Early Henderson Scenes And People Are Exhibited In Photos
At last Wednesday’s Optimist Club meeting, Joe Martin presented a program on photography. One feature of his program was the display of fifty prints, taken from glass plates which were in the possession of Dick Stites for some years. Finally, under the encouragement of Mrs. Stites during house cleaning time, Dick turned them over to Ed Selle, and through Ed they reached Joe’s hands.
Joe was so enthusiastic about these photographic plates, bearing scenes of Henderson places and people in the 1890’s, that he has talked of practically nothing else during the past two months. The prints which he took from these plates are on display at the Martin Studio during this week. We want to tell you something about them.
Our information comes direct from Dick Stites, who with Will Witt (deceased), took the pictures back before the turn of the century. Willie had been attending Princeton, and there had picked up the photographic bug. He purchased a camera, of the old box type, and enlisted Dick’s interest in recording many of the happenings of the day.
At that time Dick Stites was practicing dentistry in the second-floor front office of the old Ohio Valley Bank building. You’ll see the building pictured in the collection at Martin’s. Dick had been trained at the Philadelphia Dental College, now part of Temple University. He practiced for about five years, then deserted the profession “because I didn’t like it.” Subsequently he became trust officer at the OV Bank, and then spent 18 years at various types of work in Columbus, Ohio.
In case you don’t know it, we’ll tell you that Dick Stites’ memories go way back—he celebrated his eightieth birthday last March. He is at his desk daily, as cashier for the Henderson Police Department. If there’s a keener memory in Henderson, we want to meet up with it. Dick’s accuracy is something to wonder at. The Optimists discovered that, too, when Dick aided Joe Martin in his program last Wednesday.
When you see the display at Martin’s, you’ll be impressed with the fact that Dick Stites was quite the fellow with the ladies in the 1890’s. We don’t know how long that lasted, for he didn’t tell us, but we do know that he postponed marriage till he was 47. Then he was captured and captivated by the lovely Mary Lynn Carter, of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. To their union two sons were born, James Carter, now 26, lives in Cincinnati, where he is sales engineer for Westinghouse. Richard was killed at the age of 25 in World War II, piloting a plane in North Africa near Dakar.
We want to tell you about some of the people and scenes pictured in the photographic collection. There are several scenes of downtown Henderson which will remind old-timers (like us) of the days when there was a merchandise store where the Hotel Soaper now stands, called the Lieber Bazaar. The Liebers were the grandparents of Col. Julian Heilbronner. We recall them both, and one of our dearest friends of childhood was Julian’s mother, Annie Lieber Heilbronner, who had a millinery shop on Second at just about the location of the Meade Hat Shop.
Across the street from Liebers, Jacob Zimbro ran a harness and buggy shop. And up the street, near the present Abe Cohen location, Zimbro had another store where his son, Jake Jr., ran the first bicycle shop of the town.
Most of the old buildings are now gone, but the one now occupied by the Frank G. Schmitt Company was once the Thomas Soaper Dry Goods concern. Where the Farmers building stands, there was a grocery store run first by Thomas Evans, then by J.W. Allen. In one of the pictures you will see this store, and in the window, watching a circus parade, are two young ladies who Dick Stites takes to be Bessie Allen (Perrier) and Katie Hodge (Letcher).
The circus parade picture also shows a building being wrecked—the old Mann building where Newberry’s now stands. It was replaced by the present building which was formerly occupied by Mann Brothers.
The picture of the old O.V. Bank building writes history, too. The one-story edifice located just about where the Kimmel Theatre stood, was the first telephone switchboard in Henderson. Smith & Park, and his boy assistant, ran lines to several homes and the post office.
The first office of Starr and Thompson was located in the building just to the rear of the O.V. bank. Upstairs was the Elite Studio, in which the photographic plates now in Ed Selle’s possession were developed.
Down Main from the O.V. was a saloon, Louie Haag’s, then two other establishments, one a clothing store, and the other a jewelry shop.
In those days it was the custom to have packages delivered by express wagons belonging to the Carlisle Livery Company, which operated from a building near the foot of Second. It cost 15¢ or 25¢ for delivery. This express service pre-dated Spot McCaslin, who carried packages and trunks in Henderson till the 1920’s. Some of these express wagons are pictured in the collection.
Dick Stites’ pictures tell, too, of some fancy occasions held in the Street Car park, located on the northeast corner of Main and Hancock. There was a band shell in and around the park, as there was within our memory.
A crowning of the May Queen was held in the park. You’ll see pictures of the lovely queen, Lucy Wing, who later married Emory W. Clark of Detroit. Lucy Wing Clark’s son, William Reeves, is the husband of Mrs. Lucy Cooper’s daughter, Carolyn (sister of Henry Lee and Tommy). In the list of attendants was Sarah Young, who married Carl Schlamp. Her children are Carl Young and Mary Terry Schlamp. Starling Marshall, and the young lady who later became his bride, Josie Schlamp, are also in the crowning festivities. Starling (later state senator), was the fellow who put the crown on Lucy’s head.
In another picture we see Josie Schlamp (Marshall) and Julia Dixon, later Mrs. David Clark, in a pageant called “Rebecca at the Well.”
Here are some other faces which appear in the collection: Harry Jarvis, who owned a tobacco factory in early Henderson; Sally Cate, whose father was superintendent at the woolen mills; Evelyn Brown, daughter of Governor John Young Brown; Mary Cameron Stites (Mrs. Ingram Crockett); her brothers Dick, Will, and Hamilton; and Hamilton married Lucille Soaper, and now lives in San Diego; J.H. Hanna, who married Jane Soaper, sister of Frances (Clore), Pete, Cotton, and Annie (Worsham); Isabel Clark, Fannie and Singleton Kimmel, Jim Dennis and his sisters Mary and Annie (Mrs. David Hart, Sr.); Ingram Crockett, poet, author, banker, who built the home on Chestnut now known as Glen Oak; Hodge Yeaman and his bride-to-be, Annie Elam and Irvine Thompson later the Mayor.
Those were the days when the river figured largely in the lives of the people. A boat, the William Nesbitt, plied between Henderson and Paducah, and many was the party which boarded it at 5 p.m. and spent two nites and a day on the round-trip river junket. There are pictures of bridges on the Ohio and Green, and of boats, and of a wreck on the L&N near the station.
A photograph of the home of Dr. Arch Dixon recalls early medical history—and geographical, too—for the Dixon home on the river side of Water at Powell, was moved twice as the street was widened and farm land taken. Dr. Dixon’s daughters became the wives of David Clark, Sr., and E.A. Jonas, one-time editor of the Journal.
In the lower floor of the old O.V. Bank building was located the W.S. Johnson Drug Company. That was before the bank took over. W.S. Johnson (and Dr. Arch Dixon) originated “Little Brown Liver Pills,” a going business which is now owned by Roy Quinn. Roy bought the drug company, and the pill business from the Johnson heirs. In the Johnson family were Rankin, who became a doctor; Tom, now a retired Army Colonel; and a daughter, Mrs. Kenna Taylor (of the Old Taylor family of the Bluegrass). Four other children died in adulthood
Gleaner and Journal – Sunday, Aug. 13, 1950