Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
E. L. Bubba Wied Hardware
Cameron, TX
Cameron, TX
Hardware store getting historical marker
BY JEANNE WILLIAMS
TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
CAMERON - E. L. Wied Hardware fell only one decade short of leaving its boot prints into 21st century merchandising.
Had it not closed its doors to commercial trade in 1990, the store might still be hawking its anachronistic wares: crock butter churns, coffin handles, horse-shoe nails, and kerosene lamps left over from the original inventory.
Though it carried a supply of pre-World War II hardware leftovers, it stocked innumerable items sought by modern day, loyal clientele who bought water pumps and plumbing equipment, electrical supplies, hunting gear and guns, plows, saddles and tack, rope, wire, hammers, nails, saws, paint and gardening tools.
Even though this sturdy old hardware outlet transcended the days of the telephone, telegraph, world wars and military actions, television, satellites, trips to the moon, space shuttle flights, computers and the World Wide Web, it might have been much more comfortable in the horse and buggy days of its late 1880s origin if one judges its appearance.
This old hardware store brags about its old age, boasting a classic, Western street facade with its showy false front, pressed tin ceiling, elongated, rectangular frame structure, and solid wooden decking inside.
Today, this architectural, commercial museum piece is implanted firmly in a side of town that once represented a microcosm of an eastern European-style market place patronized most of its life by throngs of Germans and Czechs living in Milam County.
E.L. Wied Hardware represents the last thriving commercial business from the old days still operating in a southern sector Cameron titled by locals as “Old Dutch Town.”
The old store will be recognized for its worth in Texas heritage during 5 p.m. ceremonies Saturday when a Texas Historical Marker honoring the business will be unveiled by local dignitaries, friends and family, including Wied’s brother Stanley Wied, in addition to Alfonse Matocha, nephew of the store’s originator A.J. Matocha.
Matocha, the son of a glassblower, was born in 1876 and immigrated at age 3 with his family to Galveston, where they moved overland to Milam County. The Matocha family became farmers. At age 18, Albert Joseph opted to work in a hardware store. He opened A.J. Matocha & Co. Hardware & Implements in Dutch Town in 1898.
The old building of today was pieced together using materials from a dilapidated dance hall.
On May 6, 1920, a fire damaged the hardware store. Matocha bought the German dance hall, divided the building into parts, and used oxen to move the sections to his store for rebuilding.
Matocha died in 1945, and the business was operated by his wife Tressie Mondrik Matocha until 1946, when she sold the store to WWII veteran E.L. “Bubba” Wied and his wife Agnes Hibner Wied.
“In the early years, my mom worked at the store every day and did most of the bookkeeping,” said their daughter, Jolene Wied Regan. “I have been told many times by those who knew them that the store would not have flourished without my mom, as my dad would have given everything away. My mom continued to work in the store for 35 years, until their divorce in 1980, at which time a division of property gave the store to my dad.”
The store’s appearance was unaltered for most of the years of operation, Regan said.
“Every few years someone would come by and paint the sign on the side of the building, including the Coca Cola ad,” Regan said. “The front porch originally was made of wood, however, after it rotted through, it was finally replaced with a cement porch.”
Wied’s merchandising mantra maintained “if you can’t find an item in his store, you didn’t need it.”
After Wied’s death, his wife, Billie Wied operated the store until 1990, and today mulls about mystery items that constituted hardware standards of the olden days.
“I found a box with parts for repairing lighted coal miner’s caps. I still find things that I don’t know what they are,” said Mrs. Wied, who worked with the Milam County Historical Commission in procuring a Texas Historical Marker for the building.
Closing the store in 1990 and ultimately selling the inventory was one of the hardest things she has ever had to do, she said. In recent years, she bought the building from the Mondrik family.
The state medallion will be a fitting finale for a Cameron business that touched two centuries and supplied countless families with everything from wagon wheels and thumb tacks to paint and water pipes, said Mrs. Wied.
E.L. Wied Hardware is the first business in Old Dutch Town to receive a Texas Historical Marker, she said. Before World War II, Dutch Town boasted grocery and drug stores, café, hardware store, two blacksmith shops, feed store, a cotton gin, gas stations and other stores. Papa John’s café was the gathering place for dominos and visiting, as well as servings of the house specialties, chili and beef stew.
jwilliams@tdtnews.com
BY JEANNE WILLIAMS
TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
CAMERON - E. L. Wied Hardware fell only one decade short of leaving its boot prints into 21st century merchandising.
