The End of an Age (The Story of the Store)

[continued from here]

This announcement in the Hobart Gazette of March 26, 1915, signaled that the Age of Raschka in Ainsworth had come to an end.



"Goldman" was Charles Goldman of Hobart. "Mintz" was Max Mintz of Chicago, the brother of Charles' wife Amelia.

Charles was then about 38 years old, Amelia 32. They had married in 1904. The 1910 census shows just the two of them, but the 1920 census attributes to them a 16-year-old daughter — go figure. I don't know how or where they spent the first few years of their marriage, but eventually they began operating a confectionery-and-cigar store in Hobart. That enterprise went on for several years and did so well that around 1914 they expanded their operations to manufacture their own ice cream.

In February 1915, the Goldmans sold their Hobart store. The buyers were Ed Fiester (son of John by his first wife, Amanda) and Fred Rose, Jr. (son of the Marshal and his wife, Anna).

At that time the Goldmans had no particular plans for the future — or so they said. "Mr. Goldman now feels he is in a position to tackle a larger and heavier business," the Hobart News stated, "although he has not as yet decided just what he will do." But they may have already been in negotiations with the Raschkas, for it was only two weeks later that they announced their purchase of the whole Raschka enterprise: the inventory of merchandise, buildings that housed it and the half-acre of land on which it all stood.

The News commented, "The Raschka store is considered one of the best general stores and one of the best trading points in this territory, and Mr. and Mrs. Raschka during the fourteen years they have been in business at Ainsworth have done well and feel they have earned a much-needed rest."

They intended to move to Hobart to take that rest. The next few weeks were filled with house-moving in Ainsworth and Hobart. The Raschkas left their home over the store and moved into a rented house in Hobart formerly occupied by Arthur Brabbs. The Goldmans then left their rooms over the Gem Theatre in Hobart and moved to the store building in Ainsworth; Mr. and Mrs. H.T. Coons, who ran the Gem, took over their vacated rooms. Max Mintz had declared his intention to "move to Ainsworth and take an active part in the business," but whether he moved in with the Goldmans over the store, or took other quarters, I do not know.

Thus began the Age of Goldman in Ainsworth.

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I imagine that if you went to do business in downtown Ainsworth about this time, you were in for an aurally interesting experience. Charles Goldman had been about 14 when he emigrated from Russia, so you may have heard a Russian or Yiddish accent as you did business with him. If you went straight across the road for a drink, you might have caught a slight German accent from William Wollenberg, who left his homeland at 13. Stop in at the blacksmith shop or dance hall, and you could hear the Swedish accents of Gust and Anna Lindborg. If neighbors came in, you might have heard more Swedish and German accents, as well as Polish and even French. (And if the hired force on the old Chester homestead retained the polyglot nature it displayed in the 1910 census, you may have heard accents reminiscent of Denmark, England, Italy and — West Virginia.)


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Announcement." Hobart Gazette 26 Mar. 1915.
♦ "Chas. Goldman Buys Out Raschka at Ainsworth." Hobart Gazette 4 Mar. 1915.
♦ "Fiester & Rose Buy Goldman's Confectionery." Hobart News 18 Feb. 1915.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 26 Mar. 1915.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 11 Mar. 1915; 25 Mar. 1915.
♦ "Raschka Sells Out to Goldman." Hobart Gazette 5 Mar. 1915.