Two women peer from behind an oval glass door of a storefront in Logan, Kansas. One is Mary Miller, perhaps the daughter of the proprietor (also Mary). The other, a young single woman, Flo Muir, an employee. The year was around 1914. The store: Miller & Miller - The Woman’s Store.
Miller & Miller - The Woman’s Store - Logan, Kansas (1914)
Here is the photograph cropped of its decorative mat.
Miller & Miller - The Woman’s Store - Logan, Kansas (1914)
The window displays flanking the front door showcase the finest fashion and millinery of the times.
And here is a closeup of Flo and Mary, likely neighbors and friends.
Written on the back is the following inscription, presumably written by Flo:
“Mrs. Mary Miller and myself (Flo) in the door of the Ladies Ready to wear Store in Logan. Where I worked I (Flo) before I was married.”
An addendum to the original inscription, as seen by the blue ink from a ballpoint pen, appears to have been written later than the original note. There is a subtle shift in the handwriting from that of a young woman to an older one, perhaps reflecting with nostalgia on her youth. Flo offers a clarification, as if to say: “This was me, Flo Muir, I was the one in that store front in 1914.”
In 1910 Mrs. I.K. Cookinham opened a millinery store of the same name in Logan.
This 1912 newspaper announcement notes the sale of The Woman’s Store to Miller & Miller from I.K. Cookinham.
There were many mentions of an Mrs. I.K. Cookinham in the Kansas newspapers around this time. It seems as if she had a few different stores, one of which was on Mill Street, though it is unclear if this is the same as the storefront in the photo.
Here are several newspaper advertisements for Miller and Miller, The Woman’s Store in The Logan Republican.
This article from the Spring of 1914 indicates that Flo, Mrs. Mary Miller, and Miss Mary Miller (probably mother and daughter?) went on a trip to acquire merchandise for the store.
Research suggests that Flo was born Flo Beatrice Muir, daughter of Jacob B. and Silvia E. (Bagwell) Muir. She married William E. Watkins on December 9th, 1914. This suggests that the photo was taken no later than 1914 as Flo references working there before she was married.
This photo of was identified as Flo B Muir on a public Ancestry.com family tree profile.
Flo B Muir (photo credit)
Here are two photographs of her as an older woman with her husband (from the same family tree).
“Flo and Billie Watkins December, 1950” (photo credit)
“Flo and William E. Watkins Xmas Card” (photo credit)
Flo and William had at least two children, Doris and Donald, both deceased. Flo died in 1987 at the age of 91 in Prescott, Arizona. According to her Find a Grave memorial she was laid to rest in her home state of Kansas, next to her husband (who died in 1973), at the Fairview Cemetery in Phillipsburg.
I have not researched the Miller family but it would probably be fairly easy to do if you are up for a genealogy project. Special thanks, as usual, to Sherlock Cohn: The Photo Genealogist for her assistance in clarifying the date of the original photo.
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This photograph shows J. Everett Baughman standing in his store, Peninsular Net & Twine Co., at 306 W. Fortune St. in Tampa, Florida.