J. J. Frank

J. J. Frank was a Poplar Bluff liveryman and undertaker whose career on Vine Street spanned more than thirty years. In 1889 he and George Hauburger purchased John Gray’s livery business and advertised as Frank & Hauburger, offering single and double rigs, horses bought and sold on commission, carriages for weddings and funerals, and transportation to and from the railroad depot at any hour. By the 1895 Sanborn map, J. J. Frank Livery & Feed stood on the Vine Street property, and in 1899 the Poplar Bluff Republican reported that Frank had begun a large brick addition to his stable. He sold the operation, horses, carriages and building included, to James R. Hogg in 1906 for $18,000, then established a livery business in Sedalia, Missouri, which he sold in 1907 for $20,000. Returning to Poplar Bluff, Frank acquired the undertaking business of George Begley in 1910 and organized the Frank Livery and Undertaking Company, which incorporated later that year with Frank, Walter Frank and H. I. Ruth as incorporators. In 1911 the company purchased the Malugen Brothers livery stable, returning Frank to the Vine Street property he had occupied years earlier. He retained ownership of the Vine Street building while selling the operating livery to Dan Peterson in 1918, and in 1921 his undertaking business took delivery of a casket truck built by Grover Greer on a Ford chassis. After the 1927 tornado, Frank restored the damaged Garner Motor Company building on the property as a two-story structure.