1914 Sutton News Business Advertisements

These ads appeared in the May 1, 1914 issue of the Sutton News newspaper, a Thursday publication priced at $1.00 per year. Advertising rates were 10 cents per inch per issue.

John M. Gray and his father Hosea Gray founded the Gray Lumber Yard on August 24, 1871, the
second lumber yard in Sutton in the town's oft-told story, very oft-told of how Thurlow Weed's
carload of lumber arrived in town on the 23rd narrowly but decisively edging out the Gray's for the
distinction of Sutton's First Lumber Yard. The Gray Lumber Yard was on the west side of Way
Avenue just north of the railroad track. It extended south of the Gray house at 311 N. Way Ave. to
the intersection with Maple Street encompassing the lots where the Hunzeker and Aunt Emma
houses are today.

This ad gave no additional information of who/where this company was.

J. J. Goll is not a household name in Sutton but it appears he was a Ford dealer in 1914. No Goll family
appears in the census for Sutton or nearby in 1910 or 1920 but we can find Jacob Goll Sr. and Jacob J.
Goll Jr. in Potsdam Township (Blue Hill), Webster County in 1920. Jacob Sr. would have been 56 years
old in 1914 and Jake J. Goll Jr. 28. A 1923 plat map of Potsdam Township finds Goll land to the extent
of seven eighties for J. Goll and an additional two belonging to W. Goll just south of Blue Hill.

So our educated guess is that Jacob J. Goll Jr. was this 1914 Ford distributor in Sutton and that sometime
between 1914 and 1920 farming in Webster County looked better to Jake than selling cars.

And speaking of Ford dealers, this Yost business in 1914 was advertising the
IH Farm Wagon for their Sutton & Grafton businesses. I may need some help
understanding that fifth wheel feature however. 

This posting of just a few 1914 newspaper ads in Sutton is a small snapshot of transition, farm wagons,
Fords and tire technology. A common transition at about this period of time was the morphing of
livery stables to car dealerships and mechanics' shops. 

The weekly column for The Clay County News is a task that should take two or three hours but often extends into a second half-day or more as I find myself reading the damn papers. 

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