For the Record 01/08

Posted

Fifty years ago this past week – on Jan. 2, 1970, to be precise – Jerry and I purchased the Osage County Observer, one of three newspapers in Linn at that time.  The other two were the Unterrified Democrat and the Osage County Republican.

The purchase of the Observer was more than an investment, it was a bit of good fortune. Had we not purchased that newspaper – which we closed 10 years later when we bought the UD – I cannot imagine that today we would be residents of Osage County. But we did buy and we are residents of the county and for that we are most thankful.

Many parts of rural America are struggling. Osage County is not a financial powerhouse, but most folks are reasonably secure financially. This is the result of a conservative lifestyle that has seen many people set aside for a rainy day.

The late Al Schwartze was a friend. He was a conservative Democrat, with as much emphasis on the Democrat as on the conservative. He was truly a solid member of the party, until the party moved away from him. He always voted for local Democrats, but later in life backed away from his party at the state and national level.

As most of us know, Al died a wealthy man and left his estate to a foundation which does an enormous amount of good around the area. What most people probably do not know is that there were and still are many “mini Al Schwartzes” around this area.

When we moved to Linn in 1970, we had the newspaper, but I also started to practice law, and when people came to me with their estate issues, I was quite surprised at the number of ordinary folks who had amassed many acres of land, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in liquid assets.

With land going for $100 an acre in 1972, many dozens of people could have purchased 1,000 acres of land without any assistance from a bank. Those with the means to buy land did not do so because many of them recalled the days when land was about equal parts liability and asset. I’ve heard my dad talk many times about how he and his brothers had to struggle to help their widowed mother pay the property taxes on the family farm.

The going price for hill land in 1972 was $100 per acre. That jumped within a year or two to the $200 level and soon thereafter would climb to $300. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the $400 threshold was reached. In hindsight, a lot of people wished they would have bought land. While they didn’t buy land, many did invest prudently. They purchased bank CDs (and enjoyed extremely favorable interest rates in the late 1970s and early 1980s), bought bonds (most people had at least some U.S. savings bonds and MFA bonds were quite popular with many farmers), and investing in the stock market became common.

Stock market investments came in many forms. Some went directly into the market. Most probably got into the market with their many types of retirement accounts. Still others bought mutual funds, but regardless of how they invested, most did benefit and continue to benefit.

Let me also tell you about Friday nights in Linn in 1970. There were numerous retail establishments in the downtown area at that time. John (J.R.) Knoerr had a jewelry store and gift shop in what is now the Osage County Administration Building, while his wife Laura had a clothing and dry goods store across the street where McDaniel Insurance is now located. Harold Starr operated a furniture store where Linn Printing was located (next to the bank) until it moved to its present site. Hometown Lumber and Hardware was located where the abstract office is now situated. Linn Shoe Store was and remains a fixture, still operating out of the same building. Western Auto was a sizable business, operating out of the building which now houses Linn Pizza. Next to that was Hunke’s Department Store, half of which was for clothing and the other half for miscellaneous items including toys.

The above stores had their customers, but the big draw in downtown Linn was Goff Food Stores. The store was owned by Bob and Mary Wilson and was operated out of what is now the Unterrified Democrat building. Friday nights in Linn were extraordinary. If you wanted to shop in a downtown store, you needed to be prepared to walk as much as two blocks or more. That’s a long way to carry two or three bags of groceries, but that’s what shoppers had to do. The hustle and bustle of downtown Linn in 1970 was the equal of downtown Jeff City at its peak.

An additional retail magnet was U-Sav Market, located at the junction of U.S. 50 and Mo. Hwy 89 (Pump Handle). U-Sav was relatively new at the time and undoubtedly got a lot of business because customers did not have to fight the downtown mob. U-Sav was operated by Louie Bonnot and Rich Lecuru.

Another part of the Friday night activity revolved around Legends Bank (then Linn State Bank), which had a much smaller building located on a portion of the same corner it now occupies. People did much more of their banking in person in that era. Relatively few people recall that the bank and the Unterrified Democrat for decades shared the lot where the bank was located.   

While many things have changed in Linn and Osage County, we still have a great place to live and raise our families. We truly should count our many blessings. I was 28 and Jerry was 23 when we moved to Linn. I hope those of you who are in your 20s, enjoy the next 50 years as much as we’ve enjoyed the past 50.

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Congratulations to Sonya Brandt, who was named Monday by Gov. Mike Parson to succeed Rob Schollmeyer as associate circuit judge. We wish her the best.