CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - BUSINESS FIRMS FOLLOW RAILS IN ESTABLISHING
				NEW TOWN
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CEDAR COUNTY NEWS OCT. 23, 1952

BUSINESS FIRMS FOLLOW RAILS IN ESTABLISHING NEW TOWN OF
WYNOT

Wynot - When the first train arrived in Wynot, October 28, 1907, many
of the businesses which were to become part of the new town had
already secured temporary quarters in St. James.

The First National Bank and The Farmer State Bank were on the scene
early and set up in St. James until they could move their quarters to
the new town. 

J.C. Ziegler and J.S. Emerson were both conducting general stores in
St. James and moved to new quarters in Wynot. H.H. Mille and
Company and C.M. Konegni were the two pioneer hardware firms to get
in on the ground floor at St. James while their new stores were under
construction in Wynot.

D.F. Sweet was located in the new town before the railroad arrived 
and freighted from Hartington much of the lumber used in the 
preliminary work. He had the town’s first lumber yard.  First, only 
druggist Alex Schulte’s drug store was one of the first firms to open 
for business here and continued for about 35 years. It was not only
Wynot’s first drug store, but its only drug store.

The first building to be actually completed in Wynot was the JJ Cable
hotel. This hostelry was headquarters for railroad men, laborers, and
others who packed the building to the doors every night. The lodgers
slept in beds, on cots and even on blankets spread on the floors.

First Doctor
Dr. W.Y. Jones who had previously located in St. James several months
before the railroad, was Wynot’s first doctor. He was joined in the
early days of the town by Dr. C.C. Tellesen. Dr. H.E. McKenzie was 
the veteran physician at St. James.

The new town was destined to have a newspaper and a few days after
the trains began running H.A. McCormick arrived and started the
Wynot Tribune.  The first issue of the paper came off the press
December 6, 1907, and continued for over a quarter of a century.

C.A. Gilson and Charles Davis started barber shops. Two elevators 
were also established, the Blintron and the Saunders Westrand Co. 
There was the Cook and Duman meat market. Charles Little had a 
cement block factory and T.N. Jones had a flour and feed store.

Leave St. James
In February of 1908 Hoese and Schmidt moved their large general
merchandise stock from St. James to their new store in Wynot. The
following month R.W. Wright opened a jewelry store in one side of 
the Schulte Drug Store.

At about the same time the Methodist and Presbyterian churches were
moved over from St. James. Other lines of business were installed 
and with new homes being rapidly growing up Wynot was becoming a 
real town.

Long Time Firms
Five of the business enterprises now here have been under the same
management for 36 to 44 years. The lumber yard owned by the
Home Lumber Company has been in existance for 44 years and
although the business has changed hands in the first few years, it 
was under the management of the late E.T. Arndt, who died early this
summer.  

The Wynot Cash store has been in business here for 39 years operated
by the late J.F. Hackl and continued by his daughter, Miss Bernice
Hackl, with the exception of one year.

C.A. Gosting has been in the grocery business for 39 years in Wynot 
and in the same building.

Anton Stratman has operated his harness and shoe shop for 37 years in
the same building. In the early days before general use  of motorized
machinery, he was kept busy selling harnesses, saddles, or with repair
work. Today, Mr. Stratman is taking life a little easier. He still 
repairs binder canvass and belts and does shoe repair.

Dr. G.H. Schulte, veternarian, has been caring for the ills of animals 
and livestock in this community for 36 years. He is still kept busy 
and now has an assistant. 

In the present day Wynot there are other business firms, but they do
not date back to the early days of the town.