THE WAY IT WAS…
…Shopping in the Early 1900s
by Al Eicher

Have you ever thought about what it would have been like to have lived in the early 1900s and raised a family? How about living in the Thumb area, in a small town, to be more specific? What was it like to go shopping in those days? Over the years, I have been collecting old newspaper ads and catalogs showing household items, clothing and new devices for the consumer.

In the early 1900s, there were four ways of getting clothing and household products, other than food items. You could go to a store in town and purchase it or order it from a catalog such as Sears, Roebuck & Co.; you could barter for it; or make it yourself. To put a value on items and things people were buying at the turn of the 20th century, I am going to rely on the ads and catalogs of that period to do some shopping.

Let's say you were looking for your first sewing machine and not a little table model! You know, the kind you operate with your foot and give the wheel a little start with your hand. A "Belmont", five drawer sewing machine with drop head in an oak cabinet would cost $9.85. The "Minnesota" model "B" with six drawers sold for $13.85. When it came to buying wallpaper, a double roll of 16 yards was costing three cents per roll. Barn paint was 39 cents a gallon, and if you wanted the "Best" barn paint try, 50 cents. You could paint a large barn for $8.50 using the best paint. If you needed a big 10-foot wooden ladder, self supporting, it was $1.80.

In 1908, when it came to ordering a "road wagon", we are talking about a two-passenger, easy-riding, four-wheel, horse-drawn runabout. The price range starts at $24.95 to $43.65. If you want some rain or snow protection with an overhead canopy, add $3. These might have been sale prices, as Henry Ford was busy in Highland Park getting some mass production going at this time. In the Sears Catalog of 1908, I found a four-passenger surrey with coach lights and leather seat for $77.45. The ad states the surrey has "Automobile type seats", and for $77.45 you get a two-year guarantee on parts and workmanship.

If you had children and they were old enough to learn to ride a 24- or 26-inch balloon tire bicycle, you could buy a 1908, boy or girl, bike for $13.60. The "Red Head Elgin" bike was painted red and did not have fenders but it had the peerless automatic coaster brake.

At Christmas time, in the 1940s, my grandmother would get out her stereoscope viewer to let us see color pictures of Niagara Falls, a railroad yard or a "sunken garden" scene. I was fascinated with the three-dimension feature. You could buy this viewer for 60 cents and a package of 50 pictures for 35 cents. If the family was interested in music coming from a talking machine you had to have the "Columbia Graphophone" or the "Edison Home Phonograph". These spring-operated, talking machines used the round cylinder records and sold from $14.95 to $16.95. The cylinders, made by the Columbia record company, sold for 18 cents each or $2.15 a dozen. A new piano, from the Sears catalog, called the "Beckwith Home Favorite" would cost $87.00 and the "Special Concert Grand Piano" could be purchased for $195.

You could order spectacles and eyeglasses through the catalog. At this time they were offering "rimless spectacles" for $2.14. If you wanted bifocals, add 50 cents. A man's pocket watch made in America was as low as $1.68 to $15. A lady's watch was slightly smaller and ranged in price from $6 to $15. Ladies' stylish patent shoes were ranging in price from $1.27 to $1.58. Ladies' summer-style straw hats with braid and dainty lace were as low as $1.69 to $2.15. A lady's house dress or tea gown could be purchased for as little as $1.10 or as high as $3.50. Men's single breasted suits ranged from $6.98 to $9.87. The price depended on the material. A fountain pen was $1.

Most farms and many homes in town had a windmill to pump water. You could buy the complete "Kenwood" kit of a four-post tower 30 feet tall, a six-foot windmill with pipe and pump for $42.25.

Solid oak "box seat" dining room chairs with genuine leather seats sold for $1.95. You might also need a new solid oak, pillar style dining room table. A six-foot diameter table was $11.85. If you want an eight-foot single pillar table, the price is $13.25. For the family of ten children, you can get a twelve-foot table for $15.95. The wife might need her first Rogers Brothers Silver dinner set, try a price of $9.28 for a 26-piece set of high grade silver plate spoons, knives and forks. A 100-piece dinner set of Rose Garland Bavarian China could be yours for $12.45. These dishes had genuine coin gold trim with patterns of pink flowers and green foliage.

Have you been to a few estate auctions, where wicker furniture is on sale? The rocking chair is identified as being 75 to 100 years old! Here is the 1908 pricing for the leader in wicker rocking chairs: The "Imperial" model is $2.75, and the "Splendid Rocker" is $4.39. I have seen some of these old rockers at auction sell for $200 and the wicker needs fixing. I noticed in the Sears catalog as I was searching for the wicker chairs, some high grade, three-piece bedroom suites for as low as $14.95. Another offer featured the bed, dresser and the washstand, all matching pieces for $24.95. This is furniture that was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Now we get to the expensive items. If you were a farmer and you wanted the best manure spreader, you had to have the "Bonanza Wagon"! The ad offers a 30-day free trial. I kept looking for some promotional jargon like, "the faster you drive, the further it flies"! The only punch line I found was "so simple a boy can run it". In the Thumb area in the early 1900s there were lots of stumps in the fields. A stump puller was selling for $17.25.

Two-cycle and four-cycle gasoline engines were being built for installation in a boat. This was just what the commercial fishermen at Bay Port would have used. The complete package of propeller and shaft with universal joint and five-horsepower engine was $96.50 - if you wanted a 10-horse unit, try $213.75. I came across schoolhouse and church bells. At this time there were about 80, one-room schoolhouses just in Huron County. A 165 pound, 20-inch cast iron bell would cost $6.12. A 48-inch school bell weighing 2,280 pounds sold for $97.00. Church bells were priced nearly the same but the big 48-inch bell weighted in at 2,314 pounds. You needed a big bell tower to hold this giant bell. And finally from the 1908 Sears Catalog you could order all the building materials for a six-room, two-story house, with covered porch on two sides for $725. These "do it yourself" packages were available in a variety of house plans. For example you could get a 3,000 square foot, two-story house for a very good price of $4,000. The old ads in the newspapers and the big catalog companies were really wonderful sources of information about some of man's newest creations in farming, photography, electric power plants, firearms, sports equipment, boating, floor coverings and home furnishings, plus the latest styles in women's hats. Hope you enjoyed shopping at the turn of the century!...That's The Way It Was.

Al and Dave Eicher provide television production services to corporations, ad agencies, and nonprofit organizations. They also create Michigan town histories and offer lecture services on a variety of Michigan History Events. You may contact them at 248-333-2010; Email: info@program-source.com; Web site: www.program-source.com; Address: PSI, P.O. Box 444, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303.