This photo shows N.B. "Bonie" Pierce's new venture, the Reservoir Inn, at an early stage of construction around 1940. The inn at 4900 Moffett Road was actually an early convenience store that sold snacks and gasoline.
For these pumps, the attendant had to first hand crank the desired amount of gas in the glass measures on top of the pump and then let gravity feed it down the hose and into the car's tank.
Bonie is standing at left. The boy next to him is Bonie's grandson Charlie Pierce, son of W.T. Pierce. On the right is Bonie's son Ralph B. Pierce.
The Reservoir Inn was Bonie's second business venture. In the early 1930s, he opened a small store in the farming community of Wilmer, which his son Ralph helped run.
Do you have any entrepreneurs in your family tree? Did they start a family business? Did it succeed?
Photo courtesy of Lucille Pierce Hogancamp.
This photo takes me back! I remember those early gas stations in the 1940s. And I admire this three-generation picture.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, my aunt was an entrepreneur, right around the same time. When her husband died in 1943, she was left with no source of income. She started "The Town and Country Shop," a fine dress shop for women, on a shoestring. She lived in a very small town, but people came "from miles around," as they say. She was able to support herself and her two children for 30 years, and put them through college. Kind of amazing, when I look back upon it.
Yes, I remember reading about your aunt in your book "Into the Briar Patch." (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Briar-Patch-Family-ebook/dp/B0065QZ3W8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370181312&sr=8-1&keywords=Into+the+briar+patch)
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