The Mason building in the Mason block of Ward Avenue was built in 1909, as is shown on the concrete label at the top of the building. For most of its life it housed the local Ben Franklin Store.
The May 7, 1948 issue of The Democrat-Argus had this to say about the Ben Franklin business:
“When Uncle Sam finished with William E. (Bill) Morris at the close of the ‘late unpleasantness’, he felt footloose and fancy free – somewhat at loose ends, in fact – and he wanted to work. He was back in ‘civvies’ and he wanted something worthwhile, something constructive to do. Deciding to look about a little, he made a visit here from his hometown in Illinois and he soon found what he was looking for. He like the town and its people – and he liked the sort of deal which Gordon Wright offered him on his Ten Cent Store. So he closed a deal with Mr. Wright (This was back in 1946) and not long afterward he brought his wife here from their former home – Jacksonville.
He decided upon a somewhat different system for his newly acquired business, so early in 1947, he secured a larger building across Ward Avenue from the original site, had it remodeled and refurbished and turned into a place suitable for conducting a store allied with the Ben Franklin system. The latest type of display cases, merchandise racks and shelving, etc. were installed, and almost all new merchandise was stocked, so that today one can scarcely find a more complete, comprehensive or well-stocked ‘Five and Ten’ anywhere, in any community, even with many times the population of Caruthersville.
Mr. Morris did not enter the variety store business wholly as a novice, however. For several years prior to his army experience, he had made a study of the wants and needs of patrons of this class of store and this, coupled with keen business acumen, has made the local Ben Franklin a very popular and a thrifty place for people for miles and miles around to shop.
In any community, good stores with well-stocked shelves of items people need and want, constitute one of the greatest drawing cards – and a ‘five and ten’ stands close to the head of the list in customer appeal. Such a store indeed is Bill Morris’ Ben Franklin store. Its wide variety of merchandise, its extreme neatness, the care and courtesy of well-trained sales personnel, all appeal to the average individual – hence, this store is part and parcel with a long list of reasons why you will do well to shop in Caruthersville.”
Mr. Morris continued to operate the Ben Franklin store in the same location until around 1977. Shown in the second picture is a photo from the 1965 Cotton Blossom yearbook with Linwood Betz, Linda Connor (Stetson), Sally Morris (Fisher) and Wayne Speight in front of the store in its glory days. The final picture shows the building as it appears in early 2022, with the Mason Block 1909 still easily visible at the top.
The Roberts Home was a large stately landmark very near the river, just across the sea wall in Caruthersville. Built in 1900 by a Mr. Zimmerman, it was said that Mrs. Sallie Roberts was able to see her husband, who purchased the home and was employed as a boat pilot, from one of the upstairs rooms. In the mid-1970s, a local group began to make preparations to have the home declared an historic landmark and it was planned for the venue to be used for weddings and other social events. Unfortunately the home burned in the Spring of 1977 and was a total loss. (The city’s maintenance shed now occupies the land the home sat on.) The historic preservation committee had been chaired by Mrs. Sue Swinger, and she and her husband, Dr. Terry Swinger, once looked at the home as a possible purchase.
Around 1900, Henry Clay Garrett’s livery stable at Third Street (then called George Street) and Walker Avenue was a very busy location. In 1908, there were at least three livery stables downtown in Caruthersville.
Streets at that time were named after important figures in the establishment of the city: Hardeman, Charles, James, George, Cunningham, Billingsley and Wilks – but later were changed to Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and other planets, but later settled into the numbered cross streets we still have.
The Deering Southwest Railroad – from the Twice-a-Week Democrat, February 3, 1911
“At a few minutes to 6 o’clock on last Tuesday afternoon, Judge H. C. Garrett, mayor of the city, and S. P. Reynolds drove the golden spike closing the gap in the Deering Southwest Railroad, thus giving us direct rail connection with Braggadocio and Deering, MO.
Just at dusk, the headlight of the engine was seen at the fairgrounds approaching and was greeted with shouts by the several hundred who had waitied patiently despite the damp ground and disagreeable weather. As the train approached and halted, a huge bonfire was built and then began the ceremony of closing the gap.”
The International Harvester-controlled Wisconsin Lumber Company incorporated the DSW on June 24, 1903, with the first tracks from the mill at Deering to Hickory laid that year; the rest of the road was completed in 1910 and 1911. Logging rapidly dropped off after 1925 and, as fast as the forest was cleared, cotton was planted, destined for market at Memphis.
Shown below is the depot at Deering and one of the trains at the stop.
Caruthersville Public Library will be celebrating it’s 100th Birthday on February 18th, 2022. We will be looking back to interesting facts you may or may not know about the oldest library in the area – Cape Girardeau is just a few months younger, turning 100 on June 15th this year.
When the Caruthersville Women’s Club established a “county reading room” in the city, it first was in the “clubhouse” of the group at the corner of Sixth Street and Walker Avenue, where bookshelves were built in the balcony. Each member was assessed $1.00 for expenses and they canvassed the four wards of the city and received many more donations. The Educational Department of the Women’s Club held a “Book Shower and Tea” the week before the library opened and enthusiasm was aroused for the new addition to the city.
On April 3, 1923, a vote to have a one mill tax for the purpose of supporting the library was on the ballot and received a favorable vote. Miss Zula Stephens was hired as the first librarian.
The very first Library Board was Mrs. Frank Dillman, Mrs. S. P. Reynolds, Mrs. R. L. Ward, Mrs. T. H. Warden, Mrs. W. H. Johnson, Mr. Charles Ross, and Mrs. Hugh A. Tistadt. When the organization was formed and perfected, the library became an independent organization.
