SAND HILLS COMMERICAL CO.

by Charles C. Campbell

Entry B16 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Sandhills Commerical Co. 1929 at counter - Charles
Campbell. Lady in rear - Frances "Dell" Campbell

When Frances Adell Stevenson Campbell
suddenly found herself impoverished by the
death of her husband Michael in 1898 (see
Michael Campbell - Charles C. Campbell
story), she began to earn pin money by sewing
and especially by making hats for the ladies
of Mullen. Soon demand outgrew the home,
so she opened a millinery shop in th small
building later occupied by Smith's Meat
Market west of the Masonic Lodge. The need
for dry goods (piece or yard goods, patterns,
thread, and notions) became so great that
Dell moved to a larger building two doors
west in the building later occupied by
Yagadich Shoe Repair and more recently by
Dr. Earl Walker. As the business continued
to grow, Dell persuaded her son Charlie to
give up his job as a station agent on the CB&Q
in 1910 to become her partner in the store and
especially to do the bookkeeping.

In the meanwhile the Morrison family had
established and operated the Sand Hills
Commercial Company a block east and across
the street from the H.J. Lowe Lumber Co.
Operated by Charles Morrison, the store sold
groceries, lumber, coal, and hardware. The
Morrisons wanted to sell out and go back to
Omaha, so around 1916 the Campbells
bought out their grocery store and consoli-
dated the dry goods and grocery operations
into the grocery store premises. The Morri-
sons continued to operate the lumber yard
and a hardware store for several more years,
finally closing down around 1920. At that
point, the Campbells added a men's depart-
ment in the connected building where the
hardware store had been. They also leased
the next separate building to the east where
they stored flour and sugar.

Thus by 1920 the Sand Hills Commercial
Company under the Campbell's ownership
consisted of a grocery, a men's wear, a ladies'
ready-to-wear, and a dry-goods department.
In the 1920s, demand for yard goods and
patterns diminished rapidly in favor of
factory-made ladies' clothing, and ladies'
hats were rapidly losing popularity.

The store prospered until 1927 when a
cattle-market crash caused many ranchers to
be unable to pay up their annual charge
accounts. (In the early days it was customary
for ranchers, who came to town infrequently,
to charge all purchases for a year until the
cattle were sold in the fall and then "settle
up.") About the same time (1927- 1932) the
national depression was getting worse, and
competition in groceries and ready-to-wear
was developing in Alliance and Broken Bow,
thanks to improved roads and vehicles.

In an effort to compete for grocery busi-
ness, Charlie affiliated with the IGA to take
advantage of mass wholesaling. But inexo-
rably, between delinquent notes and ac-
counts and other uncontrollable market
forces, the store became less profitable. In
1932, Charlie Campbell sold it to W.W.
Gruenig. In 1935 Mr Gruenig sold it to Ed
Wadlow, who had been a ranch foreman for
the Lowe family for many years before
moving to town.

People who worked in the store for the
Campbells during the 16 years of their
ownership: George Gruenig, Clarence Pecht,
James Oliver, Gladys Mead Gibson, Hazel Le
La Cheur, Doris Andrews Rogers, Cleo
Fenimore Campbell, and the Campbell boys,
Chet and Ray.