Wild West Podcast
Welcome to the Wild West podcast, where fact and legend merge. We present the true accounts of individuals who settled in towns built out of hunger for money, regulated by fast guns, who walked on both sides of the law, patrolling, investing in, and regulating the brothels, saloons, and gambling houses. These are stories of the men who made the history of the Old West come alive - bringing with them the birth of legends, brought to order by a six-gun and laid to rest with their boots on. Join us as we take you back in history to the legends of the Wild West.
Wild West Podcast
How George Hoover Founded Dodge City: Vision, Innovation, and Legacy of a Wild West Pioneer
What if one man's entrepreneurial spirit could transform a fledgling frontier outpost into an iconic Wild West town? Join us as we uncover the audacious story of George Merritt Hoover, the Canadian immigrant whose innovative strategies birthed Dodge City on June 17, 1872. Discover how Hoover circumvented military restrictions to open the first bar just outside Fort Dodge and how his bold move sparked a boom, attracting competition like Hoodoo Brown's bar and a gunsmith shop. Through Hoover's eyes, we explore the early hustle and bustle of Dodge City, where his legacy as a pioneering business leader and community builder still resonates today.
Get ready to be enthralled by tales of business acumen and political prowess as we traverse Hoover's journey from saloon owner to the city's first elected mayor and state legislator. His ventures expanded from bars to cigars and even banking, laying the groundwork for what is now Fidelity State Bank. We'll also delve into Hoover's personal life, including his intriguing marriage to Maggie and his stance on prohibition, which illustrates his complex character. This episode promises a rich tapestry of history, ambition, and the enduring impact of one man on a legendary town.
Enterprising 24 year old Canadian immigrant by the name of George Merritt Hoover, and Mr Hoover being the enterprising man that he was entrepreneur he got himself his wagon and headed east Right. He got to. I can't remember where it was it wasn't Wichita, he got all the way back to Kansas City, kansas City.
Speaker 2:He went to Kansas City in a wagon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because Wichita was too new, it didn't have any record. Yeah, he went all the way back to Kansas City, bought everything that he could alcohol-related, and brought it back to Fort Dott and, knowing that the military reservation at that time was five miles in every direction from the post itself, he went to the center of the fort and measured off what he did. He tied a rag to the rim of his wagon Okay, and headed straight west. And every time that rag hit the dirt it left a mark. And he measured the rotations. He did the math, the circumference of the wheel, everything, and got to five miles. And when he got five miles west of the fort he took one step over the line, dropped the end of his wagon, started digging some sod, bit two sod planks, pulled the board off his wagon, laid it across and opened the bar that became Dodge City. That was June the 17th 1872.
Speaker 2:So that's when the very first bar opened up and Dodge City didn't exist. There was no Dodge City, no Dodge City. But there was a wagon out there and the only other thing out there was a man who had settled a ranch and his name was Sittler. Yeah, Henry Sittler, Henry Sittler. And he was almost right there at the bank of the Arkansas River. And so happened that the buffalo hunters found out about this wagon and all of a sudden you got a booming business.
Speaker 1:Well, it didn't take long.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he started selling whiskey at 25 cents a ladle.
Speaker 2:Now, this is in June.
Speaker 1:This is in June. The railroad didn't arrive until September, the 5th.
Speaker 2:So what happens after he opens this bar?
Speaker 1:Oh, it was within a week. He had competition. Hoodoo Brown, he opens a bar just a couple of lots down and then you've got two bars in a town that doesn't quite exist yet. Nothing else but two bars right, and if the reputation of Dodge City needs more cement than it already has. The third business that opens up was a gunsmith shop because that's what you need in a Wild Woolly Open.
Speaker 1:You've got bars and guns. That's a recipe for safety. Hoover was there at that time and was ready, willing and able, willing and able to do what he did. It's just, it's all a matter of I'd almost call it fate.
Speaker 2:So fate. But there was a presence, and that presence now we have to reestablish in history. It wasn't Turner, it wasn't Wright, it wasn't Dodge, colonel Dodge, it was Mr Hoover.
Speaker 1:I think if Turner hadn't been there, it would have been somebody else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true. So really, with that kind of thought in mind, we have to say that thank you, mr george m hoover, for being the father and the star of dart city. So now we need to talk a little bit about mr hoover and, uh, what kind of contributions he made to this community past the liquor store.
Speaker 1:I would say, of all of the legends of Dodge that we've talked about in the past, hoover's presence is felt more today, by and large, than any of the others. As far as just economics are concerned, okay, uh, as laura mentioned earlier, the hoover pavilion, one of the largest gathering places in dodge city, uh, his, his money helped build that, of course that and that's right out here, close to where he set up the first saloon right.
