Karen’s Chatt is up and running again, after some website and server upgrades. The website looks the same from the outside but the inner workings are much improved and working quite well.
I left off a couple weeks ago when I was going through the 5 May 1904 edition of the Willshire Herald that my great-grandfather Louis J. Schumm saved for some reason. I am not sure why this one newspaper was saved all these years but it has been very interesting to look through. A few weeks ago I posted some of the front page news and personal items and learned little about what was happening in the Willshire area nearly 115 years ago.
Today, some of the local ads that were in that 1904 newspaper. It is amazing how many businesses were in Willshire in 1904. Willshire looked to be a thriving community, with several grocery and hardware stores, a pharmacy, bank, photographer, clothing and shoe stores, a store for spirits, a hairdresser/barber, and a paper hanger, among other things. Actually, there were so many ads in the paper that I am going to break them up into at several blog posts.
Cully & Co, grocer:
Cully & Co, Grocers, 1904 Willshire Herald
Mercer and Spitler Groceries; they had 2 ads:
1904 Willshire Herald
1904 Willshire Herald
The Willshire Meat Market, Straubinger & Bowen (located north of the hotel):
1904 Willshire Herald
Cornell Grocery, the “Brick Block Grocer”:
1904 Willshire Herald
John Hofstetter, whiskies & beer:
1904 Willshire Herald
Willshire Hardware Co, W.J. Cully, manager:
1904 Willshire Herald
Hurless & Brown, general hardware & buggies:
1904 Willshire Herald
It was probably about 1904 when my great-grandfather Louis J. Schumm purchased this old grain wagon from Hurless & Brown. The first photo below is old and a little blurry, but you can see how the wagon looked in the 1970-80s, before my mom restored it:
Grain wagon purchased from Hurless & Brown, early 1900s.
Closeup of grain wagon logo, purchased by Hurless & Brown, Willshire.
There was a lot going on in Willshire in 1904!
More business ads from the 1904 Willshire Herald next week.
