The Good is Getting Better
A letter to my Grandchildren
By John McClure
New London, Iowa
January, 1965
Dear Kids,
In the dark and muddy days of December, 1919, we moved to New London from Hillsboro - Grandma, me, Cleo, Lucille, and Maxine, she was pretty little then; Joan wasn't born until a couple of years later. When I say "dark," it was just that because the town didn't have good lighted streets then. I think they only used about a 150 watt light bulb on a pole a block apart, but on Main Street they really turned it on with 250 watt bulbs. Some of the lights got turned off at 11 o'clock and then it WAS dark. But a few years later we got real fancy here in New London and had quite a few strings of light bulbs hanging across Main Street and this really lighted us up and looked like a real big town. At Christmas time Bill Wellington would climb a ladder and dip the bulbs in cans of paint and they stayed this way until the color washed off. The streets were so muddy, we could hardly get through them. How well I know about the mud because my first job here was running a delivery wagon for four grocery stores. Most everybody had groceries delivered in those days 'cause you couldn't very well carry home 100 lbs. of sugar and 50 lbs. of flour in a basket. There wasn't so much cash-and-carry then as there was charge-and-deliver. I used a one horse delivery-wagon to haul the groceries from the stores of E. R. Morrow, Brown and Hemmings, Elmer Denney, and Ray Ritchey. I remember Ed Smith had the mail job and we used to stop along the street and talk and smoke together. Seems there were more hours in a day back then 'cause usually people didn't hurry everywhere. When I first came, I didn't know anyone and if you think that wasn't a hard job, just go somewhere and try to find which house ordered corn meal, coffee, and flour instead of raisins, sugar, and cheese. I felt ready to quit the first Saturday night, but Ray Ritchey wouldn't let me, and got me to thinking it would get easier - but it was quite awhile.
Now I want to tell you some of the changes New London has made in the past 45 years. They used to call it the "Biggest Little Town in Iowa" and I do believe they were talking about the hearts of the people being big, too. Of course, most everybody thinks his home-town folks are the best anywhere.
When we first came to New London, Main Street was quite a bit different, although there are quite a few of the old buildings around yet -- just like there are still quite a few of the old folks here yet. Let's now think we are starting at the west end of Main Street on the north side, and are going to walk towards the east ... There used to be an old orchard with blackberries and weeds where Drs. Brinkmeyer and Rayner have built a nice Veterinary Hospital and also Walgren's Market. Later on that spot was a tourist camp, and at one time there was a roller skating rink there, too, but that was quite a bit later. Just east from this lot, Joe Fuller (Sherwood) had a broom factory and a house. That man made good brooms and enough of them to sweep this world clean, but seems no one ever got the job done yet. These two buildings are gone and now Dr. Tyner lives here. Then on the corner just west from the park, Dayre Courtney had a garage in a two-story brick building and he lived upstairs. Now Claire Bishop runs an Economy Service Station on this spot. Across the street east is the town park; now it used to have an old chain hitching rack all around it with a water trough on the south-west corner so the horses could have a drink -- of course, sometimes kids would wade in it on a hot day. The same water tower was stretching up in the air then, but it really seemed like it was higher back then. Anyway, I expect Bill Wellington thought it was pretty high because several years later New London used to keep a light turned on up there at night, and when the bulb burned out, he would climb to the top to put in a new one. That was one place that was pretty safe from bulb-snatchers. The park has really looked different since last spring because the old band stand was moved to McMillan Park in Mt. Pleasant, where they have the Old Threshers reunion every year. Now-a-days we have Treat Day here on one day a year, but we used to have a three-day Fall Festival, and they were sure big days.
East from the park, there was an old house about half torn down when we came to town in '19 and Dayre Courtney built a garage there, and then it was a Ford garage for a long time, but now Bizz Williamson has his D X Station here. Just next door east from the garage there was a little house in there and Mary Pierson lived there, and Lizzie Nugen lived in the big brick house which is now the Bethel Gospel Church. Mrs. Barney had a Hat Shop next, and on the corner where the Lyons have the Mobil Station was Otis Maginnis' Meat and Grocery Store.
