Barber County Kansas
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Barber County Kansas |
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Mr. and Mrs. Grant G. Shigley
Photos and comment
courtesy of Kim
Fowles.
"Barber County Profiles", Medicine Lodge Cresset, March 2, 1900. G.G. Shigley
(photo of residence)
It is now fifteen years ago that G.G. Shigley found his way to Lake City, then a town of mighty expectations of future metropolitan grandeur and business prosperity.
Reuben Lake was the enthusiastic promoter and it was in his store that young Shigley began his business career as a clerk. He was a lad of quick perception, honest, faithful, with an ambition to be a factor in business affairs and of course secured the confidence of his employer. When later Mr. Lake sold out, young Shigley stayed on, rendering his new employer the same conscientious service he had given Mr. Lake.
At the end of seven years he had an opportunity to buy out the grocery department of the store and with a capital of $178 he started business for himself in a room 25x25. It was a small beginning, but his industry, tact and universal good nature won him customers and as his trade increased he enlarged his rooms, careful, however, not to go beyond his means in buying, beyond his capacity to pay out. Later he purchased the stock of a rival dealer, adding dry good and general merchandise to his business.
He has been successful from the start and now occupies a brick built store room with a twenty-five foot front by one hundred feet deep, with two separate store rooms for heavy goods, where you can find any conceivable article of merchandise. In Kansas City this would not be such a tremendous affair but in a town of 189 inhabitants, it is different.
Besides this, Mr. Shigley carries an average stock of not less than $6,000, discounts all of his bills and a close invoice would probably show him $10,000 ahead, clear of all his obligations, if he has any such thing as obligations.
Mr. Shigley is at his best so far as years are counted and usually is a most congenial gentleman. Merchandise can be purchased at his shops at competing prices or lower than in the railroad towns and a customer always gets what he buys.
He takes an interest in public affairs, is always ready to chip in to help out any public or charitable enterprise and is an all around good citizen. He is a republican in politics and for eleven years postmaster at Lake, without regard to the color of the administration at Washington.
He is happy in the possession of a wife and daughter, a pleasant home and so far as we can see is at peace with all the world as he certainly ought to be. May he live long and prosper abundantly.
Grant G. Shigley is buried in the Lake City Cemetery.
Also see:
Post Office, Lake City, Barber County, Ks. Grant Shigley was appointed Postmaster on 23 Dec 1899 and served until his successor, Henry F. Lake, was appointed 20 July 1907.
Lake City Plot Map, Barber County, Kansas
From Standard Atlas of Barber County, Kansas, 1905. Courtesy of Kim Fowles.
Thanks to Ellen (Knowles) Bisson for finding, transcribing and contributing the above Medicine Lodge Cresset article to this web site and to Kim Fowles for the photos of Mr. & Mrs. Shigley!
It main article is one of a series of articles published together on 2 March 1900 under the title of Barber County Profiles: Men Who Have Taken a Prominent Part in Developing the Stock Industry in Barber County.
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