​Looking Back: The Gay 90s

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 
With several cold days to stay inside and do research, I am sorry to say, I found nothing. Well, practically nothing about Grain Valley in the 1890s. The several histories I found about the town went from the establishment of a few businesses, the school, and churches in the mid to late 1880s to the early 1900s, skipping the 1890s entirely. 

Even my Ancestry search of residents living in town in 1880 revealed no major events in the 1890s. All I found were a few births; Martha and Dennis Costigan had a couple of children and the McQuerrys added six children to their family in the 1890s. George Ellis Storms was born in 1892. His father was a druggist, a profession his son pursued in the 1920s and 30s. Charlie Johnson, one of the town barbers, was born in 1896.

On December 13. 1892, J. N. Sanders, my great-grandfather, and David C. Herrington, my great, great uncle, received a patent for their cane mill (Grain Valley News, October 15, 2020) used in the manufacture of sorghum.

Other events (and births) surely occurred in Grain Valley in the 1890s, but they were not documented. It is interesting to note that the population in 1890 was 193. Unfortunately that census was lost in a fire (last week’s article), and there is no census for 1900 as Grain Valley was unincorporated.
 
“Sometime later the incorporation papers were revoked. The town was disincorporated (today we would say unincorporated) so that the R. D. Mize Rock Road could be put through Grain Valley at state expense. If the town had been incorporated the state would not have furnished expenses for the road. The road was built in 1900-1901. August 31, 1903 the town was reincorporated and again began to prosper.”   (Grain valley News, June 24, 2021). By 1910, the population had shrunk to only 133.
 
We can only assume that the folks living in what is today Grain Valley were families of businessmen and farmers enjoying life in the Gay 90s. So what was happening in the United States in the 1890s?
 
Here are some highlights:
1890 – President Harrison established Yosemite National Park, October 1, 1890
1891 – The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held in New York City, Carnegie Hall opened, and James  Naismith introduced basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 21, 1891.
1892 – The first immigrants arrived at Ellis Island
1893 – George Westinghouse brought electricity to America and Thomas Edison, inventor of the light  bulb, advocated use of direct-current electricity. The U. S. suffered it’s first financial depression.
1894 – Congress declared the 1st Monday in September as Labor Day to appease workers after the pullman strike was settled. 
1895 – Volleyball was invented
1896 – The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece
1897 – The first Boston Marathon was held
1898 – The peace treaty ending the Spanish American War was signed in Paris
1899 – On February 14, 1899, the U. S. Congress approved the use of voting machines in federal            elections. Known for beginning the use of Clydesdales in their logo, August Anheuser Bush, Jr.,   
grandson of the founder of Anheuser-Busch brewery was born. Also born in 1899 was Al
Capone, January 17, and Fred Astaire, May 10.    
 
And so, we have the Gay 90’s in Grain Valley, in Missouri, and across the nation! Grain Valley was re-incorporated in 1903. Maybe information for the next decade will be more easily found!