Grove Beginnings...Part 8

By Rose Stauber

In 1939 the Grove Sun editor called on the memory of one of the founders, John H. Gibson, to recount the early history of Grove. Gibson was brought here Feb. 17, 1872, by his mother and step-father, Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Harlan. They settled on a place known as the old peach orchard about two miles east of town.

Gibson named the families living on the old trail from Southwest City
to Carey's Ferry on Grand River. Gibson named Oss Harlan living near
where Dodge would be, then came Bud Fields to the southeast on the trail to Southwest City,"a town that boasted three mercantile stores."
In what became Grove, a man named Ezell, who had a family of nine
children, had built a double-log house where the cheese factory was later.

George Ward had a house north of town, and then going west was the house of Ed Carey.
"George Ward owned about 10 acres of what is now Grove, and two years
later was dispersed of by the Monroe heirs. . ." The Monroe family, as noted in an earlier article, had gone south during the Civil War. "In 1874 they returned and claimed land, and the courts returned the land to the Monroes."
"In the years of 1876 to 1880, many people came and settled on the
famous Cowskin Prairie.
"In 1889 (sic. 1888) Capt. T.S. Remsen received a permit and established the first post office in a building near the present Frisco Depot, and from then on the town of Grove started out in a big way." The depot was on the west side of Main Street and just south of Remsen Street.
John H. Gibson gives the pioneer and historian's view of early Grove.
Let's pick up the subject as told by a young woman, Lula Dale Duckworth
Jones, a Cherokee. Lula Dale had grown up in what was obviously a
cultured home. She was a graduate of the Cherokee Female Seminary and, like many of the graduates, was teaching school. She had met and married W.I. Jones from Illinois. The Joneses came to Grove and W.I. and partners started a store.
Lula recalls earlier going through Grove with her father. "At the
east edge of the little community, he would say, "Here is Doughertyville" – an unpainted frame building, was the store." "Then we would drive a short way through trees and bushes and native vines and came to another building, my father said, "Remsenville," beyond that the third building was "Gibsonville."

"When Mr. Jones and I went to see about a building for a store and a
house in which to live, things were already stirring. We stopped at the Mayes Hotel, a rather pretentious building, homey, with eight or nine bedrooms, an office, a dining room and what we appreciated most, good home cooked food. No houses were for rent. There were a few homes,
Doherty's, Remsen's, Gibson's, and farm homes near enough for the springs along the branch to supply them with water. Some people I remember were Dr. Holland, Jim Holland, a Mr. Beattey or Batie, Aunt Jane Longmire, Aunt Letha Tablor and more."

"We paid a man to vacate a little house on the hill above the main
Grove Spring. The house was about half way between the top and the bottom of the hill. Instead of a high foundation in front to level the house, it was set in an excavation letting the kitchen down until the lower half of window was below the surface." If the reader will go north of the American Legion building and look down the hill, you get an idea of what the hill would be like walking on a rough path.

Lula writes: "The street was steep, the few board walks were lifted
from one level to another by steps. There was in the street a little to the west of us, a large pile of stones. We drove on each side of this as one would a boulevard."

Lula's account reports the growth of Grove. "A frame hotel or
boarding house had been built up the hill south of our new location. That day while we were moving, this rooming house, being operated by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Buzzard, burned. No water, but we did have a telephone system, built by a Mr. Boogher. We had a phone in our new house and one at the new store, number 3 at the store."

"Gus Ivy and John Gibson had started a little newspaper."

In 1903 the Jones' moved out of the incorporated area to Lula's
allotment and built a home and farm there. The house still stands. Go to the intersection of Center and 10th Street and look south to what would be a continuation of Center Street. The big, old house is still imposing looking . Lula ran a farm and garden while her husband was a traveling salesman. The road into town from the south came by the property.

Grove Springs was the attraction for the trail and then the town.
The Oct. 7, 1904, Grove Sun carried this letter from a reader:
Town Officials. Please investigate the public spring. The surrounding
has become a nuisance in our opinion to the health of the people in this part of the town and we might say to all the people in town as they all use the water, more or less. It is being used as a hog wallow for stock shippers and a stamping ground for the town cattle, which creates a stench that is very disagreeable, and when a heavy rain comes all this filth is washed by the water from "Give-a-dam river" back into the spring."

For readers who want to read more of the articles used in this column,
John H. Gibson's interview is from the Dec. 28, 1939, Grove Sun, and
available on microfilm at the Grove Public Library.
Lula Dale Jones' article begins on page 170 of "Heritage of the Hills,
A Delaware County History." We thank the Delaware County Historical
Society for permission to quote from the article. Copies of the book are available for sale at the Grove Library and at the Historical Society Museum in Jay.

Copyright © 2007 Rose Stauber