The end of an era, part 1

Last Friday, August 4, 2017 marked the end of an era in McIntosh. Saturday morning as the city went about its business, there was no longer a hardware store business in town. After combining the McIntosh Country Store with the McIntosh Hardware Store in 2015, Lee and DeeDee Narum had a difficult time maintaining the business, as it was difficult to keep up with the bills which found both of them working full-time at other jobs to keep the doors of the store open. Sadly, the now changing small town business struggle took its toll and the store was forced to close its doors.

The store is mostly known as the Abrahamson Hardware Store which had its beginnings in 1913 when J.H. Holton and Gilbert Abrahamson formed a partnership and signed up to become affiliated with the newly organized cooperative of self-owned hardware stores in Minnesota known as the Hall Hardware Company. 

Holton, an experienced plumber and tinsmith, and Abrahamson, proprietor of a feed store and short line implement business, had discussed their plans for some time. They had also considered the needs of the community. There were three large mercantile businesses that sold groceries, dry goods and clothing in McIntosh. One of the stores, a large, two-story structure known at Carpenter and Webster’s, was destroyed by fire in 1909. The standing walls of the ruin became the shell for the new hardware store.

Gunhild and Gilbert Abrahamson’s daughter, Rosetta, and her husband, Theodore Thompson, joined the business in the early 1930’s. In 1935 the partnership came to an end when Abrahamson became the sole owner and J.H. Holton went into the lightning rod and plumbing business. Mr. Abrahamson's health was failing and he lived only two more years. When Theodore Thompson died one year later, the responsibility fell to Rosetta.

Her mother kept the big house on the corner behind the store and shared the tasks of raising the three Thompson Children, Gordon, Martha and Harald.

Mrs. Thompson discussed the present needs of the business with C.M. Berg, president of the First National Bank. Although the risk of default on a loan was considerable, he weighed the needs of the community, the needs of the family and the long-standing reputation for the reliability in his decision to grant the loan for operating capital. Those first years alone were difficult ones Hours were long, profits were minimal, worries were many and merchandise on the display shelves was often so limited that empty boxes were used to fill up empty spaces.

Continued in next weeks edition of the McIntosh Times.