Lon Bisplinghoff
Pioneer of Citizen of the Week
From: Chaffee Signal Newspaper 1955
Born and raised in Bismarck, MO, Mr.
Bisplinghoff came to Chaffee in 1916 and opened a hardware store and funeral
home. Before coming here he married Miss Mamie Amick of Shell Rock, Iowa, and
operated a hardstore and funeral home there from 1911 to 1916.
Recalling the various buildings his business
occupied in Chaffee he said, “You know I was pretty lucky because the first two
times I moved my store the buildings burned down just a short time later.” He
first occupied the old Wright building on the southwest corner of Yoakum and
Second and moved out of it across the street to the Eakers building. Then the
Wright building burned down. Next he moved to the building which now houses Cox
Variety Store (on Yoakum Street) and the Eakers building burned.
He stayed in the Cox Variety Store building
nine years and then bought the building that was being used by the A & P Store.
“This was my last hardware store but I’ll be darned if I can remember the year I
sold out.” Anyway he opened a funeral home in the building that later housed the
Western Auto.
Mr. Bisplinghoff said the hardware business
was good in those days. “There were 450 men working the Frisco Shops and 90 in
the freight house.” About his funeral directory he said with a laugh, “ I had a
herse but no horse and when I had a funeral I’d have to borrow a team from
either the Ice Plant, “Cap” Slinkard or the McGee Brothers.
“I’ve seen times when you couldn’t get a
horse down the street for the mud,” he said. “The streets were concreted in the
early 1920’s. Everybody had a pump in their backyard and oil lamps to light the
houses. That was on thing, I couldn’t understand why the city didn’t get
electricity before it did. I can’t see how we got by.”
Nobody did much traveling in those days he
said, “and the best way to get to Cape was on the Frisco’s “Bull Moose” which
left here about 3:00 a.m. and came back at noon.
Mr. Bisplinghoff said his main hobby in
those early days was working day and night. “We did have a deer hunting club
here years ago,” he said, “we hunted at Freemont, MO. Then we had a real good
baseball team here too. The ballpark used to be on the Frisco property behind
Killian Glueck’s house. I never played on the team but I always liked baseball,”
he said.
Mr. Bisplinghoff said his family is one of
the oldest in the state. Piedmont, MO is celebrating a centennial this year and
someone from there remarked that his grandfather built a swinging bridge across
Piedmont’s, McKensie Creek 129 years ago.
BENEFIT BASKETBALL GAME
From: Methodist Church Newsletter of Feb. 1953
A capacity crowd was on hand when the polio
benefit basketball game was played at the gym February 19th. The
first game of the evening, between the Elks and Rotary Clubs, wound up in a
15-15 tie. The line-up for the Elks was- “Daddy” Felker, Ab Gettings, Tony
Garito, Halter, “Buzzy” Watkins, L. D. Lankford, Metz, Gosche, Jesse Gettings,
Otto Slinkard, R. Fatchett.
For the Rotary
Club-Arthur Heeb, Milton Gehrs, Moore, Oscar Bukstein, Whitaker, Dick Smiley,
Jack Arnold, Hut Greet, Troy Montgomery, Ralph Mattocks, Charles Pruitt, Bill
Ward & Jimmy Stubbs.
UNION PARK CEMETERY
In 1915
stock was bought in the Union Park Cemetery by six men, L. L. Collier, Henry
Stubbs, T. A. Essner, Alvin Papin, Dr. W. O. Finney, and John Kay, a
representative of the Catholic Church.
They
purchased the land from John M. Farris, who was an engineer on the Railroad at
the time.
To start the
cemetery, about 3 bodies were moved from the Old Dennis Cemetery, located
between Chaffee and Oran, and moved to the Union Park Cemetery.
Nathan
Turner was the first caretaker of Chaffee’ Cemetery.
The cemetery
was deeded to the city later.
SENATOR TRUMAN
Principal
Speaker
From: The
Chaffee
Signal Newspaper 11/3/1938
The largest crowd of the political campaign was
held in Chaffee at the Horstman Theatre. Mr. Truman was met by a special
delegation at Cape Girardeau and escorted
to Oran, where he talked briefly on the special topics of interest to the
Democrats. From Oran to Chaffee, he was escorted by the National Guard Band.
The talk was enjoyed by everyone and a picture
show afterwards was the windup of the program. Dr. W. O. Finney, Chairman of
the Scott County Executive Committee, presided over the meeting.
Hon. Eugene Munger of Chaffee introduced the
speaker. The Veterans were given a place on the platform, also the Railway
Brothehoods for whom Senator Truman spoke recently in
Washington.
Senator Truman’s speech was one of the finest
campaign speeches that has ever been given in Chaffee. Mr. Truman went to
Cape after the speaking where he spent the
night.
Chaffee
Historical Sale Items
The Chaffee
Historical Society now has a brick sidewalk laid with about 1500 bricks. About
300 of these are now engraved with names of families, businesses, in memory of
someone, and some with just individual names on them, some have put the date
they graduated. We have had individuals buy brick for someone who has passed
away in instead of flowers. This Historical Walkway is an asset to our town
and we are very proud of it.
We are still
selling bricks to you who are interested in buying one. Our bricks sell for
$50.00 each.
Our new
Christmas ornament is now in. This year it depicts the old St. Ambrose
Catholic School. It sells for $10.00.
This and That
in the History of Chaffee books (there are 3) Obituary Book, Union Park
Cemetery Book, cookbooks put together by the society, they sell for $8.00
each.
Please add
$2.00 for each article for shipping and handling.
Chaffee Historical Society Membership is
$12.00 per individual or $18.00 per family a year. Please join and
help us to continue
to maintain our Historical Museum.
We need your stories, family and business
histories, pictures, etc.
The historical wants to start putting together
another book for 2005. In the near future we will be sending out
questionnaires to each of you to fill out.
Chaffee Historical Society
Box 185
Chaffee MO 63740
Web Site:
www.chaffeehistory.com