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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1963)
Arthur Quackenbushes Recall Early Eugene By BOB NEWCOMB ur uu BrfUUr-Guard At the respectable age of 80, Arthur R. Quackenbush is not about to retire as own er and manager of what is probably the oldest retail firm in Eugene in terms of single ownership. Quackenbush's years do not deter him from working daily every day of the week at the store in down town Eugene that bears his name. "You can just about set your watch by the time he passes by here in his pickup truck on his way to work," one long time Eugene businessman says of him. This spring, Quackenbush Hardware Store at 160 E. Broadway will mark its 60th year of continuous operation at its original location. The other day Quackenbush and his wife, Mien, who'serves as a partner in the firm, cast an eye on an earlier era in Eu gene. They saw more than a few contrasts. Quackenbush, wearing a tan coat with a cluster of pencils sticking out of the pocket, pointed to the ceiling of the lm i i - ' - I Stamps mm..m,,mrm,lm.v,,mt n:l, in.. .m. , , jr. jf,,mu,.,mi, , L:... i -vT" r "... I -J ! H Commemoratives Planned THE UNITED NATIONS Postal Administration will is sue a set of commemoratives in October to honor the role of the U.N. in West New Guinea. During the month of June the U.N. will issue three airmail stamps (6 cents, 8 c and 13 c). The 13-center will show the slender figure of a bird in the shape of a palm leaf. Further details and dates of issuance will be reported in this column as soon as they become available. THE REPUBLIC OF PAN AMA reports that it has over printed its 5 cents, 10 c and 31 e stamps which honored . the orbital flight of Col. John Glenn with a Red Cross em blem in red. Also overprinted on these stamps are the dates 1863-1963 to mark the cen tenary of the International Red Cross. The first day of issue was March 4. HEADQUARTERS HEAVENLY 5l CARPETS by LEES Shop or home, where you con match your furnishings to perfeetioa We'll bring samples! two-story store building in which he has worked since he was 20 years old. He helped ouua u. "I was young and husky back in those days," he re calls. "I remember I helped raise the 2-by-12 ceiling beams. We had to raise them by hand it was the only way then." He speaks quietly in re flection, smiling a little. His brown eyes are clear as is his memory. He recalls, without having to look up the date, that it was in the spring of 1902 that he and his father, J. V. Quackenbush, arrived in Eu gene from Nebraska with in tentions of opening a hard ware and farm machinery business. And he recalls, also vividly, the time he and his family attended the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha. He was then 16. "My father spent quite a bit of time at the Oregon ex hibition," he says, adding that the Oregon booth was fronted by a 36 square-inch timber. He remembers the size. How much influence that exhibit had on his father's i r Helen Quackenbush Checks China Shelves THE SYRIAN ARAB . RE PUBLIC has announced from Damascus the issuance of sev eral sets of new stamps. In cluded are: a set of airmails featuring a portrait of Zeno bia, Queen of Palmyra; an airmail showing a portrait of Sa'adallah Jabiri; and air mails depicting native cos tumes. ... FOR 2681 Willamette Ph. Dl 5-4633 deqision to move to Oregon, he doesn t know. But the elder Quackenbush made study of various parts of the country before deciding, be says. The father and son pre ceded the other family mem bers to Oregon. They came by train, "which crossed the Columbia River on a ferry. And we stopped in Portland and Albany before, coming to Eugene," lie reflects. "I remember father said, 'This Eugene ought to be all right. It'll make a good town ... not a big city.' That's just the way he sized it up." . The younger Quackenbush was 19 when he and his father settled on Eugene as the fam ily's future home. He had finished a year and a half of undergraduate study at the University of Nebraska. After arriving in Eugene, he en rolled at the University of Oregon, but left after one semester to help his father build the new store. He's still there. The firm opened in 1903 as a hardware and farm machin ery store.