Milford chronicle., 1960-07-29
| Remember Milford
BY George D. Fruitt
Retail business

Retail Business
Most of the retail stores were
concentrated in the area around
the First National Bank, but later
an entire block of stores was built
on the south side of the "crick''
across from Smoot's Hotel. This de-
yeIopment was known as the Wat
son Block. Let's see if / can re-
member what was there. The Lat
chum and Davis tailoring estab-
iishment came first, then Golling-
er's Bakery and the speciality shop
of Miss Sallie e. Reedy. The Foulk
and Delamater drugstore was next
to the dry goods shop of James and
Will Deputy and the jewelry store
of S. c. Evans.
In North Milford William A.
Humes had a hardware store and
employed Willard Lank as the in
side man. John Carmean operated
on the outside and supervised the
drilling of wells and other activi-
ties. Later, Carmean formed a part
nership with Jas. Pierce-Pierce
and Carmean which became Pierce
Bros. J. Harry Humes grew up
and joined his father in business
and today his sons run the hard
ware store.
Asbury "Berry') Smith had a
grocery store next to David Hol-
lands place which was on the cor
ner where the present movie thea
tire is located. On the east side of
Walnut Street, another drugstore
! 1--WE seem to have had plenty of
these) was operated by Harris
Paige next to George H. Halls shoe
store. Then came William A. Tru-
tits general merchandise store. A
group of ramshackle buildings soon
owned by the Deputy brothers who
gave way to a new brick structure
| leased it to Mr.. Hall for the estab-
| lishment of Milford's first depart
ment store. / believe that Harry
Ennis eventually took over the shoe
department.
The town was becoming an at
tractive and busy center. Even
Theodore Williams decided to move
| from his farm on the road to Hous-
ton and open bicycle shop and
deal in real estate. Also in North
Milford, Benjamin Anderson had a
grocery store, j. Weslet Truitt a
dry goods shop, and Mrs. Annie
Jump ran a millinery store.
Next to the bridge. Jas. H. Lat
chum had a tobacco and cOnfec-
tfonery store. The wooden Indian
stood out front and welcomed you
to buy snuff, chewing tobacco, ci-
gars, candy, and fruit (bananas-
| ten cents a dozen). Cigarettes were
just beginning to make their ap-
pearance and were sold in limited
quantities. Attached to each was a
glass holder. Indeed, this was a
fancy way to use tobacco and ap-
parently those who claimed that
cigarettes were 'eoffin nails" seiz-
| ed on the glass holder as adequate
| justification of their claim that
these cigarette thing should not be
touched.
| Saturdays
Then as now Saturday was big
shopping day. In old Milford it was
THE day for the farmer who
brought his wares into town for
sale and came himself to stock up
on his weeks provisions. By eleven
o'clock every available post had
horse and carriage or wagon
hitched to it. BY afternoon, even
| the trees in the residential sections
were being pressed into use. Don't
be deceived Milford had plenty of
parking problems in those days,
too. Numerous disputes took place
between the people who owned the
horses and those who owned the
property because the horses gnaw-
ed the bark off the trees. Some
property owners tried to protect
the young trees with wooden Stats,
but even then their tops would dis
appear.
Farmers and their wives arrived
from as far away as Frederica,
Houston, Lincoln, Ellendale, and
Milton. Most farm wagons were
filled with butter, eggs, sausage,
scrapple, honey, fire wood, and gen.
eraI farm produce. Everything was
| for sale, but generally the barter
system prevailed. The farm wag-
| OnS would draw up 10 the Sned OF
a store and dicker with the store
owner about exchanging farm pro-
duce for. staples and merchandise.
Cash was rarely involved in the
transaction. The farmer could al
ways leave his produce and take
a due bill',, If he did not wish to
take merchandise in trade. In this
way, he could develop standing
credit for the next time he came to
| town.
Saturday was also THE day for
the townspeople, too. For some
reason it was the day people were
always running out of things nee
essary to make life go. 1t was al
most second nature to calculate
time in terms of how many Satur-