Snapshots of History

By Editor | March 12, 2025 |

Seevers Lumber Co. in Mount Ayr about 1905.

By Mike Avitt
This photo comes courtesy of Dr. Grover Hahn and shows a lumber yard for which I previously had no photo.
I knew it was there and I knew where and when. Allow me to explain.
I have many resources at my disposal including the Sanborn plat maps of Mount Ayr which are available through the Library of Congress website.
The website shows Mount Ayr plat maps from the years 1886, 1893, 1898, 1907, and 1919. These maps were designed to assist firefighters by showing the dimensions, construction material used, and nature of business houses.
So, the lumber yard pictured here is shown in the 1907 plat and sat at 116-118 W. Adams Street and faced south. This location was occupied by Mount Ayr Mill & Feed from 1927 to 1992.
There are four men in the photo with three names on the back. It appears Clyde Rusk is on the left and John Harvey “Harve” Seevers is on the right. One of the two gentlemen in the middle is Harve’s brother Henry. Clyde Rusk would be Dr. Hahn’s grandfather and Harve would be his great-grandmother’s brother.
Harve Seevers’ name begins to come up often in the digitized newspapers in 1890 when, in April, a meat market burned in a most devastating business fire that burned more than half a block.
Seevers owned this business with his partner, Jacob Rabb. Mr. Rabb and Seevers immediately rebuilt a one-story brick building that still stands today at 110 W. Madison, the building currently occupied by Shay Investments.
Mr. Rabb has another claim to fame. His son-in-law, Dr. F. C. Smith, is responsible for the house at 104 W. Jefferson, built in 1905, and the office building at 107-109 E. Madison, built in 1907. Both are still standing.
It appears J. H. Seevers came to Mount Ayr in 1882 and worked as a carpenter as did his nephew, Clyde Rusk.
In the eary 1890s, Seevers and Rabb had an ice house behind their meat market. This was followed by a coal shed and then a small lumber yard, all in the lots behind and to the northeast of their market at 110 W. Madison.
In December 1902, Seevers and Rabb bought the two lots where the building in this week’s photo stands. H. H. Tedford bought the two lots north of that, where the Baptist Church and parsonage would be later.
M. L. Bevis, a local real estate mogul, sold the lots. Seevers and Rabb began erecting a lumber building 97 feet by 117 feet in size before January 1903. The small lumber yard across the street south would be moved to the new yard in 1903.
Amazingly, this lumber yard only lasted four years (which gives us a rough date for our photo).
In March 1907, it was announced that Hawkeye Lumber Company, across the street west, had purchased the Seevers Lumber Co. In 1902, Hawkeye had purchased the Burlington Lumber Yard leaving Mount Ayr with one lumber company. Seevers changed that in 1903.
So, Hawkeye bought him out in 1907 making Mount Ayr a one lumber yard town once again. The Mount Ayr Lumber Co. gave us two yards again when they opened in January 1910.
The meat market was eventually sold to John McMaster. Rabb was born in 1843, so he was probably retired by 1910. Mr. Rabb is probably the other unidentified man in the photo above.
John Harvey Seevers was born January 2, 1859 and died in Mount Ayr on June 28, 1936. He married late, taking Rosa McMullen as his wife on December 3, 1905. She had been married previously and brought a daughter into this union.
The Ringgold Record newspaper said Seevers, prior to his marriage, had been living at the Willow Home, a boarding house, with his mother. Eventually, Harve would erect a house at 604 W. Madison and move there with his wife in 1916.
Thanks again to Dr. Hahn for the very historic photos he sent. I will be mailing him a copy of the two articles I wrote about them.