March 22, 2021
#354

Another milestone for Barbara Schock as we posted her 350th Sandburg's Hometown the first week of February 2021, exactly eight years ago, February 4, 2013, when it all began!

Thank you, Barbara Schock, for sharing your extraordinary gift of these vignettes of Galesburg & 19th century American history.

The Big Store

By Barbara Schock

The fire call came in at 1:30 a.m. January 23, 2006. The temperature was 27 degrees and the wind speed was nine miles per hour. The centerpiece of Main Street in Galesburg was burning.

O.T. Johnson had come to the city in 1856 and worked as a clerk for Sage and Reed. Six years later he bought the business. The original two-story building was only forty feet wide with a wooden shade over a plank sidewalk in front.

In 1904 the store was enlarged into an arcade-style building with many large windows. In 1909 a five-story annex was erected directly behind the main building and it faced on Ferris Street. A bridge at the second-floor level provided access. It was used for storage and processing of stock and other business activities.

It was known as “The Big Store” and was described as the largest department store in the Midwest south of Chicago. Most people just called it “O.T.s”.

The shoe department was amazing—a wall of shoeboxes arranged on shelves several stories high. Former President Ronald Reagan’s father moved to Galesburg to sell some of those shoes. Carl Sandburg returned to Galesburg several times to sign his books for customers at the store.

Many young men and women began working part-time at the store while in high school and continued for the rest of their working lives

The company held an annual picnic for its 250 employees each summer. Streetcars were hired to take them from the store to the picnic grounds east of the business district in 1916.

“Dollar Days” each year provided an opportunity for customers to purchase goods at reduced prices. The bargains had great appeal for customers who filled the store.

A newspaper article of March 5, 1942, reported on a “Snappy Fashion Show” conducted in the ladies clothing department. It was an annual event and displayed the latest in women’s fashions. Marie Slaven was in charge. The Business and Professional Women’s organization held a card party in conjunction with the event.

Many residents of Galeslblurg have memories of O.T.’s. They recall going to the store with their mothers for new Easter outfits. Boys who wanted to join the Boy Scouts could get their uniforms and equipment there. Probably, the best memories of O.T. Johnson’s were of the lunch counter. Its reputation for donuts and pie was still glowing in the minds of the residents of the city at the time of the fire.

We don’t know if Carl Sandburg’s mother shopped at O.T.’s. In the nineteen century, the family’s income covered only the basic necessities. After the turn of the 20^th century, the family finances improved so they could have shopped at the department store.

The store closed for good in 1978. The size of the building prevented use by other businesses. Out-of-town investors owned the building at the time of the fire and had no insurance. They gave the property to the City of Galesburg. Two years later the site had been cleared, filled and seeded, ready for new investment. The cause of the fire wasn’t determined and one life was lost.