The Chadron Hested Store – a part of yesteryear

by Larry Miller

As a kid growing up in Chadron in the years following World War II, we had some favorite places in downtown Chadron.

Now, we're talking about those years BEFORE adolescence dictated visits to the soda fountain at Saults Drug or Thompson Drug to hang out with other teens – all trying to impress members of the opposite sex while enjoying the latest flavored Coke or malt.  And certainly before later teen years at the Sun, trying to win at the pinball machine without a "Tilt."

Of course, if movies at the Pace Theatre were involved, that called for a stop up the street – movie ticket stub in hand – to the Newsy Nook for some candy.  From Licorice Snaps and Cinnamon Bears to Bit-O-Honeys and Big Hunks, it seemed that Mame Finney and Phyllis Wagner had just about anything we were looking for.  And even though it required some budgeting (after all, we couldn't afford everything!) we could still make do with 11 cents.

The quarter allowance on Saturdays would handle the 14 cents admission fee to the theatre, leaving all of those remaining 11 cents to pick-and-choose some treats from Newsy Nook.  And it seemed to be enough.

But perhaps as popular as any business in downtown Chadron in those years was the Hested Store.  It was a "five-and-dime," but we always called it Hested's, not to be confused with O'Banion's dime store just across the street on second and Main.  Hested's not only had a variety of candies – they had hot peanuts and an assortment of other nuts, too!  That provided a bit of nourishment while browsing through the toy section.

In 1946, the Hested Store in Chadron held a "Grand Opening" to celebrate a store expansion.

The Hested store was pretty good sized and offered everything from housewares and jewelry to greeting cards and clothing.  I recall they even had an assortment of bicycles – but perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me.

Illinois-born Edward James Hested was in his 30s and operating a general merchandise store in Lake City, Iowa, before opening his own variety store in Fairbury, Nebraska in 1909.  He sold a little bit of everything.   Two years later, he expanded into several other southeast Nebraska communities.  By 1940, there were about 40 Hested stores doing business in Iowa, Wyoming, and Nebraska – later expanding into Colorado.  Hested Stores were our heartland version of Woolworth and Kresge stores that populated much of the rest of the country. 

In 1960, according to the Nebraska State Historical Society, there were an estimated 100 Hested-affiliated stores in nine states.

Shown at right is an undated photo of the Hested Store in Laramie, Wyoming, with a store front very similar to the one in Chadron. Hested Stores merged with the J.J. Newberry Company of New York that year.  When the Newberry stores were bought by a Dallas corporation in 1972, the old Hested stores started shutting their doors.

We don't know for sure exactly what year the Hested Store opened and closed in Chadron.  But we do know it was a downtown mainstay for several decades, employing lots of people over the years, and offering small town folks lots of discounted merchandise – including those hot peanuts!  

Green Rivers.....gone forever!

Even small high plains communities like Chadron, Goodland, Torrington, and Winner had drugstores with soda fountains in the mid-20th century. It was a place where folks could not only get their prescriptions filled, they could also enjoy a cup of coffee, a Coca-Cola, or perhaps even a sandwich – all from the “soda fountain."

If you happened to live in a somewhat larger community, like Rapid City, Cheyenne, North Platte, Alliance, or Hays, you might have had access to an F.W. Woolworth store. It was a place we rural kids seldom had a chance to visit, but it was a pretty cool place with lots of “stuff” and a lunch counter that far surpassed the limited number of grilled items you could buy at the corner drugstore.

When a friend sent the Woolworth menu shown here, it immediately brought back memories of the three drugstores I remember in Chadron during the 1950s, all of them on the west side of the 200 block of Main Street.

Perhaps the most popular and successful was Saults Drug, owned Joe Saults. By the time it moved from the corner of 2nd and Main to a new building on the corner of 3rd and Main, “Saults Corner Drug” carried a wide array of merchandise, including greeting cards and gift items. While the pharmacy remained the nucleus of the business, teenagers continued to gravitate to the soda fountain. Interestingly, Joe Saults had relatives in Gordon who operated another Saults Drug, which for many years was every bit as successful as Joe’s operation in Chadron – perhaps moreso.

Least popular of the drugstores – at least for teens – was Thompson Drug, just a few doors north from Highway 20 on the west side of Main. Operated by "Tope" Thompson, I remember Thompson Drug as smaller than either Service Drug or Saults Drug, but it, too, carried retail merchandise and had a soda fountain in the back. For some of us, it was the place to order Green River drinks, a lemon-lime concoction that seemed to be a fountain specialty. Some years later, I was surprised to read in the Chadron, Nebraska Centennial History that "Tope" Thompson had been a “high muckamuck” in the Nebraska Ku Klux Klan back in the 1920s.

Service Drug was another hangout for teens and was operated by Paul Kampfe for many years. By the 1960s, Thompson Drug had gone out of business and only Service Drug and Saults Drug remained for several years.

Soda fountains intended for “real” customers were often overtaken by teens after school and on weekends. It was probably a mixed blessing for drugstore owners, and they eventually did away with soda fountains. I doubt they ever generated any real profit for the store and eventually became too much trouble.

My source of Green Rivers is gone forever!