Brookfield, Missouri
Brookfield, Missouri was first settled in the 1850s. The first white American to settle in what became Brookfield was Samuel Sumner, who arrived in 1855. The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad began running through Brookfield in 1859, and John Wood Brooks (for whom the town is named) first surveyed the area for larger settlement later that year. Railroad service passed through Brookfield for the next hundred years, with the last passenger rail passing through town on April 9, 1968.
Simon Hartman
Two decades after Brookfield's founding, Czechoslovakian-Jewish immigrant Simon Hartman lived in a local boarding house and worked as a clerk in a store. Hartman arrived in the U.S. in 1864 with his parents, Solomon and Laura. Before settling in Brookfield, Hartman lived in St. Louis and Collinsville, Illinois. In Collinsville, Simon's father Solomon worked in a grocery for many years. In Brookfield, Simon Hartman met his wife Emma Hanauer Hartman, a native of Marshall, Missouri, and they had two children. In 1876, Hartman bought a stake in H. Emanuel & Co.'s store in nearby Bucklin. Herman Emanuel sold the business in 1885 to Hartman and his business partner, Henry Tooey, and the stores were rechristened Hartman-Tooey & Company.
Hartman was a long-time civic leader in Brookfield, sitting on the city council for years. He was also a member of the Free Mason lodge in Independence, Missouri. In 1911, Hartman left Brookfield for Kansas City, leaving the store - by this time named Hartman & Co. - to his son. P.W. Hartman continued to run the store until 1919, when he sold the family business to Marion Lander, ending the family's presence in town.