Speaker 1:Yes, Henry Siller, whose house we mentioned earlier. His house bordered, basically his property bordered on the river, which is kind of the edge of what is today Wright Park.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Named in honor of Robert Wright. That was his farm originally and the Hoover Pavilion is built right there. I mean, if you superimpose two photographs of Henry Siller's house with Hoover Pavilion, they'd be on the same property almost Gotcha Gotcha. But over the next couple of months, by the time the railroad got there and they had assured they knew exactly where the right-of-way was going to be a lot of those businesses they started moving what became the north side of the railroad tracks.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Hoover was one of them. His building became part of the original Front Street.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're talking about north and south of the tracks now, right, so, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:The whole north-south railroad tracks. That started from the very beginning, even before there was a railroad. Okay, In fact, the good businesses were north of the railroad tracks. On the south side, the business were just as affluent, just as popular, but they had a different reputation.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, and it all goes back to the very beginning.
Speaker 1:Hoover moved north of the tracks, zimmerman moved north of the tracks and his gunsmith shop, hoover and his partner McClellan. They had a not just a bar but a liquor and beer wholesaler. Okay, by 1878 they were bringing in anhyzer beer, several whiskeys that are still around today. They have them, big horses, when it came by. I know, no, I can't remember when they started with the Clydesdales, but it might have been at Hoover's time, but it was later in age.
Speaker 1:Okay, but they shipped most of it by train, by train they were actually instrumental in developing refrigerated rail cars so that they could ship their beer out cold.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing. And he also sold cigars too, didn't he? Oh, thriving cigar business and almost as many cigars as he did.
Speaker 1:He was selling 5,000 cigars a week.
Speaker 2:Oh why In 1880, yeah, 5,000 cigars a week Wow, that's a lot of cigars. Now the big business really gets to start to kick in, and that's going to be the cattle drives. So they've got to have law and order. So what I understand is that he also took on some political positions.
Speaker 1:He did. He was actually the first mayor of Dodge City.
Speaker 2:The first elected mayor. Beatty was the first Peter Bailey.
Speaker 1:Beatty yes. Former sergeant stationed at Fort Dodge. Actually, beatty was the first appointed mayor when they were really putting together the town. Hoover was part of the Dodge City Town Committee that organized and helped to Turn it from just a boom camp into an actual city For buying lots, selling them, bringing people in. He was a state legislator, twice, I think, four-term city mayor. President of the bank of Dodge City which he actually started he started the bank.
Speaker 1:He started the bank. It was a private bank. And what year was that? It was 1881. He, it was in the 1880s.
Speaker 2:I was a 87, 87, okay, seven, maybe so where did they keep their money if they didn't have a bank? Probably an Hoover safe. So you never could rob a bank around here until 1887.
Speaker 1:That was the thing there was never a bank robbery in Dodge City. They would always rob the little towns on the outskirts, but it was all the Dodge City police officers that went to chase them down. Nobody dared to rob a bank in Dodge.
Speaker 2:Right, right, too many pistols Right.
Speaker 1:Hoover was well, the bank actually that he started, privately owned, is still in existence today. Oh yeah, it became the Bank of Dodge City, which is today Fidelity State Bank. Wow, so yeah, it's still around. When I say his presence is still felt today, that's very true. Did just about everything you could do in Dodge, politically, business-wise.
Speaker 2:And when it was all said and done, the man was pretty wealthy, wasn't?
Speaker 1:he. He was one of the wealthiest men, certainly in Kansas, at the time of his death. Did he ever get married? He did. He married Margaret and called her Maggie through her entire life. I believe and I'm going to feel bad if I'm wrong but I believe she was a former prostitute. Okay, Married, that would be bad.
Speaker 2:Uber is going to come back and haunt you. They were everywhere. Well, if he doesn't, she might.
Speaker 1:Well, so many of them did, married prostitutes, former prostitutes. Not anything bad on the job description, that's true. They were ladies just like anybody had to be, and very well respected, I might add, when they got married.
Speaker 1:They were married for it was fairly early on 1876 77, somewhere in there yeah, was when they got married and were together for the rest of their lives. She died just a couple of months before he did right in 1914. Right and very much in love, one of those classic stories Hoover lost his life, or she lost her life and Hoover. Just immediately he took a turn for the worse and, as all of his friends gathered around, he said I'm done, I'm ready, I'm ready to go Go meet Maggie again.
Speaker 2:It's a great story, george M Hoover, one of the legends of Dodge City. Do you want to add anything else about his life, brad, before we close out tonight?
Speaker 1:One thing I've always found ironic about Mr Hoover, despite the fact that he was the biggest liquor retailer in certainly western Kansas for years. Right, he was an adamant supporter of the Kansas Prohibition Law of 1880. Wow, very much on the law and order faction as opposed to the gang that we talk about. So often on the show.
Speaker 2:So 1881, 1880, kansas stops its actual prohibition and he supports it they legally stop right, but it's still going on here, oh of course, of course, yeah, but at that point in time, though, he was advocating for he because he was in.
Speaker 1:He was, uh, very much a rule of law gotcha type person. He could break it, but as long as the law was enforced, that's fine.