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Oakland Mansion Part 3

Straight From The Hart
By Joan Rowden Hart

Jacob Blickensderfer Goes To Town


This is the final column for now on Oakland and the Blickensderfers.
For you Lebanon history buffs I am detailing some Lebanon
establishments with which Jacob did business, according to his
diaries.

I do not claim to be an expert on Lebanon history.  My information is
only as accurate as the material from which I am doing my research.
So if you disagree with me, it’s alright.  Either one of us could be
right just as easily as we could be wrong.

Jacob often left his horse at Drago’s Stable and Livery.  Anthony
Drago and his family moved to Lebanon in 1866 to be near  the Frisco
Railroad.

He started his livery barn on St. Louis Street and eventually moved
his house from Old Town to Washington Avenue.  Most people had their
own horse and buggy by then but commercial travelers still needed to
use a horse and buggy from time to time, and young men needed to rent
them to take their girl friend out riding.  I heard once that you
needed to be careful when courting in a buggy because horses carry
tales.

Jacob writes about picking up medicine at Sam Farrar’s drugstore, and
his daughter-in-law enjoyed buying candy from the glass candy jars
there.

Sam came with his parents and siblings from St. Clair in 1868.
Housing conditions at the time were not good and the Farrar family
camped out on what was known as the McComb Corner until they found a
house on Fourth Street, and then eventually built a home on Harwood,
next to their first camping place.

Sam started his professional career as a clerk in Dr. Matthews’ drug
store and studied pharmacy under him.  In 1872 Dr. Mathiews sold his
store, which was located on the corner of Jefferson and Commercial, to
Sam Farrar and moved to Carthage.

The store featured a small marble soda fountain on the right hand
corner of the counter when you entered.  The children of that day
loved to drink sodas there, most of them having never tasted them
before.

Jacob writes in his diary of his daughter-in-law, Mary, shopping at
the Fayant Millinery Shop on Commercial Street.  This ladies’ shop
became a regular Lebanon institution, the next to the oldest business
established in Lebanon.

Women from all over the county would make it their first stopping
place when they came to town.  Just back of the shop, the ladies could
occupy the easy chairs or sit by the fire in cold weather and wait for
their men to finish business before heading home.

Mrs. Fayant would go on shopping trips to St. Louis and would do
special shopping for individual customers.  For the privileged women
of Lebanon it was a very personal and intimate way of doing business,
the shop owner being a personal friend and adviser for all things
feminine.

Apparently Fisher’s Bakery and Restaurant was a favorite place for
Jacob to eat whenever he was in town, according to his diaries.

Joe Fisher was the first baker in Laclede County.  He came here from
St. Louis and established his bakery on High Street.  He advertised
“Bread, Pies, Cakes, Oysters, Cigars etc. always on hand at the lowest
prices.  Warm meals at all times.  Ice cream to suit the occasion”.

Fishers was the first place in Lebanon to introduce lemonade and soda
water to the public.  Lebanon housewives had never been used to having
such luxuries as their food, especially baked goodies, prepared for
them when they didn’t have time to bake at home, so his store was a
very busy place.

Jacob also mentions eating at the Laclede Hotel situated on the corner
of Commercial and Jefferson, also a very busy place when the trains
came in, as one historian wrote that the young men used to hurry from
Old Town in the evenings just to see the train come in.

Occasionally Jacob’s train from his business trips would come in so
late he would get a sleeping room at the hotel and a family member
would come from Oakland the next day with a horse and buggy.  But
there were many times he writes about when he would arrive in Lebanon
about 11 p.m. and would walk all the way to his home in Oakland even
when it was cold and rainy.  And this was when he was well into his
seventies.

As someone who has made that trip in a nice comfortable car on a paved
highway more times than I can count, I am amazed at how difficult it
must have been to walk  from Lebanon to Oakland in the blackness of
the midnight hour with only a few wagon ruts to guide your way.

I want to end this column by mentioning some of the Oakland families
whom Jacob often referred to in his diaries as his neighbors, or who
became his in-laws as his children married into local families, and of
course some who worked for him in the management of such a large house
and fields, gardens and orchards.

The list includes Russell Mumford who married his granddaughter, the
Taliaferro family, the Berger family, the Tietze family, the Light
family, the Laffertys, the McIlvanies, the Wedges,  the DeMuths, and
many others.

Several years ago the church was selling as a fund-raiser the book
“Jacob‘s Legacy, An Intimate Portrait of the Blickensderfer Family” by
Norah Lee Brown, Jacob’s great-granddaughter.  We have just a few
copies left and you may contact me if you are interested in purchasing
a copy.

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