USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. I > Part 65
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mill supplies, leather and lanterns. John Almy wanted proposals for excavating on the canal, the foot of which at that time was several rods above Bridge street. This comprises nearly all the business ad- vertised in the first newspaper issued in Grand Rapids.
The retail business here began, as did that of all stores in those days, with the miscellaneous traffic in all sorts of articles for domes- tic use-from pins and needles to axes and crow-bars; from cotton thread to flannels and jeans; from vinegar to whiskey and brandy ; from salt to salt pork and butter; from tacks and shoe-pegs to ten- penny nails and spikes; from pepper and spice and West India mo- lasses, to maple and loaf sugar ; from ladies' slippers to stoga and calf- skin boots ; from pepper boxes to tin and earthen milk pans, and jars and jugs; from gimlets to post-augers, and from wooden chopping bowls to tin bakers and window glass-a general medley of all sorts and sizes. Some of the first comers were traders in a small way, and for many years the storekeepers along Monroe street had about equal success with the farmers round about, in their efforts to eke out an economical existence. During the first fifteen years after settle- ment there was comparatively little classification of goods in the stores. The man who kept pork and pickles also sold silks and cali- coes, and nail hammers and hatchets. But after a time came the branching out into specialties in trade.
As a specialty the drug business took the lead. Dr. Charles Shepard was probably the first in Grand Rapids to open a shop for the sale of medicines. He began the trade in drugs in a small way, but sufficiently large for the small town, soon after his coming, in 1835. Francis J. Higginson was doubtless the next in the drug trade. Their small stores were on the north side of Monroe street, below Ot- tawa. After some years Dr. Shepard sold his interest in the trade to Lemuel D. Putnam, who continued it steadily until 1887, when it was transferred to F. J. Wurzburg. In 1857 the building and stock were totally destroyed by fire, but the business was immediately re-estab- lished in a new building on the south side of Monroe street. Mr. Wurzburg continued the business at the old stand from 1887 until 1897, when he disposed of the stock and it was removed. For a time, in 1844, Lovell Moore operated as a druggist and chemist on Monroe street. In 1845 Samuel R. Sanford had a drug store in Irving Hall, which afterward passed into the hands of Barker & Almy, and again was carried on for some time by William G. Henry. A drug house of long standing is that at Nos. 184-186 Monroe avenue, in the old Mills & Clancy block, which in the last sixty years has been carried on suc- cessively by E. A. Truax, Henry Escott, James Gallup, Mills & La- cey, C. E. Westlake, J. C. West & Company, and since 1904, one of the series of West's Drug Stores, the others being located at 91-93 and at 251 Monroe avenue. Within the years between 1855 and 1875, among others in the drug business were C. H. Johnson, W. H. De- Camp, E. B. Escott, Charles N. Shepard, Lorenzo Buell, L. B. Brew- er, S. R. Wooster, E. R. Wilson and John Harvey. Later, among the prominent ones were William Thum and his two sons, Hugo and Fer- dinand, George G. Steketee, F. H. Escott, G. T. Haan, W. E. White, M. B. Kimm, J. D. Muir, W. H. Tibbs, Thomas M. and John E. Peck, Charles G. Perkins, Charles S. Hazeltine, W. H. Leeuwen, and many
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more. In 1859 there were five drug stores in the city; in 1867, nine; in 1875, eighteen; in 1885, thirty-four ; in 1890, five wholesaling and fifty-seven retailing; in 1900, three wholesaling and sixty retailing ; in 1910, three wholesaling and seventy-five retailing, and in 1918, four wholesaling and seventy-nine retailing.
