Left - the rebuilt Koch Brothers Store, (with the awning) and next to it Eggimann Garage, restaurant and tavern.
Mt. Vernon's Early Entrepreneurs
The Koch Brothers
Elsie Koch Grimstad wrote the following memoir in 1982, at age 79. These excerpts from her memoir deal with her family's general store in Mt. Vernon. On July 5th, 1998 these memories, along with several family photos, were sent to the Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society by Elsie's daughter Kirsten.
My father, Emil, went to work in a general store in Mt. Vernon when he was a very young boy, probably about 10 or 11 years old. He was the second oldest in the family. August was the oldest and he was already working in the same general store.
After a few years these two young men started their own general store. General meant household goods, yard goods for ladies dresses, threads and everything for sewing clothes, canned goods, shoes, overshoes, rubbers, cheese, eggs brought in from the farms, chickens, turkeys and geese. The only thing they did not sell was fresh meat which would have spoiled as there was no such thing as refrigeration at that time. Every one had a cellar and that was where the milk and butter were kept. The next big change was the Ford car so he went into that business along with the farm machinery. I would say that he was an entrepreneur. He was always driving around the countryside, demonstrating and selling.
After a few years the younger brother, Herbert, joined these two entrepreneurs. Fred and Ferdinand became partners in the mill business grinding the grain which the farmers brought in periodically. The mill was across the dam from the general store.
This was the time that my father decided to branch out and take on a new addition to the store and the mill, so he started to buy farm machinery and would take the machinery out to a large farm where all of the farmers would congregate and he would demonstrate the piece of equipment which he would then take orders to be delivered at a later time. These times turned out to be great for the farmers and also a fine addition for my father. During this era the farmers came to town in lumber wagons during the week and also on Sundays. Sunday was the big day as their produce was exchanged for the groceries in the store. I often wondered if my father ever saw much money during these times. My mother would also go to the store and help out on these busy Sundays.
Once a week my father would load all of the produce onto a wagon, hitch up his horses and take off for Madison, where he had connections for selling or trading the produce for items to be sold in the store. He never came home with an empty wagon. Merchandise purchased in Madison included shoes, overshoes, rubbers, yard goods for making clothes, and many items for trimmings. My father always carried a gun on these trips as there was great danger on the roads at this time especially when one carried a load such as he had.
We lived in a white four-bedroom house right next door to the store and a barn big enough to house four horses. There was another large building between the store and the barn and off a little which made the place look like a yard. This building was where the live produce was kept as the farmers delivered their live chickens, geese, ducks and whatever else they might have to use in trade for the groceries which they would buy from the store.
The original Koch Brothers Store burned down in early 1900's. The store was rebuilt, and continued to serve the ommunity as a general store until 1960. The building still stands in Mt. Vernon and is located next to J & W's Bar and Grill.