Historic Highlights: Hardware stores have changed with the times

Since colonial days, hardware stores have been a part of daily life in many American towns, and like the rest of society, have changed with the times. Some hardware outlets have been in business since before the Civil War.

One source reports that the oldest hardware store in the United States is Cowls Building Supply of Amherst, Massachusetts, which has been in operation since 1741, 35 years before the Declaration of Independence.

The Tinsman Brothers store in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, has operated since 1785, while Foster Farrar in Northhampton, Massachusetts, first opened for business in 1796.

In 1850, Placerville Hardware in Placerville, California, opened during the California Gold Rush. It’s still in business, 175 years later. The store’s wooden counters still have slots that were cut for miners to pay in gold dust, rather than cash.

Placerville Hardware is the oldest hardware store west of the Mississippi River, but in Illinois, one hardware outlet is even older. Maze Lumber Co. in the Illinois River town of Peru opened in 1848 by Samuel Maze, an Irish immigrant who built up a lumber business by floating wood products for customers on a mule-driven barge down from Chicago on the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

Still located in its original location on Water Street in Peru, Maze Lumber is now operated by fifth- and sixth-generation family members.

Priestley Hardware, in the northwestern Illinois town of Princeton, dates to 1854. Fifty-five miles west, another longtime Illinois business is Trevor Hardware on 16th Street in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Moline.

The business opened in 1887, and since then, it has been located in three different buildings, all in a four-block area. Like Maze, it also now has fifth- and sixth-generation family employees.

As years passed, hardware goods were sold in some general stores as well as in peddler wagons. A number of small-town hardware stores were operated by immigrants, particularly Germans.

Many early hardware businesses offered appliances like cookstoves, as well as farm implements. The art of blacksmithing also went with many hardware outlets, as tin and other metals were in high demand. By the turn of the 20th century, tinners were a necessary job in many hardware stores.

In some ways, the product lines of many 19th-century hardware stores resemble those of today. In central Illinois in the Civil War era, a newspaper advertisement for the Carlinville business of George W. Woods offered a comprehensive product selection, including “cutlery, stoves and farm implements.”

Woods also had plows, hoes, shovels, chains, hay knives, hay rakes forks and scythes, as well as augers, picks, tacks, saws, drawing knives, chisels, hinges, castors, carriage bolts, trowels, spurs, iron, files, hammers, screws, bolts and nails.

By the late 19th century, the product lines had expanded, and in some cases, become specialized. In 1898, another Carlinville hardware retailer, S.S. Woodward, stocked bicycles, garden and seed products, and refrigerators, as well as a line of surreys, carriages, and road and spring wagons.

Other stores offered gunsmith and locksmith services, as well as furnace and appliance repair and cleaning supplies.

Stoves remained popular selections in hardware stores for decades. By World War I, two-burner wick oil stoves cost $18 in some hardware outlets, while a three-burner model went for $24.50. Some stores promoted their self-cleaning stoves, which may or may not have been safe.

As electronics took root in the mid-20th century, some hardware stores began carrying radio and television equipment. Others catered to sportsmen with hunting and fishing supplies.

Even the smallest towns had multiple options in hardware. In east-central Illinois, the town of Marshall had three hardware outlets in 1904, while in central Illinois, there were four in Petersburg and two in Virden.

However, by the 1980s, many independent hardware stores began to close. In Carlinville, Miller Hardware, which had originated in 1864 from a store opened by German immigrants, closed in 1983 after 119 years in business. Twelve miles south, ownership of a longtime True Value outlet closed the store in 2017 after 41 years.

In 2019, Jebens Hardware in Blue Island, which was the oldest hardware store in Cook County, shut down after 143 years in business.

Today, some small towns have no hardware stores at all, while in larger areas, many hardware outlets have been replaced by Walmart and big-box home improvement stores like Lowe’s, The Home Depot and Menards.

Some communities are more fortunate. In central Illinois, Bishop Ace Hardware evolved from a family business in Springfield in 1960 to a 13-store chain, servicing small towns like Carlinville, Havana, Pittsfield and Hillsboro to mid-size cities like Jacksonville and larger areas like Springfield and Normal. The chain sold to Ace Retail Holdings in 2024, with all stores remaining open.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.