Ramsey County History – Fall 1974: “The Necessities of Life, Available Early on the Frontier”

The Necessities of Life, Available Early on the Frontier
Author: Kevin Galvin

Six businesses operating downtown in 1859 were still in actively running in 1974. The author traces their histories. Philip Fabel began selling handmade shoes in 1856. His descendants still run the store. Albrecht Furs began in 1855, continuing a family business begun more than a century earlier in Germany. Today the St. Paul founder’s grandson runs the firm. St. Paul Book and Stationery began in 1851 as D.D. Merrill’s notions store in a downtown log cabin. The business expanded again and again in the 20th century, becoming “a leading Midwest supplier of office and school supplies.” Messrs. Cheritree and Farwell opened a hardware store on Third Street in 1859. It grew and changed ownership various times, becoming Farwell, Ozmun and Kirk in 1887. “The once small hardware store now is a corporation with a national and international market.” St. Paul Fire and Marine began selling insurance in 1854. The firm survived claims from the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906; in 1974 it had over 7,000 employees. Parker Paine went into the banking business in 1854. Through a series of mergers and permutations, his little private bank became the First National Bank of St. Paul. The Field-Schlick Department store began as Daniel Ingersoll’s dry goods store in 1855. Forty years later Field-Schlick occupied an entire city block.
PDF of Galvin article