- It featured horse drawn farm equipment in those days. It was founded i'TV-V ill (Register-Guard photos by PhU Grenon) IT'S HERE! The Fredelle guard welcomes the intrigue of ; exciting, new, natural hand woven leathers from Italy . . , made with the soft natural tanning found only in fine Italian footwear. Combinations of subtle tones . . , textured glamour in these Stacked Heels. TENTH AND WILLAMETTE EUSENE. 0KEC0H as J. W. Quackenbush & Sons, a partnership of the senior Quackenbush, Arthur, and an other son, Ivan C, who died in 1917. The senior Quacken bush died in 1925. The firm still carries the assumed name J. W. Quackenbush & Sons. In those days when the 20th Century was in its infancy, so was the city of Eugene. Today Quackenbush recalls that Broadway (then Ninth Street) and Willamette Street were gravel roads, edged with trees and boardwalks. The Quackenbushes both laughed as they told of the board crosswalks at intersec tions. A badly placed foot could prove embarassing. "There were no automobiles then," he said. "The South ern Pacific depot at the foot of Willamette was just a lit tle wooden building. There were hitching posts all around the city park." i It was because of a petition circulated by Arthur Quack enbush in that horse-and-buggy era that the present Broadway Street is so named. Another man by the name of Johnston "I can't recall his first name now" helped cir culate the petition. "And not a one refused to sign." There were then about 3,000 people living in Eugene, he' recalls. , ' Quackenbush has not seen any wartime service. "I was a little bit too young for the Spanish-American War," he says, "and about 30 at the ,time of World War I." Has Eugene changed much? Are the people different to day than they were then? Quackenbush answers the question with a gentle laugh. ; "There were doctors, store keepers, preachers and real estate men." But business has changed considerable, as has the pace of life. The store then sold chipping and splitting tools to farmers, who provided the ' Southern Pacific with wood for their old steam engines. "The Oregon Electric was not here then." . , Quackenbush did a big business in buggies, buggy whips and coal-oil lanterns, he remembers. ' And the weather has changed it's become more blustery. Quackenbush . says he can't recall a windstorm to match the Columbus Day storms of last year. Quackenbush's Hard ware has become almost legendary in Eugene as a place where almost anything can be pur chased. One story has it that long after horse and buggies had given way to the auto mobile, a man from Goshen walked into the store wonder ing if he could buy a buggy Jhrough the store's ordering service. The clerk, according to the story, said, "just a minute." Then a minute later wheeled a buggy out of the storeroom. 'aaer's Arthur Quackenbush Sends Sales Slip to Office The store itself has under gone big changes over the years. After the senior Quack enbush died, in 192S, it began taking on a different charac ter, under a woman's touch. Mrs. Arthur Quackenbush, who formerly was a teacher, recalls that she started work ing at the store about that time, part time, and gradually became a full working part ner. Today she manages a por tion of the store devoted to chinaware, costume jewelry, toys and a variety of other things "principally of inter est to women," she says. The 1 9 L3 & ' J f Vi store has been enlarged sev eral times. Mr. and Mrs. Quackenbush, who were married July 12, 1922, each often put in a seven-day week at the store. Quackenbush also operates a 220-acro ore hard near Springfield, and is one of the largest filbert growers in the state. He and his wife live in Eugene, however, at 199S Pot ter St. And he has no thought of retiring from business. Says Mrs. Quackenbush of her husband's work: "It's so much a part of him BLACK OR BEIGE 20.00 FLAT HEEL BEIGE 13.00 BEIGE AND BROWN 20.04 EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Sunday, April 21, 1963 Page SB - now he has to come down here even on Sundays. I don't know what he d do without It,' THE UNSLIPPABLE by WARNER'S! A light, lacy strapless that uxm't illpf That delicate "lace" isn't lace. It' something new lace-printed spandex and It actually clings to your back, won't slip or slide! Be cause it's airy spondex, It never feels clammy. The contour cups are topped with real lace, hook up prettily In front. 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