The following is clearly not all from 1902. This may have been a mail list post that comments were added to the actual article. Davis City Lariet Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa, 1902 Some of the advertisement spreads in this souvenir edition of the Lariat is one of the: Corner Drug Store of W.J. Laney and Company. It advertised a full line of Christmas gifts including toy trains, all kinds of dolls, doll carriages, doll dishes, and for the adults, Fancy Dressing Cases, a beautiful line of albums, sterling silver mounted combs, brushes. S. RADNICH had an ad of stone for sale; L. THOMPSON, all kinds of hats, caps, boots, shoes, dry goods, and groceries; GREEN HOGUE had handsome heating stoves, cook stoves, knives, and forks, tea and tablespoons, sleds and skates for children big or little; J.V. ARNEY with goods and groceries; The Farmers Bank; ELDORA BOEGER Millinery Store; E.W. TEALE, Undertaker and Embalmer, also furniture, picture moldings, glass, mirrors, easels, children's carriages, burial robes and steam pipes and fittings; SCOTT and MCCLARAN; The City Hotel; livery and feed stable in connection; GROCERIES ad by HARTSHORN and BROWN. It is claimed that the James boys had a hideout in the heavily timbered land west of Davis City, where they used to come to hide after they had done some of their ill-famed deeds. It is said they had a big tree where they used to race around on their horses and practice shooting marks on it. The Indians also had a maple sugar camp on the south side of the Grand River and even after they had all gone the settlers along the river still cooked maple syrup and sugar. As late as 1900 there were still some who did this. Davis City is now a quiet southern Iowa town with not even a grocery store. There is still one garage and a few other small businesses. When the I-35 bypassed it the U.S 69 became little more than a country road, although there is still a bus line running through. An information directory of Davis City of the years of 1936-38 still has a few of the same merchants listed such as A.L. TEALE, H.L. MCCLARAN. But the tenor of advertising had changed with the advent of automobiles and the coming of U.S. 69. By now there were E.J. HORNEY Oil Station, Arts Station, FUGATE and POUSH Garage, Park Garage. There is a Bus Time Table, although the C.B.&Q. R.R. still has a time table with one northbound daily and two southbound dailies. By then the population had dwindled to 550. The present population is somewhere between three and four hundred. At one time there was a small coal mine west of Davis City in Section 34 on land owned by ED TEALE. A firm of Newton and Stout dug the mine to a depth of several hundred feet. The mined coal was pulled to the surface by a tractor with a pulley and cable. However, the vein was not thick enough and the quality of it was so poor that it was never a profitable venture. The coal was sold locally. Water began to seep in and could not be pumped out fast enough and finally the venture was abandoned with the firm going broke. The machinery fell into the hole and is still there. The hole is now filled up and only the old timers remember about it. Unlike some of the other small Decatur County towns, Davis City already had a water system before the first World War. However, the sew system was only installed in the last year. NOTE: The Lariat lists W.C. HAMILTON as the mayor. The present mayor is HOWARD THOMPSON. Submission by Sue Sandall, Wednesday, May 09, 2001

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