Dudgeon House, Corning

From the Clay County Courier:

J. M. Oliver, Jr.

"Joseph Dudgeon, white bearded, builder of the hotel, is standing at the left of this picture.  Clyde Estes, in white shirt and bow tie, is leaning against an inner porch post and the valises and luggage in front belongs to a stock company that has presented a stiring [sic] melodrama at The Masonic Hall and will soon be loaded into the Dudgeon House Hack for a ride to the Iron Mountain Depot at Main and East First.

After Mr. Dudgeon bought out widow Eliza Ireland, the Ireland House was moved east to a First street site, and the Dudgeon Hotel (21 rooms and one bath) was built and began operating in 1888.  In that pre-plumbing era, bathing was a Christian rite reserved for Saturday night and one bath was more than adequate.  The building lasted until 1901 when it was destroyed by fire and not replaced.   The Dudgeon Livery Stable, far more necessary than a bathroom to a hotel, occupied the Gerald Morgan (nee Charley Black) corner of the square, and Mr. Joseph operated a daily hack to Old Reyno until the time of his death in 1902, when he succumbed to pneumonia from exposure to weather on a mid-winter trip.

The street lamp in the picture was fueled by coal oil and was a Dudgeon installation.  Coal oil street lamps were not municipally operated until 1895, when the town installed 24 lights that burned nightly."

Dudgeon House or Corning Hotel, Corning, AR.  “Before 1900, prob. 1880, Dinner at dining room at Dudgeon House or Corning Hotel – see aub or older person”.

Submitted by Danny Moore