Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects The 'Madegood Family' George Wesley Gaumer

"The Fairfield Daily Ledger"
Fairfield, Iowa
Tuesday, May 5, 1925
Front Page and Page 3

NO. 8--GEORGE WESLEY GAUMER

'Tis frequently a far cry from what we want to do to what we have to do as bread winners. There's a banker in Fairfield who'd rather use a hammer and saw any day in preference to making a first mortgage, eight per cent farm loan--but his wife inclines toward the loans as being something which gets flour in the flour bin. There's a professional man who'd rather perform feats of magic than ply his profession; there's a merchant who'd slip away frombusiness (sic) in order to drive any kind of a horse-drawn vehicle any time he could afford it. But these men have the rent problem always with them, just like the rest of us, so these shoemakers continue to stick to their respective lasts.

Just so with the pleasant looking chap we present to your notice here, one George Wesley Gaumer. The formality of introduction over you may now call him Wes as that's what everybody's been calling him around Fairfield for the last twenty years or more.

We have chosen to present Wes here with his slide trombone, hopefully awaiting the command to "let 'er slide." You all know he's in the drug business but there's some of you new-comers who may not know that he's a trombone artist; even some of you old-timers may have forgotten about it because you haven't heart him tooting the old horn for a long time. Has to stick too close to his drug business for that. 'Tis another case of what a fellow wants to do and what he has to do. George Wesley would rather sneak into the attic at home and enjoy himself with his trombone than sell a Brunswick phonograph. Yeh, in the attic. He doesn't care for an audience--gets his kick in the fun of playing and not in the applause.

'Member way back when we had the old Charter Oak band. Good band too. Wes and his trombone helped to make it good. He was the band manager too.

Wes was born up at Grinnell but he had the good judgement to leave there and come to Fairfield when he was two years old. Been here ever since--that is to say except for the short periods he put in as a drug clerk at Eaton, Col., Ottumwa, Bloomfield, Chariton, Albia, Waterloo, and--well, that's all we can remember just now. You see, Wes was a bit of a rolling stone, but if he didn't gather any moss he didn't become a mossback. And he was getting a lot of varied experience which has helped him to build up a drug business with a metropolitan touch to it.

George Wesley Gaumer is a chap who has just smiled his way into the Madegood family here in Fairfield. When he went to work for George Clarke in his drug store years ago he had a way of making customers feel that they were welcome in the store. Didn't allow any little unpleasant things to cramp his style either. His smile and hospitable manner went with him when he went to work at other drug stores here in Fairfield. And when he bought an interest in the Higley store, and later in the south side store, most of his capital was his smile and hospitable manner.

Funny how things happen to change the lives and careers of young men. First job Wes had after he finished school was working in a New Chicago grocery. Among other things the grocery had for sale were certain rather well known so-called "patent" medicines. Store did a thriving business on these--same old customers kept coming back for more. Seemed to be a wonderfully fine tonic but Wes often wondered why it took so much to cure one of these old chaps of his "rheumatiz". Even when he discovered the stuff contained about 90 percent alcohol Wes didn't get hep. What he did know was that the stuff cost eleven cents a bottle and sold for a dollar. Didn't take all the knowledge he'd gained at school for him to figure that an honest, hard-working druggist could get rich selling that dope if he could sell enough of it. And the few who were buying it seemed to think so highly of it. Wes was sure he could build up a good trade on it.

So that's how come George Wesley to get a job in a drug store, where he could get a bit of experience before embarking in the business for himself. Didn't take him long to get wise then to the secret of the "tonic" trade. But Wes had a hunch he could do pretty good in the drug business without the tonics--thought people could be made to feel good enough if they were made welcome into his store and given good treatment. So when he took his brother Harvey into partnership with him about thirteen years ago the one rule of conduct they set for themselves was "treat everybody right." Hasn't been hard for these boys to do that because it has just come natural for them--and they've made it pay. So if George Wesley wants to slip down in the cellar once in a while and slide the old trombone, why it's all right for he's earned that much of an indulgence in his favorite pastime.