Across the street east was the Post Office, and Harry Chichester was our postmaster. He and Jim Crawford switched this job back and forth several times as it depended on whether our President was a Democrat or a Republican at the time. Now this job doesn't change every time the Presidential Party does, but now it's in the Civil Service Department. The post office was still there many years until we got the new one built just three years ago. That building used to be filled with letters and packages, but now Mrs. Neil Corrick has it filled with antiques for sale. Just next door from the post office was the Wright and Holland Hardware; now this had been a hardware store for a long time before 1919, and it was always one until Ralph (DeSpain) closed it out in 1960. There's been a heap of nails and bolts carried out of that place, but now it's a Kiwanis Club Room. Above this building was the IOOF and Rebekah Lodge Hall and they still have it here. The next building east from the hardware was a Drug Store run by Walter Pettis; well today it's been remodeled and is now Shores' Drug Store. Upstairs Dr. Ritchey had his Dentist Office and then later Dr. Rawhouser had his office and home there for many years, too. I'll just bet there's been a lot of people that have hated to climb those stairs! Today this space is made into a couple of apartments. Next east, where Cleo and Bert (Harper) have their Grocery Store now, it used to be Jim McCune's Real Estate and Music Shop. Lucille works in the grocery store now since Ralph doesn't have the hardware anymore.
The next building years ago was a regular department store, of course, in those days we called it a General Store, but it was a big one! It covered all the space that is now Vera and Virgil Engelhard's Barber and Beauty Shop, Howard Ritchey's Variety Store, Earl Petzinger's Grocery, and all the upstairs which is lodge rooms for the Masons and Eastern Stars. This general store had been built and run even earlier by J. E. Peterson. This Morrow Store sold groceries, dry good, and furniture on the second floor, and they had about the only public toilet in town so it was usually a busy place on Saturday night. I remember the night that whole store burned to the ground; the window glass of our restaurant which was across the street was so hot from the fire that you couldn't touch it with your hand -- of course this happened in the '20's. The fire happened in the middle of a cold night, but we opened up the restaurant and made coffee and lunch for the firemen. A Mt. Pleasant fire truck even came down to help so the rest of the town wouldn't burn up too.
 Frank Lundin World Champion Horseshoe Pitcher |
Back then, in 1919, if we would have walked on past Morrow's Store we would have come to a Creamery run by Frank Lundin, with the next-door building being where his father, John Lundin, repaired shoes. The Lundin family lived on one side of the building and had their Repair Shop on the west side, and they had a couple of horseshoe courts behind their place. There was usually a crowd back there watching and playing, and the clang of a horseshoe hitting the stake was heard pretty often! A few years later Frank became World's Champion Horseshoe Pitcher and New London had a big parade and celebration in the park when he got back in town. Mrs. Lundin was a pretty good horseshoe pitcher, too, along with the rest of the family -- and she could sure beat me! The clang you hear on that sport now is probably dishes rattling from Garland's Geode Cafe. DeJaynes Jewelry Store and Terry Kilbourn's Barber Shop are also on that lot.
The next building was George Countryman's Undertaking Parlor; he built that building and now it is our remodeled City Office. Next in line was D. W. Brown's and Pearl Hemmings' Grocery Stores, and next on the other side of that building was E. L. Kirkhart's Meat Market. Now Ed and Earl Smith have their Geode Industries in this whole building. As we come to where Gingrich's Hardware and O'Brien's Bakery is now, I remember that building was Bill Vincent's Garage, and finally he let his wife, Dora, have a Beauty Parlor in part of it. After the women got their hair bobbed, they began to get it curled up with marcel irons. There are also several apartments above here now. Next was the old National Bank and now it is the fine Nugen Library which H. J. Nugen gave to New London; Stella Chichester is the librarian and Sadie Obermeier helping her, and they sure do check out a lot of books in a year's time. Above the library there are three apartments, but years ago this was old Doc. Mehler's office. You know we've had three Dr. Mehlers here in New London through the years.
