Walking into Ridgeway’s community room, you can’t help but notice the amazing murals painted of old town Ridgeway, painted by Kristi R
. The murals make up either side of Main Street, starting from Cedar Street and going off into the distance. On the west side of the street, you see a large red brick building with “Shirer & Co” painted at the top. This was the general merchandise store started by J.H. and W.B. Shirer, brothers who originally worked in the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad stations. They started their store about 1900 when J.H. quit his job as a telegraph operator to move to Ridgeway. W.B. continued working his job as station agent here while J. H mostly ran their business. They quickly made a name for themselves but W.B. started having health problems with his lungs. in 1904 he and his family left Ridgeway to move to El Paso, TX, in the hopes that being in a warmer climate would improve his health. He died in 1905 with his brother and his wife and family by his side.
J.H continued running the business and even expanding into other towns until about 1915 when there was an ad in the Ridgeway Journal that he was selling out. He moved his family to Chariton, IA, but there remained a store here in Ridgeway with his name on the building. I am not sure yet if he sold it with the name to H. D. Grinstead who later sold it to J. H. Shirer’s brother-in-law, Joe P. Stanley. He may have kept an interest in the business. He and his wife returned to Ridgeway often to visit old friends and family and to check on the business. He started another grocery and clothing store in Iowa and offered dry cleaning services where you could drop off your items to be cleaned. They were then taken to his store in Chariton for cleaning. He retired from that business in 1939 soon after his wife’s brother passed away. He resumed his position at Shirer & Co, running it as a grocery store until 1947 when he sold it to Myron Zinn and his family. He died of a heart condition in 1950. The Zinn family renamed the store “Zinn Grocery”. They owned it until 1948 when they also left the business due to ill health. They sold the store to Dean and Edith Scott and their son Marvin who renamed it “Scott Grocery”. In 1949, they moved to their farm southwest of Ridgeway and turned the operation over to their older son, Berl, who sold groceries to Ridgeway residents for many years until he retired. The original “Shirer & Co” store stood in what is now an empty lot next to the current City Hall. I am not sure at what point the store moved north to the corner of Main and Vine Streets.
