For a long time we had desired to dispose of our residence property and obtain a more satisfactory location in Hermitage. Our lot was small and too low and we wanted a larger lot, and as good or better dwelling house.. Accordingly I exchanged our residence for one owned by Rev. Patrick Chancellor who had removed from Hermitage to Weaubleau but had not disposed of his residance in Hermitage. The house was a seven room structure located on a high dry lot of about three acres. There was a small orchard, a garden large enough to raise quite a lot of vegetables, a small barn and a pasture for our cow. We were all well pleased with our new home and enjoyed living there very much.. Soon after making this deal, as I no longer had official duties and more time for private business I exchanged The Index situated in the second story af a store building on the west side of the public square which Mr. J. W. Montgomery and I had erected and of which he owned the first story and I owned the second story, and all my interest in said building for Mr. Will Morton’s stock of general merchandise situated in a small brick store building on the south side of the square belonging to J. S.. Hartman, who had removed from Hermitage to Aztec, New Mexico. At the time I made this deal our nephew Bernie Coon had been clerking in Mr. Morton’s store quite awhile and I sold him a one-third interest in the stock of goods and gave our son Joe an interest and we rented the brick store building. Thus, I was again, after an interval, of several years in the mercantile business.

Not a great while after we engaged in the store business in Hermitage, my wife and I and our little daughter Irene made a visit to Brother Bud and family of Morrisville, Missouri. He had been in failing health for some time and when we visited them he was very ill of bronchitis and was confined to his bed all of the time. We remained with them several days and regretted to leave my dear brother in such a helpless physical condition. I intended to visit him again soon, but I did not get to do so.

Soon after we returned home, my wife Irene and I visited her sister Mrs. Emma Thurston and family of Warsaw, Missouri. Her husband Mr. James Shepherd Thurston was collector of revenue of Benton County. They had a nice new residence and seemed to be doing very well. We stayed with them several days and enjoyed our visit very much. They had three children then at home, Thomas, Oscar and Lucy. Their oldest son, William, was married and he and his wife and one child, I think, lived in Warsaw, and we also visited them.

In June or July, 1904, during the World’s Fair at St. Louis, a number of Hickory County peope attended, among whom were our children Joe, Mary and Inez. After they had spent several days at the fair they visited my sister and her family at Pana, Illinois. They had never seen their uncle John Price before and they liked him very much. At that time their cousin Luther Price was married and he and his wife and child, a little boy, lived in Pana. I think their cousin Etta was married too and her husband’s name was Wm. Wright. They had one child, a daughter Nellie, named for her aunt Nelle Price who was unmarried and lived with her parents. Our children said their aunt "Sis" as they always called her and family had a lovely home and seemed to like living in Pana very much. After spending a few days very pleasantly with them they returned home, having enjoyed themselves at the fair and on their visit unusually well.

Having soon after we began business largely increased our stock of goods we soon obtained a larger patronage and by the end of the year our stock had become entirely too large for our rented store house. As there was not a large business house available, we purchased a lot and erected a large stone business building with basement, and an iron sided wareroom adjoining, and when finished we occupied same and had the largest and most complete stock of merchandise recently shown in Hermitage.

During the fall of 1905, our daughter Mary attended school at Morrisville, Missouri. Early in December she returned home and as she was coming on the mail hack from Weaubleau to Hermitage, the careless driver let the team run away, and dropping the lines leaped front the vehicle leaving Mary in the rapidly moving hack. Fearing that if she remained in the hack she would be killed she jumped out and broke her right ankle at the joint.. The wife and son of Mr. Luke McShane who lived near, came and took her to their house and summoned Dr. Arthur Fisher of Wheatland who set the broken ankle, and we were notified by a phone message of the accident. That night we brought her home, which was to her a very painful journey, but she stood it with fortitude and after we arrived at home and put her in bed, she rested as comfortably as could be expected under the circumstances. Dr. Fisher came everyday for a week or more and treated her broken limb and continued to give her case careful attention as long as necessary and under his efficient attention and skillful treatment she finally regained the use of her limb, partially, but she was lame for a long time, and in fact the ankle joint is still stiff to some extent. The doctor said some of the bones in the ankle joint were crushed and that she might always be slightly lame, but she finally overcame the lameness.

