They Must Like It Here -- They've Stayed!

The Seymour Herald - 23 June 2011

Reprinted from The Seymour Herald of 26 July 1951

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  Many of Seymour's "Old Settlers" have moved away, others have retired from active business life to their homes, but a few have kept up their professional activities through the years.

  Included among Seymour's "old-timers" who still are in harness are H. S. Eckels, R. A. Morrow, Harry Bower, Elvin Owen, J. N. Condra and Roy Cunningham.

  Cunningham started clerking in the grocery store on the west side of the square 43 years ago, but, in partnership with his wife, became owner of the same store he now operates 25 years ago in August. The Cunninghams have one son, Fred, of Kansas City, Mo.

  Condra, who has been in the insurance business in Seymour for the past 31 years always has lived around Seymour. He was a farmer before moving to town to open his insurance agency. And after all those years in business here Mr. Condra says, "I still like "the place."

  Elvin Owen, another insurance man, has been in business here for 27 years. He had offices in the upstairs of the Yeager building and Brenaman buildings before moving to his present location in the east side of the Rissler barber shop.

  More than half a century -- 51 years -- is the business record of Harry Bower, who operates a barber shop on the east side of the Seymour square. His first shop located just north of the Odd Fellows building. Later he moved to a location about where Liggett's furniture store stands, then to the west side of the square. He has been on the east side for about 40 years.

  R. A. Morrow has put in 40 years "more or less" in business in Seymour and he, too, has occupied several locations. His first location was on the east side of the square where the Scott grocery now is located. Then he moved to the west side of the square to occupy a building about where the Perkins gift shop now stands. Later he moved to his present location on the west side. He is in business with three of his sons, Jared, Max and Keith.

  H. S. Eckels has been connected with the lumber business in Seymour for 64 years, starting to work for the Lewis lumber company when he was 13 years old in 1887, when the company was located where the Webb seed store now stands. He served 18 months in the Spanish-American war and returned to work for the Parker lumber company in the same location. In 1907 he bought the lumber yard where he has operated for 44 years.

Purdy Boys Leave....Mine Closes Again.... For Air Force Duty

  For the second time in 10 years the Purdy coal mine east of Seymour is closing down while "the Purdy boys" go off to military service.  This time, however, all the mine machinery is being sold and the mine will close for good.

  The mine, sunk in 1932, was once the heaviest producer of coal in the Wayne-Appanoose county area, and even recently employed a full crew of 24 men.  The mine had been in continuous operation since 1932, except for two years during World War II when the sons of Henry Purdy were in the army before.

  Robert Purdy left Friday for duty as a radar repairman in the Air Force, and his brother, David, who was recalled at the same time, has been classified as a flight engineer trainee.

  The other Purdy brothers will seek employment in midwestern industrial centers as soon as the final closing of the mine is completed.

  William Morrow, who left with the Purdys, was the only one of the trio who was in the air corps in World War II.  He also has been classified as a flight engineer trainee with the 90th Bombardment Wing, which consists of B-29 and B-50 bombers--now called "mediums."

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  From an unidentified 1951 newspaper clipping in the files of the American Legion Post #180 in Seymour, Wayne County, Iowa, microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1990 and contained on FHL US/CAN Film 1672979.