July 29, 2015 at 5:11 p.m.
The best of 'I Recall': Montgomery Ward celebrates birthday
The best of 'I Recall': Montgomery Ward celebrates birthday
Fifty years ago this week, Rhinelander entered what was described then as "a new and revolutionary trend in merchandising" as the Montgomery Ward store opened its doors for the first time.
The anniversary has special meaning for three well-known Rhinelander men - Norman S. Hoel and Lloyd Gullikson, who came here to help open the store, and Wesley Higgs, who started as a clerk and later became assistant manager.
Hoel, who had been a Ward employee for 18 months, came here from Oshkosh to be manager of the new store. He was 28 years old. Gullikson, who also had been in the Oshkosh store, accompanied Hoel to Rhinelander.
The Daily News devoted much of its Aug. 23, 1929 edition to stories and photographs dealing with the opening of the store. It had been built by Edward Elkon, an enterprising Rhinelander businessman. The grand opening was Saturday, Aug. 24, with 110 persons employed as sales people the first few days. The regular staff totaled 40.
Elkon built the store at a cost of $75,000. Work started on the brick structure in April and the building was completed in less than four months. It took 13 railroad carloads of merchandise to stock the new store, which was called the "Marshall Field of northern Wisconsin."
Top personnel, besides Hoel as manager, included L.P. Howard as assistant, C.J. Highly as first floor manager, V.A. Falstrom in charge of men's furnishings, E.E. Brigham as manager of textiles, and E.N. Cantwell as furniture manager.
The Daily News stories told how the store was expected to enlarge the Rhinelander trading area considerably, how apartments in the city were at a premium because of the influx of Ward personnel, how local businessmen were entertained by Ward officials prior to the opening, and how the new store would increase tax revenues for the city.
An editorial by Publisher Clifford G. Ferris greeted the opening of the store as "indicative of a new and revolutionary trend in merchandising in northern Wisconsin."
Other stories that day and succeeding days described how Ward officials came here for the opening in a Ford tri-motor plane of Universal Air Lines and aboard two Fokkers and a Bellanca cabin plane. All of the planes landed and took off without incident at the city's tiny airfield in the Oneida County Fairgrounds.
The Rhinelander men remember store hours in those days were from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, for Rhinelander was a Saturday night town at that time.
Employees had to sweep out the store and cover merchandise counters with muslin drapes after the store closed.
Store clerks in those days were paid a weekly salary and worked whatever hours were required without any overtime. That was true of all stores during the Depression years. When male employees were called upon to work several hours at night, they were given a 50-cent meal allowance. All employees were required to help with inventory, which was always done on New Year's Day and took most of the day.
Occasionally on Sunday, the men on the staff would be called upon to treat the hardwood floors with linseed oil. The flooring had come from the Robbins Flooring Co. plant in Rhinelander and was termed the best hardwood product available anywhere in the country.
Hoel and Gullikson left Rhinelander in 1931 to return to Oshkosh, but the next year were transferred Mankato, Minnesota. Gullikson returned to Rhinelander in 1933 and worked for the Rhinelander Paper Co. a couple of years. He opened his own store, Lloyd's Music and Appliance, in 1939.
Hoel worked for a state agency after leaving the Ward organization in 1933, and returned to Rhinelander in 1940 to "help out" his father-in-law, the late Herman Bostrom, "for about 90 days." His stay has extended to the present as he took over the real estate business he now operates.
Higgs, an assistant manager at 21, was sent to Devils Lake, North Dakota, to help open a new store, and later to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, for the same purpose. He returned to Rhinelander and worked and worked in the Sharka Hardware store until 1936, when he joined Daniels Packaging Co., where he was employed in the personnel department until retirement in 1973.
Hoel, who came to Rhinelander Aug. 10, 1929, was succeeded as manager in January 1931 by Lloyd G. (Mac) McFarland, who had been assistant manager. McFarland left June 25, 1942, and was replaced by Leonard A. (Scotty) Glinski, who served as manager until Nov. 6, 1968, when he was transferred to Marquette, Michigan, and was replaced by the present manager, Walter L. Friedman.
Friedman, a native of Austin, Minnesota, began his career with Montgomery Ward Sept. 13, 1937, in Carroll, Iowa, as manager of several departments. He later served as assistant manager at stores in Spencer, Iowa, Moline, Illinois, Billings, Montana, and Sioux City, Iowa, Devil's Lake, North Dakota, and Columbus, Nebraska.
In 1957, he was named district sales manager, but when that position was eliminated, he became manager at DeKalb, Illinois, coming to Rhinelander from that location. Friedman and his wife, Louise, have six children, only one still at home.
Mel's Trading Post now inhabits the Montgomery Ward store.
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