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Hawesville was thriving. For anyone who paid $1.50 to Robert Y. Bush, the publisher would deliver the next 52 issues of the Pick and Plow, Hawesville's weekly newspaper. Groceries, clothing, mercantiles, and staple items could be purchased at a choice of stores in the business district, and a customer could also bring in produce from his own garden, milk shed, or chicken house for trading with some of the local merchants. Martin & Bro. had recently opened their new business place, offering cheap dry goods, clothing, groceries, dishes, hardware, drugs, and medicine; however, they required strictly cash payment. Cooper & Trabue agreed to exchange for either cash or goods, and they would supply the customer with a wide selection of clothing, groceries, glassware, hardware, drugs, and other medicine. Brown & Duncan showcased a full assortment of clothing and every necessary type of fabric goods for the home. David Williams had taken over the store previously owned by E. R. Vickers, and he was exhibiting a line of groceries with all kinds of edible consumables, such as candies, nuts, coffee, and tea. Samuel McAdams was selling dry goods and groceries along with assorted merchandise. William Rial was a tailor and retail merchant of cloth goods, shoes and boots, kitchenware, groceries, and other household items. Every article of clothing to be sold at Rial's was created by either his employees or himself. Downtown hostelries promised the most excellent of accommodations. Along with lodging at the Exchange, a man could also get fine cigars and practically any kind of alcoholic indulgence he desired. The Eagle, located across Water Street from the riverboat landing, had enlarged and also made a plentiful assortment of liquors available for visitors. The Holmes House attempted to provide the very best any local hotel could offer while quartering guests in rooms and their horses in stalls of the stable. A needful resident could satisfy his requirements with services of other professionals and craftsmen, such as musicians, physicians, lawyers, sawyers, shipping agents, insurance agents, teachers, preachers, silversmiths, blacksmiths, brickmakers, cabinet makers, lathe cutters, and hair cutters. All the local government anybody would want was right there in Hawesville, the seat of jurisdiction for both city and county. |
| Copyright © 2000 Dick Taylor All Rights Reserved |