We Treat You White

Some of the best reference books at the Johnson County Historical Society are the phone books housed in the archive room in the basement of the Smiser building.  Looking at the advertisements and lists of names and businesses in the old books can give you a glimpse of what the county was like way back when.

There was a time when "white privilege" was openly proclaimed and celebrated.
This ad is from the 1927 phone book.

See how colorful the books were before the great Depression.

During the Great Depression phone books got gray and depressing.

For a short time Sweeney-Phillips took on a third partner.  Business hint: If your name is Gore, don't go into the funeral business.

Another business hint:  If you are in the funeral business don't start an ambulance service.  Nobody is going to get into your meat wagon if your main source of revenue is burying dead people.

In 1961 telephone numbers changed for people in Holden

But not for people in Warrensburg.

By the way, Robert L. "Buddy" Baker still lives at 319 W. Culton and still remembers his old phone number.

In the 1960s the covers got colorful again -

-but not very imaginative.

I like this picture.  I think that's a cool phone.