Residents recall unforgettable downtown characters
| By DENNIS NARTKER KENDALLVILLE — “Main Street is a lawyer’s office, a newsstand, a Coke date, a stray dog, dodging downtown traffic. It’s a men’s store, a boys store, a baby shop and a ladies’ ready-to-wear. It’s green, amber and red lights, complete with walk and wait. Main Street is a dentist’s chair, a shoe shine, a haircut, a bag of popcorn and parallel parking. It’s a movie house, a hardware store and a harangue on the corner, a bottle of booze and a brisket of beef. Main Street is more, too. It’s a Memorial Day parade, a Christmas tree land of lights. Even more, Main Street symbolizes security. As long as there is a Main Street, there is the nation.” — wrote Norman Carter in “The History of Kendallville and Noble County, 1863-1963,” an insert to The News-Sun. (A longtime resident, Carter resides on South Morton Street.) Kendallville’s historic Main Street business district is three blocks long and about 1,500 feet from Rush Street north to the railway tracks. An individual walking at a brisk pace can negotiate the distance in about three to four minutes if the two pedestrian lights are green. Why let over 160 years of history pace by so quickly? Pause and stare at every storefront. The restored facades have a timeless quality. If these buildings could talk, they’d tell us about downtown characters like Sassafras John, Brickley Lawson, Fred Marti, George Vlahakis, Kenny Blech and Cleon Point that passed their way. They’d speak about the stores and businesses in their spaces, like Gutelier’s Store, J.C. Penney’s, G.C. Murphy’s, Cox’s Meat Market, Westphal’s Restaurant, Nartker’s Restaurant, the Kemery Bakery, Morris 5 & 10 Store and Charlie Blumer’s Drug Store. How about the time Buffalo Bill rode through town? Remember the Christmas tree each Christmas in the center of the Main and William streets intersection? The buildings can’t talk, but current and former Kendallville citizens can who remember fondly the downtown characters, stores and special occasions. “That big man who had a horse and wagon, I was afraid when he came to town. When we were kids we were afraid of him,” said Irene Schenher, 79, of Kendallville, when asked about downtown’s characters from the past. Schenher, Bob Klinkenberg, 85, and Russell Frehse, 87, recently sat down at a table in Klinkenberg’s store and talked about their memories of Kendallville’s downtown. Surrounded by unusual sale items, a marble soda fountain and glass display cases that make Klinkenberg’s the oldest and most unique store in Kendallville, these citizens joggled their memories. There was Sassafras John Bates, made famous by the late Arthur Franklin Mapes, Indiana’s poet laureate and Kendallville native, in his poem “The Blacklegs.” “I can remember watching old John Bates walk by and the kids would tag him and say mean things to him because he tried to get enough money when he came to town to buy a drink of booze,” said Frehse. “His home was way out east near the DeKalb County line.” Schenher remembers as a little girl coming uptown on Saturdays to pay the grocery bills. She always stopped at Vetter’s Bakery, 104 S. Main St., started by her grandfather Casper Vetter. “I enjoyed the big sugar cookies and German coffee cakes,” she said. Pat Carteaux of Kendallville also remembers Vetter’s Bakery that became Kemery Bakery in 1949. “Vetter’s made the best pecan rolls in the world,” she said. Phyllis V. Smith of Kendallville calls Vetter’s Bakery the best smelling store on Main Street. “My dad always stopped for cinnamon rolls to have with our coffee and milk when we got home on Saturday nights,” she said. Pam Bailey of Kendallville liked Kemery’s jelly rolls. “Ted Kemery would go in the bakery around 3 a.m. and make the rolls. You could go there early Saturday morning and the bakery smelled of yeast and warm flour. He always had a smile even at that hour in the morning.” At the Palace of Sweets she bought 35-cent tin roof sundaes. “That was my favorite. My father would give me 50 cents for the weekend and that would pay for a movie and a tin roof. That was a lot of money for a teen-ager then,” she said. Frehse worked at Nartker’s Cafe, 107 N. Main St. (now Business Service Company of America) mopping the floor and wiping the windows. Fred Marti, a city police officer who walked Main Street in the 1920s and 1930s, was an imposing figure, according to Frehse, Schenher and Klinkenberg. |
 Irene Schener shares memories
Merchant Bob Klinkenberg
Historian Russell Frehse |
 CHARLIE BLUMER’S DRUG STORE — Charlie Blumer’s Drug Store, in this 1940s photo, was one of the popular places in downtown Kendallville to find relief from hot summer nights. The store had air-conditioning. From left are Charles Blumer and Lauren Eckhart. (Photo contributed by Sharon Stark) |
“He was a big man with huge hands.