The hardware business was the next line of trade which became specialized in Grand Rapids, and in this Foster & Parry may be con- sidered the pioneers. Wilder D. Foster came in 1838 and worked for a time at the tinner's trade for E. G. Squier, and then entered into partnership with him, opening a small shop in a building owned by George M. Mills, on the north side of Pearl street, near Monroe, where they advertised to "make to order on short notice tin and sheet iron ware, stovepipe, tin conductor pipes and eavetroughs." In Feb- ruary, 1841, this partnership was dissolved, and Foster continued the business in the employ, or as a lessee, of Mills. In 1845 came Thomas W. Parry, also a tinsmith by trade, and entered into partner- ship with Foster, the firm name being Foster & Parry. They worked together about nine years. In November, 1848, they removed from the Mills site to the west elbow, near the junction of old Canal and Monroe streets, the place of business being below Irving Hall and facing up Monroe street. This was, in part, where now stands the extensive hardware store of Foster, Stevens & Company. On Jan. 1, 1855, Mr. Parry retired from the firm, and was succeeded by Henry Martin. The business had grown rapidly, and in 1856 Martin Met- calf was admitted to partnership, the firm name being Foster, Martin & Company. From these beginnings grew the mammoth store and factory of Foster, Stevens & Company, whose building is one of the finest for its uses in the city. In August, 1845, Joseph Stanford started a "copper, tin and sheet iron manufactory" at the corner of old Canal and Crescent streets, where now is the Grinnell Block, and there he conducted a moderate business for several years. In the Summer of 1846, William H. McConnell started a small tinshop in connection with a hardware store on the south side of Monroe street, two doors above Waterloo. With him, then or soon afterward, was his brother, John McConnell, a practical workman, who continued the business there for a time, and afterward for many years on old Canal street, with a fair degree of success. Later came in other retail dealers in hardware, and in nearly every house where the hardware trade has been a specialty, the tin and sheet iron business has been carried on to a greater or less extent. Among those who operated shops may be noticed: Goodrich & Gay, on old Canal street, 1858; William S. Gunn, who with his sons built up a very large trade on Monroe street, with a wholesale house on South Ionia; De Long & Scribner on Bridge street, for a short time after the Civil War; Wil- liam P. Kutsche, for fifteen years or more, east side of old Canal near Michigan street ; Carpenter, Judd & Company, in 1873 and for a few years afterward, near the present Pantlind Hotel. At later dates there were: John Whitworth & Company, West Bridge street; Peter Dog- ger, toward Coldbrook on Ottawa street; Maris, De Graaf & Com- pany, 52 Monroe; J. A. S. Verdier, Spring street; William Miller, South Ionia; Frank Leitelt and F. A. Prindle, West Bridge street; Ferdinand Scheufler, Michigan ; N. B. Kromer & Son, Plainfield ave-
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nue; Rickard Brothers, South Division; Whitworth & Alden, 327 Bridge; Barstow & Jennings, Michigan; Melis Hardware, Grandville avenue; Blakeley & Jennison, 102 South Division, and Schmidt Brothers, 758 Fulton.
The very early mercantile business clustered on Market street, near the Eagle Hotel corner, where were the Lymans, A. Hosford Smith, and others; and another little nucleus was at the intersection of Ottawa with Monroe street, where three or four general assort- ment stores were kept. Still another was at the foot of Crescent street, and as far up as Bond avenue, and also there were two or three little stores in the vicinity of the Hermitage Hotel. In 1842 there were only about a dozen stores of all sorts in the village, but these were as many as were necessary to accommodate the few thousand people then in the valley.
When the city was incorporated, in 1850, a business and profes- sional summary was published, which showed in the place twenty dry goods, two hardware, two clothing, four drug, two hat and cap, and two book stores, twelve grocery and provision stores, ten boot and shoe stores, eight public houses and victualing establishments, and two printing offices. At that time also, not as commercial establish- ments strictly, but contributing to the trade and resources of the town, were two tanneries, three flouring mills, five saw-mills, be- tween forty and fifty factories and mechanical shops of various kinds, three bakeries, two regular meat markets, and about one hundred carpenters and joiners. There were then seven churches, with eight resident ministers, twelve lawyers and six physicians in the city. From that time forward there was a rapid increase of both mercantile trade and manufacturing business contributing thereto. In 1855, along the streets were upward of sixty stores of various kinds, besides thir- ty groceries. Eight steamboats and eight barges and tows were ply- ing to and from this port in 1855. These and similar facts were en- couraging to the growing and ambitious city. By that time there was less of mixed trade with general assortments of goods in the mercan- tile line. It was branching out into classifications, such as dry goods, clothing, hardware, groceries, jewelry, yankee notions, etc., each dis- tinct from the others.
