Cabarrus County NcArchives History .....Early Mt. Pleasant Businesses ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ben Callahan BCalla6711@aol.com November 5, 2013, 8:18 pm Early Mt Pleasant Businesses An 1879 listing of “Manufacturers” in Cabarrus Co. showed the following businesses located in Township #8. Flour & Gist Mills D. M. Miller Reed & Kindley C. D. Barringer Peacock & Co. Tanning and Shoes W. D. Shoemaker E. D. Lentz Other manufacturing businesses included Skeen & Eudy – Blacksmith James Lefler – Blacksmith Jesse Hathcock – Wheelwright William Elliott – Carriage Maker/Wheelwright William Kinley – Cotton & Machinery W. D. Shoemaker - Boots Hartsell & Lentz – Harness/Saddles Privilege Licenses issued for the Town of Mt. Pleasant from 1881-1884 list the following businesses in the Town 1881 McAllister & Co. – Druggist G. R. P. Miller – Merchant Kindley, Tucker & Reed – Merchants 1882 Cox & Furr - Merchants Kindley, Tucker & Reed – Merchants C. P. Cox & Co. – Merchants 1883 J. W. Moose – Druggist 1884 George Hagler - Merchant Lentz Hotel – The building, built cir 1853 by W. R. Scott, was located on N. Main St. about 50 yards from the town square. Scott sold the hotel to John Lentz in 1863 for $1,350 in Confederate money. The Lentz family operated the hotel until 1928, when the building was converted to rental apartments. During the 1890’s the Lentz Hotel was one of the social centers of Mt. Pleasant and in 1911, the upstairs rooms were used by the students of Mont Ameona Seminary after the school burned. After the 1950’s the building was abandoned and fell in to disrepair. In 1982, as the building was being slated for demolition, it was purchased by Mr. Dennis Cudd and Mr. George Brown who had the building moved to a site on College St. behind the Eastern Cabarrus Museum (MPCI) and restored it. Today the house is owned by Sam and Resa Treadway. The current address is 1120 N. College St. Bangle Hotel – Located directly across the street from the Lentz Hotel, the building was constructed by Henry Bangle (date unknown). The hotel was operated by members of the Bangle family until cir 1906, when it was purchased by Jonas Cook and L. G. Foil. Between 1906 and 1912, Charles G. “Chulie” Lentz operated a restaurant on the site before moving across the street and opening “Chulie’s Goodie Garden.” The site is now occupied by a Concord Telephone Company switching station. (Note: The Bangle Hotel was inherited by Daniel Bangle, son of Henry Bangle, but in 1875, Daniel and his wife, Cary, conveyed the building to Alexander Foil to cover a loan which Daniel had used earlier to make improvements on the building. Later in that same year Cary Bangle purchased the building back from Foil and it remained in the Bangle family until 1906.) Kindley Mill – While Kindley Cotton Mill was incorporated in 1896, it appears from the minutes of the Town Board that W. R. Kindley first introduced a cotton gin to Mt. Pleasant around 1886 when he agreed to move the machinery from the Town Limits and placed its present site on W. Franklin St. The initial group of investors in 1896 included W. R. Kindley, Rev. Paul Barringer, L. J. Foil, A. W. Moose, L. E. Heilig, James L. Peck, and A. W. Kindley. In 1900, the Mt. Pleasant Town Board voted to petition the Legislature to allow the Town to expand its boundaries in order to take in the Kindley Cotton Mill. The Kindley Cotton Mill continued to operate under the Kindley family until the 1920's, when it was sold to A. N. James, whose family owned and managed the mill into the 1960's. The Mill closed in the 1970’s and the structure was later occupied by Juba Aluminum Co. The current address is 8215 W. Franklin St. Heilig’s Store - The first building on this site on the northwest corner of the town square, was a store owned by Mathew Cook and Jacob Ludwig, which was built in the 1840’s. It later became the first location of Cook & Foil’s, a general merchandise store owned by Jonas Cook and Lawson Foil. After Cook & Foil’s moved across Franklin St., Lawson Heilig opened a store on the site. “Heilig’s Store” was later operated by Lawson’s son, C. G. Heilig, his grand-son, C. G. Heilig, Jr., and finally by Herman “Ginger” Watts & Marvin Kirk. The building was demolished in 1958 and a city park was erected on the site. Shimpock-Melchor Store /The Merchantile - This business, which was located just north of the town square on the east side of Main St. was constructed in the 1840’s and was a general store owned by John Shimpock and Christopher Melchor . The store was one of the first businesses located at the cross roads which later became the Mt. Pleasant Town Square. In 1912, John B. McAllister & Edward Crowell built the Merchantile General Store on the site. This building also housed the office of Dr. Patterson, a local dentist, and a portion of the store also housed the Post Office for a time. A 1921 Insurance map shows a Furniture Store located on the site. In 1932, Lee & Paul Foil built the Mt. Pleasant Hoisery Mill on the site. The Mill was later owned by the Leatherman family and was eventually sold to Arrowood Mills who in turn sold it to Holt Hosiery Mill. Today the Mill is known as Mt. Pleasant Hosiery Inc. and is located at 1467 N. Main St. Cook & Foil Hardware - According to a survey done for Isaac Moose in 1850, the site of Cook & Foil Hardware was previously occupied by a Tin Shop owned by Paul B. C. Smith and Mathias Barringer. This was apparently also the site of the Tin Shop owned by Daniel Walker in the 1830’s, when Mt. Pleasant was known as Walker’s Store. (The land on which the Tin Shop was located was purchased by Daniel Walker from Christopher Rinehardt in 1832.) In 1876, Jonas Cook and L. J. Foil opened Cook and Foil's on this site. A 1904 Sanborn Insurance map shows four businesses located in the “block” occupied by Cook & Foil’s. These included A. W. Moose Drug Co., a shoe shop, and a warehouse. This general merchandise store was the largest retail establishment in Mt. Pleasant and by 1911 it also housed the town auditorium. Also by 1911, Cook & Foil’s had expanded and several other businesses were now part of the block. These included a Bank, a Photo Shop, a Barber Shop, a Millinery Shop, the Telephone Exchange, an Office, and the site of the Warehouse was now shown as a Livery with an Auto shop behind it. Several smaller unnamed buildings and businesses existed in the “alley” behind the block. In 1928 A. W. Moose Co, Cook & Foil’s, the Town Auditorium and the Cabarrus Savings Bank were destroyed by fire, but the buildings were quickly rebuilt. Cook & Foil’s later became Foil Hardware. Today, the site is occupied by an expansion of A.W. Moose Drug Company and several smaller businesses. A. W. Moose Drug Co. – A. W. Moose Drug Co. was founded in 1882 by Dr. John Wesley Moose and his brother, Archibald Walter Moose and was initially located on the corner of E. Franklin St. & S. Main St. However, after J. W. Moose moved to Texas cir 1900, his brother, A. W., purchased a lot across the street on the W. Franklin St. and built a new business. This building was destroyed by fire in 1928, but A. W. rebuilt the current building on the same site. The business was later owned and operated by Hoy Moose, A. W.’s son, and eventually passed to Whitaker Moose, Hoy’s son, who undertook an expansion of the building and the Company. Today the A. W. Moose Co. occupies not only part of the old Cook & Foil/Foil Hardware site, but the company has expanded to several locations outside of Mt. Pleasant and is still owned and operated by descendants of A. W. Moose. The current address is 8374 W. Franklin St. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/cabarrus/history/other/earlymtp66ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 8.1 Kb