The Muschany Brothers, Howell's Entrepreneurs

“Every Howellite remembers this general store with its bunch of bananas in one window, lamps and dishes in another. Strips of fly-paper dangled from the ceiling above the cabinets of J. P. Coats white and black threads. In a fancier cabinet were kept the silk threads of various colors and shades. . . . Ribbons, lace, yard goods, all wearing apparel had a regular spot, probably based on the buying habits of the rural customers. The telephone—three longs and two shorts—was near the desk as was the candy counter; inasmuch as most folks bought candy as they paid their bill. Penny candies were the big thing, usually in bulk containers.” So wrote Donald K. Muschany in his book The Rape of Hamburg and Howell, Missouri as he remembered the general store run by the Muschany brothers of Howell. From 1918 until 1940, Morris, Claude, and Karl Muschany operated a successful business that delivered goods and services to their community.

These brothers had spent their entire lives in the Howell community. Their grandfather, Joseph Ignatius Muschany, who was born in Germany, came to the area in the early 1850's and married a Cottleville woman. The brothers' father, James Urban Muschany, taught school in the Howell area for many years. The brothers had deep roots in the community, so it is not surprising that they decided to invest their resources and energy in building up businesses there.

That investment began in September, 1916, when the older brothers, Morris and Claude, ages twenty-five and twenty-one respectively, bought a Howell business from Mr. Ferney Stewart. The building which housed the store had been purchased by the local Masonic Lodge in 1884 from I. P. Ronen. Some of Stewart's ancestors had started a store there about one year earlier. Sometime in the 1920's the youngest Muschany brother, Karl, joined his two brothers in the store partnership. Eventually the brothers chose an official name for their enterprise: “Muschany Brothers Business: General Merchandise, Undertaking, and Trucking.”

Existing records offer little explanation as to what the trucking side of the business involved. One possible explanation is the gas station the brothers leased to Frank Post, another Howell resident, in the early 1930's. This business was adjacent to the brothers' store and, in fact, Post sold more motor oil to the brothers than anyone else. During one seven-month period the brothers purchased 325 quarts of motor oil from Post; in another seven-month period they purchased 170 quarts. These numbers certainly suggest that the Muschany brothers could have owned some trucks.

The undertaking side of the business evolved out of Morris Muschany assisting either the county coroner or a mortician (or both) around the time the brothers purchased the store. Several years later his son wrote that Morris had “help[ed] in medical exams of the dead,” earning $2.50 for each body. By 1919 Morris had earned a degree from Eckels College of Embalming and Sanitary Science in Philadelphia, and two years later had graduated from the St. Louis College of Embalming. A year later, in 1922, Morris was lisenced to practice embalming in Missouri. The mortuary was in the house next to the store. Eventually the Muschany brothers would expand the mortuary business beyond Howell to open additional funeral homes in Augusta and St. Charles.

The Muschany brothers' mortuary records for 1937 lists thirty unpaid accounts, totalling about $2,400. The inventory also lists several accounts the brothers describe as uncollectable, totalling close to $400. Interestingly the inventory also lists nine dresses and suits which could be purchased for the deceased to wear in the coffin. At the time the inventory was made, there were six caskets in stock at Augusta and six at St. Charles. Their value was about $60 each.

The most significant side of the Muschany brothers' business was the general store. “Since there wasn’t any store closer than Wentzville or St. Charles,” the brothers provided the Howell community with a critical convenience. The store was not large. The brick building's first floor measured twenty-five by forty-five feet; attached to the building was a frame annex measuring twelve by fifteen feet. The brothers also made use of a wooden shed measuring eighteen by twelve feet. The building also had a basement where the kerosene tank was located. By the mid-1930's the store had electricity, but there was never indoor plumbing.

