Want Ads from 1915

Joplin Main Street scene from after 1908

Commerce in the air of post-1908 Joplin Main Street

Some things change; others stay the same. A look at a sampling of ads from an issue of the 1915 Joplin Globe illustrates this.

Livestock For Sale:

For Sale — Good single horse and express wagon. Joplin Wholesale Grocery.

Work Horse for sale cheap. 2409 Bird.

Fresh cow and calf for sale. 1107 Bird.

Team of mules for sale; weight about 1,000 each. 1116 West A.

Team, harness, wagon, $100. C. Rouse, one-fourth mile west Central City. Phone 8011-J2.

Automobiles, Motorcycles:

Twin-cylinder Harley Davidson motorcycle, 1914 model, complete, run less than 40 miles. Box F-16, care Globe.

For Sale — 1913 model 50 T. Cole automobile, electric lights and self-starter, new tires; car in fine condition. Address J.J. Scheurich, Joplin, Mo. Residence phone 3655.

For Sale — Cheap; Saxon roadster, in good running order. D.C. Smith, Radley, Kan.

Miscellaneous for Sale:

One pair of fine diamond ear screws, weight 1 ½ carat, at a bargain. Dameron, 1412 Main.

New White sewing machine. See L. John, 701 Pearl Street, or phone 1962-J.

For Sale — Player piano, nearly new; perfect condition; original cost $700, will sell for $350 cash or terms.

Coal — Best lump coal, delivered, $3.95, weights guaranteed. Phone 422 or 1647, Pittsburg, KS.

A good Mills slot machine; good working order. Address Edwards , 108 North Kansas, Columbus, Kan.

For sale cheap if taken immediately. $200 Victor Victrola, perfect condition. Box F-1, Globe.

Beautiful $25 blue serge coat, size 86, $5. Call 3822-R.

Hand-made spring wagon at a bargain. Pearl Brothers.

New Steinway Baby Grand piano. Box E-10 care of the Globe.

National cash register in fine condition. 814 Moffet.

Bargain is satisfaction. Vola Vita hair tonic.

Good bicycle for sale. 1922 Carter.

Help Wanted – Female:

Wanted – At once, a lady bushler at 421 Main.

Wanted – Dining room girl. Turner Hotel

Wanted – Woman that wants to work. Great Northern Hotel.

Wanted – Girl for general housework. Mrs. J.T. Hughes, 810 Virginia Avenue.

Government jobs for women; $70 a month; list positions now obtainable, free; write immediately. Franklin Institute, Dept. 653, Rochester, New York.

Wanted – Mending. Call 511 Picher.

Houses for Rent

Modern sleeping rooms. 413 Wall.

Seven Room modern house. 2218 Joplin Street.

For rent — 4 room cottage. Call 1402 Pearl.

Modern 5-room apartment, all conveniences. 421 West A.

For rent — 4 room modern house, large barn. 2214 Pearl.

Lost, Strayed, or Stolen:

Lost — Fresh Jersey cow; liberal reward for return to 728 May.

Strayed — Five calves, black Jersey, two yellow heifers, two bull calves. Phone 1390.

Lost — Sealskin wallet containing pictures and papers;  suitable reward for return to B.B. Standard, King’s Book Store.

Coat taken from Keyhill’s by mistake has been returned there; party getting other one, containing keys, please exchange.

Lost — Bunch of about 12 keys on 2 rings, connected, between gas office and Villa Heights. Finder please return to gas office.

Mining Machinery for Sale

Small tailing mill cheap. 206 Miners Bank bldg.

Keystone No. 5 drill for sale. $1,150, special terms. Address R.H. Barratt, 316 Miners Bank bldg. Phone 3071.

For sale — 25 h.p. Witte gasoline hoist in good condition, big bargain. Pittsburg Boiler Works.

For Sale — 25 and 36 h.p. upright boilers, complete, with all trimmings. Liberty Bell Mining Co., West Seventh Street. Phone 848.

Poultry, Eggs, Etc.

Want to exchange Crystal White Orpington cockerel for baby chicks. 715 Byers.

Hibbard’s White Rocks for sale. Cheap: stock, eggs, must have room for young stock. Hibbard, Oronogo, Mo.

For sale — Barred Rock hens, cockerels. Mrs. Adkins, three blocks south Parr Hill school.

Barred Plymouth Rocks, Buff Plymouth Rocks, Fawn Indian Runner duck eggs for hatching. 514 Picher.

Fancy single-comb White Leghorn eggs for hatching. J.C. Wright, East Main, Carterville.

Wanted to Buy

Wanted — To buy moving-picture machine. Address F-9, care of the Globe.

Wanted — 150 or 160 h.p. Bessemer gas engine. Call 3480-J.

Wanted — A geared hoister, with or without engine. Phone 3391.

Before the Joplin Miners

While Joplin no longer has a professional or semi-professional baseball team, perhaps its best known team was the Joplin Miners, where Mickey Mantle began his baseball career.  Perhaps the city’s least known team may have also been its first.  One of the first mentions of a team, and a brief one at that, appeared in 1880:

A reference to the Joplin Blue Stockings

The Joplin Blue Stockings, perhaps one of Joplin's earliest baseball teams.

Source: Joplin Daily Herald

A story from Joplin courtesy of Vance Randolph

One of the most important figures in recent Ozark history is Vance Randolph. Randolph, born just across the stae line in Pittsburg, Kansas, first visited the Missouri Ozarks in 1899 when he and his parents visited the O-Joe Club in Noel, Missouri. Enthralled by the people and places of the Ozarks, Randolph spent the rest of his life traveling throughout Missouri and Arkansas collecting folklore, tall tales, superstitions, and folk culture. Randolph was no stranger in Joplin. He claimed that the best bar in the region was at the Connor Hotel.

