Waswo Grocery Store

My Grandparents George Daniel Sr. and Lucy Waswo owned and operated a grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Per my Grandmother's account it existed from 1915 until the early 1940's.

The top picture is the building located on N. Richards and E. Ring streets. The date in the upper right hand corner is 1905. I am not sure this date is accurate. In 1905, George Daniel Sr. would be 21 years old, and Lucy would be 15 years old. My grandmother stated that while George Daniel Sr. was courting her, he worked for Fleishman's Yeast Company. My grandmother remembered him visiting the family bakery, and that was how they were introduced. This occupation was verified by my Cousin Judith Jacob, as George Daniel Sr.'s Uncle Frederick T. Lueth is the one responsible for helping George Daniel Sr. to get the yeast sales job. My guess is this photograph is from around 1915.

The middle photograph is from 1925 of the second grocery store owned by my grandparents. They did not run two stores, but purchased this building on 4100 W. Burleigh Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is the childhood home of my mother, Norma and her brother George Daniel Jr. They lived in the flat above the store. Per my Cousin Caroline Loose, my grandparents did not sell the first store. I am not sure, but they probably rented the building. I do not know the reason they moved to Burleigh Street, perhaps better location and less competition. My grandfather was a shrewd businessman.

The bottom photograph is also from 1925, and is the inside of the Burleigh Street store.

There are many stories that I remember my grandmother and mother telling me as a child, and I will share some of them in this post. As all businesses go, there is competition. There was a family named Kohls that also ran a family grocery store. I remember grandmother telling me how the two would always tried to under cut each other. My mother would speak on how the entire family worked in the store. She would talk about how cookies, crackers and pickles all came in barrels, and that you could pick the exact amount you wanted. As a treat, the children were allowed to take a cookie of their choice from a bin. The family hardly ever took a vacation together, as someone always needed to be present to run the store. As a result, grandfather and George Jr. would take a trip together while the ladies ran the store, and visa versa. My mother would tell me that the Great Depression did not impact her during her childhood. Her parents ran a grocery store, so there was always food on the table. I am sure my grandparents struggled financially, but they did not share that fact with the children.

With the untimely death of my grandfather, George Sr. in 1939 from cancer, my grandmother was left to run the grocery store on her own. I remember her telling me how difficult this was. At the time, it was uncommon for a woman to go to the farmer's market to purchase produce for the store. Grandmother had no one else, so she would go, as George Jr. was in college and later serviced in Asia during WWII. The 1940's was the start of the era of supermarkets, and the Kohls purchased a chain in Michigan, perfected the concept and started a chain of supermarkets in Milwaukee. Like many small businesses, the small corner grocery stores were doomed.

My grandmother sold the Burleigh Street store. She had the Richards and Ring remodeled with the first floor converted into two apartments. Grandmother lived on the second floor and rented the two bottom units. I remember the Richards and Ring home, as we visited there many times when I was a child.

The Richards and Ring home was sold in 1969, and my grandmother moved into the townhouse that my father had built. The building was torn down sometime during the late 1980's.