In these spaces the brothers sold an unbelievable quantity of goods. Olivia Hays Oliver in her book The Crow's Nest wrote:

“What former resident of Howell and its environs does not remember this store? A bunch of bananas hanging in one window. Dishes and lamps in another. Strips of fly-paper dangling from the ceiling. On the left-hand side of the store the cabinet of J. P. Coats white and black cotton thread. Another cabinet with silk thread of various colors and shades. Ribbons, lace, bolts of yard goods, hose, socks, underwear, overalls, shirts, shoes, boots, galoshes. On the right-hand side were the telephone—its ring three longs and two shorts—the desk, candy counter and its square jars of rock candy, peppermint and pink wintergreen drops, licorice sticks and pipes, jelly beans, chocolate drops, coconut drops, candy bars, chewing gum. Generally a big round long horn cheese on the counter from which wedges had been cut. On the shelves were smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco; cans of fruit and vegetables, bottles of vinegar, catsup, mustard, buckets of red label and blue label Karo, jars of peanut butter and dried beef. In the warehouse were trace chains, horse collars, harness, whips, bridles, halters; washboards, tubs, jars, crocks, iron skillets, buckets, pans, dishes; rolls of wire and rope; kegs of nails; barrels of salt and sugar; sacks of flour, cornmeal, bran, shorts.”

Another remembered the abundance of candy:

There was shelf after shelf of canned goods, but the best of all was the glass case of penny candy.  Grandma always managed to give me a penny, as I gazed into the candy case.  She did her shopping while I tried to decide which candy would be the best buy for my penny.  There was a large assortment to choose from, including red and black licorice twists, lollipops, a variety of hard candies, and my favorite, bacon strips.  These were flat strips of three flavors, strawberry, licorice, and vanilla.  There were times when Grandma would have completed her shopping and I still had not made my decision.

The January, 1937, inventory of the Muschany brothers' general store confirms the accuracy of these memories and provides a fascinating picture of what kinds of merchandise the brothers made available to the Howell community. The volume of men's and boys' clothing certainly suggests that the store attracted customers well beyond the bounds of Howell. The number of boys' pants, overalls, and coveralls totaled ninety, costing between thirty-three and seventy-five cents, and there were twenty-two boys' jackets, along with 53 boys' shirts and sweaters. There was an even greater quantity of men's clothing inventoried. Men's pants, overalls, and coveralls totaled 144. The inventory of men's shirts, sweaters, and jackets was 207, the most expensive being a Red Ball jacket selling for $11.00. Other brand names included Big Buck and Lee's. There were far fewer clothing items listed for females. This may have been due to the fact that women sewed most of their dresses. Indeed, the store carried several types of fabric. The largest quantity inventoried was 446 yards of quadriga cloth (priced at 13 ½ cents per yard), a popular cotton fabric for dresses, manufactured by St. Louis fabric manufacturer Ely and Walker. The inventory also included nearly 200 straw hats and caps, and over 300 pairs of women's hose, including black; chiffon; cotton, the cheapest at ten cents; and silk, the most expensive at sixty-six cents.

Not surprisingly, the Muschany brothers' store carried many items associated with life in a small agricultural community. The inventory lists sewing items, hammer handles (eight cents), pocket knives, dish pans, fishing supplies, shot gun shells, playing cards (nineteen cents), stove wicks, roofing supplies, chicken feed, scythes, lamp chimneys, towels, blankets, watches (most expensive was $1.09), and forty-eight jars of Vicks Vapo-Rub (twenty-six cents). There were 112 cans of Campbell's soup (seven or eight cents). The store had only sixteen rolls of Kodak film, which suggests that few people were wealthy enough to own cameras. The inventory also lists thirty-two “violin strings” (five cents or less), something not usually associated with rural America. However, these strings would have been purchased for fiddles, a not uncommon instrument in area homes. The store also had two containers of “cocoa cola” in its stock; each cost eighty cents. This was no doubt the syrup used to make fountain drinks. The brothers also had 345 gallons of gasoline on hand, costing 12.9 cents per gallon.

The Muschany brothers' store was well-known in the area for its annual Christmas sale. Large posters were printed for the “Muschany Bros. Christmas Sale” and placed as far away as St. Charles. A local newspaper commented in 1930 on the “beautiful Christmas display” at the store. The brothers tallied a separate inventory in January of 1937 for their Christmas sale the previous month. Although it only lists what was left after the Christmas sales, it is still an interesting document. The toys listed include doll beds, trucks, popguns (thirty-four cents), a “metal race horse game,” rubber dolls (sixty-seven cents), a metal bus (seevnteen cents), beads, circus toys, book, cut-out dolls, tops, horns (three cents), a doll carriage, and a football (thirty-three cents. Not surprisingly the sale also included many kinds of tree decorations and lights.