They soon relocated to the Lacey Building on West Fourth Street, but in 1925, J. H. Elder purchased the building for a soda fountain and confectionary. The library was forced to box up its books and wait to secure another building. By 1925, the George Rogers homestead at 1000 Ward Avenue was available to become the public library. It served in this capacity until 1940.
Pictured here is that first library to have the official name of Caruthersville Public Library. This particular homeplace is still visible from Carleton Avenue on the south side of West 10th Street.
Continuing our walk through the history of Caruthersville Public Library, we move to a collection we host that very few are aware of – the Presidents’ books.
Located inside our lobby in the glass display case, volumes of antiquity actually autographed by former presidents of the United States are housed. Books autographed by Benjamin Harrison, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman are displayed, as well as later books from George Bush, George W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter. There is also a book autographed by William Jennings Bryan.
First librarian, Mrs. Zula Stephen Fowlkes actually wrote to these presidents directly in the 1920s and 1930s, asking them to donate and autograph books that were special to them. (Harry Truman was a special friend of Caruthersville in the late 1940s and early 1950s and Wiley Patterson, member of the Pemiscot County Historical Society, gave us the more recent volumes.)
In the July 6, 1934 issue of the Democrat-Argus, Mary Lord Harrison, the wife of Benjamin Harrison, wrote to Mrs. Fowlkes and thanked her “for the privilege of donating to the unusual collection for your local library. There probably is not another such collection to be found in the United States.”
Mrs. Fowlkes, librarian, said that “These gifts have been highly appreciated and, though they may not be borrowed from the library, they may be seen upon request. As the years go by, the value of the books will grow.”
It was later quoted in another issue of the newspaper: “Even though the public library is small and young, it is worthy of belonging to a much larger city and has treasures in the little frame dwelling far too priceless to risk much longer where fire could destroy in so short a time and could never be replaced.” In just a few years, a new library was built in the place of the frame house at Tenth and Ward Avenue.
These autographed books can be viewed anytime in the front lobby of the library. We feel very privileged to have them.
On July 6, 1938, voters in Caruthersville approved a $15,000 bond for construction to build each a new armory and a new public library as a part of the WPA projects taking place during this era. On October 10 of that year, the City Council authorized the sale of the $30,000 in bonds to Harry Litzelfelner.
Construction soon began on Caruthersville Public Library at Ward Avenue and 10th Street after moving the first library off of the lot. During 1939, there were visits to other libraries, including Kennett, by Library Board members, Mrs. Hugh Tistadt, Mr. Ralph Pinion, and Attorney Fred Henley to explore their layouts and finishes. Librarian Mrs. Donald V. McGee began planning the move from the “archaic” house that it moved into in the early 1920s and helped the architect prepare the library’s new home.
On April 17, 1940 at 7:30 p.m., the new Caruthersville Public Library was introduced to the community with its proud “Public Library” over the front doors (Still visible today, even though it now houses the city court building). School children were brought to the library throughout the next day to tour the new facility. “Its 8000 volumes place it among rural Missouri’s largest libraries” reported the April 23, 1940 issue of the Democrat-Argus newspaper.
Governor Lloyd C. Stark made a visit to Caruthersville and toured the new facility on June 26, 1940 and was able to meet the Library Commission and patrons of the library. He gave a speech at that time, commending the community for construction of the beautiful new building as a gift for its citizens.
Shown here are a picture of the architect’s drawing of the library, a photo during the 1938-1939 construction process, and a picture of the interior of the library soon after it opened, which many of us remember from our younger days.
The 100th Birthday Celebration for Caruthersville Public Library was held on February 18th, 2022. Several gifts were given away to those who attended and Mayor Sue Grantham presented a plaque to the library which is displayed in the lobby.
After the Ward Avenue library opened in 1940, roof leaks became a constant problem and worry. As time went on and computers and the internet came onto the scene, that large 1940s library suddenly became very small. Additions to the collection over the years (in 1963, Mayor B.F. “Hot” Rogers even gave his entire salary to the library to purchase library books), overcrowding of the collection became a concern.
During the 1990s, the Library Board, headed by Mrs. Martha Stevens, and Mayor Diane Sayre began to consider ways to expand the library. Discussion even took place on enlarging the library across the alley in the middle of the Tenth Street block, but supervision of the entire space would have been difficult. Thought was even given about purchasing the homes in the back of the library to make it bigger, but the prices were out of the library’s range.
The land where the old Brown Shoe Building was located on West 13th Street was owned by the city and Mayor Sayre began to think of how the library would have room to expand and grow and how centrally located the space would be. Plans were made to construct a brand new building, ready for the “computer age” and the city received the former library building on Ward for the price of $1.00 in exchange for the property on 13th. It is now the City of Caruthersville Court Building.
This building, which opened on February 17, 2002, is the beautiful setting that the library is still enjoying. The backyard, with its John VanAusdall Reading Pavilion and the fish pond, as well as the Kay Norton Gill Genealogy Room, the Baxter Southern Auditorium, and the Pemiscot County Historical Society room are all within the scope of Caruthersville Public Library now.
Digitization of our past (newspapers, books, historic papers and photos) have become the way for the library to reach more patrons and to improve our outreach. Computers have led to laptops, iPads, and Chromebooks, as well as smart TVs, which were not even thought of in 2002 when the new building came into being.
Caruthersville Public Library will continue to be a community hub, the “lifelong learning center of Pemiscot County”, a vital part of life in Caruthersville and Pemiscot County.
