Marlee Goes For A Walk In The Park

Marlee really wanted to go to the "cowboy show", but Mrs. Owens said, "Lets go over here to the park. A very famous man built this park and the hospital for Humansville. As they walked she told Marlee all about Mr. George Dimmitt.

Mrs. Owens said, "Although he was born in Illinois, Charles E. Dimmit grew up in Humansville. His daddy was a pastor of an early Humansville church. It was called the Shady Grove Methodist Church. It changed names to the Humansville United Methodist Church.
 He decided like a lot of young men to go west to see if he could get rich. He met a lady and got married. They had  a son that they called George whom was born in Humansville. So sometime or another they had moved back to Humansville. Charles managed the local lumber company for several years. Then they moved to Great Falls, Montana where he became involved in the general mercantile business. That means like the big department stores like you and your family go to now, little one. It was called the Golden Rule corporation which operated mercantile stores in several western states. A man called James Cash Penney began working for them and in 1907 he bought out the other partners. In 1913 Golden Rule incorporated as the J.C. Penney Company and as such rapidly got bigger and bigger. Mr. Charles Dimmitt held some top jobs there in New York and got really rich. I bet your mama and grandma and friends have all shopped at J.C. Penney sometime or another."
"After a while the Dimmitt family returned to Humansville and donated money for constructing and equipping the hospital, as a memorial to their son with the stipulation that the hospital be operated without profit. That means that the hospital couldn't get rich and wouldn't charge folks much money if they got sick." They were to charge just enough to cover their expenses.
Marlee said, "Well, Marleewood must be non-profit then, cause we don't charge much money. And we donate stuff too. That's good, isn't it?"Oh Mrs. Owens smiled really big and said, "Oh, I wish I could meet your family and friends. They are doing just what they are supposed to do to help people when they need some help." She patted Marlee's head and started to walk some more. (I'm surprised Mrs. Owens didn't ask Marlee what Marleewood was....)
"At the same time Charles Dimmitt also bought and donated the site for a city park. There was lots of land maybe a couple of acres. They put some toys on it for children to play on too. One was circular and they could sit or stand on it. The "old timers" called it the "spin and go puke". Marlee made a bad face and said, "I don't like to puke. That means I'm sick." Mrs. Owens said, "Well, sometimes the children would get sick on it and throw up." Then she laughed and continued her story.

 "That family made a substantial donation toward a $75,000 Community Building. See it? It got built in 1929 just before or rather during there was some trouble with the Stock Market which I'm not going to trouble you with. But, wow it is big. They had movies in there with sound like you have now. You will never
guess how many seats it had in it." Marlee  guessed seven (7). Mary laughed and said, "No, it had 825 seats. The whole town didn't have much more than a thousand (1000) people so everyone that wanted to see a show could be assured that they had a seat. There aren't any movies shown in there now, but that big old building serves it's purpose and helps people all the time. I'll tell you about it someday."
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There were many famous people that were either born in Humansville or had lived there at some time. That will be in one of the stories in this series. It is a fun one.
Tomorrow's story is also fun. Mrs. Owens shows her "no nonsense" attitude when Marlee starts to fuss about doing what she is told. Mrs. Owens had a  "black and white wrong vs. right attitude" and would set people straight if she didn't think they were acting just so, whether they be young or older it made no difference to her. (One of her friends conveyed that to me. Thankfully, I wasn't a recipient of that attitude in the visits that we had."