After we got settled in our new commodious quarters, our patronage became much larger and ere long we had one of the best mercantile establishments in the county. Then we found that there was a growing demand for a hardware store in Hermitage and we began to consider the feasibility of establishing such a business Our present business required the constant attention of every member of the firm and if established we would have to employ help to run the hardware store.

In the summer of 1905, we suffered another great bereavement in the death of my dear brother Bud, or Bailey, as after his marriage, his wife and many of his friends always called him. He died August 1, 1905 at his home Morrisville, Missouri after a long illness of a bronchial affection. While he had been in poor health for more than two years, his death was rather sudden, and to me, unexpected, as I had not learned that his condition was critical or his death imminent and it was a great shock to me.. In his passing came the close of the mortal existence of one of the purest and best men I have ever known. He was truly a servant of God. He was a man of positive convictions, a humble, devoted Christian whose integrity and irreproachable character were highly regarded by a host of relatives and friends. We attended his burial at Bower Chapel Cemetery in Dallas County, near Urbana, where in the presence of his grief stricken widow and children and other relatives and friends, his remains were laid to rest.

After considering the matter of establishing a separate hardware store for some time, we finally decided to do so. Ross Coon, a brother of Bernie, had acquired some stock in our business and we established the Hermitage Hardware Company and put in a good stock of hardware, agricultural implements and farm wagons; the hardware and implements in the Zeke Blair store building and the wagons in our wareroom adjacent to our store building, with Ross Coon, manager of the hardware business.

About this time the people of the county promulgated a new enterprise, the Hickory County Fair, which was an outgrowth of the Old Settler’s Reunion, which had been meeting annually in Hermitage for several years. The Fair, which was held annually for a few years, was a great success. There were exhibits of fine stock and agricultural products, splendid horse races, music by the Hermitage Band, and many other attractions. The Fair continued every year for three days and was attended by many people of the county and of adjoining counties, and also by former residents of the county whose homes were in other states. The fair grounds were on the estate of ex-Judge William H. Liggett, deceased, and on the expiration of the lease, Mr. Ben Crowley, whose wife was a daughter of Judge Liggett and had heired the Hermitage farm, where the fair grounds were situated, refused to renew the lease, and there being no other grounds near Hermitage available for the purpose, the Hickory County Fair, much to the regret of the people in general, was discontinued.

Our business continued to prosper for awhile and we were anticipating greater prosperity when we had a bad crop failure and we also had a local disaster, when the Hermitage Roller Mill, one of the most important industries of the town, was destroyed by fire of unknown origin. We realized that the loss of the mill, whose proprietor had but little insurance on the property and decided not to rebuild, would be a great detriment to our business, and then illustrative of the old saying, that “Trouble never comes singly”, our fine store building and our large store of general merchandise were burned. It was only partially insured, and we suffered a large loss of more than six thousand dollars and feeling confident that the fire was of incendiary origin, probably by the same "fire bug" that caused the mill conflagration, although we had no sufficient proof as to who was the party guilty of the arson, we decided not to rebuild, or to resume business in Hermitage but to seek a new location.

The agent of the companies, in which our building and stock were insured came and after thoroughly investigating the circumstances of the fire, adjusted the loss cutting down our insurance on the building considerably on account of the nearness of the metal roofed and metal sided frame warehouse, upon which the rate of insurance the adjuster claimed should have been at a higher rate than on the stone house and its proximity made the risk greater on the stone building. We lacked several hundred dollars of receiving the amount of indemnity called for in the insurance policy. We had no recourse without a contest with the company in a suit in court, and we decided to accept what the adjuster allowed us, but it taught us a useful lesson; to thereafter be fully insured and be sure that the rate of insurance was right.

Copyright ©2005 Larry Slavens. All rights reserved.