Hires To You headerThe Illustrated History of Hires Root Beer

1872 

IT HAPPENED IN…1872

Ulysses S. Grant was reelected President over Horace Greeley.  When Susan B. Anthony led a group of women to cast ballots, she was arrested, found guilty, and fined $100.00.

Yellowstone National Park was established as the first Federal Forest Reserve.

A Midwest drought halted trains due to millions of crushed grasshoppers on the tracks.

Panic on the New York Stock Exchange ruined many people financially and led to the collapse of several national banks.

Charles E. Hires’ 1913 American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record article mentions:

About the year 1872 a state law was passed that all druggists should undergo an examination and be registered.  I took this examination and was given a certificate of efficiency to carry on the drug business.

“Carry on,” he certainly did, preparing for the grand opening of his new store February 26, 1872.  Here’s the flyer he composed announcing the opening and a drawing showing 602 Spruce Street:

(Figure 1872-01, drug store grand opening announcement, front and back)

(Figure 1872-02; Charles E. Hires’ drug store, 602 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, The Story of Hires, 1948)

Note the “QUINTON GLASS WORKS” sign above the second floor windows.  Quinton Glass Works manufactured window glass in Quinton, New Jersey, and operated a wholesale location at 602 Spruce Street in Philadelphia.  For many years the Quinton Glass Works was owned by George Hires Jr., Charles Hires, and John Turner.  George Hires Jr. and Charles Hires were two of Charles Elmer Hires’ paternal uncles.  Biographical information about uncles George and Charles is included in the Biographical, Genealogical and Descriptive History of the First Congressional District of New Jersey – Volume 1, published in 1900.  Additional information about Quinton Glass Works can be found at http://salemcountyglass.org/quintonglass.htm. 

(Figure 1872-03, business card, 3.125” x 5.25”)