Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast Kansas
John Locke · en
Knowing the canning factory owner like a book, I did not even suspect
that they would consider the Worthy location. And as a matter of fact,
the Board Committee apparently did not want the Worthy dump—only, at
any rate, as a last resort. When I called on Mr. Worthy, he said, “I’ve
given the Board of Trade fellows an option on it for $200, good until
noon today. Come back here promptly at twelve o’clock. Now don’t wait
until after dinner,” he warned. The Committee went to Mr. Worthy after
one o’clock, asking for an extension of the option. That old canning
factory was still in the way. And the owner did not exactly pat me
on the back, but looked as if he wanted to when he learned that I had
bought the Worthy dump. I did not get the doctor’s reaction to this—but
I do know that, though we continued on friendly terms—we never had any
clashes — he continued to “harp” for a competing paper, with political
slant.
Mr. Reckeway, being handy with hammer and saw, converted the old canning
factory building into an elevator in time for the fall business. The
people, including the Board of Trade boys, had an erroneous notion that
an elevator operator could pay more for corn than the track buyer, and
while the reverse is true, they had located their man with this belief.
Then that new man did give me a merry chase—in fact he put me completely
out for a spell. He paid more for corn than I could get for it. How
come? Well, the BT boys gave credit to the old canning factory. They
were wrong of course.
It may be a little early to bring this in—but Mr. Reckeway was making
some profit on the sale of a carload of flour he had brought in, but he
could not count on a repeater in this line, for he had already been told
by the canning factory vendor—who sold flour in his general store at
substantially higher prices—to cut it out. It was made plain to the
fellow that he had not been brought here to compete With the home
merchants.
I’ll get around to aft explanation of how and why Mr. Heckeway bid up
the price on corn—but this seems the opportune time to slip in a line
about the entry of a business which led all competition. And lo, the man
was from Goff, the town which had furnished me a competitor in the
grain business, and a politically minded doctor who wanted a competing
paper—and ironically enough, the town whose advertising merchants, C. C.
Abbott, John Wendell, and George Bickel, were the thorns that had been
pricking the Board of Trade boys’ sensitive hides.
Mr. C. C. Abbott, the live merchant—the man whose advertisements in my
paper had given so much concern at the Board of Trade’s first meeting,
and was the cause for that elaborate write-up, had moved in on them with
a complete new stock of general merchandise, locating in the old Stowell
brick building, the present Catholic recreation hall.
Now, let ‘em kick!