Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram
A Time Before Walmart
by Jeanne Williams
Temple Daily Telegram - May 17, 2010
HANOVER — Abandoned and empty, the Hanover Mercantile stares through vacant windows as the world passes it by.
Once the merchandising nexus of this back trail hamlet situated 10 miles southeast of Cameron where farm roads 2095 and 3242 meet, the building today weighs up as a relic of old-fashioned country commerce. Several years ago, the front porch gave up and tumbled down. Lying in lumber and tin ruins is one of two screen doors adorned with the Texas country-store advertising regalia, “Rainbow Is Good Bread.” Its twin grips tightly to the doorframe, refusing to retire. The steady wind, not customers, keeps it swinging The store’s customer-side lot, once paved with gravel and soft drink bottle caps, today offers a rustic curbside appealing only to wildflower watchers, tourists, painters and photographers: red and yellow blanket flowers, weeds and native grasses growing passively around the weathered building. Instead of the Sinclair gasoline sign of yesteryear beckoning travelers, a leaning tree stands sentinel.
Born in 1898, eons before customers took for granted electronic doors, air conditioning and bar code scanners, the Hanover Mercantile was a vocational undertaking of Alexander Foster Robinson, who moved to Milam County a year before. Robinson and his father, Thomas, combined their carpentry skills to assemble a frame structure of non-spectacular country store design.
In the heart of agriculture country, the Hanover Mercantile kept farm families and field workers supplied with pantry staples. Customers carried home flour and sugar by the pound, weighed and measured from huge storage bins. So large were the bins that a would-be burglar once burrowed into the flour waiting for closing time, when he planned to carry off cash and merchandise. Storeowners pulled the flour-dredged thief from his hideout before he could carry out his scheme. When electricity arrived in rural Hanover, the store upgraded with refrigeration and a new line of dairy and meat products.
Summer sausage was the biggest selling item, though the store marketed a full line of cold cuts, wieners and other meats, said Kay Ditto Moraw, whose forebears handed down the business through generations of family.
The popular spicy salami infused with peppercorns, paired with rat-trap cheese and soda crackers, made tasty fast food fare in the fields. Field workers consumed gallons of soft drinks ranging from traditional Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and 7-Up to orange and grape sodas the store stocked in glass bottles that were chilled in a soda dispenser box filled with chunks of ice.
Hanover store was a child’s nirvana to the mercantile’s resident youngsters of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, remembered Mrs. Moraw, who lived with her five siblings and parents, William Isaac “Ike” and Carrie Neal Ditto, across the road from the family’s store.
Awell-stocked candy counter, potato chip rack and freezer packed with ice cream were enough to entice the children to want to work there or just hang out. The children could freely choose snacks from the stock. The atmosphere was peaceful, and the patrons were friends and neighbors with an occasional stranger passing through.
The store also welcomed the steady stream of delivery trucks hauling goods from the baking companies, dairy companies, grocery wholesalers, in addition to tankers bringing gasoline and kerosene.
The store stood rock solid on its pier and beam bottom until the famous Waco tornado of 1953, which whirled around Central Texas for days before it blew through the Hanover community. Cyclone winds jostled the building off its blocks. The store was not damaged beyond repair and was heaved back into place where it was business as usual, Mrs. Moraw said.
As major supermarket chains reached area towns offering sales, wider choices of groceries and electronically controlled glass doors, Hanover’s only store finally closed in 1970. The family still owns the building.
The Hanover community existed about two decades before the store opened. Leila M. Batte’s Milam County history book places the community’s birth in the 1870s, when founder Ed Authifer christened Hanover in honor of his hometown in Germany.
Although the community boasted a gristmill, cotton gin, general store and 25 residents by 1892, it defied growth. The 2000 U.S. Census counted 27 residents in the farming community that includes a few homes, a community center where the yearly homecoming is staged, and the remains of the Hanover Mercantile.
jwilliams@tdtnews.com
by Jeanne Williams
Temple Daily Telegram - May 17, 2010
HANOVER — Abandoned and empty, the Hanover Mercantile stares through vacant windows as the world passes it by.