He could lift a 60-pound bag of wheat and put it on his
shoulders,” said Frehse. The city Christmas tree erected in the intersection of Main and William streets outside Klinkenberg’s store in the 1920s was a popular holiday tradition. “They took the manhole cover out and put a great big tree in there, then built a rack around it,” said Frehse. Santa Claus visited with children at the tree and people donated gifts and food under the tree. One of Kendallville’s most generous downtown characters, and a man who received national acclaim for his charity, was Lawson Brickley, proprietor of Lawson’s Diner. Located just south of the Corunna Bedding Co. building on the east side of Main Street (now Lookin’ Good Auto Detailing), the diner had a 13-stool counter service with a grill and large coffee urn. Irene Chilcote of Pleasant Lake remembers a 2-inch counter pan filled with smoked sausage 24 hours a day. She worked at the diner in the mid- and late-1940s. At the far end of the counter were two meat stands with roast pork and roast beef. “He sold many sandwiches and was well-known. People from all walks of life entered his little diner at some time or other,” she said. On Dec. 22, 1931, in the midst of the nation’s Great Depression, Brickley began a charitable endeavor that would take him to New York City and national radio. He began serving free meals to the poor, the transient, the hobos, and the destitute, provided they could recite the Lord’s Prayer. “Now if they did not know the Lord’s Prayer, he would give them a card he had printed up with the prayer on it. He would send them away and tell them to come back when they learned it and he would give them a meal,” said Chilcote. “That really amazed me the first time I saw him do that.” Lawson’s unique generosity gained nationwide attention in May 1937 when he appeared on NBC radio’s “We the People” program to explain why he gave free meals to the homeless and beggars. |
| According to the May 13, 1937, News-Sun,
Lawson told the nation it was through the patronage of
citizens at his diner that he was able to hand out free
meals. Lawson taught Chilcote how to fry eggs to help with the busy breakfast shift. “You see, the grill was very slippery and the minute I would crack an egg onto it the egg would slide into the grease trap. Mr. Lawson worked with me for an hour to teach me how to fry an egg on the grill. I can still see it as if it were yesterday,” Chilcote said. Lawson’s unique character was also obvious at lunch time. He had a large dinner bell on a pole outside the diner. At noon he would climb the pole and ring the bell for everyone to hear, according to Chilcote. Cleon Point, former manager of the Strand Theatre, 221 S. Main St. should not be overlooked on the roll of honor of downtown’s unique characters. His scowling face and growling, angry voice set many a misbehaving teen-ager back in his seat. For five decades Point’s life was the theater business, including a stint as a vaudeville stage hand. He went to work at the Strand Theatre in 1946. He was the first manager to bring popcorn and candy to the Strand and conducted everything from stage shows, hoola-hoop contests and give-away drawings to attract crowds. In an article in the Nov. 16, 1989, News-Sun, Point recalled one time when he was prepared to scold a woman in the theater with a crying baby. He heard the baby screaming and marched down the aisle to try and rectify the problem. As he knelt down to tell the mother to “shut the kid up,” he noticed the mother was breast-feeding the baby. As Point described the situation, the well-endowed woman, furious at him, flipped one of her breasts back toward him, nearly knocking him off his feet and filling his face with the milky-white substance. Howard Reick, 92, downtown Kendallville’s oldest active businessman, remembers the day his father, Michael Reick, gave him a beer at the Kelly House (now Kendallville Auto Parts), 101 S. Main St. “My dad gave me a beer in a shot glass there once after we paid our grocery bill at the Colonial Grocery Store,” he said. One of Sharon Stark’s first summer jobs in 1947 was working in Charlie Blumer’s Drug Store, 111 S. Main St. (now Stroman Electronics). “I was really excited about going to work in Charlie Blumer’s store because they had recently remodeled and put in air conditioning. That was my idea of heaven,” she said. “On hot Saturday nights people poured into the store to cool off and have a sundae or soda. As many as seven girls would work behind the soda fountain on a busy night.” Main Street was action central on Saturday nights. “My favorite memory of downtown Kendallville was coming to town on a Saturday night in the early 1960s,” recalls Kathy (Hasselman) Young. “My parents and I would come early to find a parking space. Dad and I walked to the popcorn stand at the corner of Main and William streets to get our favorite popcorn — Dad’s was with peanuts and Mom’s and mine with extra butter. Then we would walk back to the car, eat our popcorn and keep track how many times my brother drove by.” |
 EARLY GROCERY — One of downtown Kendallville’s popular 19th century groceries was Kaiser’s Grocery at 120 S. Main St., shown here in 1875. Store owner and founder John Kaiser is shown on the left. His son George Kaiser, 13, is on the right. A poster in the window promotes “Wallace & Co.’s Great World Menagerie & Museum.” (Photo provided by Phil Kaiser) |
