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Show Forfy Years A Store Man Ends for George C. Kohl Began 1st Store In 1916, To Take A Rest By Elden Wilcken Geo. C. Kohl has retired after 39 years of continuous service as a merchant in Duchesne. A few weeks ago the balance of his stock in the Duchesne business was transferred to the corporation known as Geo. C. Kohl Co., Inc. Starting in 1916 in a small store selling meats and groceries, Mr. Kohl expanded his business to the present modern department store known to everyone in Duchesne Du-chesne county. "Long hours and hard work were necessary," says Mr. Kohl, "when I commenced selling groceries gro-ceries in the young town of Duchesne. Du-chesne. For several months, my day woald begin at 4 a.m. and would not end until after 11 p.m. I would bring my lunch, so I wouldn't need to close during the noon hour." The long hours began to take their toll, so Mr. Kohl and.- Tom Firth formed a partnership in this first store that Mr. Kohl operated. It was located west of the postof-fice postof-fice now occupied by a service station. Born In Nebraska Mr. Kohl was born in Hastings, Nebraska, and came to the Uintah Basin in 1905 with an uncle, and remained here for a year before returning to Nebraska. In 1910 he came back to Duchesne and "took up" a homestead in Indian Canyon and raised cattle. Later he moved into Duchesne and helped build ' the bridge north of town over the Duchesne River, and helped with the construction of the Rocky Point Canal. His part of the. construction work on the canal was holding a scraper drawn by a fast team. About this job he says, "Holding "Hold-ing a scraper in cobble rocks is bad enough, but behind a fast team, you are off the ground half the time in trying to keep the handles at the right angle to load." He also worked with Andrew Clemons, Bry Spratt and Fred Oldstrom doing assessment work on gilsonite mines in the Book Cliffs. About 1913 Mr. Kohl recalls he became "fed up" with outdoor work. That year, with Roy Cook, Jack and Rae Lee, Albert Peterson Peter-son and Charley Brown, he cut timber in Rock Creek during the winter and during high water season sea-son attempted to float them down stream to their mill at Utahn. The tumbling logs, , icy water, and crooked stream proved more than the men could handle. They were dumped into the swirlling, chilling water and many times narrowly escaped being crushed. Logs were scattered from the timber camp all the way to the Green River. "Only a few logs out of the batch reached the mill," Mr. Kohl recalled. Married In 1915 The year 1915 was an eventful one for Mr. Kohl he married and started working in a store for George Odekirk. The Duchesne Hotel now occupies the site of the Odekirk store, which burned that same year. In 1916 he rented a building from A. M. Murdock (a well-known well-known figure in Duchesne's history) his-tory) and set up in business for himself with a butcher shop and groceries. Mr. Kohl recalls the methods he used to supply meat to his customers. In the evenings, he would slaughter a beef and hang it in a tree overnight. Next morning morn-ing before sunrise he would split and quarter the carcass, haul it to his meat room and pack it in ice until it was sold. In 1917 he bought a gasoline pump that had been damaged by fire. This afforded him the only gas pump in town. He remembers gasoline sold at 500 a gallon. It was freighted in from Price in barrels. Freight rates were high. His groceries would be shipped from -Salt Lake City to Helper at 860 cwt. and from Helper to Duchesne for $1.50 cwt. Mr. Kohl says Eyner Nielsen hauled a lot of his freight as did Leland Hair at a later date. The store was moved in 1917 to the present site of Kohl's grocery gro-cery department a building 25 by 50 feet. The dry goods side of the store was once a barber shop and pool room and later a cafe, owned by Marvel Moore's father, John Moore. Mr. Kohl bought it and added dry goods and hardware to his line of merchandise. Takes On Partner Near the end of 1943 Mr. Kohl took in Donald Bench as a member mem-ber of the corporation. Don had worked for Kohl's for quite a number of years previously. In 1945 Kohl's bought out a store owned by Les Maxwell, and with extensive remodeling and expansion ex-pansion of his other building he stocked a greater line of hardware hard-ware and a lumber yard. During the years Mr. Kohl has served his town unselfishly, lending lend-ing his time and abilities to its welfare whenever needed as mayor, councilman, citizen. City records dating back to 1929 show that he was elected mayor that fall and served a two-year term, beginning in 1930. He was again appointed mayor in 1948. His terms as councilman began in .1936 and 1940. His contributions to civic, school or church projects have been generous. It is not trivial to say that Mr. Kohl has helped every family in Duchesne at one time or another, extending credit when a lot of times there may have been doubts about repayment. When asked what he would do now, Mr. Kohl smiled and said, "I'll cross those bridges when I come to them. Right now, I'm going go-ing to take a few weeks vacation." |