In 1946, a new establishment for Caruthersville – a jewelry and gift shop, along with a jewelry repair business – was opened in a somewhat unusual ownership combination, a brother and sister. The proprietors were Noel Quinn and his sister, Mrss Betty June Quinn, and their place was located in the “rapidly developing business center on South Ward’ – 1308 Ward Avenue. (This is the block where the city’s police and fire departments are now located.)
Under their arrangement, Miss Betty did the buying and Noel did watch, clock and jewelry repairs while also “waiting on the trade” as his time permits.
Both of these young people were born and raised in Caruthersville and Mr. Quinn added a “third member” to the firm when he was married to Miss Virginia Whitfield a few weeks ago.
After his graduation from high school, Noel learned the barber trade and worked about four years withg his father, A.L. Quinn, in his shop nearby their present store. However, he had been “tinkering” with watches and clocks since he was a small boy – and liked it – so he decided upon a change. In 1945 he attended a jewelers’ school to further fit him for his chosen vocation and soon after his return, set up the business in his own modern fireproof building, constructed especially for this type of business.
“When young people who have lived in a certain community all their lives see and realize its future business potentialities and seek to work in earnest to become part and parcel with its future activities, it augers well for that city or community and encourages others to do likewise. It is one of the things which makes Caruthersville the desirable place it is in which to live and earn one’s living” as reported in the August 13, 1948 issue of the Democrat-Argus, from which much of this information was adapted.
The Cottonwood Point Brass Band, composed of twenty-five instruments, was composed of young men and boys from the Cottonwood Point neighborhood, and “each a musical artist”. One little fellow, about ten or twelve years of age, was a wonder on the cornet, it was reported at that time. Some of the older citizens in the mid-1920s said that it was the best band ever organized in Pemiscot County. It was under the leadership of Mark Denham of Caruthersville.
One notable appearance by the band was on National Defense Day, September 12, 1924. They led the parade and marched over the route selected – north from the Methodist Church to Third Street, west to Carleton, south to Sixth, and then to the fair ground. Commanding officers of the military units, along with the Boy Scouts, a Red Cross Corps, and the members of the Rotary and Lions Clubs. An interesting occurrence on this day was a “one day only” registration of citizens for service, carried out by the members of the military units. Between 300 between the ages of 18 and 45 were enrolled. This brought the strength of the local units up to and beyond their full war time strength and the served the purpose of this portion of Defense Day activities admirably.
It was reported that the “ambitious little orchestra rendered good account of itself, the music they played being enjoyed alike by people and visitors”.
By May of 1925, Mark Denham became the supervisor of a band organized by the Caruthersville Rotary Club. The band was composed of 22 members, all beginners, ranging in age from 7 to 18 years. It was all “home talent, with the exception of a few boys from Cottonwood Point”.
The McCann and Company Store, located in Cooter, was owned and operated by Elvis and Opal McCann. The post office was in the store building and Opal McCann, who was also the reporter for a group of ladies called “The Cooter Club” in 1933, served as the postmaster. The store and post office were destroyed by an arson fire in 1935. This picture was taken in 1940 and the advertisement below was from the Steele Enterprise on November 19, 1931.
The Riverview Museum in Caruthersville is pictured here in both a photograph and a pencil drawing by Roscoe Misslehorn (given to the Historical Society recently by Mrs. Delila Sayre).
According to Barbara Lane Meales in the Fall, 2020 Pemiscot County Historical Society quarterly, as far back as 1961, the Reynolds Park Association announced that the old brick warehouse property would be torn down. She discovered that this warehouse was built around 1925 for a wholesale warehouse.
It was suggested that this might be used for a museum to house some of the interesting history and items used by the early settlers of the county.
Many residents contributed items for display and it opened in October of 1969. However, it was difficult to heat this building and air condition it to preserve the artifacts, so in 1979, the museum opened in the old Frisco depot building on West Third Street. (Construction took place on it between October 1914 and May 1915, when the depot opened for business.)
Sue Swinger served as chairman of the museum committee. However, because of a lack of volunteers to keep the museum open, it was not opened after 1986 and the building had dilapidated since then. Many artifacts were damaged by temperature extremes and humidity. Some Indian skeleton that were among the artifacts in the building were returned to their tribes for burial after a 1991 law was passed requiring this.
Engineers presented a report on renovating the building but the cost would be exorbitant. Their opinion was that the building wasn’t worth the expense of saving it. In January of 1995, the old Frisco Railroad Depot was demolished.
From April 18, 1927, this is a clear-as-a-bell photograph of downtown Caruthersville, looking south from Third and Ward.
December 29, 1899, a “portable photo gallery” was in the city to take portraits for residents, but they were warned that it wouldn’t be here long. In 1901, a man named Evans purchased a studio and his slogan was “Evans Gallery is strictly “it”. That is why all the others have quit”. F. M. Gerdon, a photographer from Malden who heroically thwarted a bank robbery in that city, came to our town to open a photography studio.
The premier photographer in Caruthersville for over 30 years, though, was J. J. Gallian with his high quality pictures. He took over the Brown Studio in 1917 and continued in business until 1947, when brothers R. L. and Byron Ward purchased Gallian’s business at 510 Ward and conducted business as the Ward Studio until the mid-20th century. In more recent years, Mike Dale built a photography studio at 1409 Ward and operated a business there for many years.
With advances in personal cameras, and later cameras on personal phones, photography studios have become very rare; however, these glimpses into what our city was like in the “olden days” are a treasure given to us by these pioneer photographers.
The oldest continuous industry for many years in Caruthersville was the Betz-Tipton Veneer Company, which operated in the same location as the Dillman Egg Case Company, which was started in March of 1906 by Frank and Arl J. Dillman. The principal products made at that time were rough lumber and wooden egg cases, but many other containers were designed and produced by the Dillmans.
