| The Fairlawn Store in Beaver Valley
dates back to a beginning in early 1905. According to my mother,
Tress Gates Semelsberger, her mother, Catherine Kruis Gates, saved up
enough money to stock the front room of her home with items that
the neighbors would want to purchase. This location was probably
the distance of a block away from the store building, which came
later. Catherine's husband, George M. Gates, (commonly known as
Doodle) worked in the coal mines at the time. They had two small
children, Tress and Calvin, who would have been perhaps three and one
year of age at the time.
I have no knowledge of when the store building
was built. A large eight room house was built in the area of the
store building with parking spaces between them. 
Apparently the store was very successful because G. M. Gates quit mining
and devoted full time to the business. The store not only had
canned goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, 
meats, gasoline (the gasoline pumps had to be pumped by hand) and oil,
but also stocked dry goods -- yard goods, some clothing and shoes and
boots. 
Behind the store building, I can remember an "ice
house". G.M. cut ice chunks in the winter from the dam,
stored the chunks in saw dust in the ice house, and sold them by the
pound in the summer for use in "ice boxes". Katy
at this time did not devote much time to the store. She and G.M.
had two more children, Beulah Gates Barhart and Rhudell. In
addition to the family, Katy took care of a large garden, had milking
cows and chickens. She also "took in boarders". At
one time, the store had 5 or 6 employees, in addition to G.M.
Gates. During 1930's and 1940's a delivery truck was added to the
business. Two employees would go into surrounding communitis and
take grocery orders, bring them back to the business where they would be
filled and delivered back to the customers. This proved o be very
profitable since many families did not own automobiles at the time and
therefore had no access to do their weekly grocery shopping. In
the mid 1940's G.M. Gates wanted to retire and business was sold to his
daughter, Tress Gates Semelsberger and her husband Joseph Semelsberger.
They made many changes to the store. 
They created "living quarters" in the back and added a
porch. A large block garage was added to the store building and
new siding covered up the brown shingles. The business continued
to be successful through the 40's and 50's--however, with the creation
of the Glendale Lake with its campers and fishermen in the 60's, the
business boomed and Tress and Joe worked from the wee hours of the
morning until late into the evening. By the mid 1960's, Joe and
Tress were ready to retire. They closed the business and later
sold it to a Gabrielson from the Patton area, who continued to operate
it for a few years and then closed it permanently. The store
building no longer exist but the hous is standing and ownership is still
in the G.M. Gates family. |