To recall the names of some of the early merchants may be in- teresting. Take, for instance, a period of five or six years from and after 1846. In the grocery trade, which in those days generally in- cluded liquors, were Clancy & Brother, Heman Leonard, Harry Eaton, Gideon Surprenant, Sinclair & King, R. C. Luce, and others. Heman Leonard began in the grocery trade on Monroe street, and he after- ward gradually changed to the crockery business. About 1868 he built a brick block on the site of his original small wooden store. He continued in and steadily increased his crockery trade during his life; but some years previous to his death he associated with himself his sons-Charles H., Frank E. and Frederick Leonard-and they after- ward magnified their traffic largely. Harry Eaton was a genial and entertaining host at a neat little grocery and restaurant which stood at about the place where the entrance now is to the Pantlind Hotel. In 1846 Ransom C. Luce began trade as a groceryman in a small wood building on the north side of Monroe, nearly opposite Market street,
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and continued in business there some sixteen years, when, in 1863, he built at that place a three-story brick block. In 1856 he erected the first four-story brick block on Monroe street, at the southwest corner of Ottawa, and this was afterward known as Luce's Block, where is now the Herpolsheimer establishment.
Among the general merchants of the village period may be men- tioned Benjamin Smith & Company, Young & Luther, Rose & Covell, Sheldon Leavitt, Kendall Woodward, William Bemis, Boardman Noble, Talford & Porter, George & John Kendall, James Lyman, the Winsors, Roberts & Son, G. C. Nelson & Co., C. H. & L. E. Patten, and J. W. & P. R. L. Peirce. Kendall Woodward was in trade for some years at the intersection of Pearl street and Monroe avenue. William Bemis was forty years or more a merchant on Monroe street, and at his death his sons, the Bemis Brothers, succeeded to his trade. In the boot and shoe business were the brothers Ringuette, and Per- kins & Woodward. Dealing in drugs and medicines were Shepard & Putnam, W. G. Henry, Sanford & Wood, and Barker & Almy.
Many of the large retail stores of the city had their origin in small beginnings, long ago, as has been illustrated in the mention of the hardware firm of Foster, Stevens & Company, who had its ori- gin in a tinshop established by Wilder D. Foster on Pearl street, about 1839. Thus the business of the Friedman-Spring Dry Goods Company commenced when Henry Spring formed a partnership with David Burnett and Amos Rathbone, in February, 1854, and at the time of his death Mr. Spring was the veteran among the dry goods merchants of Grand Rapids. He began business as a clerk in a small general assortment store in the village of Cannonsburg, where barter was the fashion of the time. Aspiring to something more, in 1849 he came to Grand Rapids and applied to Jefferson Morrison, then one of the leading merchants of the place, for a position, and received it. Morrison's store stood near where now is the beautiful four-story front whose sign reads "Friedman-Spring Dry Goods Company." In February, 1854, while in the employ of Lewis Porter as clerk in a clothing store, Mr. Spring had an invitation from two enterprising men of Grand Rapids-who were looking for some bright young man of good habits to whom they could intrust the management of a large stock of goods-to unite his business ability with their capital. They were David Burnett and Amos Rathbone. Mr. Spring promptly ac- cepted their proposal, and after a few years his partners retired from the mercantile firm, leaving him sole proprietor. From this modest beginning has grown the fine business which for many years was so well known as the firm of Spring & Company, and now as the Fried- man-Spring Dry Goods Company. From November, 1860, until the Spring of 1876, Mr. Spring was associated with Edwin Avery, under the firm name of Spring & Avery. The building occupied is a brick structure, four stories and basement, 44x265 feet, fronting Monroe and extending through to Louis street. This was built immediately after the straightening of Monroe street and opening of Campau Place. The trade of the establishment is both wholesale and retail.
The book business of the E. Higgins Company commenced in 1859, when Henry M. Hinsdill established a book store at what is now 188 Monroe street. The business was moved afterward to what is
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now 196 Monroe street, and in 1881 it was moved to the present loca- tion of the Boston Store. In the early history of the establishment, Chester B. Hinsdill and Charles D. Lyon became associated with Henry M. Hinsdill under the name of Hinsdill Brothers & Company. In 1870 the Hinsdills were bought out by Charles W. Eaton and C. D. Lyon, and the firm name of Eaton & Lyon made its appearance in the book trade. In the same year the owl, whose spectacled countenance was for years so familiar to newspaper readers in Western Michigan, was adopted as a trade-mark. The original owl was a stuffed bird bought at auction and set in the display window of the store, and from a portrait of this bird, painted by Lawrence Earle, Fred S. Church designed the trade-mark. After moving to the Boston Store location the business of the establishment grew until, with the allied plant of the Eaton, Lyon & Allen Printing Company, it did a very large business. In 1892, Palmer, Meech & Company started in busi- ness at 112 Monroe and 119 Ottawa. The firm of Eaton, Lyon & Company changed to Lyon, Beecher & Kymer, and in 1897 the two firms consolidated under the corporate name of Lyon, Beecher, Ky- mer & Palmer Company, and two years later it became Lyon, Kymer & Palmer Company. This continued until 1903, when the company was reincorporated for $80,000, under the name of W. Millard Pal- mer Company, wholesale and retail dealers in books and stationery and manufacturers of stationery novelties. In 1909 the stock was removed to No. 140-144 Monroe street, and in 1911 was sold to E. Higgins & Company, located at 138 Monroe.
