More About Area Hucksters

Last week’s photo of Spitler Grocery’s huckster truck sparked quite a bit of interest and I enjoyed reading all the comments and hearing everyone’s memories about hucksters.

A couple people even sent me some photos. I thank everyone for sharing and today I am posting a couple of those photos that were sent to me.

Spitler Grocery, Willshire, Ohio, Huckster Truck

Thanks to Andy for sending this photo of the William Edgar Spitler family. William Spitler had a grocery in Willshire, which he sold to his sons Glenn and Jesse in 1938.

William Edgar Spitler family. (Photo courtesy of Andy Gappa)

Left to right: Elezan Byer Spitler (seated), Clark Edgar Spitler (seated on armrest), Jesse Christopher Spitler (standing), Bessie Glee Spitler Ross (seated), Glen Ivan Spitler (standing), William Edgar Spitler (seated), and Mary Bernice Spitler Morrison Taylor (standing).

Comparing the faces, the huckster truck driver seems to resemble Jesse Spitler.

Driver, Spitler Grocery, Willshire, Ohio, Huckster Truck

Andy is a Byer descendant and his connection here is that William Spitler married Elezan Byer. Andy is also a distant relative to William Kenneth Hoblet. Last week’s photo had a Hoblet connection because the Spitler truck was stopped at the Hoblet house, according to the name on the mailbox in the photo.

Thank you to Tom and Deb for sending this photo of Schumm huckster Carl Weinman. Carl is Tom’s maternal grandfather.

Carl Weinman drove a huckster wagon, which was probably out of Schumm. Schumm also had a grocery back then.

Carl Weinman with huckster truck. (Photo courtesy of Tom Reichard)

According to Tom’s mother there were numerous huckster wagons that served the area–Ohio City, Glenmore, Dull Town, Willshire, and Schumm. In addition, she said that other men would stop at homes, take orders from their store and deliver them the next day. She recalls that Miles Ross, out of Willshire, was one such man who came to their home in Schumm.

The photo below is the horse-drawn huckster wagon of Merkle & Egger from Chattanooga, Ohio. The photo was sent to me some time ago by Doug Roebuck, who is a Merkle descendant.

Merkle & Egger, Chattanooga, Ohio. (photo courtesy of Doug Roebuck)

Merkle & Egger ran a general store in Chatt in 1916, actually probably even before that. In 1910 Leo Merkle, 21, was a clerk in a general store and Semon Egger, 19, was a wagon driver. Egger may have driven the huckster wagon for the store.

Thank you all for sharing these great photos!

They are great reminders of times past.

6 comments

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    • Andy Gappa on April 27, 2018 at 9:07 am
    • Reply

    You mentioned Miles Ross in this blog. He was married to Bessie Glee Spitler from the photo above.

    1. Well, that would make sense. It was a family business. Thanks for that information.

    • Trude Laffin on April 27, 2018 at 2:18 pm
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    Enjoyed your huckster stories. An elderly friend told me that his father used to travel from the Celina area to Indiana on the huckster (at age 12 mind you),, spend the night and then bring it back the next day. I thought that was so fascinating. What a forefathers went through! It doesn’t seem like our young people have as much grit. 🙂

    1. That would be something for a 12 year-old to do! Sometimes they had to grow up quickly and do what they had to do for their family. Thanks for writing!

    • Brian Brewster on April 29, 2018 at 8:41 am
    • Reply

    I have a water set , pitcher and 8 glasses, that was bought in 1931 from a huckster wagon by grandma Brewster.

    1. That is great to know the story behind the water set. You will have to send me a photo of it sometime. Thanks for writing!

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