D.B. GREGORY & CO. LIVERY & SALE STABLES BEST STOCK HORSES & BUGGIES...OSAGE MISSION KAN

Osage Mission, Ks, [N.d., ca. 1870s].. Hand-drawn and hand-painted watercolor sign on a 14 x 18¾-inch sheet of cardstock. Pencil sketch for the same sign on the verso. Small chips at lower corners, some light soiling. Very good. A remarkable and very attractive handmade sign for D.B. Gregory's livery stable in Osage Mission, Kansas. Undated, the style of the sign suggests a date of the 1870s. The center of the sign shows a lovely illustration in profile of a horse pulling a single-rider, four-wheeled carriage along a dirt road. The text above the illustration reads, "D.B. Gregory & Co.," and below: "Livery & Sale Stables / Best Stock / Horse & Buggies / Main Bet. County & Neosho Strs. / Osage Mission Kan." The lettering is in black with blue and purple shadowing, and "Osage Mission Kan." is drawn in a very ornate style. The entire sign is decorated with purple watercolor ornamentation. On the verso is a pencil sketch of the horse and the lower half of the carriage, likely a preliminary sketch for the finished illustration.

David B. Gregory, born in 1846 in Iowa, established his livery business with his brother in Osage Mission (now St. Paul), Neosho County, Kansas by the early 1870s. An advertisement in the March 23, 1873 issue of the OSAGE MISSION TRANSCRIPT describes Gregory's livery as having a "fine and well selected stock of horses and carriages...the best matched teams for style and speed in the city. Saddle horses for ladies and gents a specialty that defy competition." Settlers came to the region around Osage Mission in the 1840s, following the founding of nearby Fort Scott in 1842. Osage Mission itself was founded in 1847 by Father John Schoenmakers as a mission to local Indian tribes, and then grew into a town in its own right, serving as a trading post and gateway for commerce and westward exploration. By the late 1860s it had grown to nearly 900 people, with a hotel, boarding house, saloon, stables, general store, hardware store, and blacksmith.

A rare, significant, and informative survival from the American frontier.