Caldwell County MO Archives History .....THE HAMILTON HOUSE IN HAMILTON, MO 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:46 pm

THE HAMILTON HOUSE IN HAMILTON, MO.
	Narrators:  George Dudley and Wm. Hemry

     This old hotel was for years one of the best known landmarks in town, 
standing on a bluff opposite the depot.  Visitors who came early to the town 
always spoke of it in telling of their visits.
     In 1863, the west end of the hotel was built by Enos Dudley, just arrived 
from Kingston, who was father of George Dudley of Hamilton.  He then sold part 
of it to Jacob Brosius (grandfather of Mrs. Anna Korn who has helped us with 
our research), who became known as the early landlord there.
     Mr. Wm. Hemry says that the west end of the hotel was the older Buster 
House which in 1859 had stood on the same block but to the south and facing 
south, being run by the same Dave Buster who ran the saloon on the right of 
way near the depot.  Mr. George Dudley says that this is a mistake, for he 
knew that his father, Enos Dudley, built the first section of the Hamilton 
House, and later sold it to Wm. Goodman father of Bert, even before the hotel 
started.  It is difficult to settle these questions about the early ownership 
at exact times etc. of this building, for few people are alive now who were 
old enough to know the facts in 1863 when they happened.
     Goodman, buying a half of the hotel, soon sold his half to Wm. Ervin, 
father of Uncle Dick Ervin, who sold back his share to Goodman in 1865.  
Before he sold out, the east section of the hotel was built 1865, showing that 
the hotel was growing, popular.
     In 1866, Goodman sold out completely to Jacob Brosius who became the sole 
owner.  Goodman and Dudley then built the Western Hotel on Main street as a 
rival hotel.  They did not agree, although kin by marriage, and Mr. Dudley 
retired from the firm and turned to a carpenter's shop which he built on the 
present site of Walter Whitt's home.  You might well call Enos Dudley the real 
hotel builder of Hamilton, since he erected two of them.  During the 60s and 
70s, the Western Hotel and the Hamilton Hotel had about the same amount of 
trade, both being first class places.
     By the late 70s, however, the Hamilton House began to change owners too 
frequently for its good.  Yet on a circus day of 1878, an old paper says that 
they fed 97 transients, and had many guests overnight.  So they were yet 
prospering.  In 1878, the Weaver Brothers were good hosts and they sold out to 
one Murphy with Cline as partner and they sold out to some one else, and 
finally Mr. Hughes, an old time resident here, took it in hand and made it go 
well, (he was father of Flora Gwinn).  Then it began to run down in upkeep and 
tone.  It became a low grade place, an empty building, a tenement house, where 
several poor families stayed.  It was getting to be a real menace to the good 
buildings on South Main street, for it was a fire trap.
     In 1880, it caught fire on the roof, but the fire was put out.  Two or 
three more fire scares followed, then in April 1886 it burned down.  By that 
time, it was called the Central Hotel though not used as a hotel.  Part of the 
ground floor was used for small shops.  The O.K. restaurant was in the S.E. 
corner.
     Interviews  1934.


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