WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER > ELIZABETH BEAMS COOPER m Franklin Boyd > FRANK ROSS BOYD
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| Frank & Ollie |
Frank Ross Boyd was born 26 Jun 1873 in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois to Elizabeth Beams Cooper and Franklin Boyd. He moved with his family to Bremer County sometime between 1882 and 1888. His father, Franklin, operated the Boyd General Mercantile in Plainfield as his children grew up. Both Frank and his brother Roy learned the trade and both made the trade their life's work. While Roy remained in Plainfield, Frank purchased a store in nearby Horton. The store would become legend and would carry anything and everything from high fashion to automobiles, to school supplies.
On 03 Mar 1896, Frank married Olive "Ollie" Marinda Vosseller, daughter of Nelson and Emma Vosseller. She was born 25 Sep 1873 in Plainfield. In 1897, he bought an interest in the general store in Horton owned by CC Spaulding and two years later, purchased his partner's interest, continuing under the name Boyd Mercantile Company. The store was 46 feet by seventy feet in size, with three warehouses.
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| F R Boyd Mercantile |
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| Interior |
The handsome couple had three children, one, an infant, died in 1906. The two surviving girls were Lucille and Ruth Elizabeth.
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| Frank Boyd Home, Horton |
Mr. and Mrs. Boyd spent their entire life in the Plainfield-Horton community. He was a member of
Lodge No. 116 A. F. & A. M. Waverly; Jethro Chapter, No. 24 R. A. M. and De Molay. He has been vice president of the Farmer's State Bank of Plainfield for a number of years and has served in the community in many ways. He was always active in projects that were for the good of the home community and took great pride in the promotion of them.
Frank was considered very forward-thinking and was a big proponent of the Butler-Bremer Telephone Company of which he was an early president in 1910. The exchange had 455 customers and of those customers, 320 were shareholders. The company is still in operation today, albeit under other ownership.
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| Frank and Ollie in old age |
Ollie died 28 Feb 1953 in Horton and her husband Frank died 09 Jun 1953 in Waverly.
This article is worth a read and was published in the Nashua Reporter on 01 Mar 1972:
Treasure Trove, A Meeting Place, A Haven
The Old Horton Store Served the Community Well
Frank Boyd managed his store at Horton for half a century before turning it over to his successor, Elwyn Briggs, in 1943. Elwyn was in the store until its closing in 1960. Mrs Ruth Diekmann of Plainfield is Frank Boyd's daughter and Miss Hazel Boyd, his sister.
by Mrs Ernest Wagner
I wish you could step back with me, say to 1912 or so and go into Frank Boyd's General Store in Horton. It was a double store, facing the west, with a storage or warehouse along the south side. In that little country store was about everything that the local community needed. There were bolts of cloth, a tall glass bored ribbon case, with sacks of penny ribbon, all colors, for a penny a yard, ___grin ribbon, satins, and beautiful wide hair ribbon.
There was men's clothing, shirts, collars, suspenders, straw hats, dress hats, boots and overshoe rubbers. There were a lot of ladies clothing and a ___ glass show case of "pretties" like perfume, powder, pens, and jewelry.
High along the walls above the shelves was everything from chamber pots to neck ties, kerosene lanterns to milk pails, wash boards, enameled water pails and dippers, bushel baskets, tubs of horse collars. You named it and it would be pretty sure to be there someplace.
Shelves on Walls
Up front, on the south side, the wall shelves filled with everything from shoes to dish sets. There was a tall revolving post card rack, a little penned in place that Frank used as an office. Show cases of jack knives, scissors, and oh, that marvelous candy case! It was filled with square glass dishes that all fitted together, each holding a different kind of candy, there were peppermints, wintergreens, licorice sticks, candy corn, hard candy, filled ____, rock candy, candy ________. Also you could buy _____, sen-sen, penny candy, all from the large square red can on the shelf you could buy those little short price candies. The tin had glass in the front, so you could see how full it was.
Those Cookie Boxes!
There were the square cookie boxes with hinged tops, so you could see all the different kinds, rowed up in front of the candy counter. At the end was a great big red coffee grinder, taller than Frank even - with two big heavy balance wheels on either side. Frank would dump the coffee beans into the top, close the peaked top, and push and pull the big bar across the front that turned the wheels that ground the coffee. When you heard the coffee quit grinding, Frank would "get in with the wing of the bar" and then reach, reach, reach and grab the can of ground coffee quickly so it wouldn't be hit by the bar as its momentum kept it running for a while. He would then repack the ground coffee and slip the empty can back in place. We kids always expected him to "get it" one day, but we never did see him get hit.