Across the street east was another bank -- the Farmers' State Bank. Altogether, we had three banks back then; guess there must have been a lot of money around to keep three of them busy. In the east side of this same building, there was a restaurant run by Ollie Van Hyning, and above the restaurant was Doc. Cook's Office and Hospital. Now both floors of this whole building are used by the Iowa-Illinois Telephone Co. for offices. The picture show is still in the same place, but years ago there weren't any pictures but "silent movies" and they usually had some woman sitting down in front to play the piano all through the show. She would play real loud and fast when the stage coach was about to go over the side of the cliff, and soft and slow when the pretty girl died. Chuck and Sara Noel run the show now and there's no need for a piano player anymore. Next to the picture-house, was Jim Wilson's Plumbing Shop, and the next building was Carl Rauscher's Harness Shop; now both of these places are show room and warehouse for Burkhart & Co., and upstairs is another apartment.
John Codner's Oil Station came next, and the gas was pumped by hand. He also had a water-trough out in front to water the horses. Now this is McKinnons' Primary Oil Co. Repair Shop, their station is across the street to the south. Mrs. Magers had a Hat Shop and lived in the brick building which is now a warehouse for McKinnons with Yoma living upstairs in an apartment. Across the street to the east was the Allen house and now this is the Drs. Readinger and Vaughan's Office with another apartment upstairs.
If we'd have crossed over the muddy street to the south side, we'd have been by the Farm Machinery building on the corner, and on the east side of that building was the Light Office. Today, Irving Synnes has built a Speed Wash laundromat on that corner, and in the south end of it Gary Blanck has his Plumbing Shop. On over south, the next building is the Winebrenner Motor Co.; this used to be the old Nels Wind Garage, and it was struck by lightning one night during an awful storm and burned out, but it was rebuilt. Across the street to the west was the old Shield's home (Minnie clerked uptown many years), but this place is now a car lot.
Now we are back to the corner of Main Street; this is where Elmer Denney had his Grocery Store. Next west was Frank Snook's Plumbing Shop; then there was a garage run by Dave Matheny. All these buildings have been torn down, and now we have McKinnon's Conoco Oil Station here. Next Ed Shipley had a big Livery Stable and this was set back off Main Street; now Frieda Strand has a Beauty Shop built back there. Several years later, the Drewer brothers, Ed and Bill, ran the horse barn and bought and sold a lot of horses. Ed Shipley also ran the town Hotel, and John Van Hyning had a Barber Shop where Jim Marshall now has his Real Estate Office. Mrs. Minnie Locke has now made the old hotel into an apartment house. The building on the corner was the K. of P. (Knights of Pythias) Pool Hall with their Lodge Room upstairs; now this is the Farmers' Tavern. West across the street on the corner was John Strack's Candy and Cigar store, and was a favorite place for kids to buy candy on the way to school. Now this is Burkharts' Store, and in the next building Frank Clawson's Tin Shop, and next to this was Nib Chichester's Barber Shop; these are now used for storage by Burkharts. Just west from there was an empty spot, and now here is a new brick building which Dr. Paul McPheron has built for his office to fit glasses. Next was the old Shaner Book Store and it is vacant now, but has an apartment above it. Next door was Bill Shaner's Barber Shop and now it is Ron Hildebrand's Shoe Store. Just west from here Abe Ruben had a Second-Hand Shop, and this is now Elmer Leedham's Pan-Co-Vesta Cleaners.
Next building west was the Swan Building, but it is now empty; this used to be Ray Ritchey's Grocery Store. This is where we had our McClure's Cafe for most of the 33 years we were feeding folks in New London, and we lived upstairs in three rooms. Sounds pretty crowded for six people, but we even had a lot of out of town relatives come to visit us there and our girls sure had a lot of friends and parties there anyway. It just shows that it doesn't have to be a fancy place to have a good time.
