May 3, 1987
A word about tabernacles -
In the early twenties it was quite common to build a wooden structure to house religious meetings. It was a joint church venture, with the school participating. Sessions were held in spring, summer and fall, as there was no heat. The lumber yards loaned the lumber and then used it later in construction. Noted speakers were brought in and the crowds were good size.
The first tabernacle stood where the Charitone Hotel is now. When the hotel was to be built, the tabernacle had to find a new location. The next one was built north across the alley from the post office, where the floral shop was. This is where Billy Sunday the evangelist visited. Three programs were held in one day. He was just as colorful as all the stories have depicted him, and record crowds attended. In a year or two this tabernacle idea seemed to fade away.
Being interested in railroads, I received this question. Did the Burlington Railroad make plans to bypass Chariton to the south? Yes, they did. The track would come west out of Russell and join the old line west of Lucas. This way they would bypass the big hill east of Lucas. This was told by C. J. Connett, division superintendent of the Burlington, while attending a Chamber of Commerce banquet here. One of his reasons for coming was to say the plans had been changed. Motive power was much better and World War II was being waged. He said definitely they had abandoned the idea and would lay a new line up the Lucas Hill, making it a double track where it had been single. With the advent of diesel power, this bypass would have been a mistake. Chariton would have been served by a spur line.
A lady from Carroll, Iowa, wrote to me saying she was married in the old Baptist Church in 1906. She wondered what was there before the church. The J. H. Curtis Broom Factory was located there in a small wooden structure. The factory was then moved one half block south and one half block east, where it stood for years and years. Mr. Curtis told me this one day after he had retired and was just home from a trip to Palestine. I remember he had a bottle of water from the Jordan River as a keepsake. The Baptist Church was first across the street east of the present site. Ad Riebel built the house that stands there now (after the church went across the street).
Kenny Lacey from Boone, Iowa, writes that he has a picture of the old Episcopal Church that stood where the Conoco Station is now at the corner of Court and 8th Streets. In his picture there is a house across the street south of the church. Upon visiting here some years later, he noticed a Mobil Oil Station on the corner and the first house south looked like a carbon copy of the one in his picture. This is true, as this house and lot were purchased by the Shell Oil Company and the house was moved two lots south. Mary and Clarence Melville lived in the house, and it was moved with them staying in the house. Melvilles were in the undertaking business. Their place was located where Hellyer’s Jewelry Store was in recent years. It was also a furniture store and for years the K.P. Hall was upstairs.
Speaking of the Shell Oil Company buying this lot, it was later purchased by Mobil Oil Company and later the name Amoco was used as both of the last two names were Standard Oil property.
R. C. Gutch, local doctor of some years back, has a daughter Betty living in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her husband is a doctor. She wrote asking a little history of Carl L. Caviness, who was the first man killed in World War I from this area. The American Legion Post here is named in his honor. When Carl was ten or twelve years old his folks separated, and Carl came to live with his aunt and uncle, Maude and John Frazier. He lived there until he entered World War I and was killed in Germany.
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