Business Owners

Business Owners. Liberty African American Legacy Memorial. , Jesse Dodd, Sr. , (1906-1992) , A Liberty entrepreneur, Jesse Dodd, Sr. was the son of Robert and Anna Belle Dodd, who settled in Clay County during the Great Migration from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Jesse completed his education at Garrison School, the first public school for African American students in Liberty. Upon graduation, he entered the work world, assisting his father on a farm east of Liberty on Route 10 Highway., After a few years working on the farm, Jesse applied for a job at L. N. Hicks Cleaners on Missouri Street where he worked until Hicks’ death. Hick’s widow sold the business to a person with limited familiarity in the industry, and within six months, the new owner relinquished the cleaners back to Hicks’ wife. Being a hardworking, industrious man, Jesse had become a highly skilled professional in his craft, both in dry cleaning/laundry processes and equipment repair, and he desired his own business. After making Hicks’ wife a successful offer to purchase the business he renamed it Michigan Cleaners, and she agreed to stay on as a seamstress., Not only did Jesse establish a successful business that operated for more than 25 years on Missouri Street, he also provided work for six of his 10 children, Grace, Alice, Georgian, Jesse Jr., William Robert and Patrick, as well as employment for other African Americans in the community. Jesse Dodd demonstrated that an African American man could establish a successful business in a then highly segregated society and continue that operation into the dawning of the Civil Rights Movement., Cornelius Vanderbilt Bird , (1896-1967) , Cornelius Vanderbilt Bird, gardener and owner of Sunny Day’s Garden and Green House on North Grover Street, was born and raised in White Oak. Cornelius, the son of Charles and Georgia Bird, migrated to Liberty from his father’s forty-acre farm in White Oak in North Kansas City during the world war one era. A lover of flowers and all things green, Cornelius began tilling the soil when he was nine years old., His father, who made and sold sorghum for almost everyone in Clay County, taught him all he knew about the ancient skill of living in close communion with the earth, sun and clouds, deciphering their messages. Cornelius’ rules for successful gardening on the three plots of ground he farmed from his home at 434 North Grover Street were simple: “The main thing is to plant at the right time and to water at the right time.” In his love of gardening, he maintained a bond with hundreds of Liberty residents. To them he was a trusted counselor and someone who initiated them into the mysteries of what happens to a seed buried in the moist earth and warmed by the sun. he often expressed his love for the soil and once said, “How people can go through life and not grown anything, I don’t understand.”, Community residents sought his advice, and he gave it freely. A Liberty Tribune reporter wrote, “Cornelius Bird was a man who should be measured in terms of enduring human values. In the words of Jonathan Swift, “Whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground, where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.” Cornelius Bird was a man of stature and significance in Liberty., Herman R. “Sack” Lee , (1923-1990) , Herman R. Lee, owner of Lee Waste Management Company, was the son of William and Elnora Lee of Liberty, Missouri. He attended Garrison School and was a member of First Baptist Church. Before becoming self-employed, Herman worked for Griffey Produce Company in the Kansas City market area for fifteen years. He hauled fruit and vegetables to various restaurants and grocery stores in the Kansas City area and small Clay County towns in the Northland. Each year, he remembered the students at Garrison School and provided every child with fruit, nuts and candy for Christmas and the holiday season., After retiring from Griffey Produce, Herman began his waste management business and hired local young men and adults to work with him on the sanitation route that he maintained for over 18 years. In the 1970s, he sold his business to Stan Thomas of Liberty. During the 1950s, Herman coached an America Legion Little League Baseball team of African American players that played against both African American and white youth during segregation. He taught the players not only to play ball, but also life lessons in socialization and sportsmanship. When he made fruit and vegetable deliveries along his route, Herman would recruit teams to play against each other from the small towns of Lexington, Richmond and Excelsior Springs, among others., The boys played in Liberty in an area on the south end of town called New Liberia near Pearley Park where the African American Pearley family owned a tennis court and ice-cream parlor. Herman was a kind, respected man of the community who was a member of the Liberty Prince Hall Lodge #37 where he held several offices throughout the years. Herman’s waste management company was a business that served humanity. He did his work with pride and dignity., Oledia Pearl Clarkston Anderson , (1906-1967) , In an era when few African American women owned their own business, Oledia Anderson was an entrepreneur ahead of her time. She owned and managed the Wiggle Inn, a thriving nightclub business for two decades., The daughter of Ollie and Pearlie Pearl, enslaved African Americans owned by William Paxton of Parkville, Missouri, Oledia was the descendant of an African American family of entrepreneurs, who worked and saved enough money in 1870 to purchase over 85 acres of farmland in Platt county that is still owned and farmed by the Pearl family., Oledia lived in the Parkville community of Waldon where she and her five younger siblings attended the segregated Banneker School. She was a member of the Washington chapter of the CME Church and the Parkvillian Club. In 1930, Oledia married 35-year-old world war one veteran Mose Clarkston in Kansas City, Missouri. Following the Depression, they moved to Liberty and purchased a home at 567 Richfield and a property at 220 South Main. She later married Harold Anderson and in 1943, with a payment of $1000 and a quit claim deed, Oledia finalized the sale of the tract of land that later became the Wiggle Inn., This popular tavern was a modern-day version of the historic juke joints and honky-tonks extending before the days of emancipation. Barred from whites-only establishments, African Americans would gather in these informal places to enjoy food, liquor, music, gabling and dancing. , The Wiggle Inn was also a boarding house and a place where organizations could lease rooms for meetings and community gatherings. On Sunday afternoons, Oledia would open her inn to local teenagers for music and dancing. Patrons came from across the Kansas City area and northland communities nightly to party at the Wiggle Inn with the familiar slogan, “Wiggle Inn and Wobble Out.”