Photo Gallery
Spengler’s Mercantile on the NE corner of Cecil and Green Bay Streets in Bonduel Wisconsin after opening in 1909.
Spengler’s during construction on the left.
Looking north on Cecil St., you can see Spengler’s on the right at the intersection.
Looking east on Green Bay St., you can see Spengler’s on the left at the intersection with Cecil St.
The Spengler Building today at 103 E. Green Bay Street in Bonduel Wisconsin.
Notes
Spengler’s Mercantile
103 E. East Green Bay Street
Bonduel, Wisconsin
The Spengler Building, constructed in 1909, is located on the NE corner of Cecil and Green Bay Streets in Bonduel Wisconsin and is still there today.
The beginning of the Spengler Mercantile and various enterprises started in 1871, when Adolph and Henrietta Spengler moved to Bonduel from Kalodina, Waupaca County, Wisconsin. It was at this time that Sheldon P. Olmsted and his wife Almira sold them a large section of Block 4. In the following year they purchased additional land from Ferdinand Voight, one of the original land investors in this area.
Mr. Olmsted was already established in Bonduel and is credited with starting the first general store in Bonduel. He sold this store to the Spenglers. Mr. Olmsted also owned and operated the saw mill.
Very little is known about the Spengler’s early business activities. It is believed that their first general store was located in the building now identified as the former Renagades Tavern.
In 1884, Adolph Spengler died, leaving his wife Henrietta and five children. Their children were Helen (age 12), Flora (age 12), Clara (age 10), Elmer (age 5) and Adolph (age 2). All the real estate and personal property was assigned to Henrietta who then managed the family mercantile business. Through time, her sons Adolph and Elmer formed the Spengler Bros Mercantile and took over its management with their mother still playing a role in the family business until 1916 when she died.
In the spring of 1909, the Spengler Bros. started building a new store at the corner of Green Bay and Cecil Street and Frank Beibelhausen of Shawano rented the old Spengler store for a meat market. This new building was described as being 110 feet long and 32 feet wide. The September 16, 1909 issue of the Bonduel Times reports that ” M. Trenton of Green Bay, has taken the job of painting and decorating Spengler Bros. new store, the shades and designs being of the latest. The Georgia Pine being finished in golden oak making it appear as hardwood, the ceiling is a cream with light green trimmings, shades blended, outside bottle green with black trimmings. The work thus far is excellent and speaks well for the contractor”. The following month the public was invited to stop in and get their souvenir plate. Following this they moved the warehouse from the old store to the back of the new store and by December, Robert Fullerton was drilling a new well behind their new store.
As a general mercantile company, the Spengler Bros. carried a very diverse line of products and purchased commodities such as clover seed, wool and hides from the public and then found buyers for these products.
A 1910 advertisement reads: CORN TESTED,9 kernels out of 10 grow. If you need fodder or field corn, we can supply your wants. We carry the Red Cob and Pride of the North Fodder corn and the early Angel of Midnight, Yellow Flint, Early Yellow Dent and Canadian Smut Nose Field corn. We have received a car of Land Plaster. If in the market for same, we will be glad to supply your wants. Our prices are reasonable. To accommodate the lady of the house, they offered the following, We are pleased to advertise that we are getting in the best and largest line of ginghams and summer dress goods that we have ever carried. Our plaids are good and color fast. Our line of Indian lines and fancy waistlines is very strong quality and priced considered. You will now need white goods, such as sheeting, bleached and unbleached, pillow tubing, sheeting, cambric, long cloth and muslins. We are headquarters for any of these. Our prices are very low. Fancy all over embroideries, flouncing and insertions to match will be used very much this year. We therefore placed a large order and can now show you the best variety and assortment possible. You will please yourself as well as us by looking our line of goods over. They also carried a full line of groceries.
During the 1920’s and early thirty’s the Spengler Bros. sold parcels of their property to local businessmen Geo. Krueger (1920), Fred Freimuth (1925), Waldo Krueger (1927), Herman O. Wegner (1929), and David Hartwig(1931).
Like their mother, the Spengler Bros. invested in real estate and other businesses.
To accommodate this diversification, Elmer continued to manage the store and Adolph opened up a new building two doors down in what is now Jim Hutter’s Insurance building which was outfitted with a big safe. Adolph then specialized in tax preparation, bookkeeping, and investing. He offered higher interest rates than that offered by the Bonduel State Bank which swayed many local residents to place their savings in the Spengler Bank.
The excessive inflation and “care free” investing that the United States experienced in the 1920’s came to an end in the form of the Stock Market Crash in October of 1929 and for at least ten more years, the country and world struggled to recover. The panic and devaluation of U.S. currency, affected everyone in some form or another. So it was in Bonduel.
The “Crash” also caused a run on the “Spengler Bank”, this was followed by a lawsuit against Elmer and Adolph by another family member over property rights (1933).
This lawsuit ended with a sheriff’s sale in 1934. Both brothers filed bankruptcy in 1937.
Elmer then started working for the village of Bonduel and Adolph moved up north and continued his profession as a bookkeeper. Later Elmer took employment at the Four Wheel Drive in Clintonville.
In 1998, there is little memory of the Spangler era and emotions have subsided enough to put this part of Bonduel’s Community life into perspective as being part of a national calamity. A calamity that effected both the community and the Spenglers.
ADOLPH SPENGLER & HENRIETTA SPENGLER:
Adolph Spengler Sr. was born in Germany Feb 11, 1837. He died in Bonduel December 5, 1884
Mrs. Adolph Spengler Sr. was born in Pomern, Gemany December 11, 1845. She came to America in 1857, making her home in Milwaukee. Here she met Adolph Spengler Sr. and they were married in 1869. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to Kalodina, Waupaca Co., where they made their home until 1871.
They then moved to Bonduel where they entered into the mercantile business. Mr. Spengler’s died in 1884 and for a number of years after his death, Henrietta continued to manage the store until her sons took over.
They had six children: Helen, Mrs. Geo. Klosterman of Shawano, Clara Spengler, Flora Spengler, Beata Spengler, Adolph, and Elmer.
They were members of Frieden’s Lutheran Church, Bonduel.