When Springfield had its own Wall Street

Legendary staffers Hank Billings and Betty Love compiled 1959 story: 'Wall Street in the Ozarks'

Ever wonder how in the pre-digital era of 1959, everyday investors bought stocks here in Springfield —1,180 miles from Wall Street?

Hazel Crighton, now 78, of Springfield, has a copy of a full-page story that explained just how it was done.

The headline was "Wall Street in the Ozarks." It ran June 14, 1959, and includes nine photos; two include Hazel, who back then was Hazel Wood.

One of the captions reads:

"Miss Hazel Wood, an employee of Yates, Heitner and Woods, is shown here operating a private line teletype with which customers' orders are placed with the St. Louis home office."

Yates, Heitner and Woods was one of the three brokerage firms in Springfield at the time.

The story was written by legendary News-Leader staffer Hank Billings, who wrote for the paper for 74 years, many of those as the paper's columnist. He died in June at age 91.

The nine photos were taken by another News-Leader legend, photographer Betty Love, who worked at the paper from 1941 to 1975. 

Love, known for her salty language and professional skill, pioneered the role of women in daily newspaper photojournalism in an era when almost all newspaper photographers were men. Love died in 1984 at age 74.

The story is about the three brokerages in Springfield where you could buy stocks.

Walter N. George Jr. was the manager of  Yates, Heitner & Woods, 427 St. Louis Street. It was in the Moran Hotel.   

He is quoted as saying: "People are making more money today and have money to invest after paying for food, rent, and necessities. ... The small stockholder offers the biggest untapped market for the broker."

The transactions were entered into a teletype and sent to the main office in St. Louis. 

One photo shows a “commodity ticker.” Another shows an employee using chalk to write the most current prices on a large chalkboard.

Oddly, the story gives the home addresses of the three women in the story — but does not give addresses for the men.

One caption reads:

"Miss Janice Mitchell, 1142 W. Division, (shown below) transfers changes from the translux to the Reinholdt and Gardner board. Note such familiar firms at or near her chalk hand as the Frisco, Safeway and Royal McBee."

A different caption describes the translux machine.

"While customers watch the board of one of the city's three Exchange member firms, Miss Mary Ann Marlin, Route 2, (left), and Miss Hazel Wood, 1942 East Walnut, post changes flashed on the translux —  modern successor of the old stock ticker."

Another caption reads:

The translux "replaces the stock ticker associated by many people with the stock market. A tape driven by a belt ... is illuminated by a bulb and projected via two mirrors on a screen so the moving line of stock quotations can be read by several stockholders."

Other devices in the brokerage include the Dow Jones stock news teletype, "which provides brokerage firms with up-to-the-second market developments in the same way press services teletype news to news services."

The story mentions the growing number of investment clubs in Springfield. But only one included women. It was for husbands and wives.

The story quotes Charles L. Stone, manager of Reinholdt and Gardner.

"Women ought to be in these clubs," he said. "Wives often live seven years longer than husbands and if the husband has left an estate of common stock, the woman should know how to handle it."