Mr. Dillman ceased operation during a time of apprarent prosperity because he refused to have a union at the plant. The union had organized the plant and had struck just before Thanksgiving in 1941. The company closed its doors and ceased operations and Mr. Dillman sold the plant to other interests.
The veneer mill and sawmill, along with the lumber yards and various properties connected with them, were sold to a group of interested persons. The initials of these men were used to make up the name “HOBAC”, denoting in order Holcomb (HO), Bratton (B), Ahern (A) and Conkling (C). James T. Ahern, then the general manager for Dillman, became the managing partner of the new concern.
HOBAC began operations in 1942 and continued much along the same lines as Dillman. In 1952, upon the death of Mr. Holcomb, the other partners decided to sell to a partnership of Joe Tipton and Bill Betz.
Betz-Tipton Veneer Company began operations officially in December of 1952.
The company’s first order began as a bailed wooden box operation and its first order was a large contract for mortar shell boxes for the government. Because of the lack of time to erect a suitable building in Caruthersville or to find a suitable building here, in order to meet the contract deadline, operations were begun in the old shoe factory building in Steele.
On the completion of this order, which lasted for several months during World War II, the plant converted to the manufacture of wirebound wooden boxes. The company had national markets and helped Caruthersville, at that time, to be known as a woodworking center.
Though the stay in Steele was supposed to be temporary, the company remained there for eight years. It was decided to combine the Steele and Caruthersville plants.
In the 1990s after riverboat gaming was approved in Missouri, several interested companies felt that the Tipton property would be the best location for the casino. The family sold the property and dissolved the business at that time. Today, Century Casino occupies the land.
(Someone called the library just last week, looking for pictures of the Dillman Egg Crate company, but we had none at that time. Thanks to the Jeanine Teroy and her daughter Briana Sprunger, they presented us and the Historical Society with a number of old pictures, which included these two shots of the box factory. The first one was taken in the late 1910s or early 1920s and the second is more recent from the early 1970s.)
In the early 1940s, Knox Figgins opened an ice cream parlor between Third Street and the seawall. He moved the business to Laurant Avenue before locating an ice cream parlor, snack bar, and wholesale ice cream business on Grand Avenue in the late 1940s.
The Knox’s Drive-In pictured here was built about 1957, after listing the property for sale with plans to retire to the Ozarks. However, when the former Juliet Street was developed into the Fair Blvd bypass (later Truman) and property values increased, he changed his mind about moving and opened the landmark Caruthersville business.
In the late 1950s or early 1960s, the business expanded. The interior was enlarged to include inside service and an indoor dining area. What had previously been the outside counter became the center of the new serving area. A year or so later, the carport awning was added and on April 1, 1963, John Figgins and Denver Meek, son and son-in-law of Denver, took over the business. After Knox retired, however, he wanted something else to do. He had previously purchased two lots behind Knox’s and built a miniature golf course on this property. The course stayed open a couple of years and then closed; at that time Knox completely retired and moved to Florida.
One of the unique features of Knox’s was their credit agreement with parents for their kids’ food and treats. Some kids would have standing orders for lunch when school was in session or stop by anytime to get something to eat or drink. It was an honor system. The kids were not required to sign any charge tickets. A statement was mailed to the parents monthly. Once a young reporter from Channel 5 in Memphis was in town following up on a story. She and her cameraman stopped by Knox’s on their way out of town. School had just been dismissed for the day and lots of kids were getting their treats. The reporter went back into the kitchen and asked Denver if he was aware that kids were getting merchandise at the counter and not paying for it. He explained what was happening and explained that they parents would pay for it later. The reporter had never seen or heard of anything like that and did a feature on Knox’s that night on Channel 5 news.
When John retired, Denver’s son Kevin purchased John’s share of the business, but at the end of five years, in May of 1997, he sold his interest to Chris Cummings and at the end of 1999, Denver retired and sold his interest to Chris, ending the family’s ownership in Knox’s Drive-In.
In April of 2006, the business was destroyed by the F3 tornado that struck Caruthersville.
Around 2016, Knox’s was opened again further north on Truman, but sadly closed again.
(Information for this article came from John Figgins, Jr. and Barbara Meales in the Pemiscot County Historical Society quarterly.)
Originally built in March of 1914, The Majestic Barber Shop was located in the lobby of the Majestic Hotel on Third Street. It is interesting to see in this photo that two young ladies occupy the chairs in this traditional “man’s world”, although as early as 1921 a manicure parlor was opened in the shop. As shown in one of the ads here, “Ladies Hair Cutting Our Specialty – If we please you, tell others; if we don’t, tell the boss.”
Two of the most well-known barbers in Caruthersville, Luther Johnson and Si Liggett, once ran the Majestic Barber Shop. Liggett finished his career in a shop with his name on Ward Avenue near the location of Prescription Drug Store today.
The Menzies Shoe Company was the original owner of what we all remember as Brown Shoe, constructing this building in 1927 with local citizens furnishing the money by purchasing lots on the site at an inflated value. Despite promises from the Menzies people to provide many jobs to Caruthersville workers, it operated only a few months with almost no production and with very few employees. For many years, it appeared to be little more than a “white elephant” on Caruthersville’s hands.
The Building was returned by the Menzies Company to the Shoe Factory committee, which brought the Menzies Company here originally, and it was later taken over by the Ely-Walker Dry Goods company, who kept it without operation for over two years before returning it, together with an $8000 bonus received with the structure to the committee.
The members of the committee made up of H. V. Litzelfelner, W. B. Bernard, Arl J. Dillman, N. W. Helm, J.S. Wahl and other local businessmen, kept the building insured and in good repair, maintaining a watchman and a caretaker. Frequently, public functions such as dances and carnivals were held in the building.
