Mary Ford and Herb McDonald pushing the truck out of the mud. photo by Frank Hohenberger
Remembering McDonald’ s
photos courtesy of Diana McDonald Biddle
~ by Julia Pearson
Brown County is indebted to Dorothy Bailey who compiled and edited Brown County Remembers, a touching chronicle of the lifeways of an earlier time. Gladys Mayne Christie McDonald’ s story of her own family’ s business fills several pages of Bailey’ s history, detailing the stock and trade of the huckster routes, which evolved in time into a true“ mom and pop” grocery enterprise in Bean Blossom. Five generations of McDonalds were central to the community: Charles Kessler, also known as Kess, and his father John Tom; Kess’ s son, Herbert; and Herbert’ s son, Jack, and Jack’ s children: Diana, Jim, and Mike.
Kess began this enterprise when he bartered a watch and bicycle for a wagon and a team of mules in 1891. It was soon replaced by a larger covered wagon drawn by a team of horses. Kess then built a small grocery store in Bean Blossom. The huckster wagon was stocked from the store with staples needed by rural customers: flour, sugar, rice, dried beans, bar laundry soap, overalls, dress fabric, kerosene, nails, axe handles, lamp wicks, and brooms. Kess would stay overnight with a farm family if the route was long.
Herb McDonald in the early 1930s with huckster truck in front of the old store.
36 Our Brown County Jan./ Feb. 2017