Jess Easley’s Memories of Downtown Lebanon I’m going back into Jess Easley’s book about early Lebanon to share some of his memories with you. Jess was born in 1891 and died in 1983, and sometime around 1980 he recorded his memories of Commercial Street from 1896 to 1900. The tapes were transcribed by volunteers at the Laclede County Historical Society but the last time I checked the book was out of print. The booklet is full of interesting details about life in Lebanon and its people at the close of the 19 th century, details that only someone living here in that time period would know. For example, Jess tells about a Racket store located on New Street which is the alley currently running west from Madison between the Knight Building and Wehner’s Bakery. In Jess’ time it went all the way over to Jefferson and there was a two story frame building facing Jefferson which housed a hotel on the corner. The Racket store was located in one of three business rooms in