I found over 800 ads placed by Coburn Bros. from the first on February 6, 1912 (for Fairchild's Flour) to the last placed on October 18, 1935 (for New Timothy Seed). On January 1, 1936 Ramey's Feed Stores of Wheelersburg began advertising as the "Seccessors to Coburn Bros., Portsmouth."

There are also a handful of articles which indicate that the business was started sometime before 1909. They bought out a rival feed company early in 1925 (Horr Bros.), and expanded into the old Wheelersburg Milling Company building with a branch plant in that city. In the spring of 1927 they opened a third location in Lucasville, and the next year another in Minford. Within a few years the last two locations were dropped from their advertising.

News items included such tidbits as:

October 1909 - Oscar Coburn Jr. was operated upon for fistula, and by the 1st of November was reported to soon be back at his post at "Coburn Bros., the Kendall avenue millers."

July 1911 - "A team of horses belonging to Coburn Bros. went down" on East Gallis Street, as automobile tires picked up oil from the freshly oiled Gallia Pike and deposited it on the paved street, making it as "slippery as glass."

May 1915 - Complaints were made of a foul water pond in back of the Coburn feed mill ("said to be full of dead animals and rotten corn cobs").

October 1916 - Thieves broke into office of the flouring mill by "jimmying" a back window. They completely ransacked the place and broke open two locked desks, but nothing was taken. "The safe was unlocked and always is."

May 1927 - Fire swept through Wheelersburg, destroying much of the town, including the Coburn Bros. mill. Within 30 days construction began on a fireproof building to replace the old Coburn frame structure

September 1927 - A small fire broke out in a cabin near the Portsmouth mill and "Employees of the CBM and outsiders used water and chemicals from the mill to extinguish the blaze before the firemen...arrived upon the scene."

The ad below—from page three of the October 30, 1922 edition of The Portsmouth Daily Times—is the same from which the quote in the caption is taken. Click on the image for a larger version.