In 1934, a chance news item in the Memphis newspaper gave J.S. Wahl, a member of the local Shoe Factory committee, a clue which brought local contact with the Brown Shoe Company and led to a deal on a branch plant being located here.
From this time, the Brown Shoe Company came to Caruthersville and was a successful factory for several generations of families. It became the largest employer in the city and operated for 60 years, closing in March of 1994, causing unemployment to soar to near 20 percent. About 400 jobs were lost.
In 1910, John R. Kelley built the two-story brick building and two adjoining buildings that were torn down to make room for the Sam F. Hamra Community Center in Steele.
One of the two-story buildings was used for a retail establishment downstairs and a hotel upstairs – the New Commercial Hotel as it was called at one point in history and it was sold to Fannie Green by Mrs. Lawhorn in 1924. Dr. T. A. Michie also had offices there in 1924.
The building on the left, which formerly housed the Steele Enterprise, shows the residents at the time of this picture to be Moore and Kelley Real Estate, J. I Southern, and Roy W. Harper, Attorney at Law.
Chris Craft, a manufacturer of luxury pleasure boats, had a factory in Caruthersville from 1946 until 1960. It was located on the riverfront, near the HOBAC company (Betz-Tipton), where the casino property is located today.
Chris Craft never hired as many employees as they originally forecast, blaming supply issues needed for the boat construction. A devastating fire in one of their buildings in 1953 brought more problems. (William Reel is shown spraying water on the still burning embers of the fire.) This particular building held much of their building materials, as well as a dozen boat “kits” ready to ship, causing a huge dollar loss from the fire.
The Delivery building itself shown here in the top photo was 500 feet long and about half as wide. The final photo here shows students from the American Problems class at CHS touring the factory in the mid-1950s
In the late 1950s, union formation began commanding attention. a strike at the Michigan plant again caused supply issues, bringing the Caruthersville to a near halt in 1958. Then organizers enlisted employees to strike for better wages in early 1960. The plant shut down completely for several months and never really recovered, closing in mid-1960.
Recognized as one of the best-equipped and most efficiently operated service stations between Memphis and St. Louis, the E. Powell Service Station, located at 4th Street and Highway 84 in Hayti was a relatively new acquisition to the commercial life of Hayti in 1938, when this picture was taken. This station was said to be provided with every up-to-the-minute convenience to be found in the best of service stations in large cities. Mr Powell, the proprietor, had been connected with the sale of petroleum products in Hayti for a number of years and was one of the best-known citizens of the county. Mr. Powell was lauded for his public spirit and unbounded faith in the future of Hayti, which moved him to take part in all enterprises for community progress in Hayti during the late 1930s and 1940s.
Quite a come-on for stockholders to attend the annual PCA meeting in 1937.
The P.S. on this is priceless!
This “throwback” is a page from the very first Cotton Blossom yearbook in 1917, showing several landmarks in the city. They are labeled, but are difficult to read. The page reads “Homes and Other Scenes in C’ville”. Upper left is a home labeled “Mrs. Rogers”; On the right is another home labeled “Charles Cunningham”; In the second row are homes labeled “Clint Cunningham” and “J. A. Cunningham”; The next row features a home labeled “T. J. Cunningham” and “Grammar School”. The lower three pictures are scenes around Caruthersville High School. From left, “The Stack Room”, where it appeared that textbooks were stored and “The Tannery”, which was the office where students were sometimes paddled. Finally, the bottom photo shows the “Domestic Science” class, a forerunner of Home Economics and Family and Consumer Science, as it is called today.
With gas prices at an all-time high, today’s blast from the past is a photo of the Martin Oil Company station which was located at the corner of Fair Boulevard (now Truman) and Highway 84, where Jiffy Jim’s is now located. To add insult to injury, the price of gas at that time in the late 1960s was 33.9 cents a gallon.
The building known as the Exchange Building at 3rd and Ward Avenue once housed a number of offices and businesses on its second floor. The names of some of them are still etched on the doors up there – two of them being the Caruthersville School of Beauty Culture and the Jo Bay Dance Studio.
The Caruthersville School of Beauty Culture first opened in early 1948 and operated in the “New Teroy Building” at 108 W. 5th Street, when Mrs. Dalton Teroy accepted applications for a state approved school. In 1949, the school moved to the “Gossom Building”, now the Exchange Building at 113 W. 3rd Street. There is no information about when the business closed.
Each year in September starting in the late 1950s, advertisements were posted for sign-ups for dance classes for the coming year. These featured children’s classes for ballet, toe, tap, and ballroom dancing and adult classes for ballroom, jitterbug, waltz, fox trot, samba, rhumba, and tango. Children age three and up were accepted in the school. It was called the Jo Bay Dance Studio and was popular for classes, as well as offering a venue for parties. Later, the Slim and Trim Salon became a popular location. Opening in November of 1957, they gave free demonstrations of their “magic” and gave a free course to the heaviest woman visiting the salon during the ground opening.
On the day after Christmas in 1959, a fire broke out in the second story of the building, but thanks to quick discovery the damage was mainly from smoke and water. The Dance Studio, nor the Slim and Trim Salon, were not mentioned again after this time.
Caruthersville had a Junior College on the upper floor of the high school building in the early 1930s. This photograph of the “Bachelor’s Club” from the 1930 “Pilot”, CJC’s yearbook, said “As the name implies, these boys are not eager to enter the sea of matrimony – their primary aim is to become acquainted with facts about Home Economics. Officers of the club were President – Edwin Jackson, Vice-president – Irvin Cunningham, Secretary-Treasurer – Earl Long, and the sponsor was Miss Helen Dillman.
