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Carthage Hardware at 119 E. 3rd St., is truly a unique structure. Not only has it been a hardware store in its entire 130 years, but its façade is made of a different Carthage “stone” than we are used to seeing on our older buildings. Most of our historic buildings and homes have Carthage limestone either as the foundation, the sidewalk or steps, or even as the outer covering, but Carthage brick is another “stone” that is found throughout the area.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Queen City Brickyards at the corner of Locust and Vine boasted they produced nearly 25,000 bricks a day. They provided bricks throughout Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas for use in new home and building construction.
Before the brick building was constructed in 1880, a wood frame structure housed a hardware store as well, although, not every business on that site has been a hardware store. In 1842, it was a home, general store and post office. Then as it passed hands in 1851, it was changed to a hotel, saloon and livery stable until the Civil War. After the war, reconstruction brought us our first hardware store on the site.
In the fall of 1893, bank robberies were a problem around the Carthage Square. Carthage Hardware at the time was known as Keim and McMillan and they placed fear in anyone who was considering robbing a bank. It was noted in the newspaper “in Keim and McMillan’s show window today is displayed a terrifying array of Winchester rifles. They are for the Carthage banks, to be used in case of an attack by robbers, and will be distributed to various points surrounding the bank localities. Seven of these guns go to the First National Bank, seven to the Central National, six to the Carthage National and two to the Jasper Co. Bank.”
Advertisements throughout the years display products that are new and innovative for the time period, but they never give up the standards that we need. In an advertisement in the 1927 Polk’s Carthage City Directory, the Carter Hardware Company (as it was known then) said “we are in business to serve you. Call us when in need of hardware, dishes or glassware, B.P.S., paints and varnishes, Mansfield tires and tubes. A distributor of automatic electric washers.” They also listed chinaware and sheet metal works.
The hardware industry has always had strict competition in Carthage. In early times, there was a large hardware store on every side of the Carthage Square and now we have several throughout town. Carthage Hardware has only changed owners a handful of times and has survived throughout the years.
Wade Utter is a columnist for The Carthage Press
Zooming In! is a column dedicated to the history of Carthage. Every Wednesday since July of 2009, Wade Utter has photographed and exposed the history behind new and century-old structures in the Carthage area.
