lamar in the 50's

I just now got to thinking, And I thought I should post the info my grandpa has given me so every one can read it. Here is some info and a map.

The flour mill was in the building just north of the Depot and on the west side of Gulf street. It was closed and in the 1950's, Thorco (then Thorpe's Wire factory) made wire store shelving and display racks in that building which is still standing and vacant just north of where the Depot was.

East, across Gulf street from the Thorpe building was a poultry processing plant named "Aaron's". It butchered chickens and processed eggs into liquid and powdered eggs. The building burned and the site is now bare except for some concrete foundations. It was a large concern and supplied chicken meat to grocery chains and meat supply companies. Just east of Aaron's was a small family owned broom factory that had been there a long time. In the 50s it was owned by a family named McCullough and had closed by 1960.

The furniture factory south of the tracks would be O'Sullivan's but they didn't come until the 60s or early 70s. In the late 1940's and into the 50's was a lawn mower factory owned by Outboard Marine which manufactured gasoline powered push type lawn mowers named "Lawn Boy" (still being made). In the late 50's, the workers attempted to unionize and Outboard Marine closed the factory and moved the Lawn Boy production to Quincy Illinois, to another factory it already had. O'Sullivan then took over the Lawn Boy building when they came to town.

West of the Frisco Depot and north on Walnut street about a block were two large hay storage barns owned by Schreiner Hay Company. They bought, stored, and sold prairie hay baled in small bales on the farms in Barton County . The hay was loaded into box cars on the siding near the depot for shipping throughout the year.

The current MFA elevator was built in the early 50's but it actually sits on the MoPac track just above the interchange tracks.

The other elevator in town was older than MFA's and was located further north on the MoPac tracks. It was owned by a private family named Norris who owned small elevators in other smaller towns in southwest Missouri and shipped the grain they bought on the railroads.

 

Ok, I don't know what's going on, it tells me the map uploaded, but it doesn't show up.

 

I know it has been sometime since the last post here, but did you ever get that map posted that you were having trouble with? If not here, did you get it posted in a different thread perhaps?