{"id":5747,"date":"2021-08-11T09:54:17","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T15:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/?p=5747"},"modified":"2021-08-11T11:59:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T17:59:15","slug":"traditional-western-store-celebrates-90-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/traditional-western-store-celebrates-90-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional western store celebrates 90 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By<\/strong> Kerri Rempp<\/b><\/p>\n

Discover Northwest Nebraska<\/b><\/p>\n

HARRISON<\/strong> \u2013 The smell of fresh-pressed jeans, newly unboxed boots, hats and horse tack transports visitors to Whiteaker\u2019s back in time to the days when traditional western stores served the ranching communities.<\/p>\n

Owned and operated by Joe Whiteaker today, the Harrison institution keeps local and regional cowboys outfitted 90 years after Joe\u2019s parents opened the store in the middle of the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said the banks wouldn\u2019t loan him any money,\u201d Joe said of his parents\u2019 effort.<\/p>\n

Finally, with an $800 loan from a friend and a line of credit from a wholesale house in Denver, Colorado, E.E. \u201cAbie\u201d and Mary Whiteaker opened for business in the Ted Phillips Building on South Main Street in November 1931. Press Wilson was the store\u2019s first customer, purchasing an overall jacket for $1.69 before the doors officially opened.<\/p>\n

Abie, a native of Missouri, had arrived in the area in the spring of 1925, going to work for R.N. Henry at the Golden Rule Store in Crawford. Mary Reed relocated to Crawford from eastern Nebraska around the same time to teach school. The couple married in 1928, the same year Abie was tasked with opening and managing a Golden Rule Store in Harrison.<\/p>\n

But within the first year of business, the stock market crashed and the United States plunged into the Great Depression. The Whiteakers were transferred back to Crawford in 1929, but as banks began folding and the economic hardships took their toll on the community, their wages were cut. The couple decided to take the risk of returning to Harrison and opening their own store.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cHow well Mary and I remember our starting business.,\u201d Abie wrote in an advertisement in the Harrison Sun. \u201cWe had little cash, but through the goodness of the town\u2019s people we managed to open with very little merchandise, which was put on tables and counters while empty boxes filled the shelving.\u201d<\/p>

Joe said his parents didn\u2019t want the store to look empty on opening day, and that\u2019s why they came up with the idea of filling the shelves with the empty boxes in which their limited merchandise arrived. Three years later, in 1934, the business moved across the corner to the Davis Building.<\/p>

That December brought some excitement to town when the Sioux National Bank was robbed. According to Abie\u2019s recollections printed in the Harrison Sun, he and Mary were working in the store on Dec. 4 with Jerry Kennedy and Lola Unitt. They were busy with Christmas shoppers when bank employee Harold Jefferies ran in to announce the robbery and urge Abie to join him in chasing after the man, who had headed east.<\/p>

Jefferies, Abie, Albert Moody and Lawrence Moody jumped in Abie\u2019s car and overtook the man 16-18 miles east of town and ran him off the road. The robber exited his vehicle and came out shooting, Abie wrote.<\/p>

\u201cI didn\u2019t have a gun, so believe me, I laid close to the running board on the opposite side of the car, and finally after he had emptied his gun and started running down Smiley Canyon, Albert Moody shot him with a big Army rifle. \u2026 This was a horrifying experience, and one I care never to repeat. As my car was shot up considerably, the Nebraska Bankers Association and the local bank here paid the difference on a new car for us, a 1935 Ford.\u201d<\/p>

Joe said his father, who usually walked to work, was truly shaken by the experience.<\/p>

\u201cHe was scared to death after that.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Whiteaker\u2019s moved to its current location in the Hoyt Building in 1938, sharing the site with the U.S. Post Office, as it does today.<\/p>

While getting the business off the ground in the Great Depression was no easy feat, Saturday nights at Whiteaker\u2019s was apparently the place to be.<\/p>

\u201cThere would be some 25 or more cowboys who would come to town with their paychecks, and of course we would stay open to accommodate them, sometimes until 11 or 12 o\u2019clock,\u201d Abie wrote in the Harrison Sun. \u201cTheir paychecks might not have been very big, but they sure had a good time spending it!\u201d<\/p>

By 1938, Abie and Mary also had three sons, Robert, Donald and Joe.<\/p>

Joe doesn\u2019t remember paying much attention to the store as a child \u2013<\/p>

\u201cI was out mowing yards and making money,\u201d he said, adding that running the store was never in his plans.<\/p>

\u201cI never did think I wanted to come here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

All three boys attended Oklahoma A&M and then served in the armed forces \u2013 Bob in the Air Force, Donald in the Army and Joe in the Marines.<\/p>

After ending his stint in the Marines, Joe returned to Harrison, marrying Tonita Anderson, and went to work for the Sioux National Bank for 20 years. They also ranched but gave that up during the 1980s farm crisis.<\/p>

With Mary\u2019s passing in 1986 and Abie\u2019s health declining, Joe and Tonita took a more active role in the store during the 1980s, but Abie continued to work until his death in 1989.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cThe thought of closing (the store) was hard. The town really needed it,\u201d Joe said. Instead, he and Tonita bought out his two brothers, and the days of filling the shelves with empty boxes are long behind them.<\/p>

\u201cWe probably have too much inventory, but you have to manage your orders to make the freight worth it,\u201d Joe said. Every surface of the store is filled with jeans, shirts, boots, hats, belts, ties, jewelry and more.\u00a0<\/p>

Abby Edmund, who has worked at Whiteaker\u2019s for about 10 years, said cowboys from Lusk to Crawford know they can get what they need. Written down in the back are the styles and sizes of boots, jeans and hats that his loyal customers prefer, Edmund said.<\/p>

\u201cI think it\u2019s nice they don\u2019t have to go elsewhere,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they love him.\u201d<\/p>

As for Joe, he says meeting and visiting with people is his favorite part of the job, and though it wasn\u2019t what he planned for his life, he\u2019ll be behind the counter until his health prevents it, just like his dad.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s been good to the Whiteaker family, the store has, and the community.\u201d<\/p>

Whiteaker\u2019s will celebrate its 90th<\/sup> anniversary with a customer appreciation dinner and dance Aug. 21 at 5 p.m. at the Rocky Top Dance Hall in Harrison.<\/p>

In Abie\u2019s words, written in the Harrison Sun:<\/p>

\u201cI have often made the remark that had I had enough money to go back to Missouri in 1925, I would have gone, but thank goodness I didn\u2019t have it and am still here. \u2026 We are mighty thankful for our many friends and customers who have made it possible for us to live, raise our family, and be a part of this wonderful western country. We all love it, and always will.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Kerri Rempp Discover Northwest Nebraska HARRISON \u2013 The smell of fresh-pressed jeans, newly unboxed boots, hats and horse tack transports visitors to Whiteaker\u2019s back in time to the days when traditional western stores served the ranching communities. Owned and operated by Joe Whiteaker today, the Harrison institution keeps local and regional cowboys outfitted 90 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[361,358,359,55,360,357,356],"class_list":["post-5747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cowboy-hats","tag-dry-goods","tag-harrison-ne","tag-northwest-nebraska","tag-tack","tag-western-store","tag-whiteakers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_3798-web.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgf0HI-1uH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5747"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5762,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747\/revisions\/5762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}