Looking Back: January calendar photo

     2023 marks the second year the Grain Valley Historical Society, with financial support from State Bank of Missouri, has sold calendars as a way to make money to help fund our society. Beginning with January, on the last Thursday of each month, this column will feature an article telling readers what I know about the photograph.
     This photo of Kershaw & Williams, General Blacksmithing was a gift to the historical society some years ago by Ruby Williams Wyatt (1908-2004). Ruby was the daughter of one of the owners, Charles “Buck” (on the left) and Pearl (Dishman) Williams. The small boy was Ruby’s brother Charles E. Williams, Jr.

     Buck Williams was born on a farm southeast of Grain Valley on August 24, 1878, the year the town was founded. While his father came from Kentucky, his mother was born in Missouri. Mr. Williams is buried in Blue Springs.
     Mrs. Wyatt shared with us that her father was also a sign painter and he did all of the signs for Sni-a-Bar Farms in the 1920s, 30s and early 40s. He also made the stall cards for all of the famous SAB show cattle.
     The Kershaw gentleman in the photograph (far right) is probably Robert, born in Savannah, Missouri, on September 29, 1879. From the ages of the two young boys, I believe Robert Walter Kershaw, Jr. is the older boy on the right side of the photo. He would have been around 8 or 9 years-old when the picture was taken. Mr. Kershaw and his wife are buried in Harrisonville, Missouri. Mr. Kershaw’s parents Peter Ferdinand and Hannah (Walters) Kershaw are buried in the Grain Valley Cemetery, north of town on Seymour Road. Peter Kershaw is one of only two Confederate soldiers buried there.
     A 1924 plat map of Grain Valley shows a blacksmith shop on Third Street, east of Broadway (now Main Street). One can only guess this might have been the place, although it looks more like the building that housed the Grain Valley Lumber Yard in the 1950s. It was immediately south of the railroad tracks, also on the east side of Main Street.
     For those of you who may be newcomers to Grain Valley, Buck Williams was the Great Grandfather x3 of Mackenzie (GVHS, Class of 2023) and Cole Keller (GVHS, Class of 2021).
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Photo credit: Grain Valley Histor​ical Society