In the days of the long ago a two-story woolen mill stood directly over the small branch that wanders east of the present elevator. No one living can give the name of the Mill owner who bought local wool and made it up in some form for sale.
On West Main and South of the Atlas Stewart (2 doors west of the large storage bin of the elevator) home Alex Petrow years ago had a saw mill and log yard. It was operated by a man by the name of Lynch.
Further West on Main St. and on the South side was a tile works owned and operated by E.R. Ellis. Farmers from far and near came to buy drain tile for their land.
At the far Northeast side of town Gideon Pruitt made brick that were used in many buildings and chimneys here and elsewhere.
Davis and Johnson operated a flour mill where the elevator stands and east of it was the William Mason Carpenter shop. Farther East was Uncle Jack Burke's harness shop and nearer town was the Newt Lakin place for farm machinery and buggies and the Otto Lakin mortuary.
At the West edge of town old Mr. Lisby had a small nursery and sold fruit trees to many farmers.
Carl Dent owned a grocery about where the present Post Office is located and later a Danville man had a bakery going for a few months.
Bryant & Draper had a big general store on the corner of Main & Milton where the printing office is today and across the street on the other corner was the Doc Campbell store that handled groceries, meat, eggs, and poultry and carried a line of dress goods, shoes for the entire family and suits for boys and men. Both stores sold oranges a cent each, sausage 8 cents, bacon 15, and ham 25. When a customer paid his bill he was rewarded with a big sack of candy or other treat.
An early blacksmith was Frank Roberts. Other smiths were John Jenkins and Noah Siler on West Main and later on Fred Stewart, Wash Stewart owned shops and a Mr. Russell operated a shop that was South of the Railroad and Elevator.
The Stanley store and the Dave Campbell hardware store were located on South Milton Street across from the Railroad. John Walton had a tin shop and plumbing shop and Mat Masten had a lumber office, work shop and lumber yard.
When Uncle Dave Campbell was asked by a customer for something he did not happen to have his reply to them was always "It'll be here on local tomorrow."
On Main St. East of the Elevator, there once stood the M.F. Bennet marble shop and later Pruitt had a studio. Farther East was the Oscar Stevenson livery barn, once owned by Lawrence Smith and Eleaser Kersey. The man who looked after the rigs at the barn was Mike Bundy.
The Town at one time had four doctor's offices. On West Main was the office of Dr. Williams and on the North side of the street was the office of Dr. Charles Hope and Dr. Stephen Hunt. Over the bank was the office of Dr. Elvora Wright.
About where the Wallace building is today (three doors west of the stop light on the north side of the street) was once the site of the Jake Huber restaurant. It was taken over by his daughter Mrs. Flora Gambold and still later made into a grocery and meat market by John J. Gambold.
On the Northeast corner of Main & Milton once stood the John Hodson barber shop where shaves were a dime and a hair-cut as quarter. Behind the Campbell store on East Main Frank Knight had a barber shop.
From very early times Coatesville has had a drug store in some form or other. An early one was owned by Dick Bryant and then by Jim Bourne, later by Joe Sharp. One was owned around 1900 by Dr. O'Brien.
On Milton Street near the center of town Roscoe Knight and his father Lloyd Knight operated a grocery and a drug store combined and on the side of handled many magazines.
Near the Jack Gambold grocery Prentice and Emmett Bourne had a pool room taken over later by Van Montgomery.
The town once had two saloons, one operated by "Ceph" Steers and one by Gideon Pruitt.
A hotel once stood a few doors East on Mains Street's south side owned by John Brown. His daughter, Mrs. Kate McClure at a later period had a hotel where the bank now operates. (I n reference to the North West corner building in the center of town, now known as the Coatesville Town office. The bank moved out to State Road 75 in the early 1980's.)
Virgil Rollings had an office building and picture show on the East side of North Milton and on a lot nearby kept wire fencing and posts.
South on Milton where the Walter's garage (Now Everett Smith's garage.) is located the Weir sisters owned a home and operated a millinery shop. Next door, Mrs. Tom McAninch engaged in dress making.
A creamery once blessed the town on Water Street, a Carnegie Library was erected on the site of the Bundy Cabin and electric lighting came to town.
A Dr. Stone started a dental office but soon left for Indianapolis.
Ira Masten opened a Chevrolet sales room and garage and Mr. Hathaway built a printing office and started a first class weekly paper called "The Coatesville Herald". Harmon Hathaway, the son carries on printing of many kinds in his shop on the corner of Main and Milton. (In the year 2000 the print shop is still there, on the south west corner of Main and Milton and is owned and operated by Mrs. Avis Zoder after the death of her husband Charles Zober.)
Ed. Mark, on the alley that is now marked Hadley Street had a shop of three small rooms. It could easily have been called "The Old Curiosity Shop" for it contained a little of everything in the way of watches, clocks, cheap jewelry, bicycles and bicycle parts, guns, pistols and you name it--Ed. had it somewhere and could be found after a long search. Ed. had taken a course in watch repairing and could, when called upon, turn out a perfect balance staff or any part needed for watch, clock or gun.
His shop was the rendezvous for half the boys in town who had something that had broken down.
A gentleman drove into town one time in a big Pierce-Arrow car and it went dead about where the Biehl lot is at present. (At present, in the year 2000, Nier Bros. is in this building.) Joe Harper worked on the stalled car and found a piece broken that was vital to the cars' starting. He told the owner that the part could not be had under three or four days. Then a happy thought struck Joe. He said to the car owner, "Let's take this part of Ed. Marks." They did and in an hour or two Ed. had sawed out and filed a dead image of the original mechanism. The piece was installed and the car came to life. Everyone was happy. "What do I owe you?" the car owner inquired. Ed. answered, "About a dollar, I guess." "Well", said the gentleman, "here is a five and don't try giving me back any change." What others gave up as impossible to do in the way of machine repair, Ed. could do and enjoyed it.
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Questions about Coatesville:
Contact Town Hall at 4994 Milton Street
Coatesville, IN 46121 765-386-7205
