Original photographs, reference letters, the tool chest and dealership keepsakes, with the equipment and services behind them.
For generations, the Roling family story in Salisbury ran through a machine shop and the people who kept it working. J.F. Roling & Son grew into a dealership and repair business, remembered in staff photographs, newspaper notices and family keepsakes. Here are the working lives behind the name.
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Inside the shop
The centennial history describes blacksmith and lathe repair work, followed by windmill sales and installation. It says steam engines gave way to gasoline engines around 1910, and later to electric motors powering the shop equipment. These details are attributed to that historical account.
A 1926 court opinion, Frazier v. Radford, describes J. F. Roling & Sons as a Salisbury machine shop operated by Mr. Roling and two sons, with two other men working there. The shop repaired parts of a dredging machine used on the Bee Branch reclamation project. The opinion places the engineering contractor’s work between December 1922 and June 1923, but does not date the individual repairs. The sons are unnamed in the opinion.
Repairs, farm equipment and the work of everyday life
The advertisements show how much could pass through this one business. In 1916, J. F. Roling advertised machinery repairs and engine supplies, adding that the shop was now prepared to do plumbing. A February 1922 notice announced a cash-only policy and a reduced labor rate of seventy-five cents an hour, explaining that the change would save bookkeeping time and expense.
By 1923, the advertised range stretched from welding and tires to gasoline engines, pumps, farm implements, plumbing supplies, boilers and radiators. Later notices offered corn cribs and silos, water heaters and home heating. The work reached from the farmyard into the house.
A July 1952 page captures those two sides neatly. One advertisement invited readers to see new John Deere tractors succeeding the A and B models; another offered Green Colonial furnaces and installation. The familiar dealership name belonged to a business with more than one kind of customer and more than one kind of job.
Sources for this story
Salisbury Press-Spectator, March 24, 1916, p. 8; February 3, 1922, p. 5, “Cash Basis” (policy announced as effective January 2); February 2, 1923, p. 6; October 21, 1949, p. 5; July 18, 1952, p. 9; September 26, 1958, p. 6. These advertisements document what the firm offered, not completed individual sales. The 1952 advertisement does not supply the new tractor model numbers.
Tools and craftsmanship
Two recommendation letters preserved in the family collection describe Frank Roling’s machine-shop experience in 1890. In a letter dated August 2 at Quincy, Andrew Kley calls him a machinist and an “A No 1 lathe hand,” says he had served his time with them, and describes several subsequent years of work with him. In a letter whose date is read as August 2, 1890, the Gardner Governor Company recommended Frank after several years in its employ, also noting his experience in engine and general machine shops.
The 1890 reference letters
These family-held copies let us read the recommendations in their own words. Select either image to see it at full size.
J. F. Roling’s tool chest
This is the wooden tool chest the family remembers J. F. Roling making in trade school or soon afterward. Inside the worn chest, tools share space with newspaper clippings and later family keepsakes. The family also remembers him making a square during trade school.
The chest’s exact date is not established. Neither of the 1890 reference letters names a trade school or mentions the chest or square.
Keepsakes from the dealership
John Deere keepsakes preserved by the family bring another part of the dealership’s story into view. Among the hats, tie and small objects is a Farmer’s Pocket Ledger printed with the name “J. F. Roling & Son, Salisbury, Mo.”
The individual objects have not been dated. The medallion’s anniversary inscription does not establish when this example was made. Select a photograph to view it at full size.
Photographs and documents
An employee-group photograph is part of the family collection. Photographs can be presented with dates when known, the source of each identification, and any uncertainty in the caption. Historical advertisements, directories, and business records can add dates and detail as they are checked.
The caption beneath the centennial booklet’s old shop photograph identifies George Rush on the left and J. F. Roling on the right. A later framed-display caption dates the scene to the early 1900s, but the caption’s author and date are unknown. The identification and approximate date are preserved as caption evidence; the shop photograph is in the family gallery.
1963 · Lennox dealer training
An April 12 notice reported that Bob Roling, Joe Vitt and Tony Morrison of J. F. Roling & Sons in Salisbury had recently attended a special dealer training school conducted by Lennox Industries Inc. at Columbia. It gives no exact training date or product details.
Source: “At Training School,” Salisbury Press-Spectator, April 12, 1963, page 7. Family-held screenshot; publication date and page from the newspaper viewer.
1964 · Green Colonial dealer training
The April 3 newspaper reported that Joe Vitt, Tony Morrison and Bob Roling had attended meetings at the Green Colonial factory in Des Moines, Iowa, the previous week. The program introduced the Green Colonial Crown furnace and included service training on oil- and gas-fired heating and central air conditioning. The notice names the attendees without identifying their local employer.
Source: “Attended Meeting At Green Colonial Plant,” Salisbury Press-Spectator, April 3, 1964, page 5. Read the original newspaper page.
1965 · Water pumps and air conditioning
J.F. Roling & Son advertised Myers Olympian water pumps on June 11, describing itself as an authorized Myers pump dealer. A separate June 18 advertisement offered Green Colonial air conditioning for homes, stores and offices. These advertisements document product offerings before the separately reported 1974 plumbing-and-heating transition.
Sources: J.F. Roling & Son advertisements for Myers Olympian water pumps, Salisbury Press-Spectator, June 11, 1965, page 9; and Green Colonial air conditioning, June 18, 1965, page 9. Dates and pages are labeled in the newspaper viewers in the family-held screenshots; exact original-page URLs have not been established.