The next building west was known as the Knickerbocker building and Mrs. Mailand had her Cafe there; now it is Justus Piper's Real Estate Office and Richard Cousins' Cafe and Bus Depot. The building on west was a Barber Shop run by Harry Wells, and this is now a men's loafing place and is known as the New London Club. West from here was Roy Hill's Creamery, and this was recently a tavern, but is now empty. Next we come to the big brick Bank building on the corner. Bob Dameron had his Men's Clothing Store here, and it has been here all this time and his son, Bill Dameron is still here, but it is not just a store for men anymore. Pet Dameron had worked in the store many years until her recent death. One time I walked past Bill as he and another man were talking. The man asked Bill if he knew me, and Bill told him he didn't think so as I was an "old-timer," but you know, Bill has been around here quite awhile too. In this same building we also had another dry-goods and Variety Store called the Hub, and it was run by Charlie and Stella Anderson. Their girls were about the first ones our girls knew after we landed in New London. Now we find the two Insurance Offices here of Charles Shuppy and Helen Wellington in the building; and now here is the New London State Bank; it used to be the Iowa State Bank. Around the corner to the south is the Journal Office; Ed Wessel was the Editor for a long time, but now it is Duane Griggs. Upstairs above the bank used to be Dr. Andrews' Dentist Office and Dr. Van Ausdal, M.D., and Dr. E. J. Lessinger's Office and Operating Room, and he took out a lot of tonsils up there. Now Bell and Hansen have a Law Office up here, and the Iowa-Illinois Telephone Co. have all the other office rooms.
South off Main Street from the bank was the old Nugen home where three brothers lived; this was torn down, and now we have a new Post Office building here. East from this corner was Dad Wagner's house, but now here is a new building which is the local Telephone Office.
Around the corner south from the bank, but on the west side of the street we now have Hicks and Ragland Consulting Engineers, and this was the old Telephone Office and Exchange. There have been a lot of "Hello-girls" work here through the years, and we used to call the operator up for all kinds of information like "Where's the fire?" "Who died?" and "What time is it?" On south from here is Tim Bailey's Plumbing Shop, and this used to be a vacant lot and garden. Then on the corner there was another Nugen house, but it was just torn down awhile back to make a parking lot for people working in the Telephone Company Offices.
Now back to Main Street, across west from the bank was Roederer's Bakery which is now Francis Maginnis' Tavern with an apartment upstairs. There has been a Pool Hall built just west of here and is run by John Allison; this was an empty sport before. Charlie and Delbert Gabbert were in the next building and had a Blacksmith Shop where Bill Pfeiffer now has his Rambler Garage. Upstairs in that building was a fun-place with an inside Croquet Court, and I guess to this day there are still some scores and writing marked on the wall up there, and says, "Miller and Swig got skunked."
Next door west where Dean Gipple now lives, used to be Art Zimmering's Paint Shop. Above this was Mr. Wilson's Photo and Music Studio. He gave lessons to many New London musicians, and he could play almost any instrument. He was also the band leader for the Wednesday night concerts in the park. One time Mr. Wilson took a family group of Grandma, me, and the four girls, and was that some picture! That should have wrecked his camera forever, but he must have had a good one.
The next building is now the White House Creamery, but it used to be the old Masonic Lodge Hall upstairs, and the downstairs and all the big west wing of that building -- upstairs and down -- were used by the Mitten Factory which was managed by Duke and Jennie Snyder. This was a branch of the Fairfield Glove Factory and they used to hire a lot of New London people up there. All of this double building is now used by the creamery.
On the corner we now have a Tastee Ice Cream Shop which also serves lunches, and this is owned by young Bill and Linnea Wellington. This is a place where kids like to meet; that makes me remember the years when young folks stopped in our restaurant for hamburgers and malts. Guess I gave a lot of folks around here their first ice cream cone where they were little; if I had a penny for every cone I've dipped up, I expect I'd be sitting pretty right now. On across the street west from this corner, is a vacant gas station (Standard Oil), and this is where the old Grimes house used to stand.
Today New London has spread out in different directions, and one new part is the Westgate addition which is filled up with pretty houses out on the west edge of town. Jack Woodside had a fine orchard out there a few years ago, but that had to go for more houses, too. We also have many fine new homes all over town which shows this is a growing town. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that there are more new houses built here since 1935 than there were houses already here in 1919 when we came, and some are mighty nice ones, too; good enough for any city. Back years ago the Westerbeck brothers -- Adam, Henry, Phil, and Joe -- were all carpenters and did a lot of building around New London.
