Several bakers lived and worked in Clay County from the late 1800s. The first bakery dates to 1884 when The Buckeye Bakery was opened by John Wesley Finch. Born and trained in baking and confectionary in Ohio, Finch moved to Clay Center where his bakery was located on 5th Street “below Lincoln Avenue.” In 1885 he advertised that his graham bread kept cholera away.
Prior to his bakery, Finch enlisted in the Union Army and served two years in the Civil War. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Cross Lanes in Virginia. However he was let go and was discharged in 1863. Two years later he married Lavinia Mooar of Kentucky; the pair had four children, with three living into adulthood. In 1870 he was a baker and confectionist in Cincinnati. They moved to Morris County in 1880 to farm, then to Clay Center in 1884. By 1900, he was working as an undertaker, and remained in that career until at least 1910.
They remained until 1915, moving for their health. Lavinia died in 1920 and Finch in 1921 at his daughter’s home.
The Buckeye Bakery was located one door north of JW Ham & Son’s grocery store. Another bakery opened in the same location by Gus Musselman in 1892. It’s unclear if Gus took over the Buckeye or it moved to a new address.
Another bakery and candy shop was opened in 1897 at 503 Court Street. In 1897, Nichols and Malin advertised the “purest ice cream in the city.” They also sold boiled ham. Co-owner John Nichols was born in Scotland in 1844 and came to Clay Center in 1887. His business partner, Richard Malin, was born in 1866 and purchased half the business in 1898. A year prior, the Nichols Bakery advertised lemons, nuts, and cigars. Ice cream sodas were 5 cents each with fruit-flavored creams. In 1898 they purchased over four tons of flour from a dealer, as printed in the local paper. And in 1900 a “high-toned” bowling alley was placed over the bakery.
By April of 1899, Malin had his own business selling “Famous Philadelphia Ice Cream” and other treats. In 1902, Nichols Bakery advertised fruitcakes to be ordered for Thanksgiving.
Both men died locally and are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Nichols in 1910. It’s believed that Nichols sold the business due to his failing health; he lived as “an invalid for some time.”
Malin died in 1933. By 1910, he and his wife, Mary Brett “Marie” were living in Denver where he was a salesman.