Old Time Appendency
I remember once, when one of the men near Horton had to have his appendix "cut out" right at home. Had to get Doc Rholf up from Waverly to do it, almost unheard of in those days. Everyone was so concerned. I remember that they had his appendix sticking on a short hat pin in a bottle of alcohol on display in Frank's little office window in the store. I remember it looked all pink and squiggly as they held it up for all of us to see.
The south side of the store held the groceries, mostly. There was a meat counter, cutting block, and a small refrigerator in the wall where the meats were kept and where the ice cream cones came from.
Harvested Ice
Mr Boyd built a large cement block ice house out behind the store and would hire available men with teams and bobsleds to cut blocks of ice from the river a couple of miles away. They'd haul them to the icehouse with layers of saw dust all around and between each block. The blocks probably measured 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet, and were used by Frank during the summer for his refrigerator in the store. You could even buy a chunk in the summer if you had special company and wanted to make ice cream at home. You would drive a horse and buggy to Horton, buy your ice, wrap it in a heavy horse blanket and put it on the floor of the buggy and take it home.
A Hardware Department
Beyond the meat counter and across from it, was the main hardware department with nails, bolts, door springs, hinges, pots and pans. At the very back one shelf was reserved for school supplies. You could buy bottles of ink, in several different colors, pen holders, pen points, erasers, and penny pencils. There were envelopes and writing paper for letter, yellow tablets with wide lines for little people who were just learning to make their letters and numbers, and several stacks of narrow and wed pencil tablets for school use. These had the most fabulous pictures on the covers, many times they wer of famous movie stars, both men and women.
I'll tell you, it really took time to look them all over and decide which one to choose. The paper inside wasn't so important; it was the picture on the cover that counted most. If you went back to school with a "Mary Pickford" tablet, for instance; you were the envy of all your friends.
Kerosene for Lamps
You could buy kerosene for your lamps. Just bring your two or three gallon kerosene can, and they'd fill it in the back room and put a small potato on the spout so you wouldn't spill it getting home. You could bring your vinegar jug or your molasses jug to be filled from the large barrels in the back room, where potatoes lard and the like were also kept.
Barrels of Apples
There were barrels of red and green apples, in season, and 100 pound sacks of sugar and flour and big wooden boxes of soda crackers. There were oysters, in season, too, and all the staples needed in the community. Cheese was cut from a big wheel of cheese in the refrigerator. Bologna, smoked bacon, and summer sausage were also kept in their cooler. A big stem of bananas hung from a hook on the ceiling.
About December 1, many of the everyday essentials were somehow stacked away, and the front windows, especially the north half of the store, suddenly became resplendent with red and green garlands, tinsel, bells and right down through the center appeared long tables, stacked two tables high, loaded with the most wonderful array of things Santa's pack ever held.
The platform show windows in front blossomed with pretty gifts. One side usually held lovely wearing apparel, caps, mittens, scarfs, and pretties, but that other one held the attention of Horton's younger generation. That other one held teddy bears, and blocks and dolly dishes, just to name a few.
Best of all were the lovely unbelievably beautiful big dollies that were fastened out of reach of young fingers, up on the railing above the other toys. Of course, they were very expensive - as much as $2.50 or $3.00, and although each of us girls immediately picked our favorites, we hardly dared even wish for fear of being disappointed on Christmas morning.
Her Dream Doll
I'll never gorget one year in particular. There were three especially lovely dolls in that window, but I had eyes for only one, a beautiful blonde with brown eyes. I walked past the store every day on my wayto school and the first thing I watched for was that beautiful doll.
To my dismay, a few days before Christmas, my beautiful dream doll was gon. Oh, how I envied the little girl who was to find that doll on Christmas morning. A bit of the charm of the whole store disappeared with that doll.
We were all busy with Christmas activities, both at school and at church, so the time slipped by quickly. There was always a beautiful Christmas tree at church, and parents and teachrs and friends brought many gifts to the church tree. Sunday School teachers all brought gifts for their pupils and there were gifts for families and friends.
Candles on Tree
As many gifts as the tree could well hold were fastened to its branches. There was no electricity in Horton, of course, so the tree was glittering with dozens of colored candles, carefully placed so as not to cause a fire.
After the children's splendid program, the time came for the distribution of all the beautiful gifts. When your name was called, you held up your hand until the ushers came and gave you your gift. Among the several lovely dolls on the tree was the beautiful blonde which had been in Mr Boyd's store window. When my name was called and she was brought to me, I nearly burst with pride and joy.
All Gone Now
Most of the people of that day are gone now, including Mr Boyd and my own family. The old store building still stands, crooked and deserted, falling apart. It is truly a piece of our past. But all who were blessed by life in those bygone times will agree with me, I'm sure, that those were days which made for very happy memories.
Nashua Reporter, March 1, 1972
