The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-09-17
HOW FRAN
HOW FRANK JOHNSON HELPED LIFT
HOLDREGE "OUT OF THE MUD'

Out in western Nebraska they are
yet talking about the big birthday
cake which Frank Johnson made
and cut and handed out to ten thous-
and persons in celebration of the thir-
ty.fifth yearSof his bookkeeping in the
little town of Holdrege. The size Of
the cake grows as the story travels.
In some places they tell it weighed
more than ton, that it was the big.
gest jumbo of a cake ever baked,
mea surfing ten feet7aeross. ,Sa,se,rs,
Startling stories are told about
Johnson and his store, and the truth
is that he sold upward of one-third of
a million dollars worth of general mer
chandise last year and is selling so
much more this year that he expects
his sales to total half million dol
lars. That in town Of only three
thousand population! 1t is rich
farming country all round, but the
county has only $4,000 people, so of
course large part of his trade must
come from outside his own county. It
is fact that farmers and people from
other towns drive as far as seventy
miles to trade with him; that they
come from towns larger than Hold
rege, passing many other stores.
Seeking to learn why that was so.
visitor went to Holdrege in May, driy-
ing by motor car twenty miles across
country from a town on another rail
way line. The cross country trip had
scarcely begun when the driver said:
~ suppose you've heard about that
birthday cake frank Johnson made a
couple OF months ago; well, / not on
ly saw 1t. but ate hunk of it. Ev-
erybody in all this country round here
went in that day to see it. and every
body got a slice Of it,"
Must have been some cake" ~
.S,.. !, Making People Talk
= ., 1T was a whale of a cake world
beaten. The librarian down there at
Holdrege went through all the books,
and records he had, and he said there
was never a cake as big as that 1t
was six feet across and yard thick,
with barrels of raisins in it, and all
frosted as white as snow. They say
it cost over thousand dollars"
"Why did he bake it?'
way. He's always doing something
to make people talk and come to Ills
store And it's some store, believe
me. There isn't another store in all
Nebraska outside of Omaha that can
equal it, and not more than two or
three in Omaha that can beat It,"
On that drive Of twenty miles to.
ward Holdrege the farmers along the
way were asked about Johnson and
his store. Eve trade there said
one who lived nearly twenty miles
away because we can get anything
there in his line just the same as If
we were in Omaha or Denver or Kan
sas City Johnson is on the square
about it. and he has made Holdrege
the best town of its size in the state.
Il doubt if there is another town in
this country that can equal HoldreSe.
We are proud of it, and it just natural
1y seems like Johnson has got us all
in the notion Of driving to Holdrege
when we want anything"
Farmers and their wives all along
the road spoke with pride of Holdrege
and OF Johnson's store, and of the big
auditorium there. Several farmers
spoke of the town as having added
to the values of their lands. Its
worth something to live within easy
reach of town like that; it makes
the land worth more than it would be
if the nearest town was as shabby and
II = 4 q =
greedy as the majority of small
towns" said a farmer, and several
others spoke in the same vein.
Holdrege has two principal streets
that cross at right angles and John
sons store looms up right there on
the main corner, q landmark to all,