Pascola, the village in Pemiscot County was platted in 1894 and it is unclear why the village was given this name, although it was at the time of the building of the Kennett to Caruthersville Railroad was said to have been named by Louis Houck, who built the railroad and helped lay out the town. Pascola, Mr. Houck says, is a “fancy” name, that is, it was coined, but he does not say from what it was made. A post office was established in 1896 and the village incorporated in 1901. In 1920, a school was constructed just south of the village. In 1953, the school pictured here was built at a cost of $78,000. In the 2020 census, the population of Pascola was listed as 78.
Pascola, the word, means “a masked dancer and storyteller in some Native American cultures” or “a traditional Yaqui dance usually performed at festivals and weddings; or a performer of this dance”. The dance consists of a rhythmic shuffling of the feet performed to music by one or more masked men wearing rattles around their ankles. Performers may also act as hosts and general entertainers at the celebrations. Their masks usually represent a goat.
The first Hayti Depot was destroyed by fire on February 22, 1911. According to the February 23 issue of the Pemiscot Argus, a fire broke out in the Frank Williams’ restaurant near the depot just after the afternoon train had passed south and the flames spread to the Depot restaurant adjoining it, thence to the depot building itself. The three buildings were completely destroyed, but willing hands worked faithfully and managed to save about everything in the depot. The fire is supposed to have started from a gasoline stove in the restaurant. This is quite a blow to Hayti, the newspaper went on to say.
Another more modern depot replaced it, opening in 1913.
Hayti was once the home to two movie theaters and a drive-in.
The 61 Drive-In was opened on June 10, 1949. Car capacity was listed at 200. It was renamed Moonlite Drive-In in 1955 by Gene Boggs, who purchased all three Hayti movie properties, and closed in 1958. It had been demolished by 1969. John Mohrstadt, the original mastermind and builder of the three Hayti theaters, also created an amusement park with mini-train there. It was located about a mile and a half north of Highway J on the outer road. Today, there are a couple of buildings and a private residence on the property. There is no trace of the drive-in remaining.
The Dorris Theatre on the west side of the Hayti square was opened on May 27, 1914. It was renamed Empress Theatre on June 24, 1920. On March 23, 1929 it was renamed the Maxy Theatre, which was short-lived, as it closed on July 11, 1932. It reopened as the Missouri Theatre on August 28, 1932. The theatre seated 320 and was still listed as open in 1959. A fire in the projection room closed the theatre on July 15, 1960. It was located adjacent to the former Uptown Recreation Center.
Located on E. Washington Street in Hayti, the Joy Theatre building was started on March 1, 1946. It was named in honor of the earlier-mentioned John Mohrstadt’s baby daughter. It opened on December 19, 1949 with the opening film featuring Henry Fonda in “My Darling Clementine”. It is probably the most recognizable of the three Hayti theaters. The Joy Theatre was closed on November 11, 1965 after showing the movie “The Restless Ones”. It appears to have operated to the end of a 20-year lease with some special events, but no films in 1966. It has been demolished since its closing.
Shown here is a picture of the Joy Theater, shortly before it was razed, and movie posters from the Empress Theater and the Joy. (Much of the background information is from the website Cinema Treasures.)
From 42 years ago, August of 1979 – Shown here are local 4-H Club members, Paul and Phillip Brooks and Frazier Gill, with their 4-H leader, Mrs. Earl Gill, donating an early American flag, representing the 13 colonies to the Riverview Museum. Lance Walker, Missouri Extension area youth specialist at that time, and Sue Swinger, director of the Riverview Museum, were there to accept the flag for display in the “depot” museum.
“The Book of Pemiscot County” published by The Twice-a-Week Democrat in 1911 describes the Ward-Coppage Mercantile Company as “Caruthersville’s Mammoth Commercial Establishment.
It was incorporated in 1907 and conducted business as an up-to-date department store. The company occupied a large brick structure on Ward Avenue (as you can see at the left of the picture, next to the Globe Clothing Store) having a frontage of 80 feet. They had the largest clothing and men’s shoe department in Caruthersville, an immense grocery and provision section, a hardware store with a complete stock of builders’ and shelf hardware, stoves, harnesses, and tinware. Then, there was a large section across the alley in the rear devoted to agricultural implements, buggies, wagons, and farming tools of all kind.
The company also operated a cotton gin, an improved double system, with a capacity of fifty bales daily. Cotton was ginned for customers, and bought either in bale or in seed at the best market prices.
Mr. R. F. Coppage was the president, J. M. Ward, vice president, and B. B. Sanders, secretary and treasurer. Ward & Coppage as partners had operated business in town since 1901.
Something that many people in Caruthersville remember but don’t often see is a picture of the “slab-making yard”, known as the “Slabyard”. Here it is in its later days, with slabs of reinforced concrete piled on the ground by the river, next to where the old Powell’s Ferry landing was located.
In 1931, largely through efforts by S. P. Reynolds, engineer for the St. Francis Levee District, a government plant would be constructed for manufacturing concrete slabs to be used in revetment of the riverbanks between Gayoso Bend and the end of Island 18 near Cottonwood Point.
It employed a good number of men for many years, but later fell into disuse. The Caruthersville Chamber of Commerce in December of 1966 sought to revitalize the slabyard; then the Corps of Engineers stepped in with an announcement that the spring of 1967 would have it back in business with a new contract for 36,000 square of concrete mattresses.
The slab yard was closed permanently in the late 1970s.