This town used to have five churches, the Christian, Holiness, Methodist Protestant, Presbyterian, and Methodist Episcopal. Now there are four churches here with the Bethel Gospel, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, and Methodist. When the M. P. Church and the M. E. Church joined together, George Elliott bought the M. P. Church building and made it into Elliotts' Chapel, and his funeral parlor is there and also some apartments. Just west from here was where the old (and I do mean old, because it was gone in 1919 when we came to town) Opera House stood so you see they had culture in New London way back there.
The schools have changed quite a bit around here, too, since our girls went to them. The old Lincoln Grade School has been gone quite awhile, and now there is a factory building there. Uncle Emory Knickerbocker was a janitor at Lincoln School and pulled the old bell to bring the kids to school a long time. I expect a lot of today's grown folks will remember Miss Mabel Wilmeth reading the whole set of "Bobbsey Twins" books in the fourth grade, and also Miss Jeanette Lynn who sometimes got three generations of a family through the eighth grade. We finally built another high school and used the old one for the grade school, but pretty quick now some of you younger ones will be going to the new Clark Grade School in the south part of town.
Another thing, I'll say that we got the best light plant and lighting system and best streets of any town this size in the state of Iowa. Way back -- Jim Bell, Bob Willits, Dave Rutherford, and John Harding were familiar names in our light department. When we were in the restaurant for 33 years, I don't believe we were without lights and power more than two hours in all that time. New London finally got out of the mud, too, when we got a lot of streets paved about 35 years ago. We can give Earl Drewer and Willis Christe credit for hauling cinders from the light plant and filling up the holes in the other muddy streets that weren't paved.
When we first came here, the fire department was a cart with a lot of hose rolled around it and Bill Hansen pulled it behind his coal wagon, and he sure had a team that could run! Lots of other times there were run away horses in town going down the streets, too. I tell you, that was some excitement with people yelling "Whoa! Whoa!" and the horses running and wagons rattling, and then someone would run out if front of them and get them stopped! Now THAT was real stuff -- like you see on TV! Today we have four fire engines ready to go to the fires and an ambulance, too. Way back when, sometimes, farmers would herd a bunch of cows through town to the stockyard, and there would come 18 or 20 cows down the street with two or three boys and a man or two on horseback or afoot, and they would try to keep the cows walking in the road. Usually some would get in the yards and maybe tromp down some flowers and cut up the yard. Finally they would go on by and out of sight, but their tracks were still around!
Back in the '20s we had "hog day" once a week, and the farmers brought about 10 hogs to town in a wagon. We were in the restaurant then, and some days on "hog day" we would feed 15 or 20 extra farmers for dinner. I have seen times when three or four carloads of hogs were shipped from the stockyards in a week, but now we have Oscar Mayer's Holding Station with Mike Brackey who gets the hogs trucked to Davenport every day.
Today we have two Lumber Yards in town -- Spahn and Rose still east of the fire station and Farmers' Co-Op which is out towards the depot, and we've got a Ready-Mix cement plant, but only one elevator now, but it is a Jim-dandy and is really new and up-to-date. For a long time we also had an A. D. Hayes Elevator here, and the elevators burned down a couple of times through the years.
Just north of the old Farmers State Bank, Fred and Harvey Morrow had a Garage; today Burkharts have Plumbing Supplies here. On north from Morrows' Garage there was another Livery Stable; later the Westerbeck Brothers had a Mill Shop here, but today we have the New London Hall which was a barracks moved in from the C. C. C. Camp which was out at the edge of town on the Lowell Road. Also today, Dale Linder has a Plumbing Warehouse north of the Town Hall.
Across the street east from Spahn and Rose, was Tom Burnett's Mill Shop which is now an apartment house. Across the street south from Spahn and Rose was Ray Shipley's Blacksmith Shop, and it still is in the same place, but now John Patterson is the smithy, and I doubt if he has much horseshoeing to do anymore, but of course, people still ride a few horses.
