The column this week is a lot more questions than it is information. There are many, many people who know more about the subject than I do and I would appreciate it very much if some of you would commit to paper at least something about the subject.
Two persons, Velma DeField Blaylock and Nadine Jones, furnished me with postcards with the picture of L.Z. Williams store which was in Denver during the first third of this century. The Jones card was a little bit more preserved than the other so we (to be factual it was Hightshoe) used it to make the reproduction we are using.
On the other one someone has recorded a date and the names of the women so both cards were invaluable.
The picture was taken in November, 1907. The four women standing at the right of the picture are, left to right, Ida Robertson DeField, Ida Farris Packer, Elva Lunsford and Mertie DeField Branson. I think that Lunsford and Parker were sisters and that DeField and Branson were sisters-in-law.
So the first question is for someone to identify some of the others shown in the picture.
Another interesting project would be for someone to write some history of the L.Z. Williams store. It seemed to be a Denver institution for several years. In fact, I'll even do better than that. If you feel you can't write (and that's a lot of hooey) I'll bring a recorder and we'll tape your story and I will write it later.
Sometimes things are so coincidental they are almost scary. Some time ago Marshall Brown called me and told me that he had found some papers I would be interested in and that he would leave them in Judge Osborne's office.
I decided about a week ago which picture I was going to run this week. A couple of days later I wandered into the good judge's office to pass the time of day with his honor, and Carmetta Jackson handed me an envelope which she said Marshall Brown had left for me.
It contained a little newspaper called the Williams Store News. It was printed in November, 1916. It has eight pages and the pages are slightly larger than a sheet of typing paper.
The front page was devoted largely to editorializing and in this particular edition the editor was blasting the "Brewery Bunch of St. Louis and Kansas City". The paper also carried factory advertisements for different articles sold in the Williams Store. There are many little local items interspersed with little ads of available merchandise.
Someone more familiar with the Denver area than I should be able to shed some additional light on the Williams Store News, especially how it was printed and distributed.
There has been a little packet of old newspapers in our family for many, many years. Recently I worked my way through them. They were in poor condition so it took a lot of time. There are about a dozen copies of the Worth Tribune, edited by Delph Simons and published in the fall of 1914. There was one copy of the Worth Journal published in 1915.
There was an April 7, 1915 issue of the Worth County Tribune. Much to my surprise, on the back page was the picture of Drag Day that we ran sometime ago along with an article about it. I thought you might be interested in some additional information.
The Drag Day pictured was on Friday, April2, 1915. There were 37 four-horse drags, 15 three-horse drags and 65 two-horse drags for a total of 117 drags.
Aubrey Davis received a $5 check for having dragged the longest distance, 13 miles.
School district #25 won $5 for having 16 drags, the most of any district, participate. District #16 was second with 12 drags.
Each drag registered received a check from the grant City Commercial Club. In addition, nearly all the businesses gave prizes and had drawings. The Worth County Tribune awarded each dragger who came in and registered with a free three-month subscription to the Tribune. That was a good business promotion for old Delph because he had just begun publishing in Grant City and was trying to establish a countywide readership.