Issac MYERS
Issac MYERS and
William McKINLEY’S steam grist mill was built near
Mill Branch. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1890. Issac was discharged from
the Civil War on March 1863 but did not buy the 35 acres until October
1, 1868 at $10 an acre. In 1870 he built a livery barn on Main Street of Lacona. It came
to be known as the “Red-faced Barn.”
Issac MYERS’ & William McKINLEY’S
two-story building in Lacona was completed in 1880. There was a large
store room of the first floor, a large open hall on the second (McKINLEY
Hall) with an inside stairway serving the hall. The stair entrance was
on West Street at the north end of the building. There was an anteroom
at the top of the stairs. The hall was rented and used for balls, dances
and parties. It was also used for church services, functions and Sunday
School as well as a lecture hall and city hall. But that’s not all. It
was used by the town band, medicine shows, theatrical troupes, schools,
etc. Issac built a large grain elevator in Lacona. The elevator began
operating in July 1887. His house was completed at the
northwest edge of Lacona in 1888. In 1889 he built a board sidewalk
beginning at the corner of West and Franklin and running catty-corner
across the block to the porch of his house.(Source - Chronology of the
early settlers of White Breast Township and Lacona compiled by Edith
HEEMSTRA and John FORD sometime around 1980.)