Haynie Hardware Company

A Frontier General Store

by Donald L. Haynie

 “How like a fawning publican he looks”.  I hate him for he is a Christian, but more for that in low simplicity he lends out money gratis and brings down the rate of usuance here with us in Venice.  If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.  He hates our sacred nation, and he rails, even there where merchants most do congregate, on me, my bargains and my well-won thrift, which he calls interest.” 

Spoken, as an aside, by Shylock,   a Shakespeare's “Merchant of Venice” 

The Haynie Hardware Company of Manassa, Colorado, was a place where all deals were made with extreme honesty and openness and would, most certainly, have incurred the wrath of a "Shylock", who would rather cheat and deal dishonestly. 

This family-owned and family-operated business existed from 1890 until 1958, a period of 68 years.  It began operation when my grandfather, Robert M. Haynie, returned to Manassa after serving as a Mormon missionary for two years in the Southern States Mission.  Originally, the business was a blacksmith shop only, my grandfather having been a blacksmith with his older brother before he went on his mission.  As time passed, he began to add hardware items for sale to his customers.  These items were minor repair parts, such as bolts, wire, and plow shares used by ranchers. 

In 1902, my grandfather built a new store building about two blocks east of his home.  This building housed a general store which stocked hardware, lumber, building materials, farm implements, groceries, dry goods, and clothing.  His five sons helped in the store from the time they were very young.  For a time the store as managed by the oldest son, Leonard; he left to become district attorney in 1932.  Earlier, Anthon, the youngest son, had left to work in an auto parts store in Utah.  This left the three other sons, Earl, Harran and Winfred, to operate the store.

In 1946, my father, Winfred S. Haynie, purchased the ownership

interests of all the partners and became the sole owner of the store, along with my mother, Sara Cloe Rogers Haynie.   My father operated the store until 1958 when, because of illness, he sold it to Otho and Louise Bagwell. 

I can remember the store as a very integral part of my early life. It was the place to go to buy almost anything. Josph H. Thomas, my father-in-law, bought a player piano there for his family.  Hazel and I purchased washers and dryers there, and could have purchased such other major items as refrigerators and other implements and appliances. 

Christmas was a very special time at Haynie Hardware Company.  Many times, I helped deliver Christmas baskets made up by the store for needy families.  In my early teens, I was impressed by the fact the store seemed to operate on a sharing basis at Christmas time, rather than on a profit basis.  I can remember how cold it was when we would deliver the Christmas baskets to the needy.  Uncle Earl would let me drive his car on the deliveries, although I wasn’t old enough to have a driver’s license, being only fourteen or fifteen years old at the time. 

The central part of the store at Christmas time was the toy table that was specially-built each year to hold all the toys. It was about ten feet by ten feet, or even larger, and was built to hold a mountain of toys. Every kid in town, it seems, came in to look at the assortment.  And, there was plenty in the way of nuts, candy and fruit for sale. I have never since seen the wide assortment that was offered at the store.

The store building itself was a man-killer. It was a long and narrow building, probably built that way because of the limitations on widths of roof trusses in those days.  The store was not self-service and customers were “waited-on” which meant the items they wanted had to be found by sales clerks.  This meant walking the length of the building many times a day.  The storage room was in the back and a side room housed such items as rock salt, window sashes, doors, fence wife, smooth wire, stovepipes and screen doors.  The coal bin was also in the side room and, in winter, many buckets of coal had to be carried two at a time to the coal stove in the main part of the store. 

Not only did my grandfather’s sons grow up in the store, but a generation of grandsons as well.  I have worked many days as a clerk, as a delivery man and as a laborer hauling cement, lumber and other building materials from the railroad in Romeo to the store, or from the store to a construction site.  It was hard work but I enjoyed it and have benefited all my life from what I learned there. 

The Bagwells operated the store for a number of years before closing it down for good. The building was used for a time as a turquoise work shop. One night, several years ago, the building mysteriously exploded into flames and was completely destroyed.