Swope Store

Ralph H. Swope was raised on his father’s farm in McCutchanville Indiana. He went to grade school and high school at McCutchanville School. He worked on his father’s farm in his early years. In 1910 he went to Terre Haute Indiana and apprenticed at the Swope Nehf Jewelry store to be a jeweler. When he married in 1914 he moved back to his Fathers farm outside of Evansville for a few years. In December of 1919 he took his wife Margaret, two sons, Dwight and Ralph (Bub), and went back to Terre Haute and worked as a jeweler. During World War One he was in the Militia (Dec. 3, 1917 through April 21 1920) and spent some time in Gary Indiana because of the unrest in the coal mines. In 1924 the family left Terre Haute and came back to McCutchanville and Ralph went to work for B.K. Hardware Wholesalers in Evansville and traveled around the area selling hardware. When the family moved back to McCutchanville is when he bought the two and one half acres on Browning Road. Nancy and Paul was born in this house. Ralph dreamed of a store of his own.

After working for other people for many years he had a chance to open his own business. The year was 1934. It was in the form of a general store located at the intersection of Whetstone Rd and Hwy 57, on the north side. The store and ground belonged to some one else and he was leasing it. It is the intersection of Whetstone and Petersburg Rd. now. When the new 57 was built they renamed the old 57 Petersburg Rd. The store had a large sales area in the front, a two room apartment in the back, and a full basement. Also there were Standard Oil gasoline pumps in the front. There was also a garage large enough for several autos to be serviced at the same time. These buildings had been there for some time with other people running business there. About that time Bub (Ralph Leroy) had graduated from high school and had gotten married. Ralph talked him into taking over the garage and living in the apartment in back of the store. Bub didn’t think he had the experience to take over the garage but he did well.

These were hard times, during the worst of the depression. When he bought stock for the store it would be small amounts. He would not even buy a full case of anything; everything was bought in part cases lots. There is a picture taken in the store during that time that shows just a few things on the shelves, not a large amount of stock. Dad built free standing shelving with angle iron and plywood. These shelf units where used all the time he had both stores.

In 1938 it was time to renew the lease. The owners (its thought standard Oil had a hand in it) would not renew his lease. Besides that they gave him only 30 days to get out. After couple of days in a quandary, he decided to try and move forward with a new store. Bailey France had property across the road so he went and talked to him. The property was in the corner of Whetstone and Hwy 57. It was property with a garage that would hold a dump truck. The County Hwy department had used it in years past. Mr. France and Ralph quickly came to an agreement and he moved on. First step was to get a permit to build. The building commissioner was insisting that it had to be a brick building. That would take months to build and Dad by this time had less than 30 days. Besides the cost of masonry building was out of Ralph’s reach. Ralph went to his lawyer and the lawyer said there was no way they could make him build a masonry building. He told him and go back and tell the building commissioner what he was going to build, permit or no permit! They gave him the permit.

The new store was frame, built on foundation pillars. It had a narrow room across the back for storage. The store had Ralph a small attic area with a stair up from the storage room. The sanitary facility was a one holer down the hill in back of the store. Ralph contracted with Texaco for gasoline and oil products. They put in the underground storage tanks and three pumps out front. Two pumps were electric and one hand pump for when the electricity was off. He also sold kerosene from a rectangular 50 gallon tank with a hand pump on top. When you turned the crank on the hand pump it would dispense one quart. If someone wanted 5 gallons you had to do a lot of turning. Bub set up his repair business in the old county hwy garage adjacent to the store. Both Dad and Bub were in business in the new location before the 30 days were up. They had moved everything across the road, closed the old store and garage, and had a sign up pointing out the new store.

During the next few years there were several people tried to operate the old store. They all soon gave up and moved out. After that Bub rented it and made a residence out of the store, and operated the garage for a few years before going into the camera repair business. Soon after Ralph moved across the road to the new store they decided the garage was blocking the view of the store from people coming from the north. So they lengthened the floor with rough sawn oak and moved the building back about half its length.

