As we near the end of one year and the start of the next, many of us look toward how we can improve our lives. Some among us will make New Year’s resolutions – actions and activities that we promise ourselves to do or change in the coming year. We all want to be better and do better. Improvements are part of the fabric of our world today, just as they were in the world of 1901 Waynesboro. Today we will visit with a few taking place as the year 1901 opens fresh and new:
January 4, 1901 – Improvements –
The Cumberland Valley railroad company’s new ice house near the station here is about completed. It is 24 feet square and the workmanship on it was very thoroughly done by Contractor D.W. Hess. The structure has three linings and a big quantity of charcoal was placed in the walls to make it a good storage place for ice. It will be filled with natural ice unless the crop fails, in which case artificial ice, probably purchased from the Waynesboro Ice Company, will be stored there. The ice will be used exclusively in the refrigerating cars used to carry fruit away from this section.
See the pictures: Waynesboro Christmas Parade features bands, floats, Santa Claus and more
The new sewer in the alley west of Grant and south of Main street has been completed. There is a covered stone waterway running from the street to the south end of Jason Bell’s house and beyond that the water is carried off in a wide open gutter.
January 10, 1901 – New Grocery Proprietor –
After ten years of active business life in Waynesboro, Jacob Hoover will retire from mercantile pursuits next week. He has practically disposed of his grocery store, at the corner of Main street and Potomac avenue, to Charles Riley, West North street, and the latter will take possession next week. The invoicing of the stock will be commenced Monday and will be completed in two or three days, after which Mr. Riley will assume charge. Mr. Hoover will remain with him for some time.
M.F. Hoover purchased a grocery store in Waynesboro in 1891. His father, Jacob, would operate it for 10 years until retiring in 1901.
Mr. Hoover thinks he has earned a rest from active commercial duties and those who know of his busy life will agree with him. He is now 72 years old. When he was 15 years old he went to work in a mill during the winter months and labored on the farm during the summer. In August, 1857, he left his Frederick county home and took charge of the Strite mill at Leitersburg. He remained there until 1864, when he went to the Huyett mill for a year. Then he operated the Worley mill near Greencastle until 1867. In the latter year he removed to the Willow Grove mill, west of Waynesboro, and conducted it for twenty-four years very successfully. In January, 1891, he embarked in the grocery business in Waynesboro and has been one of the town’s best-known merchants since that time.
Mr. Hoover is still hale and hearty, although as he says, he worked all of the day and half of the night for forty years in flouring mills, and none is more genial or finds greater pleasure in a joke. In his retirement from active business pursuits he will be followed by the best wishes of all his many friends here.
Mr. Riley is one of Frick Co.’s employees and will make a careful, obliging successor to Mr. Hoover.
January 16, 1901 – Another Grocer in South Waynesboro –
A.S. Miner has resigned his position as superintendent of Burns’ Hill cemetery, which he has filled very satisfactorily for the past six years, and will, about April 1, engage in the grocery business in a storeroom to be contained in a new two-story brick dwelling house under construction by Contractor J.W. Warehime for Wm. Shipp on the southwest corner of Ringgold and Fifth streets. The lot was recently purchased by Mr. Shipp from Mrs. Mary Bowen, South Church street. Mr. Miner will occupy both store and dwelling house.
ONCE UPON OUR TIMES: What would a Christmas shopper find in Waynesboro in 1900?
January 22, 1901 – Foundations For Ice Plant Completed –
Contractor J. Ed. Beck completed the foundation walls for the Waynesboro ice plant this week. They are 60×120 feet in dimensions. The contract for the erection of the brick superstructure will be awarded at a special meeting of the ice company Thursday evening.
January 25, 1901 – Work on New Radical U.B. Church Begun –
The construction of the new Radical United Brethren church in this place was begun yesterday with the excavation for the foundation walls on a plot of ground bounded by Cleveland and Hamilton avenues and Third street. The church edifice will be of frame, 30×40 feet in dimensions and one story in height. As has been told in these columns the members of the church in Chambersburg will contribute to the building fund. Contractor Yaukey, of near Chambersburg, will erect the church.
“Once Upon Our Times” is written by the Rev. Lee E. Daywalt, administrator of Preserving Our Heritage Archives & Museum, 11191 South Mountain Road, Fayetteville. It is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. until noon. For more information contact, him at archivesmuseum@hotmail. com or 717-762-2367.
This article originally appeared on Waynesboro Record Herald: ONCE UPON OUR TIMES: Waynesboro business news in 1901