Perhaps equally as important, the store provided the Howell community with a social center:

Around the stove were held heated and good-natured political arguments. Here the weather, crops, and the village gossip were discussed. Past, present, and future local history was “hashed over.” Jokes were told. Pranks were planned and played. No local newspaper was needed. . . . [S]ome of the village men would rather have missed their supper than an evening at the store. Many of the young men and boys often rode or walked several miles for this nocturnal pastime, especially on Saturday night.

During the spring, summer, and fall months the men moved to the store porch, some sitting on the edge of the porch, some on grain sacks, some on egg cases, one or two on the scales, and a fortunate few in chairs, all following the shade. Some of the men were so regular in making their trips to and from the store—frequently six trips daily—that the women of Howell could have set their clocks by them.

Donald K. Muschany, Morris' son, would later write of the social interactions provided by the store. According to Muschany, “Jokes were passed along from the dry goods drummer or the tobacco man or the shoe salesman.” Many men would frequent the store “to sit by the stove in winter, eat peanuts, and toss the shells at an empty plug tobacco box which held a few ashes to catch any sputum that might come its way.” Summertime would find the men on the store's front porch. “[C]hess and checkers were played regularly.” Of course, the building's second story was the home of the local Masonic Lodge. The Howell grade school held bake sales at the store.

When the War Department decided in 1940 to build a munitions factory between Weldon Spring and Howell, the Muschany brothers' store was doomed. During the fall of 1940, the War Department signed contracts with local landowners which designated about 18,000 acres, including the entire village of Howell. There was an initial vocal resistance by the landowners, culminating in a protest meeting held at the Muschany brothers' store on October 30, but to no avail. Contracts were signed, and a community auction was held in front of the Muschany brothers' store on November 30. The Masonic Lodge of Howell sold its building which housed the store for $8,000. The Muschany brothers signed a contract which stated they would be paid $11,300, which included $3,500 for the garage and the house the Post family occupied, along with $6,500 for lost profits due to the closure of their store.

But then, when only about half of the landowners had received their checks, the War Department decided it would not honor the remaining signed contracts since the agreed to amounts were too high, including contracts for the Muschany brothers' store and garage. When the property owners refused to accept new contracts for greatly reduced sale prices, the War Department condemned the properties and took possession. The Muschany brothers joined dozens of landowners in contesting the War Department's actions. Eventually the U. S. Supreme Court, in 1945, decided in favor of the landowners, who were then paid the amounts in the contracts they had signed in 1940. Morris Muschany moved the mortuary business to Wentzville. Claude and Karl operated a general store in Weldon Spring, but it closed within several months of opening. The store building itself, in July 1941, was sold for salvage, “all structures to be demolished to foundation level.”

Today the site of Howell lies within a restricted area inside the Weldon Spring Conservation Area. The prairie that once surrounded Howell is now thickly forested in trees and brush. It hardly seems possible that a town once existed in this area, but if a person listens closely he might almost hear the sounds coming from Morris, Claude, and Karl Muschany's store: the camaraderie of men talking on the front porch, the voices of their wives as they compared fabrics for new dresses, and the excited squeals from children choosing from dozens of candies.

SOURCES: 1937 inventories of Muschany Brothers store; “Antique Quilt History” (antiquequilthistory.com); “Circular Proposal, Sale of Salvage Property, 7/17/1941” (National Archives, Kansas City, MO); The Crow's Nest (thetntstory.blogspot.com); Findagrave.com; “Memories of MaryDean Carter Alsworth” (thetntstory.blogspot.com); Muschany v. US, U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings (U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978, The Making of Modern Law Print Editions); The Rape of Howell and Hamburg (the tntstory.blogspot.com); St. Charles County Business Record (shsmo.org); St. Charles Daily Cosmos-Monitor (newspaperarchive.com).

                                                                              The Muschany brothers' store in April 1941