Backus Store by Tom Beardsley and Pete Zizka 4-20-2024 |
George Harlow
Backus was a South
Windham merchant,
well known to several
generations of
Windham area residents. He was a direct descendent of William
Backus, who arrived in Saybrook, Connecticut from England in 1638. In
1660, William became one of the original
landholders of Norwich, Connecticut, and his son, also William,
became a landholder in Windham
in 1692, one of the legatees of Ioshua Uncas.
George H. Backus was born in South Windham on September 30, 1858.
On leaving school he briefly
worked as a clerk for the Adam Nickel Plating Company in South
Windham. By 1876, Backus was employed as a clerk in the South
Windham mercantile store of
Elisha Harlow Holmes. The Holmes family established a thriving
mercantile business in the
village, which prospered thanks to its proximity to the railroads.
Elisha Holmes was educated at
the Fitch Academy in the village, and in later years he became
a member of the board of South Windham’s Radial Thread Buff
Company. Well-known in its time,
this company manufactured "buff wheels" for polishing silver and bronze.
One of the buildings still stands on Route 32, and has been
recently refurbished. When
heading south towards South Windham on Route 32, a left turn in the
village leads to Route 203. On
crossing the railroad lines, there is a large brick building on the
left. This was built by Elisha Holmes shortly after the arrival of the
railroads through the village. The earliest located reference to it
reveals that it was a millinery store in 1869. In later years it was the
residence of the Backus family. Elisha H. Holmes was a famous local
merchant and entrepreneur who had also built the adjacent grocery and
supply store (pictured). This
typical, Yankee country store, built shortly before the Civil War, was
located just across the railroad lines. It was the meeting place of
generations of area residents. In 1880, Holmes sold the store to
brothers George Harlow Backus and his brother William and Edwin. The
Backus Bros. grocery Store supplied provisions for railroad travelers,
the workers of the Smith and Winchester paper-producing machine factory,
the residents of the South Windham Hotel, and for people from the
outlying rural areas. A note from the South Windham reporter for The
Chronicle mentioned that, “Backus
Bros. have a new sign on their store. This is I believe the first sign
ever on the building, which has been used as a store for many years and
by several different proprietors.”
The reporter also said, “A
decided improvement both in looks and convenience, is the new show-case
which Backus Bros. have placed in their store. It is much larger and of
more modern construction than the old one which it displaced”.
Backus also partnered with O.M.
Larkham who opened a meat market in the basement of Backus Bros’ store.
“He drives through this and adjoining villages several times a week and
will supply customers at the market at any time.” New York Times
journalist Allan Keller, who was raised in South Windham during the
early years of the century, captured the Backus store's historic Yankee
character. In his 1955 book "Grandma‘s Cooking," Keller refers to the
Backus store as the "crossroads
store," and "Grandpa‘s club," "a wondrous place," with a large
pot-bellied stove, where men met
and talked endlessly amongst the odors of vinegar, molasses, pickles and
licorice. The Backus
general merchandising and coal yard business became well known across
New England. George Backus served as village postmaster in the 1890s,
and his brother William operated the telegraph office in the village's
Central Vermont railroad depot.
George was also a Windham selectman for 17 years, and served one term as
an assessor George was in
business in the South Windham store, as an employee and owner, for an
amazing 62 years from 1876 until 1938. It took a hurricane to put
him out of business. The 1938 hurricane caused extensive damage to the
building and George decided to
retire. Windham historian Ruth Ridgeway once recalled the store well and
remembered that it was
demolished when the state
highway (Route 32) was constructed around 1940. George Backus died in
Pomfret on November 30, 1942, aged 84. |
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