Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/355

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 295 are about thirty factories of one sort or an- other. Many of these are wood working estab- lishments, consisting of stave mills, spoke fac- tories, handle factories, furniture making establishments, wagon factories, machine shops, planing mills, bottle and ice plant, brick and tile factory and a factory for the manufacture of adding machines. There are four banks in the towu, indicating the finan- cial situation and needs. The town is lighted with electric lights and has a good system of waterworks. Up to the present time the streets have never been paved, but there is now a movement on foot which will probably lead to the beginning of this work in the summer of 1912. Among the important build- ings are the city hall, court house, high school building and the Dalton Adding Machine Company's fireproof factory building. One fact of interest which connects Poplar Bluff of today with the old town is the exist- ence of a farm in the suburbs which was trans- ferred from the government of the United States directly to Judge Tarber in the early days of the town and which has never been re- transferred. The original patent from the government was signed by President Bu- chanan and is still in existence. The town was incorporated in 1861 and its first mayor was Daniel Kitchen. Its popula- tion is now 6,916, and it is growing rapidly. Its two papers. The Republican and The Citi- zen — Democrat — are published both daily and weekly and are both enterprising papers. Bloomfield, Stoddard County John McCombs, Michael Rodney and Henry Shaner, three citizens of Stoddard county were appointed as commissioners to locate the site for the county seat. A number of offers of land were made to them, and many persons were interested in securing the selec- tion of their property for this purpose. After a considerable consultation, the commissioners decided to select fifty acres of land donated to the county by Absolom Barley. This they did, and proceeded to lay out a town, which they named Bloomfield, it is said, because of the fact that the field was then covered with flowers. After the selection of the site, the county court appointed William C. Ranney as special commissioner for the sale of lots. It is probable that Absolom Barley, who had pre- viously owned the land, was the first resident of the town. He lived in a small log house on the southwest corner of the place, but after- ward built a brick house on another site. Or- son Bartlett was, perhaps, the first merchant, and Rev. John N. Mitchell, a Methodist preacher, and Thomas Neale, who operated a tan yard, were very early residents. The hotel was kept by Harmon Reed, and the early physicians ^ere M. B. Koons, Daniel Sanford, and Samuel Chapman. Edmund White open- ed a store on the south side of the public square in 1844 and Daniel Miller about the same time, together with his brother Henry, also began the sale of goods. In 1854, John M. Johnson, R. P. Owen and N. G. H. Jones, began to operate stores. The other merchants prior to the war were : Elijah jMiller, John L. Buck, Paramore & McDaniel, Louis Ringer, John Leach and Harper & Christy. The Herald, the first newspaper in Bloom- field, was established in 1858 by A. M. Bed- ford, of Charleston. The purpose of the publi- cation of this paper was to advocate the build- ing of the Cairo & Fulton Railroad. The Methodist church was used for several years for the conduct of the schools. These were elementary in character, and the terms were short. In 1853 a number of gentlemen or- ganized the Bloomfield Educational Society for the purpose of conducting a seminary for