The Eagle Drug Store of Chippewa Falls

Although this is my third article on early drug stores of Chippewa Falls this one, the Eagle Drug Store, has the most to look at.  Due to a combination of easy to photograph location and some very attractive artifacts there is a lot to like visually.

The beginnings of the Eagle Drug store are a bit confusing.  1875 was a year that saw a great deal of change in the local pharmacy community.  As best I can piece it together, here is what happened.

1. Thomas McBean, the first druggist in Chippewa Falls, opens a new store at the corner of Bridge and Spring Streets.

2. McBean sells a half interest in the store to Hiram S. Allen - who was pretty much the founder of Chippewa Falls - with the intent that Allen would set one of his sons up in the business.

3. Ads for H.S. Allen and Son's Eagle Drug store begin to run in August of 1875.  I'm assuming no formal training for Allen Jr., as a Dr. H.B. Losey and Mr. J.F. Bieg are listed as being in charge of the prescription department.

4. By November of 1875 the store has been renamed Goddard and Company, Eagle Drug Store.  Goddard owned another store in town and must have bought out Allen.

There is in this sequence of events something of a lesson about small town business communities.  McBean and H.S. Allen had known each other since 1856, when Chippewa Falls was a frontier hamlet full of lumberjacks, river rats and sawyers.  It looks like McBean wanted to get out of the drug store business and Allen wanted to set up one of his sons in a stable profession.  It is telling that at least in my first pass research I can't even find out which Allen son this was.  It seems to have not worked out, with ownership passing to Henry Goddard after just a few months.  Goddard on the other hand, kept running the store for 25 years.

Henry Goddard was born in New York state in 1844, moving with his family to Beloit Wisconsin two years later.  Like McBean he served as a Hospital Steward during the Civil War.  He came to Chippewa Falls in 1875 purchasing a drug store owned by a man named Hinckley.  He must have barely had time to unpack before switching over to the new Eagle Drug store.  His ads prior to the switch were pretty good too, although I don't believe he made the Elephant part of the store name!

At various times he had partners.  A man named Chisholm joined him in 1875 or 76, having previously clerked for the enterprise run by Leroy Martin.   After Chisholm left circa 1882 Goddard sold the store to a man named Spence around 1888.  In 1892 Spence retired due to ill health and the Eagle store along with another store on the south side called The Model Drug Store were purchased by a partnership of Goddard and a father son team named Watson.

This photo shows the Eagle Drug store probably in the 1890's.  Its on the corner of Bridge and Spring.  And right next door to the Good Luck Drug store.  An interesting situation and one that speaks to the demand for and competition between pharmacies.  We will consider this in a future post.

When Goddard retired from the store a second time in 1899 Frank Watson ran it solo.  Despite being a Pharmacy school graduate his ads seem to run towards patent nostrums with his name associated with them.  By this point the drug store trade had become very competitive and it perhaps Frank Watson's health was in decline.

In 1910 Watson died in his rooms above the store.  He had been making final arrangements to sell the store.  In fact a gentleman named Muggah from Ellsworth was in town to sign the papers transferring ownership.

The business was still occasionally referred to as Eagle Drug after the sale but after a while it just became Muggah Drug.  And with that closing out of a 35 year run perhaps we can finish the story of The Eagle Drug Store.  Founded by the man who was the first permanent resident of Chippewa Falls in the 1840s it lasted long enough to see automobiles go past on Bridge street.

The bottles of Eagle Drug Store

From about 1880 to 1910 it was common for druggists to order bottles with their name embossed on them.  Usually these were clear glass, but for light sensitive prescriptions, or perhaps just to be fancy, you sometimes find colored ones.  This is a real beauty from the Goddard and Chisholm era, very early 1880s.

Here's one from circa 1890 when Spence ran the Eagle and Model stores.

Then the late 1890's when Goddard came back into the business and ran it with Watson.