Before highways, Sulphur Draw provided a winding trail for freight wagons bringing supplies from distant railheads, and the needs of the people shaped the businesses that grew there. The need for water brought well drillers and windmill builders, while a barbershop offered a dusty cowboy a bath. Hotels charged 50 cents for a meal and 50 cents for a bed, and doors had no locks because a man's honor was the key to his room. Livery stables and wagon yards held mules and wagons, blacksmiths shoed horses and mules and built and repaired farm equipment, and a town banker loaned money to expand a farm or purchase goods by judging a man's character by the way he treated his family and mules. Mercantile stores carried goods local people could not produce, hatcheries supplied stores with baby chickens, and one time two young boys released all the baby chicks from one store, sending men, women, children, and chicks running and tumbling around the courthouse square. As cotton became king, cotton gins were among the earliest businesses, and later came grain elevators, farm stores, locker plants to freeze and store meat, cafes, gas filling stations, garages, and newspapers carrying news from near and far. Through change, businesses continued to provide the goods and services people needed to prosper and live a good life.