I recently received a letter from Myril Gibson sending a check for membership in the Worth County Historical Society for herself and her brother Phil S. Gibson. She lives in San Francisco and her brother, who is Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, lives in Carmel, California.
She was very kind in her comments about the historical pictures which have been running and she expressed a special interest in the one of the "Drag Day" which also showed the southeast corner of the square.
She mentioned visits to the millinery shop as a little girl and trips to her father's law office.
This week's picture is a more detailed view of the east side of the square. It was taken in 1910. The hotel, in front of which the team and wagon are standing, was known at that time as the Spaford Hotel. It had at an earlier time been known as the Oriental Hotel.
About the mid 1920's the two wooden buildings on the corner were razed and Delph Simons built the building which stands there today. It included the south half which housed the newspaper (Worth County Tribune) and the north half which was the Light and Power office for many years and now houses the Defenbaugh Drug Store.
The new building was dedicated in 1926.
At that time there were two newspapers operation in Grant City. The Worth County Tribune was operated by Delph Simons and the Worth County Times was operated by R.V. Marshall. When Simons moved into his new building Charlie McLaughlin worked for him. Shortly thereafter McLaughlin bought into the Times with Marshall.
In early 1929 Charlie McLaughlin, Charley Stark and Lester Lutes formed the Times-Tribune Co. and united the two papers. They began publication of the Times-Tribune with the first issue in January 1929.