ILGenWeb Logo

Jefferson County, IL
Genealogy

usgenweb

Bluford -DeWitt's Store

KIDS, RAILROADS, PEOPLE & ACTIVITIES
STORIES OF A SMALL RAILROAD TOWN
IN THE 1930'S, 40'S & 50'S ........... by George

John R. Warren

The articles and pictures that you see within these pages about Bluford were submitted by Janice Staples
Written permission was given by the author, the late John R. Warren, to use on this website.

DeWitt's was the biggest store in Bluford. It had a big grocery room with two aisles. The meat department, ran by Les Esmon, was in the back of that room. There was a separate room on the east side of the big brick building. It contained clothing, shoes, and all sorts of household items. The two rooms were both fairly crowded with supplies.

Out back, to the north of the dry goods, etc. room was the place where they brought cream and eggs from the farmers and had feed for sale. I remember the cream-testing room quite well as we frequently sold cream there. They had a little centrifuge machine which rotated pretty fast. The cream was put in a little vial and then spun in that. They would then look at the vial and could tell the butterfat content. The higher the butterfat the more money it was worth. We had Guernsey cows and they always produced good butterfat content. There was a loading dock outside the east door of that back room. DeWitt's was later Osborn and Clark's and still later Osborns.


For corrections or additions, please contact me: Sandy Bauer

Designed by Templates in Time