Snapshots of History by Mike Avitt
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I’ve written about this building and business multiple times, but I have a major correction to make. This building was built in 1895 for the Laughlin & Hass Real Estate and Abstract office. In the past, I identified the Hass as George Hass and that is incorrect. The correct answer is George’s son Albert Hass who was commonly known as Bert. The Laughlin half of the partnership was L. Weldon Laughlin, son of William T. Laughlin. Both were prominent families.
George Hass was a survivor of the Sultana disaster, a sidewheel steamboat that exploded and sank in the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. In total 1,164 people lost their lives as the boat was carrying Union soldiers north. George fathered five children: Charles, Albert, Belle, Curtis and Eva. L. Weldon Laughlin married Belle Hass and that’s how the families became connected.
Weldon’s father W. T. Laughlin was an attorney, judge, superintendent of schools and a host of other positions. William T. Laughlin was also the father of Lora Laughlin, the first student to graduate from Mount Ayr High School in 1884. William’s grandson, Loren Laughlin, had a successful career in politics in the state of Nebraska.
The Hass family had success elsewhere as well. Charles and Albert both ended up in Chariton, Iowa in the banking industry. Chariton was an early hotbed for the banking and real estate industry. Curtis and Eva stayed in Mount Ayr. Eva lived to be 99 years old, passing in 1980, so some of you will remember her.
So, a fire in 1894 took out all the buildings on the west side of the square from the alley north to the corner. Laughlin & Hass hired L. Newman & Son to erect this one-story brick building in 1895 at 105 South Fillmore. This building would last until the early 1980s when Security State Bank bought it and demolished it, making way for their drive-thru banking service. The original drive-thru service was on the north side of the bank. Remember that?
In 1910, Weldon and Belle Laughlin, Curtis and Eva Hass and A. M. King of Blockton started a bank, Farmers State Savings Bank, in this building. The bank changed owners and names and was absorbed by the Iowa State Bank in 1913. Frank Sheldon, president of the bank next door to the north, bought the building. I know Palmer & Holden Abstract was located here for a short time after the bank left. About 1915, Frank Sheldon began operating his real estate and insurance business here. I believe Frank bought the abstract business of Palmer & Holden. Frank’s employee, Clyde Lesan, would eventually take over the business and have a very successful career.
The building at 105 S. Fillmore served as a beauty salon under several different owners from the 1930s to the 1950s. The last occupant was Opal Foster as her residence.
I remember going to the bank as a kid and noticing a mailbox by the front door. I couldn’t figure out if the building was a house or a store. Stores don’t have mailboxes by the front door, but no one has a house on the square. I couldn’t figure it out.
Another building I used to stare at was the shoe shop where Mitchell Drug was eventually built, 121 N. Taylor. I picked up my Des Moines Tribune newspapers across the street and I would stare at the sign in the window, “SHOE SHOP.” I thought if there is a sign in the window, they must be open. They weren’t open but I couldn’t figure it out.
