Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-12-29
OUR BUSINESS MEN.

gOOd omen when the back country OF a
city shows a kindly personal interest in its
merchants. We have several letters from
county friends asking when their favorlte
merchants will be in print and we write
this to say chat they must be patient all
will be in good time.
First among our business men this week
is a business woman,
MRS. X. Nj. KELLEY,
whose esterpr1se. business tact and sue
cess has been equaled by but few of her
sex in our good city. Mrs. Kelley came to
Staunton as Miss Kate German 1849, with
SIS in her pocket and engaged in the mil
linery business with Mrs. Sallie Dyer, who
had her establishment in the old Quinlan
property where is now Timbelake & Bells
store. Remaining with Mrs. D. only a
few months, she went to live with Mrs.
D. W. Kennedy in the old stone building
opposite, where she worked until 1852,
when she returned to Charleston, S. g.,
her native place, but only to remain three
years, returning to Staunton in 1855 and
opening for herself at the store now occu-
pied by Mr.. A. A. Gone, the first regular
millinery store, complete in it's appoint
ments and management, in Staunton.
In 1857 Miss German was married to the
late Mr.. John Kelley, and in 81 moved to
her own property, the building adjoining
the marble yard, where she has been ever
| since, for the first three years on the first
floor, afterwards admonished by failing
| health and o%yertaxed energies to contract
| her business she removed to the second
| floor of the same building, where her lady
! friends will find her to~day ready to at
| tend to their manifold wants and compe-
tent to give them a first class New York
outfit. Mrs. Kelley's is a private MILNE
~ establishment and shedeals only in first
class goods, than whom o can be a bet
ter Judge. For nearly IS years she has
Piled her vocation and dressed a genera
ton of women from the cradle to the
grave and turned out from her establish
ment many young ladies who stand first
in their calling wherever they may be
found.
Our jeweller this week is
C. YEAKLE,
at No. 5, Main street. Mr.. Yeakle is q
native of Frederick county, Va, and whe1
a boy went to live with G. e. Evard, {
skillful Swiss matchmaker at Winchester
Va, where ne learned his trade and came
to Staunton in 1858, and commenced bust
ness in the building opposite the Virginia
Hotel, which is now occupied by S. Rosen
baum. After remaining there 5 years an(
making several other moves, he went tt
Washington City, only making a stay Of
six months in that city, when he wen1
back to Winchester for q while and theI
returned to Staunton, occupying for som'
time a part of the store of e. e. Haines
but now in an eligible room next door t.
G.. Hirsh which he has fitted up nicely ant
there displays a good stock Of watches,
clocks, jewelry, spectacles, &C., and offers
to repair fine watches and jewelry in The
best manner ~warranting satisfaction
which his % years of experience would
seem'to amply Justify him in guarantee
ing.
On the opposite side of Main street, is
the we'll known house of
I. WITT s. BRO,
and the city Of Staunton is indebted to tn
town of Kuttenplan, Austria, for one of he
best merchants and most popular council
men. He anne over to America at the ag'
of sixteen and got employment as a clerl
with Heller Bros. at Woodstock, and ii
SO removed to Mt. Jackson, where he re
manned in the employ Of the same firm tw'
or three years and then went into business
on his own hook, which was interrupted
by the war as Mr.. WITT enlisted early il
81 and as a member of tht&Gmous Stone
wall Brigade, saw hard service from which
his health suffering he left the service ir
'64 coming to Stanton, and at the close Q
the war in '65 purchased the propert
which he now occupies opened a stoc
Of goods and emba rked i'll a thrifty bus
ness which has from that time neve
ceased to be good and remunerative. HI
stock in addition to a general assortmen
of d ~ goods embraces boots, shoes, bat'
&C., his prices are moderate and in add
ton to his city custom he has a larg
country trade.
MI. Witt in partnership with MI. g.
Holt owns also a good plaster mill in tn
surburbs near the Valley depot and a lars
Touring mill just outside the corporation
in the same neighborhood. This mill doe
& fine business grinding as much as 5000
bushels Of wheat in q season and the brant
| @G W.T. g. 4 II IL 81, ,I, bi~I, IN fIn ", nrl-of
The Brother of the firm is employed il
wholesale trade in Baltimore.
Mr.. Morris Witt is almost as we'll know
in the community as his brother. He ha'
been in the house since it opened, and
indispensable to its successful operation
DAVIS A. KA USERS
fancy dry goods store at IA, Main street
is next door to WITT, and, being in prett.
much the same line of business, is a formi
dable rival. MI. Kayser is an Alleghan.
man, and when only II years old went t.
live in q store at Clifton Forge. He go
one year of schooling the year after, from
Mr.. Jno. II. Arnall, father of Chas. T
Arnall, ESQ of the Augusta Nationa
Bank, and when in his 14th year came tt
stanton, entering the store of Mr.. Adam
Link, as clerk, for three years, on a salary
If $40 the first year, $50 the second, an(
$50 the third. He then lived a few month:
with Mr.. Jno. B. Breckenridge, father O.
the efficient steward at the Institution
Capt. A. N. Breckenridge, and after living
three years with the firm of Crawford 6
Cochran, and on a salary of S120 a year ht
had saved SIS, with which capital and a
little credit he embarked in his own canoe
on the treacherous waves of trade an6