The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1869-01-01

-. vsA.,.ss,s Dry oesAa Trade.

y0kVA 49, 80
-. vsAs,ssais Dry oesAs Trade.
4 ,ovn i. already : town for he noss pass
h.gore the most 80 there. But someDoo'
80. there 10 the 6rst place pefore ever 'ne
sovn i. Nov, that'ss self-evident pfoPo'
at;on. Why dye suppose ve put 4 ne!e 3
III, o,.cular vayl OF course We coulds :
- possible purpose other than NOT here,
v.v 81 getting into our sphi'ns % d'ncui.
:. i Byronic poetr-- perhaps the enc.
q. h..;nn;p,-ssory suggestion does have
-. 20 relevancy 70 the subject matter
n hand. For in l84s, Jon could count
easily enough upon your fingers, without re-
pessing, the business establishments in this
then unpretentious municipality. Aud il
was in ls4s that the house Of
cox 1 SHELLEY
Was, established. II was very few men
that KeokA was made mp Of then. There
Want much Of an interior Iowa to trade
With. That was > time whom "Rams-
horn railroad to Dubuque was thought
very practicable enterprise. by very practi-
cat business men. So little vas the trade OF
Iowa and the Northwest determined then %
now. And sven in the county adjoining
Lee on the West, "churchville" -better
known to the moderns as Alexandria, was
meant, rather than Keokuk, when the farmer
orths country merchant talked Of sending
to the River for goods. So much prece-
dence then had Alez1ndria ~ trading
Mace, In that time Col. J. N. Shelley and
Mr.. James f. Cox started thsir honse, and
worked with the growth # Keokuk. for
growth Of their trads, and it came. South
srn Iowa filed up With its good people, and
they came to Keokuk to buy goods, and
bought them Of Cox l. Shelley. These gen.
tlemaa. continued in partnership and pros
porous trade until 1866, when Mr.. Cox re-
tired. The business was continued BY COL
Shelley, who in 1867 took his sons, VIM. F.
and George NJ. Shelley into partnership. Tbs
later withdrew from shs house in the year
Just closed, and has been in bushes up at
Charlton during the past fall. A driving,
thorough going young man, with weighty bu-
siness and fortune in his brain, and the
pluck aud nerve TO work it out. Mr.. viii
/ liam F. Shelley continued in the house -
being 1orn merchant, WAS wise thing for
him to do. His drive and sagacity will main
tain the prestige of the house and multiply in
the future its great prosperity.
The house have always on hand-and new
or more or better than nova large and
carefully selected stock Of Dry Goods. The
stereosyped qualification Of experience and
I'm acquaintance with the demands Of the
trade, is most thoroughly theirs. Colonel
Shelley gives to the business of the house the
steady and saxacious attention which has
been the main element of his success - .
merchant. And after twenty years expert
ence, he can we'll claim to know what the
Iowa trade wants and how to supply it. That
he does is attested by the sales Of the house,
which, this year, will amount to $500, 600.
Col. s. is type Of the highest and best
class Of American merchants. He is no
routine business machine. American mer.
chants are many>sided above the same class
anywhere else in the world. To the anccess-
full sagacious merchant, he adds versatile
talents and . wide range Of study and culture.
1t Is rather strange, when You come TO think
|of it (there's SO much cussedness in the
worldly, how many tiptop men Keokuk has.
And Col. Shelley is one Of the very best Of
the tip-topest best.
KRAMER, IRWIN CO.
That's another house that began business
| IN that even,ful Keokuk year-1s56. A big
year that was, when Keokuk was doing big
business. Everything gong along in the
highest and most metropolitan way, every
man feeling consciousness down into his
very boots that this was going to be the seat
Of empire in the West. Then every man
who owned corner lot felt consciousness
that the boots he stood in held prospective
millionaire. When our place had so far
reached that important feature Of CONNER
cial metropolitanism that trade came to it Of
itself, and didn't have to be enticed here
when there was lively competition in bust.
ness and he Who could bid high enough for it
and on good was pretty sure to get his
share Of it. 1Sthat time f. Kramer, 5. IT.
win and 8. ". Irwin commenced the whole
sale dry goods business Ter the present
6rm name. They had bods, the man
agement, and the enterprise to make theil
house successful and prosperous, and tn
have done it. That success commenced with
their entry upon business. They we're prac.
teal men and proper merchants. They saw
what the trade Of new and. growing State
| wanted, and how to supply it. They had nc
Utopian business schemes that wouldn't sui
their latitude. They have made no blunders
No firm ever made fewer mistakes or profit
less ventures. They early secured an i'm.
mense trade, and have held it and IT'D large
increase. In 1864 Mr.. 8. W. Irwin retired
from the partnership. Hehas made his home
in Dixie since, somewhere in Alabama
Selma We think. Otherwise the firm
continues unchanged. During the
last two or three years Mr.. Kramer has
resided in Philadelphia. for the most part,
looking after the firm interests, watching the
market managing his house there and co>op-
Grating with the house here, for the profit and
advantage Of it and its patrons. For Mr..
Kramer, is, as We said ofCol. Peel Napo-
leonic business man with genius for
trade as Bonsparts for Empire. Who can
extend his traffic to continent, and Be most
in his element when his trade is largest and
most exacting. He has also house in St.
Louis Mr.. s. Irwin has remained in charge
OF the house here, constantly extending it by
h;a disnraet manaremAnf and inaurinR its