Hey, did you catch the comment Ms. Metler kindly left on the
Depot Town Mystery Photo post? It's a comment from
someone who used to hang out, as a child, at the coal company that used to stand behind the Sidetrack! Wow! She said:
"The small light colored building facing River Street with the big silo looking things next to it, was Marsh & Son Coal company. My parents helped out when the owner's husband died. My father Elzie Patterson would go out to collect money from people who ordered coal but had not paid. I often rode along with him as I had not started school yet. This would have been in the late 1950's. I can remember driving out to farm houses located on Ellsworth Road west of Hewitt, it seemed like we drove forever. Everything was so spread out back then. My mom stayed in the office at the coal company answering the phone, taking orders, & keeping the books. On the days I did not ride with my dad I would stay with her in the very small office. I can remember passing the time coloring, doing puzzles & sorting buttons. My mom saved them from old worn out clothes which she would cut off and save. My job was to sort them by color into small jars, which later mom would re-use on some homemade item. I think my dad had hopes of somehow buying the business to run as our own family thing but of course that did not happened. Natural gas was the new thing. Susan (Patterson) Metler"Talk about an evocative post! A quick directory check reveals that Marsh & Son Coal Company was in business as late as 1962 and possibly later! I'm definitely going to investigate it tomorrow at the Archives. Can you see the little white office in the picture that Ms. Metler refers to? What a great comment! Thank you, Ms. Metler! When I find more about Marsh & Son I'll post it, likely this weekend!
Some of those old farmhouses are still standing, here and there in the vicinity of Meijer. Maybe they were the ones Ms. Metler visited when she drove out with her dad to collect payments from coal delinquents!
