The Peters & Aden
General Store
This picture was taken in 1897. The store was down at the north bank of the Willamette River where Boones Ferry crossed. My dad, Henry Aden, is setting there on the end of the porch looking east. They got all their supplies by steamboat until 1907 when the railroad came through from Portland to Eugene. So they thought they would have to get closer to the depot to meet the trains. So they jacked up this building and had a stump puller that one horse worked and cut a bunch of round rollers of oak and they moved this building about four blocks up the hill to between where 5th and 4th street is now. The front of the building has been cut off and it made a nice living quarters in the back half of the building. This buggy and horse here was Adolf Koellermeier's. He's sitting here on the porch of the store. This [the store] was a general merchandise store, dry goods, flour, boots, shoes. In the back was the post office and the customer would come in. The steamboats would come bring the mail up once or twice a week. Then finally, when the railroad came through, why they got mail service every day except Saturday and Sunday. Emery Aden This is #1 on the Wilsonville historic map |
This is looking inside the store. On the south side this is where all the dry goods and shoes and boots and overalls were kept. You can see a lady sitting buying ribbon in different colors and widths. There was a big ladder with a track up on the ceiling, and the ladder ran back and forth so they could get there merchandise out of the upper shelves. Then on the left side of the store were the groceries and the warehouse where all feed for the animals was kept. Emery Aden. |
[This picture] shows Henry Aden on the left. And the fellow working for him is Charlie Ridder on the right. This was taken in 1915/1916. Here on the table in the front were gift boxes. In th0se days, they used to sell gift boxes; now the merchants give them away [free] to the customers. Over on the left is a pickle barrel and egg crates and bread box and all the groceries sat there on the shelves. This had a ladder on this side and there is the scales to weigh out most everything in bulk as well as in the cans. Out in the back they had a little hole dug and they would dump a shovel of carbide in there and pour a little water in. A pipe ran through and the gas would come in and they'd light that... that was the light, before any electricity. In the back were all hats, and of course, the stove to gather around waiting for the mail to be distributed. They called that the "sack bay" club. Over on the left was the hardware.... and through the side door into the warehouse was where the animal food was kept. Emery Aden. |
