Reminiscing

Here is a story from back in the day that has ties to “Pinhook,” and also to a shooting uptown at the train depot. It contains memories about George Stogsdill’s life that were told to his granddaughter, Mary Lou (Stogsdill) Bergman, by her father, Virgil. The story appears in the Raymond - 125 Years of Memories book that was published in 1996.

   

George and Fanny Stogsdill moved to Raymond from Missouri in 1915. They were the parents of Virgil Stogsdill. George worked for the Tom Doyle farm and baled hay for farmers with his Hay Press. They lived on the corner in “Pinhook” across from Wayne Angle’s welding shop in an old house they purchased.

I can remember he raised pigs where Wayne’s welding shop is today. In the 1920’s during prohibition, he was employed as the night cop in Raymond. There were a lot of bootleggers in the area at that time. He did not bother them, as they were the only ones able to get beer and liquor in the area. However, he received orders from Hillsboro to arrest one of the bootleggers from Atwater when he came to town. So he did, and the bootlegger told him someone would get him back for arresting him. About six weeks later, George was at the depot which was the only the place for the cop to rest at that time. A man came in and ordered him to stop the train. George said, “I cannot do that - it’s a through train and it won’t stop.” The man pulled out a gun and shot him, saying it was for the bootlegger he had arrested. However, the bullet only hit him in the arm and he recovered after several weeks in the hospital. No one remembers what happened to the man who shot him - he must have gotten away.

George then built an icehouse on the Pinhook corner and delivered ice to people in town and in the country. There were only about two electric refrigerators in Raymond at that time. Most people did not have electricity. They used kerosene lamps and there were gas lights on Main Street. He would buy the ice at Hillsboro Icehouse in 200 lb. blocks and store it in his icehouse. Most of the old iceboxes held 25-50 lbs. of ice, which he would chip off and deliver or you could pick up yourself. 

George’s granddaughter, Mary Lou Bergman, said that when she married Joe in 1949, George delivered ice to them until they bought a new Frigidaire refrigerator in 1950. George also hauled coal in the winter and was the janitor for the Raymond Baptist Church. Mary Lou said she remembered her grandma and grandpa having preachers over for dinner every Sunday.

By the way, in 1996 when this story was published, Mary Lou’s 1950 Frigidaire was still running.