Ottoville Items - 1931

12-7-1931 DH

Ottoville Business Is Reorganized

Wanamaker Hardware Concern is Incorporated as the Wanamaker Hardware Company – Business in Existence Under Control of Same Family for More Than Half a Century

            A change has been made in one of the oldest business institutions in Ottoville. The Wanamaker Company has been reorganized and will hereafter be known as the Wanamaker Hardware Corporation.

            This concern dates back more than fifty years in its mercantile operations in Ottoville, Charles Wanamaker, who formerly spelled his name Wannemacher, having started the first hardware store in Ottoville in the year 1880. It is stated that of all the business firms in that village in existence at the time, this is the only one that has continuously remained in control of the same family up to the present time.

            There have been a number of changes in the firm, however. In 1887, Joseph C. Wanamaker, eldest son of the founder of the business, became associated with his father as a partner, the firm name becoming Charles Wanamaker & Son. This firm was continued until the death of Charles Wanamaker in 1898. The business was then in operation for about two years by Joseph C. Wanamaker and his brother Stephen. The firm of C. Wanamaker & Sons was then formed with another brother, Alex F, becoming a partner. Stephen P. Wanamaker retired from the business in 1929 and the remaining two members of the firm continued under the same firm name until the later part of last week when The Wanamaker Hardware Company was formed under Joseph C. Wanamaker and his three sons, Martin J., Urban F., and Arnold A., as stockholders. The business will in the future be under the control of a son and grandsons of the founder.

            All of the men actively connected with the present organization were born in and lived most of their lives in Ottoville and have long and extensive experience in the hardware business there.

            The new organization is making plans to improve its facilities for serving the
Ottoville community and is contemplating adding several new lines.