Charleston Had It All (((( The Series )))

By Mildred Reeves Burnett
Guy Glover owned the Poultry House on the corner of Market and Center Streets across from Wigdor’s, back in the early twenties, and possibly part of the thirties.
Jim Pollock used to tell this old story of him and Fronzie Reeves, who was his boyhood friend. On Saturdays, to get picture show money, they’d snatch chickens from Mrs. Reeves’ chicken yard and go sell them at Glover’s Poultry House. While one of the boys was collecting money for the chickens, the other was catching them from Glover’s coops. They then would scurry back to the Reeves’ and drop them in the chicken yard before they were missed.
Pollock once remarked the chickens were so used to being caught; they’d just sit down and cross their legs, ready to go.
Fronzie was my uncle.
Eventually a Goodman owned the Poultry House. Barry Dever worked for Goodman and bought the business from him in the late thirties. The Poultry House became
DEVER PRODUCE COMPANY
The poultry or produce house was a large red brick building with an A type roof. John Dever, son of Barry, said that they may have white-washed it once on the back side possibly giving the building a white stucco appearance, as some remember. It had an extra large, wide sliding door that opened to the south.
A regular size door was to the west of the building and near the door was a little room of about 15 x 30 feet, which held the cream station. Farmers brought small aluminum cream cans—two gallons or more of cream and some brought five gallon cans of cream. Dever tested the cream and paid for the butter fat. It was also tasted to make sure it wasn’t sour. The cream was then combined and poured into larger containers.
Dever sold cream to butter-makers, who picked it up at the store. However, some was delivered to a creamery in Cape Girardeau, the Sugar Creek Creamery.
Dever bought roosters and chickens, bantams, capons, geese and guineas, and also turkeys, according to the season, from county farmers. He bought all sorts of ducks including tame mallards and the highly sought-after Muscovy ducks from farmers as well. Dever also purchased chicken, turkey, geese, guinea, and duck eggs when available.
During the flood of 1937, Dever shipped a load of chickens by train to St. Louis. In those days livestock was being moved out of the spillway, as well as the people. Apparently, Dever Produce Company was an outlet for many of the chickens.
In ordinary times company trucks would come pick them up. Along with the other workers, John Dever used to throw coops of chickens up on the trucks when they backed up to the large door. Occasionally a chicken would break loose to run down the street and they would have to run catch it.
In early morning invariably a rooster at the poultry house would stand high in the coop, stretch its neck and crow “Aroo! Arooo! Aroooo!” awakening all the people living in the second story apartments of the store buildings along West Commercial Street and the few on North Main Street.
Children who came with their parents to the produce house were thrilled over all the poultry in the cages making all those fowl sounds. They especially liked coming during Thanksgiving and Christmas to pick a turkey from the fenced area Mr. Dever made ready, especially for them.
In the spring, Dever sold baby chicks and feed to the farmers. Occasionally he sold to housewives around town who purchased baby chicks to raise in a backyard pen, so that the family would have fresh eggs to eat, and chicken and dumplings now and then.
Trappers and hunters in the county toted in a few beaver, numerous muskrat, raccoon, and mink, some weasel, possum, and sometimes fox fur pelts to sell. Dever graded the fur and paid accordingly. Possum and weasel weren’t worth much. Of mink, the boar was more valuable than the sow. Dever sold the furs to furriers, who drove here from St. Louis and Chicago.
During the late fall of the year whole families would be out picking up pecans in the country-side, since wild pecan trees were plentiful. Then they’d haul them to Dever to sell.
Candy makers came and bought the pecans from Dever. One year Dever bought a hundred thousand pounds of pecans and became known as The Pecan King.
During the same time pecans were being delivered to Dever’s, persimmons were being hauled in as well. Dever noted bumper pecan and persimmon crops went hand in hand. He also noticed that when there were no pecans there were no persimmons. Wild persimmon trees were also plentiful in the county.
Barry Dever went out of business in 1955 or ‘56. Later he reopened where Chron’s Garage was, across from Jeffries Service Station on West Marshall Street.
Every Saturday when Al Burnett, as a boy, worked at Stader’s Market, he and Lee, an older employee, would carry a coop to fill with a dozen frying size chickens at Devers, just across the block.
On returning, Lee chopped the chickens’ heads off and they flopped until they flopped their last flop. Then they’d scald and pick them behind the store. Lonnie Stader, in turn, would dress the chickens to be sold for Sunday dinner. This was common practice at some of the grocery stores in those days.
Mrs. Stader was Al Burnett’s great aunt and mother of Lonnie and Owen “Bags” Stader. After a time, Mrs. Stader sold the market to Fleurdelys, where Al also worked. Now that the Staders were out of the grocery business, Lonnie opened a beer joint on down the street of West Commercial.
To be continued