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A BIT OF HISTORY: MARTHA
COWAN (Part II) Donald W. Hawthorne In the early part of the last century Cache, like many of the small towns in the County was a thriving community of businesses. Every Saturday would bring many of the farmers and ranchers to town to buy supplies, including feed, groceries and other necessities. Once every month, the businesses would have “trade days”. This special day would draw an extra big crowd from all around the area, and it was as much of a social event as anything else. The merchants would pass out tickets during the month and then on trade day there would be drawings for prizes, usually some type of merchandise. In the summers, the days would be hot and there were no air conditioning but that did not stop the area folks from coming and enjoying themselves. On these scorching days, Mr. Petty would make ice-cold lemonade in a big wooden barrel for his customers.
In 1917, the third of three major fires hit Cache. The two previous fires were caused from cinders from trains that puffed through what was then main street. This one started in the Feed Store located behind Martha’s Dad and Mom’s General Mercantile Store, which was located north of where Beeson’s Cafe is now. The fire consumed the feed store, the Petty store and the telephone office north of the store where the New Life Assembly of God Church now stands. The fire burnt all the businesses on both sides of the block to the hotel at the west end of the street.
By this time Martha’s father, Austin E. Petty was Mayor of Cache. The City Hall was in the cement block building that is now The Reformation Church. The City Hall was more than a place to conduct city business. It also served as a community center. It had a stage and seating for the audience, and was a place of different kinds of social gatherings and entertainment. Martha remembers black minstrels and other performing groups coming to town and putting on performances in the City Hall. There were also pie suppers and box suppers, and Mr. Petty would be the auctioneer. (For those of you who don’t know what these are: The women and young girls would bake a pie or fix a box supper and these would be auctioned off to the highest male bidder. The man would then have the honor of sharing the pie or supper with the lady who prepared the food). The box suppers became very interesting when the husband did not know or pay attention to what color or kind of box into which his wife put her food. These were usually done as fundraisers for various projects. When Martha was three years old, the “Tom Thumb Wedding” was performed in the City Hall complete with props and costumes. The cast was made up of kids from Cache. Martha was the bride and Conway Clingan was the groom. After the fire in 1917, Mr. Petty set up the telephone office on the stage at City Hall and put his general store in the front. The business owners decided to rebuild this time farther away from the railroad tracks and with cement, which was less flammable. Mr. and Mrs. Petty rebuilt their general store where Ken’s Grocery is now. Ken Maloy later owned the store and in the 1954 there was a fire that was started by an electrical short and the building that was built by Mr. Petty burned. When Ken Maloy rebuilt his store he bought the property next to it that was previously owned by Marion Norris and his son Lester so that he could enlarge the store. This is the second in a 4 part series about Martha Cowan
and her memories of her life in Cache. |
The Petty’s (front car) and the Jarvis’s look at the burned out store. The
Cache Hotel where Martha was born can be seen in the background.|
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