Poteau’s progress had picked up steam by 1904. While much of the development on the west side of the St. Louis and San Francisco virtually came to a halt, the area along East Main Street and Dewey Avenue was a jumble of new construction mixed with early-day houses. Due to this fast-paced development, Dewey Avenue was surveyed and straightened. This, in turn, allowed further progress to continue along this street.
While the McKenna building had bordered the northeast corner of Dewey and E. Main for many years, a new large, two story brick building was constructed on the southeast corner. Bordering E. Main, a hardware, furniture, and undertaker store occupied the largest space. In modern times, having a store such as this may seem bizarre. However, the city funeral director, known as the undertaker, usually operated a furniture store in addition to selling caskets. Furniture makers routinely served as undertakers because the main role of the undertaker was to make the coffin or casket. Besides the furniture store, this building also contained a drug and jewelry store, a restaurant, a barber, and a bank. In addition, the Poteau Post Office now had a permanent home in the back of this building, along McKenna Street.
The Howell Hotel was established further down Dewey Avenue, southeast of where it intersects Witte Road. This hotel was formerly a boarding house, but as business picked up in the area, the owners no longer allowed long-term room rentals. Beside the McKenna building, the old Hotel Eastern was sold, and was now known as Hotel Brighton.
Among the plethora of new businesses springing up along E. Main and Dewey Avenue included offices, general stores, barbers, restaurants, and a relative newcomer to Poteau, the sample rooms. Sample rooms were businesses that didn’t offer any products within the stores; rather, they displayed samples of products they sold. For example, a sample room could be used by traveling salesmen to display their wares without having to rent a building long-term. They could simply set up their products for the duration that they were in town, pay a daily rent, and when it was time for them to leave all they had to do was to load up their products and head off to the next town.
Smaller restaurants, known as lunchrooms, served fresh bread, pies, cakes and cold lunches. They also offered canned goods, candies, nuts, fruits, tobacco and cigars.
In close proximity to the U.S. Federal Courts, law offices had been established since 1900. Most of these offices were held in the practice’s homes, or in quickly constructed wood frame buildings. By 1904, practicing law in Poteau had become big business.
Fredrick and Mitchell, Attorneys at Law, was one of the most prominent law firms established in 1904. In 1905, the laws offices of Varner and Miller were established by T. T. Varner. Varner and Miller remained the oldest law firm in Poteau for many years.
 |
Also established in 1904 was a drugstore owned by James F. Miller. He advertised his services as a “Dealer in pure drugs, toilet articles, paints, oils, and varnishes”.
One of the highlights in 1904 was a citywide picnic held in honor of the confederate forces from LeFlore County who served in the Civil War. This picnic was held on August 10, 1904. A camp of the sons of veterans was organized at the picnic.
Relatively few new businesses were established in the old downtown area of Poteau west of the St. Louis and San Francisco tracks. Most of the businesses that were located here were already established and continued to do well.
In 1903, the Lawson Hotel changed names and was now known as the Lawson House. The owners no longer rented rooms on a nightly basis, but rather, turned the hotel into a popular boarding house. Down the street, the once trendy and long-standing Commercial Hotel caught fire. Because the fire damage was so extensive, the owners never rebuilt.
At the other end of town, Hotel Moore was established along the Kansas City Southern railroad tracks. During this time, most of the streets ran directly into the KCS right of way. As with the Frisco railroad, the KCS right-of-way served as a major street in Poteau. The hotel was located on the south corner of Parker and the railroad right-of-way, directly across from the old KCS depot. The Hotel Moore was a large, wood-frame complex that consisted of a restaurant, a general mercantile store, and the hotel. The hotel was two stories, while the store and restaurant were only one story. A long wood plank porch stretched across all three buildings.
As businesses in Poteau demanded more permanent brick and wood structures, several new industries developed to fill this need. Older industries, such as the Amos Bros. Handle Co. saw a significant increase in sales and production as well. The Amos Bros. Handle Company produced wagon spokes and handles for tools and other machinery. As Poteau expanded, these products were in high demand from the workers who were constructing the new buildings. Horse drawn wagons frequently needed new wheels as the weight of bricks and other building materials wore old ones down. Local blacksmiths produced shovels and other tools for local construction jobs, while the Amos Bros. Handle Company supplied the tools handles. By 1905, this factory employed just over 75 men.
The Poteau Pressed Brick and Tile Co., located ¼ mile northwest of the post office, produced light, hard red brick. The two large kilns were capable of producing 20,000 bricks per day. The clay found in connection with coal mined in the area was exceptionally good for the manufacture of vitrified brick. Large beds of shale found in the area were used in the manufacture of paving brick, sewer pile, and tiling.
Several lumber companies supplied Poteau with finished and raw lumber for the towns building needs. The R. S. Page Lumber Company was the smallest, but because of its location, business remained steady. Since it was a block away from the new construction in downtown, located off McKenna between Dewey and Rogers, workers could easily transport building materials to the job without much time lost.
The McKenna Lumber Co. and Cotton Gin, located to the south of the Amos Bros. Handle Co., was the largest lumber company in Poteau. Rough logs would be brought in on the St. Louis and San Francisco railway and offloaded onto the large plank platforms between the handle factory and the lumber company. After the logs were offloaded, they were moved to the sawmill where they would be cut into rough lumber.
The company also ran a cotton gin and a feed mill. A cotton gin, or cotton engine, is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed by hand. The fibers are processed into cotton goods, and the seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil. If the seeds damaged, they are disposed of. The first modern industrial gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, used a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. The cotton gin used by the McKenna Lumber Co. and Cotton Gin worked on the same premise, but only on a lot larger scale.
Due to competition, and based on the company’s profits, the McKenna Lumber Co. and Cotton Gin decided that it would be more profitable to cut out the lumber yard. By 1905, after only a few years in business, the McKenna closed the lumberyard and turned their focus solely on producing cotton goods.
Raw lumber from both the R. S. Page Lumber Company and the McKenna Lumber Co. would be sent to the G. H. Harper Cotton Gin, Saw Mill & Feed Mill. The G. H. Harper Cotton Gin, Saw Mill & Feed Mill was one of the best-equipped companies in the area. Besides having a cotton gin and a feed mill, the company also had a planing mill.
Raw logs and rough lumber would be brought in from the Kansas City Southern tracks. From there, the logs would be cut into rough lumber. The rough lumber was then put through the planing mill. A planing mill is a facility that takes cut and seasoned boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the planer and matcher, the molding machines, and varieties of saws. In the planing mill, planer operators use machines that smooth and cut the wood for many different uses. From there, the finished lumber would be transported to the lumberyards, or to warehouses that were scattered throughout town.
Ever since the first settlers arrived, cotton and other agricultural industries have played an important role in the history of Poteau. In 1908, one of the largest cotton mills was incorporated in Poteau. The Poteau Cotton Mill Co. was organized with capital stock of 100,000. W.A. Campbell, from the National Bank of Poteau, served as president with S. P. Clarke as treasurer. This remained one of the largest cotton mills in the area for many years.
Just outside of Poteau, many events were also taking place. In 1905, the Poteau Coal and Mercantile Company was incorporated. After incorporation, they began operating the mines that the Witteville Coal Company once used.
Elections for a permanent county seat for LeFlore County were held in 1908. Originally, Spiro, Howe, Wister, Panama and Poteau were the candidates, but finally it came down to just Poteau and Spiro. Accusations of using money and liquor to influence voters were made between the two towns. Poteau won in the end, but with a margin of only 400 votes.
No comments:
Post a Comment