Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-09-15
AFTER MANY YEARS,
Sale of c. II. ThOmpsOn's Hard.
ware Store.

---ChaDge which MIR. Tompson III.
Seen In BrattIeboro.
An important business change. which
only a few people knew TO be imminen,
was contaminated at the end of last yoet
when the final arrangements were made r.,
the sale by c. f. Thompson of hi, well.
known hardware store to Melen d Proc
tor and Robbins & Cowles, the other two
Brattleboro firms in the same line of bpsi
ness. Mr.. Thompson was admulisbe5
some time ago by his physician that no
must give up part of his burden Of work
and lead a less combining life, and when /,
was suggested to his competitors that MI,
stock could be bought by them they readi
Nv Joined in an agreement for its purchase
The stock of goods will be inventoried and
divided between the two concerns wbHs
the stand, for which they hold the lease
will be sublet for some other business
The date for closing the store and making
the change is the goth inst.
The Thompson stand is probably the
oldest in BrattlebOro which has been unip.
terruptedly occupied from the beginning
for any one line of business, y. B. Willis.
ton having established the hardware busi
ness there in 1885. Eleven years later
April l, 1916, Mr.. Thompson came here
from Salem, Conn, a lad of II, to be the
clerk and boy of all work for the firm
which was Williston IL Tyler. He ba,
been continuously in the store ever since
having been admitted a member of the
firm in 1858.
In his letter TO the Springfield RepubH
can last Sunday Maj. F. W. Childs give,
some interesting "reminiscences Of the
changes in business and business methods
as we'll as of the changes in Brattleboro.
which Mr.. Thompson has seen in his a
years of life here. In the early times the
store carried great variety of goods which
are now entirely foreign to this line Of
trade. One of these was the purchase Of
logwood in its original form, rougher and
| harder to handle than cord wood. Tbi,
was ground in the company's mill and
converted into dyestuff and sold to various
wooden mills, either for cash or in exchange
| for goods A large part of the hardware
sold when Mr.. Thompson began here was
| imported by the firm itself Now every.
thing is of American manufacture and
fully equal in quality to the English The
firm of Williston & Tyler brought the first
| 1000 carriage bolts into town to sell. They
were bought by Mr.. Tyler in Boston, but
Mr.. Williston had no faith that they would
| sell For a while he was right, for the
smiths of that time had an idea that II
carriage bolts were sold in the stores part
of their business would be gone. Bolts
which today sell fer 81 a hundred then
| sold for four or five times that sum. The
| firm dealt in drugs and medicines as well
as hardware and groceries, and DR.. Grau,
a physician of wide repute, first introduced
the practice of putting up prescriptions,
| Mr.. Thompson enjoying his confidence
and patronage in this respect.
The changes in the village itself which
Mr.. Thompson has seen are such as have
often been described in these columns. He
| has vivid recollection of the struggle
which took place when the place Of hold
ing the town meetings and elections was
changed from the West to the East village,
| Samuel Clark nearly carrying the day
against the removal. When Mr.. Thomp-
son came here the corner of Main and E.
| liot streets, where the Vermont national
bank now stands, was occupied by the pr
vate residence and ample grounds OF John
r. Blake. Larkin g. Mead's Office,
| building 10 by 20. stood where the Peoples
bank now stands. Mr.. Thompson was
one of the three active workers in the
movement which resulted in Transforming
the barren plain of sand at the upper end
of the village into what is today the village
common, and one of the choicest spots Of
its kind anywhere to be found. 1t was
| Mr. Thompson and a young friend from
| New York who set out the rows of elms
which form the chief beauty OF Oak street
of today.
| Mr.. Thompson's public spirit and enthu
siasm in behalf of many local enterprises
are well known to all. No man did harder
or more effective work than he to carry
the Brattleboro & Whitehall railroad to
successful completion, through years Of op-
| position and discouragement. He is good
citizen, an active worker in church and
Sunday school, a director in the Domestic
missionary society, and a corporate member
er of the American board. That he may
fully recover his health and continue his ae-.
tivity in all these directions for many years
| is the sincere wish of his friends and neigh
bors. His plans for the future are not
definitely made, but he will undoubtedly
engage in some other business in due time
besides retaining his position as treasurer
of the Brattleboro Gaslight company.
| The move as made by the other two
hardware firms is novel one, but will
undoubtedly be good one if wisely man
| aged. There is said TO be no other town
of its size in New England which supports
three hardware stores, carrying stocks
like those in Brattleboro, and under these
circumstances there has been little margin
for any of them beyond a mere living
Two stores, it is believed, can do all the
business at prices as low as heretofore, and
yield fair return on the capital invested