Last week we discussed the early days and history of the iconic furniture store in Fountain, Minn., Drury’s.
Drury’s website www.drurysfurniture.com is excellent and includes the early history of the store as well as 11 awesome photographs! When you visit the website you will notice a charming, small picture of five young children.
Reuben Drury, the founder of Drury’s, was my uncle and my dad’s (James Drury) brother. Eight children were born to Joseph H. and Sadie (McNulty) Drury who came to settle here in the early 1900s, traveling from the small town of Cobb, Wis., which is located in the southwest corner of the state.
The little picture includes five of the eight children and obviously they are standing in succession of age with Reuben on the right, the oldest, who was born in 1904. Continuing on is Margaret (we always referred to her as Aunt Sissie) born in 1906, Stella – born in 1908, James (my father) born in 1910, and Mark born in 1911. The three other children not pictured were: Pearl born in 1914, Robert born in 1918, and Donald born in 1922.
Needless to say, they had a very large family and with children spaced so closely, I presume that there was never a dull moment in the Drury household!
Joseph H. Drury, my grandfather, was a drayman. If you Google “Definition of a drayman,” the first thing that pops up is: “a person who delivers beer for a brewery.” Being that Preston’s “Forget-Me-Not-Beer” brewery was so close to the train depot, I would imagine that Joseph delivered beer to the various taverns in town.
I like to compare what he did to the modern day version of the FedEx or UPS delivery person. A more concise explanation of his occupation is: “A drayman was historically the driver of a dray, a low, flat-bed wagon without sides, pulled generally by horses or mules that were used for transport of all kinds of goods.”
I remember my dad saying that his father would take his horses and wagon down to the Preston Train Depot and load the goods that came in each day and then deliver the items throughout Preston. I am sure it was not easy work.
Sadie (McNulty) Drury, my grandmother, in addition to taking care of her brood of eight children was also a self-employed seamstress. She passed away in 1944, so unfortunately I never met her (or my grandfather Joseph, who also died in the 1940s). But from what people have told me, Sadie’s sewing abilities were endless. My mother told me once that it was not uncommon for Sadie to sew items without the need of a pattern! Now that would take some talent, wouldn’t it!
I had always heard that Sadie was such a good cook. Reuben’s son, David Drury, once told me that he remembered how good her fried chicken was and said that it was the best he had ever tasted! I often asked my dad what were some of his favorites that his mother cooked and baked and he always said he loved her molasses cookies. Oh how I wish I could have had a peek at her old cookbooks!
That little picture of the five Drury siblings I had never seen before until running across it when I first looked at the Drury’s website. So you can imagine my surprise when I realized that the little boy, second from the left, was indeed my own father! That is the youngest picture I have ever seen of him! The only other “young” picture that I have of him was taken in 1921 when he was 11 years old.
I love the style of the clothes the kids are wearing. I would imagine, that their mother Sadie sewed all of their outfits. It’s such a special photograph: Reuben in his knickers and tie, Aunt Sissie with large, cotton bows in her braided hair and wearing a very pretty dress; Aunt Stella too, has a large bow in her hair and she is wearing a dress that matches her sister’s; and last but not least, the darling little boys, Mark and my dad are wearing matching knickers. I love that all of the kids appear to be wearing brand new leather shoes for the occasion. And speaking of the occasion, I wonder if they were off to a celebration of some sort? Or maybe the occasion was just that – having their photograph taken, because that was such a big deal back then! It was an expensive process and theirs was not a rich family by any stretch of the imagination.
I wish the other three Drury siblings were in the picture too: Pearl, Robert and Don. Maybe some day we’ll find a picture that includes the entire family.
A large family like this made for lots of cousins, for which I am very blessed. We had a lot of fun visiting each other’s families. As kids, there was always someone to play with!
Each one of the children grew up and followed their own successful career path: Reuben started Drury’s, Margaret was a homemaker, Stella was a mother of a large family, worked as a Nanny for the Dr. Charlie Mayo family in Rochester, plus she eventually owned and operated a nursing home in Spring Valley; James, my dad, worked as a mechanic in a partnership with Eddie Benson, known as The Preston Motor Service, T.V. Sales and Service, and in the mid-1960s he created a trout pond for the public located just east of Fountain, Minn., and it was known as – The Pleasant Valley Trout Nest, and in later years dad purchased a John Deere bulldozer and started a business landscaping yards and building ponds, etc. for farmers and that business was known as, Drury’s Construction; Mark owned and operated a Sinclair Gas Station in Preston, Pearl moved to Oklahoma City when she graduated from high school and worked in a dental office for many years, Robert was a well-known trapper in the area and sold pelts far and wide, and last, but not least, the baby of the family was Donald – when he was in high school he loved playing football for the Preston Blue Jays and when he grew up he moved to Rochester and worked in construction.
Both Robert and Donald were veterans of the U.S. military.
So there you have it, a little window into the very large, interesting family, that Reuben Drury, my father James, and their six siblings grew up in, in beautiful Preston, Minn!
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