Amy, Kansas, was established sometime in 1884 but in 1885 the the name was changed to Busby.
Busby was slated for a railroad that never came through but the town did manage to have a hotel.
The store below lasted until 1959 and a year later Elk County bought the land for a road improvement, which never took place.
The store also housed the post office, which was discontinued in 1906.
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad256/waldoegray/BusbyStore.jpg)
Kansas Memory
Waldo,
I think the Busby store was still standing in the early 60's. In my memory, which is sometimes twisted and fuzzy, the store had an awning on the front and front of store was plastered with signs such as "Royal Crown Soda" & etc. Jo or Sarge should know as they had "roots" there.
The information came from the Elk County history book in a section that was written by Eunice Sprague Dame--but she could have been writing from memory.
She says Warren Sprague operated the store until his health failed in September 1959, when the store goods were sold. In 1960 the county "forced" the sale of the property and razed the building for a road improvement. (I guess forced would mean eminent domain)
But for some reason--at least until the 1979 publication of the history--the county never used the property for an intended road improvement.
The book does not say what roadwork and I went out there with my Dad earlier this century and we could not tell if anything (or what they might have wanted to do) had been accomplished since the book publication date.
She also says the hotel was south of the store and at the time the county history was written was still standing but had porches added and was being used as a farmhouse.
A close-out auction was held at the Sprague store on Sept. 26, 1959 at 1:00 p.m., conducted by auctioneer George C. Speer.
The Hensley Hotel building still stands at 1263 Road 27. It was added on to, remodeled and turned into a home and is currently occupied by Joe and Pat Sniveley.
I remember buying a candy bar in that store for 3 cents.
Sarge, I bought a few candy bars and pop there myself. We used to skip school in the spring and go to cave springs and drink water then to Busby. Was your Candy Bar buggy? My 5th grade teacher was Warren Sprague's sister. I think she lived at Busby and drove in to Howard everyday.
Frank,
Speaking of soda pop, do you remember a soda named "Pomac". Now I know I didn't dream this one up because I have a Pomac bottle. It was in a clear bottle and looked just like beer---and I could swear I got a buzz if I drank 3 bottles of it. :)
JARHEAD, you got me on that one, I don't remember it. One of my favorites was Kist which came in Chocolate or a strawberry milkshake pop. Kist didn't last long.
Pommac: Jarhead there are several articles on this when you Google it. I just never came a cross it. It was fermented, that is why you got a buzz.
Pommac is a Swedish carbonated soft drink made of fruits and berries and matured in oak barrels for 3 months. The first pommac was made in 1919. The name comes from "Pomm" as in pomme, apple in French, and "ac" as it is matured on oak barrels like cognac. The recipe is kept a secret.
In 1919, Anders Lindahl, a failed businessman from Hudiksvall moved to Stockholm, Sweden, and founded Fructus Fabriker and began to make Pommac. The recipe was made by a Finland-Swedish inventor. The drink was made for the upper classes as an alcohol free substitute for wine.
Dr. Pepper distributed a formulation of it in the US as a diet drink from 1963 to 1969 in six-and-a-half- and ten-ounce bottles. It took a while for people to become accustomed to the taste, so sales were slow. When sales remained stagnant after six years, and its sweetener, sodium cyclamate, was banned, Dr. Pepper discontinued the product.
Some of its loyal (particularly younger) fans thought of it as "near beer." Pommac is also served as ersatz champagne for teetotallers and car drivers on public celebrations.
In late 2004, Carlsberg in Denmark announced that they were going to cease production of Pommac due to economical reasons. However, after overwhelming public demand (including a petition tallying over 50,000 signatures) was raised in response, the company decided to keep marketing Pommac.
I remember it and I didn't like it.
Frank, I googled Pomac after I posted that. Surprised to read so much about it. There is a Dr. Pepper plant in Dublin Tx that one thing said they might still bottle/have Pomac. We are going to Sweetwater, Tx in a couple weeks and maybe my ol Sgt Maj buddy will take me there but I dobt it---150 mile drive. He has given me Dr Pepper from there and it is great. Made from the original recipie and only place left that makes it that way. I think I remember KIST pop and do have a Kist bottle. It real heavy with a kind of a "twist" to the bottle. I bet you remember Big Chief too.And Bubble Up. You being so much older than me :) you might remember "Too Tall "soda A neat bottle. Embossed with a guy that looks like Abe Lincoln with stove pipe hat.
Jarhead, I have been to Dublin, I bought my last Bird dog from a Breeder just outside of Dublin. My wife and I toured the Dr. Pepper Facility and bought some of the Dr Pepper that is bottled there. We lived in Midland Texas at the time so it wasn't as much of a trip for us then.
I remember Big Chief, one of my jobs in the 1st grade was to sort the pop bottles into their respective cases in the back of my brothers grocery store in Howard.
Jarhead, as a side note, the sugar they used in the original Dr. Pepper was from the sugar plant at Sugarland, Texas. That processing plant is no longer in use, but I found it interesting that most of the product was from Texas.
If you wait until March to go, you could catch the annual rattlesnake roundup at Sweetwater. It's a BIG one!
Another thing you will enjoy seeing are all of the wind turbines out there! They are pretty at night too as the red lights show up so the planes will know to stay away from them. They are on the hills from Big Spring to east of Sweetwater. I really enjoy watching them--they are so majestic! We've been up close to them, and they hardly make a sound, just a little "swish". Enjoy your trip!
Myrna
All of this talk about Busby, Kansas --------Jim (Sarge) and I will have to get the real "scoop" from Fred and Russ. Also -- Roscoe Jontra, born and raised at Busby and still lives just a hop, skip and a jump north of where the store used to be, still lives there.
When Fred and I got married in 1947, Warren Sprague was still owner, and manager of the store. And Yes my Snickers candy bar was "buggy", I didn't know it at the time, Fred bought each of us one -- I was hungry so I chowed down on mine, after he had filled a butane tank, he opened his and said.."Did your candy bar have bugs in it?" - His did, but mine was already devoured, so I had no proof. Didn't hurt this farm girl any --- tasted like candy to me. The school house is still there. Fred (and Russ goes with him) goes there and fills containers from the free flowing well for our drinking water. Busby was home to the McDonald family for three generations.
Myrna,
Been to the Sweetwater rattlesnake round-up two times. My wife dearly hates snakes but she don't mind going there because she knows they are gonna kill every one of those puppies. In Feb. they have a TET reunion blow-out in Abilene that we try to make because it's pretty much run by my senior drill instructor from boot camp,plus we visit a Nam buddy, Tex, that lives in Sweetwater. We kill two birds with one stone that way. Probably no interest to anyone but me---but I'm gonna bore you anyway--my buddy, Tex, was the one who found Jimmie Stewarts step sons body after he was KIA in the DMZ. You can google 'Ron Mclean American Beauty' and it tells about it. a bad time.
It seems like the wind turbines run half way from Sweetwater to Abilene, then if you go north towards Lubbock there are a bunch more.
There is a Windmill Museum at Lubbock that is very interesting. It has one of the wind turbines laying on the ground in sections so you can see how large it is.