper suspended publication in 1888 and a few months later with this outfit D.F. Thomson established The Eye-Opener, of which The Osage Valley Record is the successor.

The Miller County Vidette was established in 1872 and continued for about three years with Rudolph Goodrich as editor for the first year and Col. Abram Fulkerson as editor the last two years of the paper’s existence. The outfit was purchased by J.M. Goodrich in 1878 and sold to Richland parties.

The Helmet was established at Tuscumbia as a Republican paper by L.S. Hitchcock. Later it was purchased by F.A. Goodrich and Col. Abram Fulkerson who changed the name to The Miller County Republican. This management continued through one campaign when the outfit was sold and the subscription list and good will was turned over to the Vindicator.

The Iberia Advocate was established in 1885 by a Mr. Lohman but the town was too small to support a paper and in a few months it suspended.

The Messenger at Aurora Springs, established by J.F. Mounts and survived from May 1896 until November 1897 at which time the plant was moved to Versailles and The Statesman established.

The Democrat, by Ol Klinger was established at Aurora Springs in 1888 but was short lived and was suspended in 1889.

The Aurora Cresset was established by Abram Fulkerson at the Springs in 1881 and continued until The Eldon Register, by A.C. Harding was established. This paper was replaced by the establishment of The Aurora Springs Autogram by McBride and Marcy, which has since been moved to Tuscumbia and still continues to promulgate the principals of Republicanism.

Some interesting facts in 1899…

Some Missouri School Facts