farmers  of  the  surrounding  community.  This  threshing  outfit  consisted of a steam engine and water wagon to supply the water for the steam engine and  the  separator  that  separated  the  wheat  from  the  straw.  Then  there was  a  cook  shack where a  cook  cooked  the meals  for the crew.  For a few years  the whole family  helped  to  run the outfit. Walter  the oldest son, ran  the steam engine,  Jesse L,  the water wagon,  and A.J. ,  the separator. He  hired  four more men  to pitch  the  grain  into  the  separator.  Then  his wife  and  younger  daughter  did  the  cooking  in  the  cook  shack,  which was no small task with a coal cook stove and no refrigeration.
After  L.B.  Nickels  built  the new  store,  Will Crow didn't  stay  long In the store on the west side of the street. He sold it to the Adee brothers. Will  and  Ed.  Will  lived  over  the  store and  their  first  child was  born there.  They  named her Vera.  In about  a year Will and wife,  Edith, moved to  the  farm  a half mile south  of  Wells.  Ed married  and  lived  over  the store.  In a short time a Mr. Adams and wife from Delphos bought the store. They were just there over. one winter and they moved their stock to Delphos The  building was empty for awhile.  then a family named Houson moved there and  he  had  a  lunch counter and  barbershop  in  the downstairs,  while  his wife  had  a  Milliner  Shop  in  the  upstairs, besides  the  family's  living quarters.
Arthur  Dehner  didn't  stay  in  the  hardware  store  with  his  brother-in-law,  Dana  Crawford,  but  moved  to  Beverly  and  ran  a  hardware  store there.  In the spring of 1911 Dana sold the store to S.T. Dyer and Crawfords moved to their farm.

In  the  early  1900's,  the  cream  separators  came  into  use  and  the farmers  milked  many  cows  by  hand and  separated  the milk.  At  first  they shipped  by the cream by train to Abilene to Bell Springs.  There it was made into  butter  and  other   by-products.  In  a  short  time,  Bell  Springs  built a small two room building south of  the hardware store and Mr.  Dyer bought cream,  then  shipped it on to Abilene.  Henry "?" had a cream route and went from  farm  to  farm  about  twice  a  week  gathering  up  the  cream  cans and. leaving  empty  cans  for  the  next  time.  Later Mr.  Acuff ran this creamery, when  Dyer  moved  the  hardware  store  to  the  first  store  building.  Soon other  cream  companies  built  in  Wells  and  at  one  time  five  creameries were  buying  cream here.  Fairmont ,  Fairbury,  Continental and many different people ran these creameries.

For  a  long  time  Wells  had  no  barbershop,  then  Roy  Salsbury came a   couple of  times  a week  and  gave shaves and haircuts.  But in 1912 Otis Palmer  came  to  Wells  and  ran  one  of  the  creameries  and  did  barbering on  the  side.  He  was  a  pretty  good  barber  and  soon was  kept  busy,  but he  had  a  problem.  There  was  no  place  to  carry  on  his  trade.  Fred  and Cora  Comfort,  who  ran  the  post  office,  came  to  his  rescue,  and built a  good  sized  two  room building on the northeast corner of Main and First  Streets  for  a  barbershop.  A  year  or  so  later  folks  began  to  feel  the need  of  a  restaurant  so  the Comforts  built  another  building  between  the post  office  and  barbershop  and  Ellis  Palmer,  brother  of Otis,  and wife came and ran the new restaurant.


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