Present day Moncrief Furniture Store at 201 and 209 East First Street is owned by
Bingham Moncrief. This Moncrief Furniture Store was opened about 1992. Bingham Moncrief is a former Scott County Superintendent of Education. Starting sometime about the mid-1940s or maybe earlier, Cassel P. Stegall (b.1900-d.1954) and his wife, Emma Lee, had Stegall’s Dixie Parts Store (a store similar to Western Auto) in this 209 East First Street building. In the rear of the Stegall’s Dixie Auto Parts Store was an open-air alley-way. Just south (in back of the parts store) was a 10 to 15 feet open-air alley-way and past that alley-way was Stegall’s Muffler Shop. Eventually Cassel Stegall put a roof over and enclosed the alley-way and the cars entered the rear of the muffler shop from Front Street for muffler repair. Cassel and Emma had only one son, Roby Stegall, and he was an attorney. Cassel Stegall died in 1954 and his son, Roby Stegall took over the auto parts store in the mid-1950s. Eventually after that, Roby Stegall closed the auto parts store and opened Stegall’s Furniture Store (no connection to Benjamin F. Hays’ Forest Furniture Market) in this same 209 East First Street location. Jim Brown from Homewood purchased the Stegall’s Furniture Store from Roby Stegall probably sometime after about 1977 and he then changed the name to Jim’s Furniture. In December 1992, Bingham Moncrief (he is married to Lorene Brown, sister to Jim Brown) bought the Jim Brown furniture store and renamed it Moncrief Furniture Store.
Benjamin F. Hays, husband of renowned FHS teacher Martha Hays, and father of Robert E. Hays, was the founder of Forest Furniture Market in about the early 1950s at the 265 East First Street location. Benjamin F. Hays operated this furniture store business for several years in the early 1950s and then he turned the business over to one of his employees, William ‘Bill’ Harold Tullos (born 1927-died 1968) who owned/operated the Forest Furniture Market until Bill Tullos’ death in 1968.
Hays’ Forest Furniture Market was just east of the Stegall Seed and Feed Company (Troy Stegall, proprietor) building. Troy Stegall is a brother to Cassel P. Stegall who had an auto parts store at 209 East First Street which later became the Moncrief Furniture Store. This 209 East First Street location later became Stegall’s Furniture Store.
This can get confusing — and is likely more than some want to know — but the main thing to remember is the Hays Forest Furniture Market and Stegall Furniture Store (later Moncrief) were never connected in any way.
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