Dodge City Kansas Bait Store

My grandfather on my mothers side was adopted by some people named Hoofnagle and lived near Satanta, Kansas. His birth mother was a young woman named Ross from Wichita and she gave him up for adoption due to being unmarried and her wealthy parents were mortified.

Later in life, she became an invalid and I recall Iola being taken care of by this son she had denied. But the story really is about Avenue D in Dodge City once again.

Glenn Hoofnagle and Guy Quillan had a paint store in Dodge for many years and did painting around the area. Later in life he also had a bait shop in his back yard there. The main reason was that there was no place for people to buy fishing bait and he loved to fish so would accommodate other people.

Many a weekend I spent with Grandpa seining minnows from the Arkansas River to sell during the week. I was always scared to get in the deeper holes which seems funny now that there isn't any water in the river there and hasn't been for 40 years I guess.

He had a cellar and raised worms for sale too.

Grandmother Mabel Hoofnagle was a Gillette by birth with many family members there in town. She always had Peonies flowers in abundance and sold them for $0.25 a bunch as she "always wanted poor people to have flowers to decorate the graves" on Decoration Day. That's our memorial day now.

IF you remember going there as a child I would love to hear from you.

kevin