A few other things were added to the store over the years. Ralph would negotiate with Texaco for the gasoline contract. Over the years Texaco added a canopy to the front, asphalt between the front and the pumps, and painted the store a couple of times. Ralph also added a lean-to down the side with a room at the back and the rest storage area.

Another big happening during the time that Ralph had the store was the paratroopers being stationed in McCutchanville during the summer of 1943. It was the 502 battalion of the 101 division. Headquarters company was stationed on the hill back of the airport. Companies A, B & C were stationed in McCutchanville. One was stationed between Whetstone road and the big lake. There were no houses there at that time. One was stationed on the ground that is now the McCutchanville Park. The other was on Browning road just south of were the golf course is now. There were no houses from there down to where we lived. During this time Ralphs store was made an official PX. He had a counter full of candy that could only be sold to the solders. There was very little candy to be had at that time. People would come in and point right through the sign that said it was only for solders, and say I want that that and that. He would have to tell them no. Most of the time there would be a guard stationed at the intersection of the roads out front. The Troupers would fly from the airport down to Tennessee and jump out to maneuvers and then ride back to McCutchanville in trucks.  By the time they got back they would want something more than K rations. It was hard to keep milk and sweet rolls in stock. When they were not training it took them all to keep things going.

There were those in the neighborhood that liked to spend time at the store. There was a Warm Morning stove (a free standing stove that got its name from keeping the fire all night) with a bench and a few chairs, and a table. The store would fill up on Sunday morning after church.  He had a couple of special friends that on Sunday morning he would fix a special Coca-Cola. He would pour out some of the Coke and replace it with a spirited drink. The drink was recapped and an X put on top. He would inform whoever was helping who those were for. When those persons came in, ordered their coke and paid their 5 cents, that is the drink they would get. They would have a happy look on their face. The children also liked the store. When they had a penny, nickel or a dime, they would head for “Mr. Swopes.” McCutchanville School was just across the street and at recess the children that had a coin or two would like to go to the store for a candy bar. The kids seem to all like Ralph and he would joke with them. There were some principles that had no trouble with kids going across to the store but there were a few that made the kids bring a note from home stating they could go across the road to the store.

Ralph was into trading guns. There were several people around all the time that were gun lovers. Among these were a few State policemen that were coming by. Of course they wanted to try out different guns so he put in a shooting range along the south side of the store. It consisted of a large wall of rough sawed oak with a steel trap in front of it. There were many a shot fired at targets on that range. In the winter time he would also conduct spot shoots out the back window of the garage. He would have the targets set up down the hill with spot light on it. The shoots were at night. There would be a single target set up at a time and someone, usually Bub, would change the target between shooters. Ralph also fixed and sold telephones. In the 30s and 40s they were of the wood box type with the cranks to do the ringing. Everyone that had telephone service had to furnish their own phone.

Another side line Ralph had was that he fixed clocks and such. He was a trained jeweler so it was a natural that he would exploit his skills. People would bring in all kinds of clocks that they would say that no one else could make run. Every once and a while some one would bring in a clock with the parts loose in a box, and he would get it running. On occasion one of the old clocks with wood works would need a new gear. Ralph would carve out a new gear and get it running.

About 1945 Ralph and some of the other people in the neighborhood were talking about a fire department and a fire truck. They put their heads together and raised money, bought a fire truck and formed a fire department. The truck was bought in 1947. Dad was elected the Chief of the new department. By this time Bub had moved his garage business across the road so the old wood garage beside the store was used to house the new fire truck. To call the volunteers to man the truck they used a telephone tree and also the siren on top of the Swope  store.

This same organization, the McCutchanville Benefit Club, also bought the 20 acres that is now the McCutchanville Park. This was bought during the same time as raising money for the fire truck. When Ralph died in 1948, his wife ran the store for a few years. Then it was rented to different people for a while and finally she sold it to Doctor Nenneker. He tore it down and built a full grocery and a full gas station. The location now holds the Professional Kennel Club (PKC) and the fire department occupies the school across the street.

Ralph Swope was instrumental in forming the McCutchanville Benefit Club and the McCutchanville Vol. Fire Department and was the first Fire Chief.