9:33 AM

Three cheers for the Kansas State Historical Society for this half of a stereoview of St Joseph taken by the famous photographer and painter Bierstad. 

There are so many town competiting to be considered the emigrant route, but St Joseph was the most popular place in storekeeper's eyes to set up shop, second to Counsel Bluffs and before that Kanesville. Storekeepers saw their profits dropping and often told secret credit reporters, they were thinking about relocating to St Joseph.

I found my 30 page draft of McAllister, Crane & Co's article and scanned the above page. This image was cut from my article but truly captures the feeling of the emigrant trail and the Peaks Peak where Gold was discovered in July 1858. 
One of Arabia's consignee's "Hawk & Dillion"  were a dry goods firm in Rockports (Hemmes Landing). Before merging with Dillion, Hawk quickly left Counsel Bluffs and after he ended the partnership with Dillion, moved to Peak's Peak where he made a fortune and returned to the area. Hawk had no problems ever and I mean ever - getting up and moving his store, but McAllister did not. McAllister chose to lock himself in by buying property and open dry good stores in the same town as the country seat-it never occurred to him that  country seats would be moved to other towns like it did in Linden....

While thumbing through the pages, I found a couple of advertisements in the Holt County News. I love the way this add is laid out. Just like the majority of Arabia's Consignees- McAllister was a Forwarding & Receiving Commission Merchant besides running a dry goods store at each location. 
REMEMBER TO ENLARGE BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE.



I also found McAllister's manager Mr. Ponn's store in Brownville Nebraska.