Vance Randolph
Vance Randolph

Of the hundreds of stories he collected, this one comes from Mr. Reggie Courtney of Joplin, Missouri, on March, 1926:

“Once upon a time there was a fellow who was always telling big stories. Folks used to say he wsa the champion liar of the country. But them tales of his wasnt’ really lies, and everybody knowed it. They was just big windy stories, and folks used to come for miles around to hear him tell ’em when he got going good.

One day a bunch of the boys was setting in front of the store at the crossroads when this here windy fellow come riding along on a mule. “Howdy, Emmett,” says the postmaster. “Light down, and tell us one of them big lies of your’n.”

But the fellow didn’t stop only a minute, and he looked mighty serious. “No time for foolishness today, boys,” says he. “Old man Slinkard has fell off’n the barn, and it looks like his back’s broke. I’m going after Doc Holton.”

After Emmett went down the road towards town the boys just set there and looked at one another. They all knowed Old Man Slinkard and most of them was kin to him. Pretty soon they all got on their horses and rode over to the Slinkard place, to see if they could do anything to help out. It was pretty near four mile, through mighty rough country. They was all hot and sweaty and tired before they come in sight of the house. And the first thing they seen when they got there was old man Slinkard out a-plowing his corn.

“Well I’ll be damned!” says the postmaster. “He never fell off’n the barn at all! That goddamn Emmett lied to us!” The other boys was all pretty sore too, but they couldn’t pass up a chance to pour it on the postmaster. “I don’t see where you got any kick a-coming,” says one fellow. “Didn’t you ask him to tell us one of them big lies?” The postmaster he says yes, but he didn’t figure on riding no four miles in this heat just for some fool idea of a joke.

“Well, I don’t see how you can blame poor Emmett,” the fellow says, “because he just done what you told him.” And then they all laughed like fools, and that’s all there is to this story.”

Source:  Hoosier Folklore, A Quarterly of Folklore, vol. IX, No. 2 and Vance Randolph: An Ozark Life by Robert Cochran.

Growth of a City – Northwest Joplin

Sometimes it’s worth letting photographs speak for themselves.   Below are three photos taken from what is likely the Keystone Hotel of northwest Joplin, essentially a view of Fourth Street heading west.

1902 or earlier view of Northwest Joplin centered on Fourth Street

A photo of northwest Joplin, particularly Fourth Street from at least as early as 1902.

In the first photo we can see the Club Theater, which is on the left with the steeple at the intersection of Joplin and Fourth Street.  On the immediate right, we have the old Joplin Hotel which was constructed like the Club Theater prior to 1900.  What is missing  is the Miners Bank building which has not yet been built across the street from the Club Theater, as well the new Joplin post office building that was completed the same year as the aforementioned bank in 1905.

1905 - 1906 view of northwest Joplin featuring Fourth Street

1905 - 1906 view of northwest Joplin featuring Fourth Street

A few years later and there’s a recognizable change in Fourth street and the northwest view of Joplin.  Now across the street from the Club Theater is the Miners Bank building and to the right of it on Joplin Street is the brand new Joplin post office.  The vacant lot across the street from the Club Theater (the other side of Joplin Street) now has a two story building and laid down the center of Fourth Street are trolley rails.  The old Joplin Hotel is still in the right hand corner, but by this time Thomas Connor is likely already planning to tear it down to build a brand new hotel that one day would bear his name.  It was demolished at some point in 1906, which helps date this view.  Thus, sometime after 1905 and before a point in 1906.

1906 to 1907 view of northwest Joplin featuring Fourth Street

1906 to 1907 view of northwest Joplin featuring Fourth Street

If only this photograph was not torn, we might have had a better view of the Joplin of 1906 or 1907.  Not much has changed from the last photograph except the absence of the old Joplin Hotel in the lower right hand corner.  Instead, we have the beginning excavations for the foundation of the future Connor Hotel.   Constant in all three photos are two narrow buildings in the center bottom or left, one with a flat roof and the other with a peak.  In a few short years, a seven story building would take their place and might have contributed to the decline of the Keystone Hotel as a popular spot to take a northwest view of Joplin.

Thus, in three photos that likely cover a time span of less than a decade, you can get an inclination of the rapid growth of Joplin.

Sources: Historic Joplin’s private collection.

One Day a Texan Got Himself A Drink

A short article in an early Joplin paper reflects the southwest spirit of the city in its early days.

A Texan and his horse have a drink in a Joplin Saloon

Cocoaine’s A Miracle Drug (For your hair!)

One of many products touted during the 19th Century was Burnett’s Cocoaine. As this ad from an early issue of the Joplin Daily Herald illustrates, there was no limit to quackery.

Burnett's Cocoaine

Historic Joplin – An Introduction

Joplin Main Street Looking South

Historic Joplin

Once hailed as the, “City of Wealth, Industry, and Opportunity,” Joplin is no longer the proud young peacock of a city that it was at the turn of the century. Joplin’s fortunes faded with the decline of the mines after the end of World War Two. Urban renewal laid claim to some of Joplin’s more impressive accomplishments, such as the Connor Hotel, while neglect took a toll on others, as with the Union Depot.

Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, there is hope. The Frisco Building has been restored; the Olivia Apartments are in the process of being refurbished; and the Fox Theatre is still in use.

We here at Historic Joplin intend to capture the early days of Joplin in all of their glory. If you have a research suggestion, a photo you would like to share, or just want reminiscence, contact us. We’ll be glad to hear from you.