Barton County KS Archives History - Books .....Business History Of Great Bend 1912 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 4, 2007, 5:17 pm Book Title: Biographical History Of Barton County BUSINESS HISTORY OF GREAT BEND IN 1872 H. H. Kidder realized the necessity for a store at Great Bend and to him belongs the honor of having established the first general store on the townsite. The store was located on the east side of the park square. Mr. Kidder soon became aware of the fact that although he had had the advantage of the merchants who came later, in selecting a location, the greater part of the town's business, was done by stores on- the west side of the square. Therefore, he moved his building to the corner now occupied by the First National bank. A. S. Allen opened the first drug store in 1872 on the west side of the square and later moved into the first stone building to be erected in the town in 1876. B. Negbaur from Leavenworth started in the clothing business in the spring of 1874. Later he added dry goods to his stock and had one of the best lines of goods to be found in the state at that time. In 1874 J. W. and J. Lightbody started in the dry goods business on the west side of the square and their business grew in volume until the building became too small to answer the purpose of the store. In 1878 a dissolution of the firm took place and J. W. Lightbody built a large store building a few doors to the north and, in connection with W. J. Wilson of Burlington, Kansas, and Saunters & Wilson of Newton, Kansas, put in one of the finest stocks of goods ever shown in Barton County. The store occupied two floors and was known as the "People's Store." A. W. Gray engaged in the hardware business in 1872 on the west side of the square in partnership with E. Wilcox of Hutchinson, and S. Lehman of Newton, Kan. In the spring of 1876, Mr. Gray erected a large brick building. Some idea of the volume of business done at that time can be gleaned from the fact that during the year 1878 Mr. Gray's total business amounted to $130,000 for hardware and machinery. In 1874 the firm of Burtoa & Johnson, which was composed of E. W. Burton of Lansing, Mich., and A. Johnson, bought the E. L. Morphy hardware stock and began business at the northeast corner of the park square. Later they moved to the west side of the square and occupied the T. L. Stone building which was later used by Moses Brothers. In 1876, W. H. Odell and G. N. Moses bought Mr. Johnson's interest and in the spring of 1877 Mr. Odell sold out to Ed R. Moses when the name of the firm was changed to Burton, Moses & Brother. [photo] Sam Maher, (on right) First Banker In 1878, J. H. Hubbard erected a large stone building 25x140 feet with a basement, and at that time it was said to be the largest hardware store in the state of Kansas. The second floor of the building was used as a hall and was known as Union hall where all kinds of functions were held. The Hubbard store did a total business of $120,000. In 1879 the store was damaged by fire to the extent of $7,000. [photo] Street Scene in Great Bend on Circus Day, 1910 None of the stores mentioned above are being operated now by their original owners, about the only firm that remained in business that began in the 70s is the E. R. Moses Mercantile Company. The first attempt to build a flour mill in the county was made by parties from Iowa in 1875 on the banks of the Walnut, near Dry creek. Various subscriptions in the way of a site, riparian rights, rock, etc., were given to the company. It was required that 30,000 bushels of .wheat be loaned to the company by the farmers, they to take their pay in flour at stated intervals. A site was selected for the mill but the wheat loan did not come in and although work was begun on the mill it never was completed. In the fall of 1875 a mill was built at Ellinwood by Musil & Steckel. It consisted of a single vertical burr and was capable of grinding about 100 bushels per day. During the same year the foundation for a mill was built by the firm of Brinkman & Sooy but was abandoned until 1878 when Brinkman's elevator was built on it. In 1876 W. P. Clement came to Great Bend from Kalamazoo, Mich., and immediately took steps that resulted in a steam mill being erected near where the depot stands, and by August of that year the mill was ready to begin operations. It was completely overrun with work. The mill ran three sets of burrs and had a capacity of 350 bushels per day. In 1877 Sooy & Brinkman built a large water power mill on Walnut Creek below the railroad bridge. It was nearly completed when a tornado demolished it. This tornado swept a path about six miles wide and came from the north. It did a great deal of damage from Carr Creek in Mitchell County to No. 3 school house west of Ellinwood. This was on August 16, 1877. This misfortune did not deter Sooy & Brinkman and before long another mill was erected in a better and more secure manner and it began grinding in December, 1877. This mill was a four-burr and had the best appliances known for the manufacture of flour at that time. It was soon found that there was insufficient water in the creek at times to keep the mill in operation, but the firm with characteristic enterprise, built a race at a point a mile and a half up the Arkansas river in order to get an additional supply of water. The fall from that point was ten feet in addition to that already atttained on the Walnut, and during the high water in the Arkansas the plan worked nicely. When the water fell in the Arkansas, as frequently happened, the head of the race would become filled .with quicksand from the bed of the river. After various experiments that had for their object the remedying of this condition the business was finally abandoned and the mill was moved from its site to a point just south of the railroad tracks and it is now one of the biggest and best mills in the state of Kansas and is operated by the Walnut Creek Milling Company. [photo] Walnut Creek Mill During the years from 1872 to 1880 there were numerous manufacturing enterprises started in Great Bend but none of them survived any great length of time. These included a broom factory, cigar factory, etc. In the early days of Great Bend it was the place of residence of a large number of cattlemen who grazed their herds in the valleys of the Ninnescah, Chicaskia end Medicine Lodge rivers. The cattle business seemed to thrive at times when farming life was very discouraging on account of droughts, grasshoppers, wind and other undesirable conditions. The first cattle in the country were from Texas and it was a peculiar fact that high bred stock, natives of northern climates could not live in the vicinity of Texas herds without contracting a fever that ofttimes proved fatal. However, if the native cattle withstood the first year's contact they were immune thereafter. The best success in the cattle business was achieved by crossing Texas stock with northern cattle. An effort was made in the early 70s to establish herds of sheep in the county, but all that were brought here seemed to be unable to become acclimated and the industry never thrived as did the cattle business. The first to attempt to raise thoroughbred stock in the county was C. Q. Newcombe whose farm was known as Bloomingdale Park and was located in Cheyenne township, He came to the county in 1876 and engaged in breeding fine cattle and horses. His horses were of the Messenger and Black Hawk stock. He had one brood mare, known as Nellie Seeley, that had a record of 2:30 when she was 10 years old. His cattle were of the best shorthorn stock. He was also a breeder of Berkshire and Suffolk pigs many of which he imported. Additional Comments: From: Biographical History Of Barton County File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/barton/history/1912/biograph/business46gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/ File size: 8.3 Kb