Funkey & Missildine ~ Merchants in Waynesville

Funkey & Missildine’s Cash Trade Palace,
Miami-Gazette, August 27th, 1879

Below: Cadwallader Hall

John A. Funkey was a dry goods merchant in partnership with John F. Missildine. They bought out the stock of John M. Hadden, a long established merchant in Waynesville. Funkey and Missildine opened the “Cincinnati Cash Store” (also known as the "Trade Cash Palace") in February of 1873 in Cadwallader Hall on the ground floor at Main & Miami Streets in Waynesville. They dissolved their partnership in March of 1881. Both men continued in the trade with separate stores.

In 1881 Funkey opened another store where the Waynesville Antique Mall is located today on Main Street (see photo below dating from 1905).

John's wife Clara was 31 in 1879. They had two children: Pearl, a son(5) and Mabel P. (1). See, 1880 Census Place: Waynesville, Warren, Ohio; Roll: T9_1075; Family History Film: 1255075; Page: 473B; Enumeration District: 79; Image: 0360. John and Clara have two other children listed in the 1900 Census: George A. (18) and Eva M. (16) (see George and Eva's photographs below). See, 1900 Census Place: Waynesville, Warren, Ohio; Roll: T623 1330; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 154. Also see, Waynesville’s First 200 Years, 1797-1997 (The Waynesville Historical Society, 1996), pp. 184-186.

In 1879 John Funkey and his wife Clara bought a lot on North Main Street. Their Italianate Victorian home, the Funkey-Evans House (see photo below), was built in 1880 and still stands at the foot of Chapman Street. The Funkey House was bought by Joel Evans for his wife Cynthia in 1894.

According to Dennis Dalton (January 1982 from his 1970 notebook), John Funkey went on periodical drunken binges and the family would lock him upstairs in his room ~ once John jumped out the window and “nearly killed himself” to go drinking ~ one of his drinking friends was Perry Pence and John would “hunt all over town” for him and eventually “terrorized the village” with his drunken antics.

John F. Missildine was a dry goods merchant who had grown up in Waynesville. As a young man he labored on the farm and also taught school in the winter. In June 1865 he married Jemima Burnet who died in September 1868. He married to Druscilla McLary, age 30. They had five children by 1880: Oliver Oscar, 8, Ella J. ,7, Wilbur Howard, 5, Mary Etta, 4, and Cecilia, 2 (see, 1880 Census Place: Waynesville, Warren, Ohio; Roll: T9_1075; Family History Film: 1255075; Page: 489A; Enumeration District: 79; Image: 0390.). In 1895 John F. Missildine was the mayor of Waynesville from 1895-1900. Their sixth child was John Henry.

John F. and his family were some of the original communicants of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Waynesville (Waynesville’s First 200 Years, 1797-1997 [The Waynesville Historical Society, 1997], pp. 283 and 159). John F. Missildine was one of the Trustees on the board of the ill-fated Wayne Novelty Works Company in Waynesville. Below is a photograph of their home in Waynesville (white house):

John F. Missildine was a Quaker for a short period of time. According to the Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol. 5, Ohio by Hinshaw, p. 101, he became a member on 9th mo. 26th day 1866 but was disowned for entering a marriage out of unity 8th mo. 26th day 1871.

An O. Missildine is listed as a worker during the building of the 1905 Friends Boarding Home. This is probably Oliver O. Missidline, John's son.

The Funkey-Evans house located at the
bottom of Chapman Street.
On the left is the "Old Lock Up".

Below: Eva & George Funkey
Children of John A. & Clara Funkey