PHO Family History

8/2/2019 PHO Family History

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t b '1"") "00 '7File ;-My Fnmily H i ~ t o t y Sep em er' .... L, .The History of W.H.Owen, Ironmongers, 6 Broad Srreet, B1Jll.TH \VELLS-,

by Petet Henry (h.-I.-en.My 11r5>1 thought is to explain that I am fi-om Families \vho have been

continuously in business in Builth Tm,vl1 and Dis,'tt'ict lOt' a very long time.My father's family has been in Builth for L1.e last 170 years.

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absu'act drinking water from the Cliicago river. The tire raged, ~ v l l i j i l c t c l y overwhelming the tiretlghting f\.."rces, The city was completely destroyed, TIle" ~ l a t e i " To\vers' only, left standing. "

TIle Chicago City Authorities "vere deter'mined to rebuild theircity, but they had a great problem, thet'e were not enough builders to carry outthe Vlort to make the city they wanted, They responde(! in a typical A . m e r ~ i c a n s t ~ i l e .

The City Father's put out adver1isments wodd\vide, inviting experiencedbuilding workers to come to Chicago to rebuild the city,

The O\ven b r o t ~ r s saw t ~ advertisements and resolved to go,They set out from Liver'pooL They "vere all expert carpenters, the tirt;1 job myGrandfather had "vas tixing roof shingles, aftetliVaHls he was m ~ i n g those hugedouble entry, \vinged ,f>vveeping staircases. His younger brother Thomas \vasmaking counters and shelft1ttings for the very large city &'tores.Tlley all had"york and "vere living in the multistorey lodging houses made for the vvorker-sin t1e centre of Chicago, near TIle Haymarket , The \'Ilinters were very severe,The end of 1883-4 \vas very cold.

TIlOusands Vlere unable to vvork; soupkitchens \vere set up andconditions became e:\1remely bad, Even the carpenters were beginning to belaid o f t ~

At the westet'n side of Chicago lay a large factory which vvhich had beenroe-constructed suftlciently enough to enable production to begin again_

It employed a large number' ofpeople, It \'Il3S the" MCCOtn13CkReaper'Vorks"_

It manufactur-ed horsedrawn corn cutting machines for use on theprairIes_

TIle owner- was Comelious MCCOtnlack who was a very stt-ict employerlvho demanded a vety hig,h volume ofpr'oduction at t ~ lmvest possible (O&i.

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At the same time the ""hole stmcture ofmnning a business began- to change. The rising tide o f t ~ e supermarkets begai1 to take eftect. TIle 11rstsign, \-vas the difficulty of obtaining s,10ck to sell in the shop" The supermarkets'''eNe tak;'lCf . ~ ' M N ~ " " t ~ l ...-;"Cf , t . . .", + t . ~ . . .t'01 e"'a1er' " ' l ' ! ~ " l ~ t ot' the 1 11 b vyt;;1 allU. . . , " " ' IU6 U V W1 1 U I "vU 1 .", I "" . . . . . . . a vbusinesses "vhe; supplied the retail trade" 111is meant going directly to themanufactures, by attending various Tr"ade Fairs in Birmingham and London,and purchasing goods in much larger quantities \vhich meant more Capital wasemployed, and physically a more stress,1Ull life style .Someho\v the businessand I survived ,ai1d in fact gre\-v again,

The supetlllarkets themselves were no,v ofter"ing dir"ectcompetition even though the nearest were many miles a\vay. The answer lay inpt"oviding even mote variety, and among other things I could ofter a technicalservice by attending to maintainance of oil tired appliances, this I was alreadyptoviding with the oil t1red heating boilers and the Rayburn cookers to quite alarge number of the fanns ",,,,here I had installed them. Time was passing veryquickly, but I seemed to be una"vare of it ,ho\vever the staff I employed werequite concerned and wor"ried as the shop trade \vas being overtaken by the'eAiemal lobs' Ii,vas c311ying out"- - }\t this time there was a 'depression' taking place Ul the retail tradeandmany shops were reporting a drop in sales and finding difficulty Ul coping witha drop in turnover" The Ladies \vho \-'lorked tor" me wai1ted me to 'take it easy'as they thought it was 'too much for me at my 'age'.

At tIrst I dismissed the thought, but later changed my mind, although thebusiness \-vas turning over quite well .It occurred to me that b u s i n e ~ s e s werebecoming very diftlcult to sell and that I might not have a buyer" and I wasbecoming older. I was now 72 years old and consulted my Accountant, "vho - unknown to me was looking fot" a larger pt"emises.I \vas most sur"pr"ised when he made me an offer; I accepted his offer" ,and sold in 1998" n!!

So since 1998 I have joined the t"anks ofthe 'RETIRED' and to occupy. . . . .w . " & . , . ~ h " " \ 1 Tt"' '1'""1. +""'1 .._ '" +..", " ' T ~ . " ; + ~ " " r T +t..." _, . ..",4-; I'

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