Continuing the record of book sellers and stationers, and recur- ring to the early establishment of John W. Peirce, which stood at the northeast corner of Bond avenue and Crescent street, it may be said that, judging from his advertisements, his assortment of books was somewhat mixed. In the Spring of 1841 he had for sale "at the book store," "a large assortment of saw-mill saws," and wanted at the same place, "two hundred bushels of oats." In 1844 he moved from that location to the west side of old Canal street, on the south corner of Erie, where he gradually worked out of the book trade and into gen- eral merchandise. In 1848 James D. Lyon opened a book and sta- tionery store at the east corner of old Canal and Pearl streets. After him, William B. Howe, until 1856, and then George P. Barnard con- tinued the business at the same place until about 1866, when George K. Nelson and Charles W. Eaton, in partnership, bought the stock. Subsequently this firm became Nelson Brothers & Company (George C., George K., and James F. Nelson), and it remained in business at what is now the Herpolsheimer corner until the early nineties. George P. Sexton opened a news stand in November, 1857, in the postoffice, where he sold periodicals for a year or two. Among other early book-sellers were John Terhune, Jr., about 1854, in the Rathbone Block, and afterward in the Luce Block, and C. Morse, a little later, on old Canal, near Erie street. About 1860 J. S. Nevius & Son had a book store in the Nevius Block. In 1874 George A. Hall opened a news stand, with a small stock of books, in the Arcade. With sev- eral successive partners, the management of the business remained in his hands and grew into a large trade. In 1887 the store was re- .moved to 115 Monroe street, and about 1893 the stock was sold to
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Eaton, Lyon & Company. Other firms later established in the line of stationery and news were: Buchanan & Company, No. 5 South Division avenue; Spraker & Hogadone in the Arcade, and F. H. Sey- mour in the New Kendall Block. F. M. Hulswit, at 6 Monroe ave- nue, and D. J. Doornink, at 92 Monroe, were the first to supply read- ing matter to the Holland citizens. At the present time there are six- teen establishments in Grand Rapids that handle books and stationery at retail.
In considering other retail mercantile establishments in the city of Grand Rapids, it may be said that the business of the Herpolshei- mer Company was commenced at Michigan City, Ind., in 1865, when C. G. A. Voigt and William G. Herpolsheimer formed a co-partner- ship for the dry goods trade. In 1870 they established a branch store in Grand Rapids, and it soon became their main business. They located first at 127 Monroe avenue, then moved to 123 Monroe avenue, then to 105 Monroe avenue, and finally to 87-89 Monroe avenue, which was their business home for more than twenty-five years, until the firm was dissolved and the Herpolsheimer Company and the Grand Rapids Dry Goods Company were organized. The Herpolshei- mer Company located at the corner of Monroe and Ottawa avenues, in 1902. On May 8, 1904, the company entered its new building.
The business of Paul Steketee & Sons, at 88-94 Monroe avenue, 28-42 Fountain street, and 87-91 Ionia avenue, commenced in 1862, when the firm of Doornink & Steketee was organized. They did busi- ness for some time at 118 Monroe avenue. In 1872 the business was moved to Holland, Mich., but in May, 1878, the present firm of Paul Steketee & Sons was organized and the present business established.
The business of the J. C. Herkner Jewelry Company had its origin in 1870, when J. C. Herkner commenced business for himself on Monroe street.
The retail business of H. Leonard & Sons had its origin in a general store established by Heman Leonard at 156 Monroe avenue, in 1844. The stock was gradually changed to that of crockery and fancy goods. It remained on Monroe avenue until a number of years ago, when it was moved to the corner of West Fulton and Commerce streets.
The retail business of Peck Brothers was established in the Spring of 1876, at the corner of Monroe and North Division streets, where it has since continued. The business was transferred here from Newburg, N. Y.
The grocery business of John Killean & Son, at 128 Michigan street, had little or no change from the time it was founded, in 1867, by John Killean, until it was terminated by the death of its founder, Nov. 1, 1909.
