Herald-Dispatch, January 21, 1966
Written by: Charles Collett
Submitted by: Robert Kingrey
Parents who only a few years ago took their children to the railway depot to see the steam locomotive, now take their grandchildren to Third Street to see the new electric train buzz on the track over the top of wall display cases from the pharmacy room in the back of a local store to the checkout counter in the front, a distance of about 120 feet a minute.
I didn’t have the opportunity yesterday to meet the “Casey Jones” on our visit to the store, but the attractive Callie Schaefer is the conductor in charge of the train at the checkout. The miniature toy train carries the prescription from the front of the store back to the pharmacist and in a few minutes, the little train returns to the cashier’s counter with a wrapped package. It is new yet it isn’t but it is clever and is getting a lot of attention.
The idea was used in Ironton 78 years ago, according to the Weekly Register. An item in the paper September 1, 1887, read- “Mr. Brumberg has put up a new contraption in his “One Price Clothing House” (OPCH famous since 1881) which saves many steps for the clerks. It is a cash-and-carry wire apparatus in the store that makes changes for the clerks making sales without having to walk to the office. By springing a lever, a little metal box suspended from wheels shoots on a wire with money to the office where the bookkeeper makes the correct change and shoots back the money. Customers in the busy stores see the little containers buzzing overhead like birds. Our town is getting more like New York every day.
Senior citizens, especially the ladies, remember the largest mechanical carry-cash system at the D. C. Davies store. Second and Lawrence Streets, where overhead wires came through the walls of the three large rooms – the dry goods department, the ready-to-wear, and the millinery departments.
The package baskets on a wire were first used in Ironton at the H.J. Keiser & Sons Dry Goods in 1902. That store was the middle room of the arcade building, with twin entrances on Second and Third Streets just north of Adams and now a part of the Anderson Market and the State Employment Center. Other stores in the big block were Ketter Clothing and Snyder & Belcher Hardware. Strange what memories recalled by a visit to Revco.
Recalling This Date
Twenty-nine years ago today water from the river crossed Second Street starting the worst flood in city history. I have reason to remember. Driving from our home in Sedgwick in a new 1936 Ford V-8 the engine became flooded and water was over my knees. Wayne Wickline of Miller & Wickline grocery, driving their delivery truck, pushed the V-8 to Fifth and Elm. His good deed isn’t forgotten. It was after George Washington’s birthday before the car got back home to Sedgwick.
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