Henry
Wersell and his Bird Store by
Alan Borer
Henry Wersell and a monkey outside his store. (Toledo-Lucas County Public Library)
Newspapers used to offer suggestions for shoppers looking
for Christmas gifts. Such advertisements
were a way for smaller shops to buy ad space in modest (and inexpensive) quantities. For
the newspapers it was a goodwill gesture that filled space while big
advertisers made the newspaper profitable.
I was digging through the December 10, 1914, issue of the Perrysburg Journal, which offered a
“Christmas Gift Suggestions” column in the back pages. when I spied a small
advertisement at the bottom of the page: “When in Toledo Visit Our Bird Show: Special prices beginning December 12.” Two Christmas gift ideas items were
suggested. At the high end, shoppers
could purchase a “Hartz Mountain“canary for $3.50. It that was too pricey, one could buy a fish
and a “globe” for a dime.
Who was running a “bird show” or “bird store” at this
early date? The ad was placed by a retailer
named Henry Wersell, a prominent member
of Toledo’s German-American community. Born
in Germany in 1860, he arrived in America in 1876. He married an American born German girl, Mary
Streicher, in Toledo in 1884. The family
resided at 34 Rockingham Street near Cherry Street and Central Avenue. But unlike so many fellow Germans who worked
in breweries and other industries, Wersell carved out a niche for himself:
pets.
During
the 1900s and 1910s, Wersell ran what he called a ‘bird store,’ first at 608
Summit Street and then at 328 Cherry Street.
Birds were bought and sold, but Wersell offered many other kinds of pet-related
merchandise. A 1914 ad listed imported
canaries, Mexican parrots, dogs, cats, rabbits, goldfish, cages, bird seed, and
veterinary supplies. Ferrets and monkeys
were occasional guests. The shop also
boarded animals. When your pet passed
away, Wersell offered taxidermy services for both birds and animals.[i] With so many different animals all living in
close quarters, one can imagine how noisy the shop must have been.
Wersell
participated in a booming market for pet birds.
The popularity of caged birds in the first decade of the twentieth
century made them the most popular indoor pet in the country. Their singing and companionship was believed
to cross social and ethnic lines, and while only a landowner could keep dogs
and horses, birds were inexpensive, low maintenance friends.[ii]
The
shopkeeper advertised heavily in the newspaper classified ads. In some of the ads, Wersell seemed to speak
directly to the reader: “Received a shipment of imported parrots, young had
raised birds that I guarantee to talk.”[iii] Another Christmas ad read, “Make Xmas merry
by getting a good singing bird of Wersell.”[iv] Other venues were pet sales. In 1900, the Toledo [Pet] Fanciers had an
exhibition just after the holidays. Held
at 129-131 Summit, the show featured many kind of pets. Henry Wersell had an aquarium display:
The north window is occupied by the
display of Henry Wersell of this city.
Gold fish and other handsome or quaint inhabitants of the waters are
disposed in prettily quipped aquariums.[v]
Depending
on the needs of the pet owner, birds were also livestock. Wersell placed many ads in poultry
journals. He cooperated with other
growers and breeders of birds. An
example was Legron’s Duck Farm, at the corner of Glendale and Detroit. They offered incubators for rent or
sale. Customers could leave their eggs
at either Wersell’s Bird Store or take them directly to the Duck Farm, which
would incubate them for $2.00 per hundred eggs.[vi]
One
example of other-than-pet merchandise Wersell sold was the “Mandy Lee” chicken
incubator. The George Lee Company of
Omaha, Nebraska, did a big mail order business, selling every piece of
equipment necessary for brooding, hatching, raising, and selling chickens. Lee himself owned 2500 chickens. He may have named the incubator “Mandy” after
his daughter, Ivy May, but the elder Lee sold his incubators through the
rapidly expanding combination of parcel post and the railroad system that
delivered them
Henry
Wersell died on May 11, 1920. According
to his News Bee obituary, he had been
ill for several months. He left his wife
and six children, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery.[vii] It may have been World War 1 and its
disruptions, or failing health, but Wersell’s bird store was closed by 1920.
There are still conflicting opinions over whether birds,
especial fowl, are pets or livestock.
Millions of birds of both kinds live among us. Henry Wersell was apparently satisfied selling
any feathered animal, and many more with fur or fins as well. Certainly he sold many of every kind – and
stuffed a few as well.
[i][i] New Bee, April 3, 1914.
[ii] https://daily.jstor.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-pet-bird/
[iii] News Bee, July 25, 1906.
[iv] News Bee, December 19, 1913.
[v] News Bee, January 5, 1900.
[vi] News-Bee, February 28, 1914.
[vii] Toledo News-Bee, May 12, 1920.
No comments:
Post a Comment