Kemmerer

Judy Julian

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780738569000
• eBook ISBN: 9781439623053
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Established in 1897, incorporated in January of 1899, and located in southwest Wyoming, Kemmerer has been a coal-mining community for over 100 years. Kemmerer became the county seat for Lincoln County in 1911 when Uinta County, one of Wyomings original five counties, was divided. James Cash Penney opened the first J. C. Penney store in Kemmerer on April 12, 1902. During the 1920s, the Kemmerer area became a large center for moonshining and a large supplier of liquor for Chicago and the Midwest. This ended when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The rich deposits of fossils in the area have long been a point of interest for paleontologists and geologists, amateur and professional, giving Kemmerer the title Fossil Fish Capital of the World.

Six

PEOPLE, EVENTS, AND PLACES

One of Kemmerer’s most influential ladies was Susan Jane Quealy. She married Patrick Quealy in 1890 and moved to the Kemmerer area in 1900. She was active in planning community activities, especially for children. She was also active in various women’s groups. Her selfless service and kindness were felt by the whole community.

Edgar Jacob Herschler was the 28th governor of the state of Wyoming. He was the only three-term governor in Wyoming history. He received his law degree from the University of Wyoming in 1949. He served in the Wyoming House of Representatives for 10 years, from 1959 to 1969. He was the city attorney for Kemmerer as well as the prosecutor for Lincoln County. He served as governor from 1975 until January 1987. He is best known for his slogan “growth on our terms,” which referred to the energy boom in Wyoming. Herschler was born October 7, 1918, on Fontenelle Creek, just north of Kemmerer. He died February 5, 1990, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. A sign was erected on the Triangle Park in June 1990 renaming the park Herschler Triangle Park, honoring Kemmerer’s native son and his accomplishments.

Two additional monuments stand in Herschler Triangle Park. The first is dedicated to the hardworking men and women who first came to the area. They were able to tame and settle in this part of southwest Wyoming and call it home. They helped to make the area what it is today.

The second monument that stands in the park is dedicated to Kemmerer’s founding fathers, Mahlon S. Kemmerer and Patrick J. Quealy. These two men had the foresight and knowledge to be able to create the town of Kemmerer and give her the push needed for continued growth. Kemmerer is the place it is today because of these men.

One of the most famous people to live in Kemmerer was retail giant James Cash Penney (pictured here). He was born in Hamilton, Missouri, on September 16, 1875. His goal was to live to be 100 years old. Although he did not achieve this goal, dying at the age of 95 on February 12, 1971, he did accomplish great success: he was able to build an empire. His business career began at age eight when he had to earn money to buy his clothes. After high school, he was trained as a merchant. In 1898, he moved to Colorado and started working for Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan.

Johnson and Callahan operated a dry goods store called the Golden Rule in Colorado and Wyoming. Penney was able to buy into the business and moved his family to Kemmerer. On April 14, 1902, Penney opened the Golden Rule store in Kemmerer on Pine Avenue. Penney was told that he was doomed to fail, but the community supported him and the store, which was a success on the first day of business. Penney wanted his store to be cash only, and in a mining community, this was not the norm, as the miners charged at the company store. But the business continued to grow, and in August 1904, the store was moved to a larger stone building on South Main Street.

In 1907, Penney bought out his partners, Johnson and Callahan, becoming sole owner of the Golden Rule stores. The store kept the name until 1913, when it was incorporated as the J. C. Penney Company. The Kemmerer store is the first store, or “mother store,” of the company. By 1929, the store had outgrown its location and was moved for a third and final time to the present location on the corner of Pine Avenue and J. C. Penney Drive (pictured here). The Penney home was mov...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - BEGINNINGS
• Two - THE KEMMERER COAL COMPANY AND FRONTIER
• Three - MATURING COMMUNITY
• Four - MOONSHINING
• Five - SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, AND BUSINESSES
• Six - PEOPLE, EVENTS, AND PLACES
• Seven - FOSSIL COUNTRY MUSEUM
• BIBLIOGRAPHY