Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-01-31
!. L. TAYLOR & co.
A Successful House Something
Personal, Financial, and
Statistical.

Doctor James l.. Taylor pitched his
tabernacle in Ottumwa, being princi-
pally endowed with pair of saddle
bags, a first-class medical diploma, a
good capital of ambition, and I'M
bounded energy. lie practiced med
icinc with the usual success which
follows that profession in this the
healthiest city in the world, until
1856, when he established a onc-horsc
drug store, 1Sx24, on Main street,
about the spot where Gaylord, at an
earlier day, had his "One-Horse
Grocery" In year or so he moved
across the street into the Pumroy
Building, and in 1858 he bought out
w. +. Elmendorfs' drug stock and
moved into his (E's.) store in Rich
ards Block. lie had attended to his
business SO closely, and had worked
so hard, that by this time he was al
ready the leading druggist in Ottum-
wa. During the war he built, little
farther up on Main street, frame
store, 40xSO, which he occupied until
1t was destroyed in the great fire of
1868.
Immediately after this, he built his
present store on Main street, one
door above the First National Bank,
which is brick 3Sxl32, four stories
and basement, with mansard roof,
packed to-day with $4,000 worth of
drugs and books, and which is alto
gether the largest and handsomest
wholesale and retail drug and book
house in the State of Iowa.
In '66 or '67 Chas. f. Blake, his
book-kceper, and William 4. Harper,
his principal salesman, were taken
into the firm, which became Taylor,
Blake & Co. They both retired af-
ter very profitable business connec-
ton in 1874, the former to become
President of the Iowa National Bank,
and the latter to become member of
the linseed oil manufacturing house
of Daggett 4 Harper.
At the same time DR.. Taylor's old
est son, J. A., his son-in-law, w. ID.
Elliott, and one of his principal sales
men, Estel Bruce, were admitted into
the concern, the firm name becoming
j. L. Taylor & Co.
This establishment keeps two men
travelling most of the time, Elliot,
and Bruce doing that work now
They sell goods at wholesale all owe,
Southern, Central and Western Iowa
and also on all the railroads leading
from the city, besides having very
large and constantly increasing retail
trade. Their sales run from 1926, OO(
to $25O,OOO per annum. They report
that they have no cause of complaint
against the present trade of tn,
house, DR.. Taylor being now in New
| York purchasing very heavy spring
stock of goods.
| They carry an immense stock o
drugs, books, paints, oils, wallpaper
notions, etc., which. they have unusua
facilities for purchasing of importer
and manufacturers, and are only tot
!. well pleased to get chance to dupli
cate Chicago and st. Louis prices.
Our good looking friend, Mos,
Walker, presidcs at the books, while
Chas. O. Taylor and E. NJ. d. Scott
seem to have the charge of the retail
business.
The other employees arc Charles +
Harlan, A. S. Udell, John Jepson
Clay Smith, Charles milford, I. N
Carver, John johnson, Gus johnson
and P. b. Sprague.
In the absence Of his father, Asbury
Taylor has general charge of The
business, which is one that the firm
may have just reason to be proud of
and which is highly creditable to oul
young and growing city.
A Davenport special to Chicago
paper says:
The scientific world of this city is
all agog over some mound discover.
les just brought to light, and to-day
on exhibition. They were taken from
one of the mounds on the "Cook
farm" three miles below this city, at
a depth Of five feet from the surface,
covered with stratum Of white vel
low clay. They consist of two coal
slabs, one, one and half inches thick
and about one foot square, and the
other six inches square, covered on
both sides with figures and animals
and birds of extinct species, HERO
| glyphics which have puzzled Prof.
Pratt, DR.. Farquharson and other
leading members of the Davenport
Academy of Science, but which they
are now diligently studying. One
represents evidently religious cere-
mony-fire worship. There can be
traced some IA figures surrounding a
fire, hands joined. On one side of
the fire, withina circle, is figure ly-
ing on the ground, supposed by Prof.
Pratt to be dead body. On the 9TH
err side are two similar figures. In
the right hand upper side is a circle
about an inch in. diameter, by the
same authority said to represent the
sun. On the left-hand side in the
same line, is another circle, supposed
to represent the moon. Outside the
circle of fire-worshipers are, covering
the whole slab, small figures of birds
and animals, among them one larger
figure, which DR.. Farquharsen says
undoubtedly represents the mastodon.
Another slab six inches square, has
three circles, one within the other,
the outer one as large as the face of
the slab will permit. Between the
first and second circle is a hicorglyph-
ic at equi-distant points, correspond
ing to what would make the quarter
hour on the face of clock-dial. Out
side of the other circle and dispersed
all over the face of the slab, arc fig
urcs and signs unintelligible to our
scientific men, but which they say can
be deciphered with the knowledge of
the mound-buildcr's characters, Gus
toms and literature in the hauds of
the academy here, after they have had
time to study them at leisure. The
members of the academy who have
examined these last exhumations, are
unanimous in declaring that they are
the most valuable archaeological spec
linens yet brought to light from the
mounds in this vicinity, and will no.
doubt furnish a more enlightened
clue to the customes, traditions and
literature of the mound-builders
The academy is rich in arrows, pipes,
beads, and implements taken from
the mounds on the Cook farm, but
nothing equaling these slabs has ever
been found before. Prof. Pratt says
they will prove the most valuable ad-
dition yet made to their already large
cabinet of mound relics. A scientific
description of them will be furnished
the press in few days by DIR. Far