Once the merchandising nexus of this back trail hamlet situated 10 miles southeast of Cameron where farm roads 2095 and 3242 meet, the building today weighs up as a relic of old-fashioned country commerce. Several years ago, the front porch gave up and tumbled down. Lying in lumber and tin ruins is one of two screen doors adorned with the Texas country-store advertising regalia, “Rainbow Is Good Bread.” Its twin grips tightly to the doorframe, refusing to retire. The steady wind, not customers, keeps it swinging The store’s customer-side lot, once paved with gravel and soft drink bottle caps, today offers a rustic curbside appealing only to wildflower watchers, tourists, painters and photographers: red and yellow blanket flowers, weeds and native grasses growing passively around the weathered building. Instead of the Sinclair gasoline sign of yesteryear beckoning travelers, a leaning tree stands sentinel.
Born in 1898, eons before customers took for granted electronic doors, air conditioning and bar code scanners, the Hanover Mercantile was a vocational undertaking of Alexander Foster Robinson, who moved to Milam County a year before. Robinson and his father, Thomas, combined their carpentry skills to assemble a frame structure of non-spectacular country store design.
In the heart of agriculture country, the Hanover Mercantile kept farm families and field workers supplied with pantry staples. Customers carried home flour and sugar by the pound, weighed and measured from huge storage bins. So large were the bins that a would-be burglar once burrowed into the flour waiting for closing time, when he planned to carry off cash and merchandise. Storeowners pulled the flour-dredged thief from his hideout before he could carry out his scheme. When electricity arrived in rural Hanover, the store upgraded with refrigeration and a new line of dairy and meat products.
Summer sausage was the biggest selling item, though the store marketed a full line of cold cuts, wieners and other meats, said Kay Ditto Moraw, whose forebears handed down the business through generations of family.
The popular spicy salami infused with peppercorns, paired with rat-trap cheese and soda crackers, made tasty fast food fare in the fields. Field workers consumed gallons of soft drinks ranging from traditional Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and 7-Up to orange and grape sodas the store stocked in glass bottles that were chilled in a soda dispenser box filled with chunks of ice.
Hanover store was a child’s nirvana to the mercantile’s resident youngsters of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, remembered Mrs. Moraw, who lived with her five siblings and parents, William Isaac “Ike” and Carrie Neal Ditto, across the road from the family’s store.
Awell-stocked candy counter, potato chip rack and freezer packed with ice cream were enough to entice the children to want to work there or just hang out. The children could freely choose snacks from the stock. The atmosphere was peaceful, and the patrons were friends and neighbors with an occasional stranger passing through.
The store also welcomed the steady stream of delivery trucks hauling goods from the baking companies, dairy companies, grocery wholesalers, in addition to tankers bringing gasoline and kerosene.
The store stood rock solid on its pier and beam bottom until the famous Waco tornado of 1953, which whirled around Central Texas for days before it blew through the Hanover community. Cyclone winds jostled the building off its blocks. The store was not damaged beyond repair and was heaved back into place where it was business as usual, Mrs. Moraw said.
As major supermarket chains reached area towns offering sales, wider choices of groceries and electronically controlled glass doors, Hanover’s only store finally closed in 1970. The family still owns the building.
The Hanover community existed about two decades before the store opened. Leila M. Batte’s Milam County history book places the community’s birth in the 1870s, when founder Ed Authifer christened Hanover in honor of his hometown in Germany.
Although the community boasted a gristmill, cotton gin, general store and 25 residents by 1892, it defied growth. The 2000 U.S. Census counted 27 residents in the farming community that includes a few homes, a community center where the yearly homecoming is staged, and the remains of the Hanover Mercantile.
jwilliams@tdtnews.com