Neighborhood groceries once dotted city

One of my favorite childhood memories is from the years when we lived on East Madison Street in Vandalia. My brother, Don, and I would search the streets and alleyways of our neighborhood for soda bottles to redeem at McCormick’s Grocery.

My world was fairly small then, basically confined to our block, which in that part of town was huge – or so it seemed to me. My friend, Virginia Bingham, lived at the end of our alley and I didn’t have far to go for a playmate.
I remember that my brother and I took turns pulling the wagon, in which we put our booty. Sometimes, I hitched a ride.
We felt well-rewarded for our efforts as we stood before McCormick’s glass display case of penny candies and took our time deciding where to spend our pennies. If we had a really profitable day scavenging, we just might end up with a bottle of Chocola, which, when empty, went toward the next candy run.
This scene was repeated hundreds of times around Vandalia, when each neighborhood had a grocery store. As I look back, it seems that my life at that time revolved around Virginia’s Bingham’s home and McCormick’s Grocery.
How many remember Vance McCormick?  He always wore a white apron around his middle – and he was a big man, so that apron stands out in my mind even today.  The candy counter was on the left as you came in the door. The chest-type freezer holding the ice cream was behind the door.
The meat counter at the back held all types of meat, ready for slicing, and canned goods filled the shelves. Before Vance and Betty McCormick had the market, it belonged to Mrs. Manion.
Fritz Goebel operated a store, as did Clarence LeDuc, both on St. Louis Avenue.  On the corner of Seventh and St. Louis Avenue, now the home of Kidd’s Plumbing, Lucien Manion kept a market for a number of years. Paul’s place, Clarence Paul’s grocery, which he operated as a restaurant before 1930, stood at the intersection of St. Louis Avenue and Coles Street.
Paul Smith purchased the “John Cearlock neighborhood grocery” in the 1000 block of North Sixth Street in August 1940. Smith subsequently sold it to Charles Bail, who then sold it to Richard “Dick” Moeller in 1954. Moeller, Smith’s former clerk, ran the store for 27 years until his retirement in 1981.  Moeller’s Market would be the last general neighborhood store in Vandalia.
On the corner of Main and Coles streets, Ben Thompson operated a market which, in my day, was known as Smith’s Market. My uncle, John Frierdich, told me that before he left for the service he bought a small store on the “west end,” and my Aunt Meta operated it (at a loss) with the help of her brother, Harold Torbeck. He sold it soon after his discharge and moved his family to Northern Illinois.
My grandmother, Edna Moeller Rebbe’s marriage announcement to John Gum in 1945 told that they were to manage the grocery being built by Burl Guthrie on “shoe factory hill.”
Grandpa Gum was a retired Mulberry Grove businessman, having turned over the management of the Western Telephone Co. to his son, John. He and Grandma managed the store for a short while. The Guthrie Market was in business into the 1960s.
The Lester Ewbank Grocery building still stands at the intersection of Eighth and Jefferson streets. According to the 1932 Vandalia City Directory, Ewbank was manager of the A & P store on Gallatin Street before going out on his own.
Advertising on Lester’s delivery truck from a 1947 photo tells that he had “fresh fruits and vegetables” and "free delivery.” His phone number was 80. Later, the building saw use as the Day ‘N Nite Laundryette.
Other grocers listed in the 1932 Vandalia City Directory include: S.W. Smith on West St. Louis Avenue.; Fred Ervin’s market, 1029 N. Fifth St.; John Matheny’s store on West Edwards Street; Hudson Grocery on East Gallatin Street and Everhart in the “Commercial Addition.”
The downtown grocers were: Pheifer, 518 W. Gallatin St.; Walter Wills, 523 Gallatin St.; C.F. Carpenter on South Sixth Street; Atkinson’s (Samuel) at the corner of Gallatin and Fourth streets in the Dieckmann Building; and Ragel Grocery at the corner of Gallatin and Second streets.
Another grocer who began his business on Gallatin Street was Ralston Edwards. He bought a small grocery called “The Stroll” a year after graduating from high school.  Ralston remained in the downtown area until the 1960s, when he relocated to Seventh and Orchard streets. Seven years later, he built the Day ‘n Nite Grocery two blocks east.
Ralston retired in 1994. Where Moeller’s Market was the last neighborhood grocery, Ralston was the last of the old-time storekeepers.

The Lester Ewbank Grocery building still stands at the intersection of Eighth and Jefferson streets in Vandalia. The business offered free delivery. Later, the building was used as the Day ‘N Nite Laundryette.