Advertisers in Willshire’s 1948 Willow

After spending time looking at occupations and businesses in the village of Willshire in the 1880 census, I am leaving the 19th century and fast-forwarding about 70 years, to look at some Willshire businesses in the mid-1900s.

But instead of using census records I am using the advertisers in Willshire’s yearbook, the Willow. Their advertisements bring back memories of businesses that are no longer. I have several old Willow yearbooks and the 1948 Willow is the oldest I have.

1948 Willow, Willshire Public School

I am familiar with some of the advertisers in the 1948 yearbook. Some advertisers were from neighboring towns like Van Wert and Decatur, but I did not include them. Except for the Chattanooga advertisers, which I am including. There were many Chatt-area students at Willshire Public School and, after all, this is Karen’s Chatt.

Willshire and Chatt advertisers in the 1948 Willow:

1948 Willow

My mom was a bookkeeper at Willshire Grain & Supply.

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

Phone numbers were easier to remember back then. They consisted of only 2 or 3 digits and today we use 10!

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

1948 Willow

I have some other Willow yearbooks, for more recent years, and I will show some of the advertisers in them soon.

9 comments

Skip to comment form

    • Sondra Samples on April 8, 2022 at 8:42 am
    • Reply

    I remember as a senior going to various business places and selling ads for the 1957 yearbook. The entire senior class was allowed to take the day off from classes to do this. We were divided up into groups of several students each and sent to different towns in the area. I think the ads were the main source of income to finance the printing of the yearbook. To add a little bit of history of the Willshire School Willow, 1948 was the first year Willshire School published a yearbook, then did so every year thereafter until Willshire consolidated with Rockford to become Parkway in the fall of 1961, EXCEPT in 1955 when the senior class did not do one. That has always been somewhat of a mystery, and I believe the class regrets it now.

    1. Thanks for all this good information. Advertising was a good way to fund the project and now it is so interesting to look back at all those ads. I am missing just a couple yearbooks. I found some of the oldest ones at an antique store in Van Wert and a couple, belonging to my aunt and uncle, were found in the barn. Amazingly, I don’t have the one when I was in first grade, but I have all the rest from my school years. Yes, too bad that they did not compile a 1955 yearbook. Thanks for writing!

    • Janet Goodwin james on April 8, 2022 at 9:27 am
    • Reply

    Those were fun to read! Thanks!

    1. You are welcome!

      • Peggy Betterly on October 20, 2023 at 8:45 am
      • Reply

      My sister, Sally Clouse Wehr, was the editor of the very first yearbook. 1948. I drew to pictures for the sections. After my father, Edgar Clouse, stopped butchering for Clouse’s Meat Market, Uncle Dale Clouse had a grocery store in the old Drug store on main street. Everyone came to town on Saturday night to get meat for Sunday and see their neighbors. You would get tickets for buying at a store and there was a drawing for money during the evening. I won $10. once. It bought a lot in those days. Peggy Jo Clouse Betterly

      1. That is so interesting. Thank you for sharing that bit of local history. I remember Clouse’s Meat Market/Grocery. Those were the good old days. Thanks for the memories and thanks for writing.

    • Mary Goodwin on April 8, 2022 at 9:40 am
    • Reply

    Thanks so much for your post! I confess it was so cool to see my dad’s garage ad – Goodwin Garage, although he didn’t put his name, Glenn Goodwin, on it!
    I have that Willow and those after 1948 and believe I was in 1st grade that year. Our class was so big -44- so we had to be divided into 2 classrooms. We were born in 1941 and were called the War Babies.
    I’m looking forward to more Willow posts!

    1. You are welcome! Glad you enjoyed it. We had 2 first grade classes in 1958-59, too. Thanks for the information and thanks for writing.

    • Mary Goodwin Haddad on April 8, 2022 at 9:45 am
    • Reply

    Sondra, I always heard their class sponsor talked them out of publishing a Willow saying they would have more money for their class trip or prom or some activity?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.