The Oates-Commercial Hotel, located at 205 South 4th Street in Hayti, is shown here in 1904. It was operated by Mrs. M.M. Oates, mother of Sid Oates, a prominent attorney in the city, city clerk, and county treasurer. The hotel burned at some point between 1904-1915. No other information is known about the business.
Those identified on the upstairs porch are (left to right)Jack Oates (brother of Sid Oates),Otis Popham, Charles Elliston, Mrs. Bob Elliston, Mrs. Lillian Elliston Gaither, Roy Ferrell, Sid Oates, Jessie Ferrell, Mary Oates Cunningham, mother of Sid Oates, and operator of the hotel. On the ground level, several are unidentified; however, one of the men next to the horse on the left is Doc Hodge. On the porch is Noah Cunningham, the stepfather of Sid Oates, Parson Brooks and Bob Elliston (The rest are unidentified). Seated in the buggy are Buster Wells and Georgia James.
With the Caruthersville High School football season getting underway tomorrow evening at Malden, we took a look back at one of the very first football teams at Caruthersville High School, the 1920 Tigers.
Football was re-introduced into local high school athletics after an absence of two years. Mr. Oesch, the coach, had only three men with any kind of football experience around which to build his team. “Considering the small number of candidates that turned out and the injuries to our best men, we made a commendable showing”, said the coach. He also gave thanks to the business and professional men who made possible the purchase of the necessary football equipment to have a team in 1920.
No further information was provided in the 1920 Cotton Blossom about who the players were, or their record for that season.
The Worst, Sherman & Brinkerhoff Stave Mill was located in Hayti. It was the parent mill of a chain of stave mills which operated in Pemiscot County during the early 1900s.
Mr. Matt Fitzmaurice was the local manager and he was assisted by Carl Booker, Doc Pupikofer, and D.R. Penny.
Stave mills were operated in Pemiscot County, not only at Hayti, but Sutherland, Terry Mill and Ferguson Mill.
Soon the forest lands were depleted, as nearly every usable tree had been felled for the wood to be used as lumber, railroad ties, or to create staves, the planks of wood used to create barrels.The barrel-stave industry fell victim to Prohibition, the time when liquor sales were illegal.
This week, we feature a clear picture of Main Street in Steele sometime between 1926 and 1929. A few tidbits of information about the businesses you can clearly see:
Mr. and Mrs. A. J. McCollum were the managers of the popular McCollum Cafe (originally known as the Woodward and McCollum Cafe and later the McCollum and Ledford cafe), where they joked with customers “Don’t make fun of our coffee – you may be old and weak some day.”
Hotel-Main was operated by Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Prince until 1929, when they moved to Little Rock.
Workman’s Drug Store was originally known as the People’s Drug Store, run by a Mr. Largent, but Mr. J. H. Workman purchased the interests of the store and renamed it Workman’s Drug Store. Their slogan was “Call us for Anything”.
Deering School was originally a two-room building, later having another room added. Located on the north side of town, it had all grades through the eighth. According to Mrs. Isom (Willie Garrett) Baxter speaking in 1970: “You would go to the small building for a few years and then start in the big building in the third grade. You went to school until you felt like you knew all they could teach you, and then you quit.” When news reached the high school that the little three-room school building was on fire, Early Carter ran home, grabbed his camera, and started taking pictures. Included here is one of the snaps he took that day. Finally we have a picture of the student body of Deering School in 1910-11.
This shows the north side of the Hayti square in the late 1950s, based on some of the car models. None of the buildings in view were unoccupied and it was obviously busy.
Wallace Buchanan, a local Caruthersville boy who earned many medals and awards at CHS in the 1930s, went to work for Traders Mercantile Co., where he discovered his love for appliance sales especially Norge, attending many regional sales conferences and informative meetings in the late 1930s. In 1940, he went to work for Pete Robertson’s Wholesale, who purchased the Norge dealership in Caruthersville. This was located on the left side of the road, just over the seawall. In 1941, he left behind his beloved Norge appliances and started selling Frigidaire appliances in his own store, in the former Eat Shop located at 120 (eventually expanding into 122) West Third Street, near the old city hall. He remained in this location until the early 1950s, as his business had grown to sell not only appliances of all kinds, but also furniture. After moving into 300 Ward, shown here, he used an entrance on West Third Street to provide insurance sales.
Wallace Buchanan had a thriving business in Caruthersville until the mid- 1960s.
Public School, Caruthersville, MO 1920s
Who in Caruthersville remembers having a daily routine of driving past this sign at Kwik Check to see who was having a birthday each day? Along with the Kwik Check convenience store, a very busy place from the 1970s and on, this was destroyed by the tornado on the evening of April 2, 2006.
Occupied by people of the Late Mississippian period, centuries before the European colonization of the area, the mound located southwest of Caruthersville may have been occupied as early as the years 1200 to 1400. Some of the pottery found on the site has been researched to exist from the 1300s to 1500s.
Entered into the National Registry of Historic Places on May 21, 1969, the first in Pemiscot County, the Murphy Mound, as it is called, has an elevation of 262 feet. It is a prehistoric archeological site, and may be the largest of any Mississippian culture sites in the state. Receiving its name from James Ralph Murphy, father-in-law of Ben Baker, who purchased the property, the mound was closed to public access.
Mounds Cemetery located at 873 Rear State Hwy D in Pemiscot County. The cemetery is overgrown and sits on private property owned by the late James & Geneva Moody. They purchased the land almost 100 years ago from Clinton Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham allowed people in this area to bury their dead behind his home because it was on high land and most of the other land was swampy.
This advertisement was one used by the Hayti Light Company in the 1917 “Pemiscovian” yearbook from Hayti High School.