The business of Barclay, Ayers & Bertsch began in 1875, when E. P. Preston, of Chicago, established a store at 86 Monroe avenue for selling leather and belting. E. G. Studley was bookkeeper for the concern and after two or three years bought the stock. The store was moved to 189 Monroe avenue, and then to 163 Monroe avenue, and finally to 110-112 Pearl street, where it remained until 1907, when the firm became Barclay, Ayers & Bertsch, and the place of business was changed to 321-323 Bond avenue.
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The business of Thomas W. Strahan & Son, the West Side mer- chant tailors, was established in 1879, when Thomas W. Strahan opened a store at 340 Bridge street, and it has since been continued at that place, with the exception of about five years, when Mr. Strahan was in business on Monroe street.
A synopsis of the retail industry in Grand Rapids discloses the fact that the different lines of trade are divided as follows: Agricul- tural implements, 11; automobile accessories, 7; automobile parts, 3; automobile tires, 23; bakers and confectioners, 69; books and station- ery, 16; carpets, oil cloth, etc., 9; cigars and tobacco, 40; clothing, 47; coal and wood, 50; coke, 11; confectioners, 86; corsets, 5; crockery, 4; cut glass, 4 ; cutlery, 2; department stores, 6; druggists, 79; dry goods, 70; fish, oysters and game, 4; flour and feed, 26; fruits, 6; furniture dealers, 34; furs, 2; gloves, 2; grocers, 448; hardware, stoves and tin- ware, 52; hats and caps, 15; hay and straw, 16; jewelry, 5; lumber, 11; meats, 143; millinery and fancy goods, 55; notions, 11; shoes, 77.
Lack of space forbids detailed mention of every individual in- dustry in the city, but what has been said of the growth of those men- tioned is true in greater or less degree of everyone in Grand Rapids. Throughout the entire field of activity, the heads of the various estab- lishments seem to be actuated by the same motives, viz: to handle articles of superior merit, and to follow along conservative lines, never wasting capital and energy in uncertain ventures. It has been found by American cities that the enterprise and energy of individuals can be considerably augmented by co-operation of commercial, in- dustrial and professional factors. There are opportunities for pro- motion of local interests in every community-opportunities which cannot be fostered by single individuals on the one hand, nor by the municipal government on the other. This truth seems to have been realized by some of Grand Rapids' business men a third of a century ago, for in November, 1887, a Board of Trade was organized, with a large membership, and with George G. Briggs as president. The Board is interested in all lines of activity that tend to advance the city's civic and industrial welfare.
CHAPTER XLII. LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM
THE PIONEER EFFORT-SKETCHES OF NEWSPAPER MEN-FACTS CON- CERNING NEWSPAPERS AND OTHER PERIODICALS-LITERATURE- GRAND RAPIDS AUTHORS AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS.
Grand Rapids, at the beginning of the year 1837, was a straggling village of some 200 inhabitants. It can hardly be truthfully said that there was at that time "a long felt want" for a newspaper, but the pioneer journalist is never very far behind the pioneer farmer and artisan. In the Fall of 1836 the Kent Company purchased the office material of the Niagara Falls Journal and shipped it from Buffalo on the steamer Don Quixote. The boat was wrecked off Thunder Bay Island, and the press and material were transferred to a sailing
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vessel, reaching Grand Haven late in the season. When it was landed, George W. Pattison purchased the printing outfit and in the winter had it brought up the river on the ice by dog trains-six dogs to a sled. The sled which brought the press broke through the ice some miles below the Rapids and went to the bottom of the river. The press was fished out and brought to town. Mr. Pattison was a native of the State of New York, born about 1814. At the age of ten years he began his apprenticeship in a New York printing office. In 1834 he started the Daily Western Star, the first daily ever published in Buf- falo. In 1836, with others, he started the Calhoun County Patriot at Marshall, Mich., and the same year published the first number of the Niagara Falls Journal. His partner got into trouble and the paper failed. About this time John Almy, as a representative of the Kent Company, made a trip to Buffalo, and while there he met Mr. Patti- son, purchased the outfit of the defunct Buffalo paper, as above stated, and the result of the interview was that Mr. Pattison decided to come to Grand Rapids, and on April 18, 1837, the initial number of the Grand River Times made its appearance. It was a six-column folio, the first page of which was filled with miscellany; the second con- tained President Van Buren's inaugural address ; on the third page was a collection of advertisements, gotten up in a style characteristic of that early day.
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