Had it not closed its doors to commercial trade in 1990, the store might still be hawking its anachronistic wares: crock butter churns, coffin handles, horse-shoe nails, and kerosene lamps left over from the original inventory.
Though it carried a supply of pre-World War II hardware leftovers, it stocked innumerable items sought by modern day, loyal clientele who bought water pumps and plumbing equipment, electrical supplies, hunting gear and guns, plows, saddles and tack, rope, wire, hammers, nails, saws, paint and gardening tools.
Even though this sturdy old hardware outlet transcended the days of the telephone, telegraph, world wars and military actions, television, satellites, trips to the moon, space shuttle flights, computers and the World Wide Web, it might have been much more comfortable in the horse and buggy days of its late 1880s origin if one judges its appearance.
This old hardware store brags about its old age, boasting a classic, Western street facade with its showy false front, pressed tin ceiling, elongated, rectangular frame structure, and solid wooden decking inside.
Today, this architectural, commercial museum piece is implanted firmly in a side of town that once represented a microcosm of an eastern European-style market place patronized most of its life by throngs of Germans and Czechs living in Milam County.
E.L. Wied Hardware represents the last thriving commercial business from the old days still operating in a southern sector Cameron titled by locals as “Old Dutch Town.”
The old store will be recognized for its worth in Texas heritage during 5 p.m. ceremonies Saturday when a Texas Historical Marker honoring the business will be unveiled by local dignitaries, friends and family, including Wied’s brother Stanley Wied, in addition to Alfonse Matocha, nephew of the store’s originator A.J. Matocha.
Matocha, the son of a glassblower, was born in 1876 and immigrated at age 3 with his family to Galveston, where they moved overland to Milam County. The Matocha family became farmers. At age 18, Albert Joseph opted to work in a hardware store. He opened A.J. Matocha & Co. Hardware & Implements in Dutch Town in 1898.
The old building of today was pieced together using materials from a dilapidated dance hall.
On May 6, 1920, a fire damaged the hardware store. Matocha bought the German dance hall, divided the building into parts, and used oxen to move the sections to his store for rebuilding.
Matocha died in 1945, and the business was operated by his wife Tressie Mondrik Matocha until 1946, when she sold the store to WWII veteran E.L. “Bubba” Wied and his wife Agnes Hibner Wied.
“In the early years, my mom worked at the store every day and did most of the bookkeeping,” said their daughter, Jolene Wied Regan. “I have been told many times by those who knew them that the store would not have flourished without my mom, as my dad would have given everything away. My mom continued to work in the store for 35 years, until their divorce in 1980, at which time a division of property gave the store to my dad.”
The store’s appearance was unaltered for most of the years of operation, Regan said.
“Every few years someone would come by and paint the sign on the side of the building, including the Coca Cola ad,” Regan said. “The front porch originally was made of wood, however, after it rotted through, it was finally replaced with a cement porch.”
Wied’s merchandising mantra maintained “if you can’t find an item in his store, you didn’t need it.”
After Wied’s death, his wife, Billie Wied operated the store until 1990, and today mulls about mystery items that constituted hardware standards of the olden days.
“I found a box with parts for repairing lighted coal miner’s caps. I still find things that I don’t know what they are,” said Mrs. Wied, who worked with the Milam County Historical Commission in procuring a Texas Historical Marker for the building.
Closing the store in 1990 and ultimately selling the inventory was one of the hardest things she has ever had to do, she said. In recent years, she bought the building from the Mondrik family.
The state medallion will be a fitting finale for a Cameron business that touched two centuries and supplied countless families with everything from wagon wheels and thumb tacks to paint and water pipes, said Mrs. Wied.
E.L. Wied Hardware is the first business in Old Dutch Town to receive a Texas Historical Marker, she said. Before World War II, Dutch Town boasted grocery and drug stores, café, hardware store, two blacksmith shops, feed store, a cotton gin, gas stations and other stores. Papa John’s café was the gathering place for dominos and visiting, as well as servings of the house specialties, chili and beef stew.
jwilliams@tdtnews.com
DUTCH TOWN’S NEW MARKER - A Texas Historical Marker was unveiled at the E.L. Wied Hardward Store building in old Dutch Town in Cameron on Sept. 10. Pictured are (L-R) Billie Wied, owner of Wied Hardware Building, Stanley Wied, brother of late E. L. Wied, Jolene Wied Regan, daughter of late E. L. Wied and Althonse Matocha, nephew of the founder of the store, A. J. Matocha.
Rockdale Reporter - September 22, 2011
Rockdale Reporter - September 22, 2011
.