The Light Company began in 1913, when an ordinance for a vote of the people in February of that year, was passed. This would allow for a 20-year franchise to the firm of Biship and Sharp to construct, erect, maintain and operate an electric light system for the city of Hayti. Their proposal allowed customers to pay a flat rate without a meter for 50 cents a month for one light, 80 cents for two lights, and an additional 40 cents for every added light. (The minimum bill with a meter was $1.00 a month.) Construction began on the light plant in early 1913, overseen by E. F. Sharp, and Harry Smith of Portageville was hired as the local manager. He was described as “a citizen of integrity and sterling worth”.
Ward Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in Caruthersville, was named after Dr. Harden M. Ward, Mrs. Mattie Ferguson’s father. Here is the Ward family, shown in 1908:
(Top Row, Left to right) Tom Ward, Billy Ward, Hina Schult, Leslie Ferguson, John Ferguson, J. L. Daniel, Sr. George Coppage. (Second Row) Louie Schult, William Ward, Molly Ward, Henrietta Schult, Martha W. Ferguson. (First Row) Bess F. Huffman, Mame Schult, Marietta W. Daniel, Mattie Coppedge, Edna S. Dorsey. (Front row) Billy W. Coppedge, Marie Huffman, J. L. Daniel Jr., Thomas Coppedge, Martha Coppedge, Dorothy Ward. (This photo was provided by Kate Smith for the book “Pemiscot County, Missouri A Pictorial History 1994”)
Even in times like today where there is plenty to complain about, this drawing from the November 21, 1940 Caruthersville Journal shows us how much we still have to be grateful for on this day for giving thanks.
R. M. Pierce from Jackson, MO was hired by the Board of Education as Superintendent of Schools on May 21,1928 from a list of fifteen applicants for the job after serving in this role in Jackson, MO – a district which was, at this time, smaller than Caruthersville. He came to the district at the same time as the well-remembered teacher, Redman Dunham, and the district at that time included a Junior College on the top floor of the high school. He succeeded W. H. Lemmel, who had served four years in this school district.
In 1936, he instituted a WPA project to construct a new four-room building for Black students in the city. (This building still exists today on East 18th Street.) The building cost in the range of $12,000-$15,000. Along with an auditorium, this greatly expanded the campus for Washington School.
In November of 1950, under his tenure, South Side School (now Caruthersville Middle School) was opened after its construction at a cost of $143,000. Only a few years later, he was still at the helm when a bond issue was passed for school enlargement, when Caruthersville was in a “booming” time.
He served as the CHS Basketball coach in 1935. After stepping up to serve as football coach in 1938, when Coach Jack Hopke was ill, he also made the decision to again field a football team after World War II in 1943 in a conference meeting in Sikeston with the ten school superintendents who had formerly participated in the sport in this area of the state.
In November of 1950, under his tenure, South Side School (now Caruthersville Middle School) was opened after its construction at a cost of $143,000. Only a few years later, he was still at the helm when a bond issue was passed for school enlargement, when Caruthersville was in a “booming” time.
He served twenty-five years before he tendered his resignation on April 16, 1954.
On May 28, 1954, he was honored as the guest of honor by the teachers in our district in the Mona Lee room at the Top Hat Cafe and was presented with an engraved wrist watch.
Pictured here are snow pictures from another “Christmas snow” in 1963. An 11-inch snowfall was the largest in the reporter’s memory since November of 1918, but some other weather watchers, including the U.S. weather and river observer at that time, Mrs. Cora Malloure, claimed it was the largest since 1892. Snow plows were brought into the city for the first time in around 100 years to help clear a way for traffic and to relieve traffic snarls.
Mayor B. F. Rogers and his crew of workmen stayed up all night to get the streets cleared so merchants could have their last-minute Christmas sales. It was also reported that Mrs. Rogers stayed up most of the night to feed sandwiches and coffee to the workmen.
There was also a group of teen-age boys roaming the streets to help push out the cars of people who were stalled in the deep snow. They wouldn’t take any money for their trouble – just being helpful.
And there was Rev. Floyd V. Brower and a group of carolers from his church, Eastwood Memorial Methodist, who braved the snow to sing their Christmas songs to give shoppers and others “a lift”.
(The photo at the top shows the “new” -at that time – Municipal Building and the other two pictures show the downtown shopping areas.)
The Boston Store opened in August of 1895 and promised in their inaugural advertisement: “This is to let you all know that The Boston Store will not be undersold by any Jew or Gentile.” and was signed by the proprietors at that time, Barnett & Schofich.
In 1896, the Boston Store building was equipped with comfortable seats for the opera in late February.
After a change in proprietors several times, in 1909, Phillip Hamra opened the Boston Store in the “new” Michell block at 306 Ward Avenue. Wolf Khourie joined Mr. Hamra soon after the opening, but by 1910 it was billed as “Hamra Bros. Boston Store” with R. A. Hamra joining the company.
In 1922, there was one of the most damaging fires in the history of the city, when the Bridgwood building at Third and Ward, as well as the Boston Store next door were entirely consumed. There was even damage to the Cunningham store across the street. The store reopened in the 400 block of Ward with Wade Hamra and R. S. Hamra involved in the store, and Phillip Hamra opening his own new store.
In November of 1941, Wade Hamra decided to move the establishment to Wardell. Mr. Hamra stated that he believed Wardell offered better advantages for the class of sales that he carried, so he put his building up for rent here. The Boston Store had operated in Caruthersville for over a quarter-century. Mr. Wade Hamra operated his store in Wardell as Hamra’s Store, but retired in 1953, closed the store and returned to his home on Walker Avenue in Caruthersville, where he died at age 71 in 1957. Phillip Hamra was still operating his store in Caruthersville in the 1960s.