 BUFFALO BILL — “Buffalo Bill” Cody is shown here cruising through Kendallville in 1914 with his wild west show. The Kelly House hotel at 101 S. Main St. (Kendallville Auto Parts) is in the background. Cody was born in 1846 when Iowa was considered the western frontier. He died in 1917. (Photo by Harry Ziebell and contributed by his daughter Margie Misselhorn). |
Gladys Gardner of Kendallville says some
people on Saturdays would park their cars on Main Street,
walk home for supper and come back, assured they had
their favorite parking spots to watch people go by. As a little girl, Marie E. Schwartz of Kendallville went uptown on Saturday nights with her parents clutching a dime she could spend. “I remember holding that dime in my hand until it was time to go home, then we’d go to Wright’s Ice Cream store, 115 E. Rush St., and get a half-pint of maple nut ice cream.” Pamela Mortimore Bryant has fond memories of the G.C. Murphy’s store, 106 and 108 S. Main St. (now Weible’s Paint & Wallpaper). “Murphy’s was a special place to me as a young girl. My mother was employed there for nearly 50 years. To me she was Murphy’s,” said Bryant. Murphy’s was the place to shop in the 1950s and 1960s. Shopping there was socializing for many people. “Men would gather near the front doors (waiting for their wives to finish shopping) and talk about everything from farm crops, to politics and the weather. As they talked they ate from sacks of roasted redskin peanuts or cashews,” she said. At 8:55 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, store management played a recording of Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” indicating to shoppers the store was closing. “Kendallville’s downtown was a wonderful place to work and grow up,” said Bryant. Downtown visitors sometimes stayed at the Kendall Hotel, (now the KeyBank parking lot) in the 100 block of North Main Street. June Phillips of Kendallville worked there in 1944 as a waitress and remembers why she soon learned the location of the hotel restrooms. “One day a lady came in for dinner and asked where the restrooms were,” Phillips remembers. “I was new on the job and couldn’t answer her question and told her to ask at the front desk. She looked at me and said ‘Hmm, you just work here.’” As a young boy, Ray Kurtz of Kendallville would go to the barbershop below the Kendall Hotel, read the newspaper sports pages and comics and watch traveling salesmen get their haircuts. Rimmell’s Hat Shop, 133 S. Main St. (now Regal’s Outlet Store), was where women would gather in the 1940s to have their hats trimmed with bows, flowers and ribbons, according to Virginia B. Sigler of Wildwood, Fla. The candy counter in the Morris 5 & 10 Cent Store, 110 S. Main St. (now Weible’s Paint & Wallpaper) was one of the popular downtown stores on Saturday nights. Alice Swogger of Kendallville worked behind the counter. “It was a dizzy pace waiting on customers lined up three deep to buy a nickel’s worth of jawbreakers or a half-pound of chunk chocolate. Starting pay was 30 cents an hour. We were afraid to snitch a piece of candy because the manager was George Kirkwood, and his reprimands were swift and caustic.” Mayor Larry McGahen recalls a fire at the Kaiser Grocery when his father, Bill McGahen, was a volunteer with the fire department. |
| “I can remember going uptown to
watch the fire and hearing one of the firefighters say we
can’t find McGahen. I ran home crying and telling my
mother. We learned that Dad was upstairs fighting the
fire and left the building using the rear stairs.” Lucky’s Tavern, Banner Grocery, Sellick’s, The Mode, The Toggery, The Melody Bar, Vanderburg’s Meat Market, J.C. Penney’s, Burger’s Tavern, Carney Henry’s Barber Shop, Gutelius Drug Store, Seagly’s Hardware, Miss Irie’s Gift Shop, Swartzlander’s Jewelry, Butch’s Novelty Shop, Skinner’s Sewing Center, Haffner’s 5 & 10, The Cinderella, Stemen’s Cafe |
 MAIN STREET CROWDS — This photo of downtown Kendallville in the 1920s shows the Kelly House hotel (now Kendallville Auto Parts) at the corner of Main and Mitchell streets. Note the crowded streets, angle parking and decorative streetlights. (Photo taken by Harry Ziebell and provided by Margie Misselhorn) |
 DOWNTOWN CELEBRATION — This historic photo taken in the 1920s of Kendallville’s downtown business district shows a band leading a parade. Note the view looking south with the tower on top of the Keller building, sometimes referred to as the Spindler building (now the Northeastern Center) in the 200 block of South Main Street. (Photo contributed by Russell Frehse) |
and Campbell Co. Dry Goods are among the hundreds of different
businesses over the years that characterized Kendallville’s
Main Street business district.
Parades, political rallies and holiday celebrations, windows
painted KHS red and gold, then East Noble High School blue and
gold, angle parking, then parallel parking, crowds of shoppers,
then skateboarders and rollerbladers, hobby shops and coffee
shops, then video stores, baseball cards and the Olympia Sweet
Shoppe returns.
So many memories, so many changes.
Frehse, whose documentation of local history is unmatched by any
other, says it best: ‘‘Don’t quote me, quote the
source. In the Bible in Ecclesiastes, it says, ‘That which
has been is that which shall be. There is nothing new under the
sun.’’’
