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The Majestic Food Market, Butler

| Paul Havemann

This lovely calendar page is from 1915. I had not previously heard of the Imwolde Brothers, nor of the market they ran. What’s their story?

The Old Newspapers don’t reveal a lot. Herman & Henry Imwolde immigrated from Germany in the early 1900s and opened a shop on Main Street which they called “The Majestic Food Market” – a grocery and butcher store.

Inez Farrel probably worked there, too. She must have liked it, and she surely like Henry, because she married him in 1915.

The shop was somewhere on Main Street. Perhaps it’s in this 1912 photo?

This 1914 account of an unfortunate incident involving spooked horses offers a clue.

“The frightened horses ran down Main street toward Maycock’s bridge…” Well. Anyone in town knows which way is “down” Main Street, and that’s toward Bloomingdale. But “Maycock’s bridge” is new to me. It’s obviously the one that led you over the river to Union Square. Was he a landowner? Bridge builder? Anyway, I deduce the shop might have been on lower Main Street.

The calendar page above featured this on the reverse. The Imwoldes were rightly proud of their store. I’m pretty sure that the attractive girl on the postcard was not Mrs. Imwolde.

Business, and life, must have been good to the family. Inez’s father John Farrel was, at one time, the mayor of Butler. He made a living selling paper boxes. The occasion of the Farrels’ 50th anniversary required a family dinner at the Norton Inn (which is another post that I promise to write). As it happened, Henry and Inez celebrated their tenth anniversary at the same time. Dinner was followed by a reception at Henry’s summer cottage on Glenwild Lake. Yes, life was good.

For those who may be inclined toward researching family histories, the Farrels had two daughters besides Inez – Mrs. Joseph I. Simpson and Mrs. Edward Rodda. All lived in Butler. Two young grandchildren were named in the anniversary article: Lavorra Rodda and John Simpson.

I could find no news about Henry’s brother Herman, not in the Old Newspapers and not on the Ancestry website. There is one who lived in Passaic around this time, but old city directories yield few details. We might never know.

I haven’t found much more to this story. At some point Henry would have retired and/or sold the shop, leaving only a few footprints in Butler’s history. Henry died in 1975, and Inez followed in 1983, having lived in Butler all her life.

If you, dear reader, have anything to add to this tale, kindly leave a comment.

-30-

Jones store robbed!

| Paul Havemann

No, not that Jones store. This happened in August, 1881:

Newspaper article about the 1881 robbery of William Jones’ store

Exchanging Shots with Burglars

Paterson, Aug. 10. – Word has just been received here of an encounter with the Storms gang of burglars at Pompton Plains on Sunday night. …

A year ago they robbed the store of Mr. William Jones, at Pompton Plains. On Sunday night last, sometime between midnight and 2 A.M., Mr. Jones heard a noise in the house. Going into the basement, he heard footsteps in the store. He immediately went up stairs, got his revolver, and went outside, where he found that a window shutter had been removed.

Peering in, he could see a man rummaging among the goods, and immediately fired at him. The burglar gave a shriek of pain. The light inside was extinguished and four shots were fired at Mr. Jones and his wife, who had followed him.

As they were standing in the bright moonlight, they retreated, and the robbers decamped. Mr. Jones recognized the man he shot as Jake Storms. He is thought to be wounded.

(Click on the image for a full-sized version.)

No idea where William Jones’ store was, or for that matter, who he was. I asked Rob Jones, but he didn’t recognize the name as part of his family tree. His grandfather took over an existing hardware store in April 1929, but that’s all I know, except that at one point, the place was a general store (and likely a post office) run by the Berry family.

I haven’t had any luck, so far, tracing the elusive Jake Storms further in history. Did he survive? Did his gang return to burgle again? Wouldn’t I like to know.