Carl and Elizabeth always had an interest in farming, first in Marion County Missouri, and later in Shelby County but they had many other interests as well. They supplemented their income off the farm first by trucking livestock to market in St. Louis and operating a threshing run in Marion and Lewis conties of Missouri. Later, Carl operated a rock quarry crushing agrcultural limestone during the 1930's, employing CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) men. About that time he purchased a new Oliver 99 tractor and a Whirlwind Terracer to construct terraces for soil conservation and once built a levee on the Missouri River bottom nearly six feet high, which was considered quite an accomplishment usin such small equipment. They obtained a dealer's franchise for Oliver Farm Equipment and operated an implement store in Palmyra for many years.
They moved into Palmyra, at 1107 South Main, puchasing a house and quite a number of lots in that subdivision in about 1940. About that same time Carl rented a farm in Shelby County, Missouri known as the Funk farm after a previous owner. It was owned at that time by Prudential Insurnce Co. In 1944 he purchased an undivided one-half interest in that farm of 1729.5 acres.
In 1958 they closed the implement business and started a fertilizer plant in Palmyra, making liquid fertilizer which they wholesaled to dealers throughout the area. Carl continued to operate that business until his death in 1968.
Carl always had an avid interest in flying. He was hardly ever able to just drive past an airport without stopping to watch the aircraft. He purchased an Ercoupe, a small two seater, in the early 1940's and maintained an interest in flying all his life. For a short time he kept the plane on a small strip near the house in Palmyra but then moved it to the Hannibal Airport. We maintained a grass strip at the farm and he often used the plane to fly there also.
S. S. Huston
J. M. Bennett
Shoebox
History
History II
Wildlife
Christmas
Mr. & Mrs. Carl Gillespie, 1923
Mom & Lois. July, 1926 at 2 weeks
Lois at 5 months of age.
Lois with David Lovelace, a cousin.
Lois on tractor. She rode and slept in the toolbox when Mom drove.
New tractor, 1928
Lois about 2 yrs.
Lois, 3 years
Working the garden.
Lois & Lyndel, October 1933
Oliver exhibit at the Palmyra Fall Festival.
Grandpa G. (H. S. Gillespie) on tractor.
Pop had the Oliver Dealership in Palmyra until 1958.
Lois, Girl Scout
Carl with Aeronca Champion, He took lessons in it.
Lois graduation, 1943
1946
The Storekeeper, 1946
Mom & Pop, May, 1952
1958
1967, One of the last pictures of the two.
Carl, always a flying enthusiast, owned the little Ercoupe above. On September 31, 1958 he was taking several of the family for rides around Hannibal and had just returned to the airport and landed after taking Ed Heylek, a cousin, for a ride. The King boys, of Hannibal, landed a Piper Tri-pacer on top of him while he was taxiing toward the hangar, chopping the tail off the Ercoupe. Luckily there was not a scratch on anyone involved.
Two of the pictures that inspired me all across the Pacific and back.
