Do you remember how you earned your first dollar? In 1921, Chris Ulrich, variously proprietor of Jacksonville’s New State Saloon, owner of a planning mill and sash and door factory at the corner of California and 5th, then in the feed and flour business, recalled his initial hard-earned buck.
“I worked three days driving a straw horse on a threshing machine for my first dollar. I was about the size of a minute, and all I had to do was work from sunup to sundown, driving an old horse hooked onto a fence rail. I saw I wasn’t going to get rich at this, so I went to work for an Irishman by the name of Fehely. [Fehely was one of Jacksonville’s earliest brick makers.] It was another fine job, the hours being as long as you had strength enough to wiggle. Fehely had a couple of daughters who came right out in the brickyard and worked alongside the boys. They were good looking and good workers.”
Ulrich was probably about 12 years old at the time. Born in Iowa in 1853, he had come west with his parents in the 1860s. By age 19 he had become a carpenter’s apprentice to David Linn, before subsequently becoming saloon keeper, building contractor, and then merchant. Ulrich was also involved in Jacksonville government, serving on the City Council at age 30 and later acting as city street commissioner.
(And yes, we know that in the 1860s Ulrich’s first dollar would have been a gold coin!)