Early in 2017, I was invited by Luke Havel to meet with him and a man named Jim Fischer at the Stone Spiral Cafe. Jim brought with him a box containing many historic items either related to Maplewood or to his family. The box and contents, he gave to us. I scanned everything and put the images in a file called Jim Fischer’s Box.
I tried to do the right thing with the items in the box. Some I added to the collection at the Maplewood Public Library. There were a few newspapers. The Post or Globe on earth shaking events, i.e.: the Kennedy assassination, landing on the moon, Nixon resigning, etc. There was a copy of the 1904 Christmas Edition of the Suburban Journal which featured Maplewood but we already have a couple of copies of the same.
Jim Fischer was just the nicest guy. Plus his family story was very interesting. He was related to Adolph Fischer who was executed for his part in the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886. As the article in Wikipedia puts it, “No single event has influenced the history of labor in Illinois, the United States, and even the world, more than the Chicago Haymarket Affair.” The history of labor is very important to me. I have been a member of the United Auto Workers since January 2, 1968. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Go unions!
Jim’s ancestors operated a meat market in Maplewood. Two of the Fischer brothers married two of the Ziegler girls whose family owned a hardware store just steps away from the Fischer market.
Family descendant, Bradley S. Ziegler has done a remarkable job of recording the Ziegler part of this story. We’re very lucky to have this information in our archive. Brad and Jim, we can’t thank you enough.
Whew! Have you had enough Ziegler for awhile? I know I have. This is not all of the information that I have on these two families but we need to take a breather. I’ll do a followup in the near future.
All of this, of course, is the work of Bradley S. Ziegler and we thank him. I’ll include some of what Jim Fischer donated in the followup.
Well, the Ukraine war drags on. Those poor folks have my deepest sympathy. At this moment, the nuclear power plant is in jeopardy. Pray that we get safely past this global threat.
Summer is winding down. Fortunately for us heatophiles the temperatures are staying in the high 80s and low 90s. It’s atmospheric bliss, I’m telling you. All it takes is a little adjustment in your expectations and sweat.
Doug Houser September 1, 2022
Brad Ziegler, the author of this family history, responded by email when I thanked him for sharing it with us. He said, “Thank you Doug. Hope it may be of help to someone someday! The info is little value if we don’t share it with others…” I’m sure it will. Thanks again, Brad.
So were there three hardware stores in Maplewood before 1910? When did Ziegler’s close? We were where Dominoes/Subway/Mystic Valley are now (closer to Manchester) from 1906-about 1916 when we moved to 7320 and became Scheidt Hardware. There was also the hardware store next to Maplewood Bank and the mysterious signage still visible on the Sutton side of Rich’s. Seems like a lot. Would be interesting to see the overlaps.
Hey George, The 1912 Maplewood Business Directory lists three hardware stores. Milligan, Jos. 3532a Greenwood Boul., Scheidt, E.L., 7275-77 Manchester Ave., and Wilson, Lee, 7325 Manchester Ave. That’s it. No Ziegler. They must have closed before 1912.
So I walked out front to have a look because I was trying to figure out the “Looking East from Sutton” caption on the Ziegler Brothers Hardware Store picture. That picture was taken from somewhere across the street from us. Quite a way from Sutton. It also looks like there was a street where the “Knights of Columbus” building is now.
Note the detail on the roofline of the building to the East. It is all gone now.
That building has similar corbel stone detail as our building. Neat. When they redid the front on the KoC building after the fire they cut into the corbel detail on that building and our building. It also has three petty neat steel “plinth” blocks under columns. The only other building with plinths is the one where the steel beam is in the front.