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Mrs. C.H. Hamill - Ice-cream
This advertisement appeared in the March 18, 1911 edition of the Frostburg Mining Journal. It is characteristic of the type of newspaper advertisements and many of the small business and entrepreneurial activities undertaken by the women of Frostburg and elsewhere in the early 1900s.
"This Is EXTRA DELICIOUS ICE-CREAM"
Quality our Special Aim and Cleanliness our Special Care.
GOOD soda, GOOD Ice-cream, GOOD Candy and GOOD Cigars have made our reputation.
The warm weather coming on, we add Cool and Refreshing ICES, and a visit to our Store will enable you to verify the fact.
We are fully equipped to serve Families with PLAIN and BRICK ICE-CREAM on SHORT NOTICE.
We solicit your patronage, assuring you we will reciprocate with prompt and courteous service.
Mrs. C.H. Hamill,
No. 68 East Union Street,
Frostburg, MD.
In the 1910 census for Frostburg was a Laura Hamill, a widow aged 42. Laura is identified as owning and working in a restaurant on Union Street. Her 21 year-old daughter, LaVerne, also worked at the restaurant as a waitress. Ten years earlier, in the 1900 census, there is a Charles H. Hamill, aged 37, who is identified as a teamster. He has a wife named Laura who had no profession and a daughter, LaVerne, still in school. Their home was also on Union Street. If indeed this is the same Hamill family, the widow Mrs. C.H. Hamill's ice-cream (and cigar) shop was in 1911 not just providing "pin" money, but supporting herself and her family.