THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

September 3, 1992

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            According to the Waupaca Post for September 4, 1902, Louis R Larson, who had been in the tailoring business with his father, C. Larson, the past few years bought the business and the stock of Peter Sorenson and moved into the Lewis P. Earle building that Mr. Sorenson had vacated.

            Sometime thereafter, but before 1904, the Matthew Tailoring Company was the next new tailor business in the Earle building.  Their ads in the Waupaca Post for September 8, 1904, ran something like this:  “They were showing some exceptional stylish patterns in overcoats and suits, including all of the latest weavers.  There is a style and finish to their work which stamps it as tailor made, and made by city tailors.

            “Suits, $22.50 and up.  Overcoats $22.50 and up.  Considering material and workmanship, these prices will be found to be low.  Cleaning and pressing, at moderate rates, and work promptly done.  The Matthews Tailoring Company.”

            Not many years later a young man by the name of Edward Robert Haebig sold out his business in West Bend, who will take possession at once, and will move his family here as soon as he can find a suit-able residence.  Mr. Matthews sold his residence on State Street, and shipped his household goods to Red Wing, Minn., where he will engage in the same type of business.”

            In those days of the hitching posts, dirt streets and wooden sidewalks, most clothing was handmade, and it kept a force of several tailors busy supplying the needs of the community.

            The former tailor shop of Sorenson, Larson and Matthews was located in the L. P. Earle building (called the Earle Block); this same building today is Fletcher’s Jewelry Store. Prior to Fletcher’s owning it, it was the office of Chris J. Miller Insurance Agency and the Harold F. Petersen Insurance Agency.

            In one part of the building there was a Chinese laundry. It was called the Sun Lee Laundry, and Jim Wing was the proprietor.  George Haebig told me that when his father, E.R. Haebig, had his tailor shop next door to the Chinese laundry, that the kids used to torment Mr. Wing by calling him names.  A few years ago Grant Sorensen asked me if I had ever run across any article about the Chinaman getting thrown through his plate glass window.  I have never been able to verify this.

            I understand that, when Harold F. Petersen first bought the building that you could see a path worn in the wooden floor, where the tailors walked around the large cutting table. George Haebig told me that in his father’s shop there was a large stove that held some 25-pound pressing irons, used to press the heavier materials.

            In an article in the Waupaca County Post in 1960, it told about Haebigs celebrating their 50^th anniversary in business.  It mentioned that in 1919, Eugene Nerone bought into the business with Mr. Haebig in the new location in the building at 113 North Main Street, which was practically across the street from the original location.  This building at 113 North Main, was at one time a saloon.  On August 18, 1910, John Cook was granted a license to operate a saloon there.

            With the advent of factory-made clothing the business gradually converted to a men’s ready-to-wear.

            The Waupaca County Post had a write-up about the Haebigs celebrating their golden wedding anniversary on October 3, 1948, but their actual marriage was on October 4, 1898.  There was a notation that Haebig established his complete ready-to-wear store in 1921.  Mr. Nerone left the business in 1923, and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.

            George Haebig, who at the time had a position with an Oshkosh clothing firm, returned to Waupaca to help out his father, later becoming a partner in the business.  On February 25, 1924, E.R. Haebig and his wife, Mary, purchased the south half of Lot 2, Block H, from J.P. Jenson and his wife, Mary.  This location is 113 North Main. Found in Warranty Deed volume 159, page 466.

            Edward Robert Haebig, the founder of Haebig’s Men and Boys’ Wear Store, was born in Appleton, March 27, 1878.  He was married in St. Joseph’s Church in Appleton, October 4, 1898, to Mary Margaret Wettengel.  They had two sons, Herbert and George, and one daughter, Marie.  In 1904, E.R. Haebig moved from Appleton to West Bend, where he spent five years before coming to Waupaca.  Edward Robert Haebig passed away May 6, 1959, and his wife, Mary passed away March 9, 1960.  Both are buried in St. Mary Magalene Cemetery in Waupaca.

            Sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, Haebig’s store went through extensive remodeling.

            This story would not be complete without the account of the deer that crashed through Haebig’s rear window and out through the front window, crossing Main Street and crashing through the Coast to Coast store window.

            There is a picture in the November 24, 1966, Waupaca County Post.  It shows Rex (tracker) Oatman, Don (driver) Fabricius and Fred (stander) Rasmussen, kneeling beside the dead doe.  The article states that the three hunters finally brought the deer down after a prolonged drive in aisle 4. Stander Rasmussen tagged his deer with a long shot deep in the interior of aisle 5, which just happened to be the ammunition counter.  All the time that this was happening Doug Loomis, manager of the store, was up north hunting deer.

            Mr. Rode sketched a cartoon of two deer hunters standing near Haebig’s, looking at a deer all dressed up with hat and coat, and a pipe in its mouth, also a cane in one hand, with the caption:  “No wonder we didn’t get any!  They’re all in town shopping.”

            Mr. Grimme had this original cartoon hanging in his clothing store.

            After the death of his father in 1959, George Haebig took over until he retired in 1968, at which time three Wauapca men – Vic Billmeyer, who had been with the firm for 20 years; George Wood, 16 years, and Alfred Grimme, 11 years – bought the business from George Haebig, and established the corp-oration, Haebig’s Inc., on January 24, 1968.

            The firm not only offered a formal rental service, and in addition was an exclusive distributor for Boy Scout clothing and equipment.

            Victor Billmeyer retired in 1976, and George Wood retired in 1981.  It was on November 19, 1981, that Alfred Grimme and his wife Rosemarie bought out Haebig’s Inc. and became the sole owners. Of the south half of Lot 2, Block H in the original Village of Waupaca, now the City of Waupaca.

            Mr. and Mrs. Grimme’s place of business is known today as Haebig’s Men’s Wear.