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Researched and Submitted by Richard F. Palmer

Rushford Spectator, Thursday, Oct. 2, 1884 

Rushford's Improvements in 1884.

     The permanent improvements made in the village of Rushford, in the summer of 1884, are among the most important in its history, and the principal actors in the enterprise will be remembered for many years to come.

     The cost of the new buildings erected in the village and on the outskirts, will reach nearly or quite $40,000, and the use of $40,000 in a single season in a town like ours, is a matter that  every should feel proud of. And this amount spent in our midst has increased the value of every farm for miles about, and will be of permanent value to everybody.  The men who have been so lavish with their money in erecting the class and character of the buildings they have, should receive the warmest commendation, and such as have been erected for business purposes should have a patronage by the citizens at large, to fully prove their appreciation of the labor and money given for their benefit, as well as for the benefit of the builders or proprietors.

     The brick block erected by Stacy, Woodworth and Jewell, is an honor to any place, and reflects great credit on these men who have not spared or stinted the great structure in any spot or place. From the foundation to the top stone, the structure is first-class in material and mechanical execution, and indicates great permanency. The same may be said of the excellent building, also of brick, erected by A.M. Taylor for a dry goods house and general merchandise; and the other buildings though of more perishable material, erected in the village, are nevertheless of skillful workmanship and built of excellent material. We wish to commend these men for the lasting benefit conferred upon the village of Rushford in this noble undertaking, especially that which pertains to the more immediate business part.

     Men who invest such an amount of money in the erection of such public business places are the best benefactors the community can boast of, and are unconsciously erected to themselves monuments more lasting than marble. These men are not like  sponges who simply absorb everything in themselves, but are public spirited, and are on the lookout for the welfare of those about them, as well as for their own advancement.

     When these buildings are completed, Rushford will be as well equipped for first-class business places as any town in the county: commencing at the general furnishing store of White & Elmer, taking in the large store of James & Benson, Stacy & Gilbert, and then the enterprising forms in the new Union Block, and so on to W. W. Merrill's extensive hardware store and A.M. Taylor's excellent dry goods and notion store, and last but not least, the new firm of Holden & Bond, hardware dealers.

    And still we might mention with unusual satisfaction, the growing trade of our worthy townsman Myron Claus the harness maker, successor to Chas. Howe, and our old and reliable clothier W.W. Bush, the jewelry store and tooth carpenter in the person of David Sill, C. McDonald's new machine shop, and the indispensable foundry which we hope has come to stay. A word would not be out of the way with reference to the indefatigable J.B. Gordon, who, though he has met with one continual round of losses, is now about to give us a much needed feed mill and sawmill combined.

     In addition to the above we have the excellent millinery rooms of Mrs. C.W. Woodworth and Miss R.A. Ames; the former especially has very superior  rooms in which to carry on her business, and the rooms occupied by Miss Ames are convenient and commodious. And we should be ungrateful to the proprietor, and equally so to the inner man, did we not in this rambling sketch, mention the well fitted and well filled meat market of Perry & Tuller. These gentlemen have kept the market well supplied with fresh, salt meats and fish.

     These improvements and these places of business in our thriving town should be appreciated by the community at large, and it would be only acting in a reciprocal way to give these men our patronage. It is certainly a most commendable spirit, when men of means are doing all they can for their own home improvements, and offering every inducement to keep trade at our own doors.

     Anyone desiring to locate in a first-class inland town, can find none superior to Rushford.