The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-10-12
Commercial Club viii Honor Business
Career of George H. Knollenberg

The anniversary celebration which
the Commercial club is planning in
honor of George H. Knollenberg, the
oldest merchant in Richmond, to COM
memorate his entrance into CONNER
cial life here in the fall of 1852, calls
attention to the growth of his store
from small room to it's present pre-
tentious proportions.
native of this city, born of Ger
man parents, who same here with the
influx of Germans between 1885 and
1888, Mr.. Knollenberg has seen and
participated in the commercial growth
and expansion of Richmond. Deeply
interested in educational and religious
life, he has done much to further
these causes in Richmond.
Fifty years ago he laid the founda-
tion Of his business career by begin
ming as clerk in the store of Emswiler
& Croker. Fortysix years ago, he OPP
ened his first store in Richmond
1t was in the fall of 1862, when in
his fifteenth year, that Mr.. Knollen-
berg entered the store of Emswiler e
Croker, wholesale and retail notions
and fancy goods dealers, and during
the following three years he enjoyed a
careful business training. In the mean
time, he realized the necessity of COM
mercial training and finished a course
in the Commercial college at Indiana
polls. Then he entered the services of
a wholesale firm in Cincinnati, and in
1865, after Emswiler & Croker had
dissolved partnership, Mr.. knollenberg
accepted an offer of Alvin e. Crocker,
who had embarked in the wholesale
business under the firm name of Spen-
Ger, Croker & company, to back him
if he cared to engage in the retail bus
mess in Richmond
His First Venture.
Renting a small room, 1Sx65 feet in
one-story frame building situated on
the site to the right of the main en-
trance of the present store, on Main
street, Mr.. Knollenberg opened the
business with one lady clerk as as
sistant. In three years the success of
the venture was assured.
He had established a growing and
prosperous business and established
an enviable credit in the wholesale
markets of the East Within five years
he had doubled the capacity of the
store by renting the room adjoining
his original store. The stock was en-
larged, additional clerks, including his
brothers and sisters, were hired and
the business expanded accordingly.
- In 1877, he made what he now re-
CARDS, considering his circumstances
then, the greatest venture of his ca
reer That year he bought the site of
his store, 36x95, at a cost of $4,000 and
expended $4,000 in constructing the
most pretentious retail business house
in the city. The store boosted three
stories and basement, stone and iron
front, into which he put a stock of
goods that far surpassed anything he
had imagined when he first embarked
in the retail business.
Uses Printers Ink.
He doubled his business in three
years, and cOgniZant of the value of
advertising spent about $4,000 annual
ly at this early date to get his name
and goods before the people. He be-
lieved in the efficiency of printers ink.
principle which he has observed to
this day. In his advertisements he
sought to secure the confidence of the
trade and to maintain in fact what he
promised in his business appeals. The
public evidently believed the sincerity