One block north from the old post office, there used to be the little house of Edith Daubendick and her three boys; now this area has been made into a parking lot. Just east of this spot, the American Legion built a long cement building, but sold it awhile back to Burkharts and they use it as a warehouse.
Back in the "lean years" of the '30s, I remember the town hired about 30 men who were out of work, and they helped Earl Drewer who was the cop and guy who took care of the streets all over town. These men were paid in "script" which was just a piece of paper the city printed to use for their wages, and this "script" could only be spent in New London as it wasn't any good any place else. I'm telling you, jobs and money were about as scarce as hens' teeth. If a boy or girl had a dime to spend for the whole week, he really had something! I hope you never see times like the depression of '33.
Today at the west end of town we have Fred Harms' Londonaire Motel, and there are several more Beauty Shops to keep the women fixed up pretty -- Eileen Shipley's, Ruth Cole's, and Doris Thompson's; we also have Dr. Leutkehan's Chiropractic Office, Hopkins Real Estate Office, and Jim Church's Shell Service Station scattered around town. Dr. Perry Haist's Dentist Office is on "Toothache Drive," and this is north from where Lincoln School used to be where Green Lee had a pasture.
There are also two Nursing Homes in New London -- Blanck's and Shelton's. There is even some talk now of getting a Retirement Home someday. John Iverson's TV Shop is west of the Methodist Church where Henry Westerbeck used to live; I know you modern kids would sure hate to miss your favorite TV show if a tube burned out. I guess you would think you were really "roughing it" if you had to spend a day someplace without a TV set. We also have Brunken Tractor Co., Dotson's Bowling Alley, and VFW Hall which are new buildings in the east part of town.
One more step forward, now our town is supplied with natural gas so now there wouldn't be any work for the "old-time coal haulers" like George Nees, Al Wellington, Bill Hansen, and Otis Maginnis. Ben used to cook with coal and wood in their stoves -- then oil stove, and finally bottle gas came along. Kids used to have to stay in bed, covered up, until the house got warmed up every morning, but now somebody just has to turn up the thermostat. Our depot is now only about half the size it used to be, and it's still out there by the railroad tracks! Some of the early ticket agents were Clyde Foltz, Walter Lingle, and Forrest McCleary. All trains stopped here for coal and water and Harry Bolar was in charge of the coal-chute. The Railroad owned the pond (Country Club) and pumped the water into town to use in the trains. Two old-time section bosses were Sam Harper and Lennie Anderson; later also Lou Davey. The mail and dray were hauled from the depot by "Dad" Rooks and his white horse, Prince. That was a real smart horse, just like in the silent pictures, 'cause he could be left standing without being tied up and if "Dad" Rooks was across the street and whistled to old Prince, he would cross over to him. Anna Shields used to write news for the "Hawk-Eye" and would have to carry her letter out to "No. 4" (train) each night to get it to Burlington for the next day's paper. In the 20's we had a little one-arm night watchman named Wash Hunter.
Many years ago "Pont" Coleen was also a ticket agent and he had ideas and wanted to make inventions. It seems he had one of his inventions stolen sometime earlier which was to be a typewriter that would write words instead of just letters, so he spent his later years (when I knew him) wearing a big, bulging coat which had giant pockets and patches sewed on it, and he had these filled with his inventions. He must have carried a lot of extra weight, but he wore this all the time when he left home as he was afraid to leave it there while he was gone. I didn't usually deliver groceries to his house as he had a hand-made two-wheel cart he pushed up town when he needed to get groceries -- but he always wore his "mysterious coat."
In remembering these things, I may be a little mixed up or wrong about some of the dates or places, but I hope I'm not. Anyway, it's been good to remember them.
There were five of us McClures when we moved here in 1919, and now there are 25 of us (that's not counting the in-laws) so we kind of helped New London grow. You know, I'm telling you these things about earlier New London and some of the people who lived here so you will always remember it's been a pretty good place to live, and I want you to keep it that way.
Yes, "the good IS getting better."
Sincerely,
GRANDPA JOHN
John T. McClure