Arthur J. Fedewa was born in a log home on November 14, 1893 near Portland, Michigan. The second youngest of seven children, his parents were farmers who had immigrated from Germany.
His early education came from a one room district school house that was a K-12 frame built building heated by a single pot-belly wood stove. Attending here until grade three, his family then moved several miles into the city of Portland, MI where he attended 4-7th grades. For his 8th grade year Art attended a special parochial school that specifically focused on a business education. This would begin his life in the world of sales.
In 1910 at the age of 17 Art found himself in Detroit looking for a book keeping job. Instead, he found a position of an elevator operator. Several months later he became a delivery man for a piano rolls company, subsidizing his incoming by cleaning the warehouse floors when not busy.
Always a hard worker, Art used his love of music to gain a job selling records and Victrolas. In a short time, he became the music department’s manager at Charley Miller’s, a well-known store in Detroit. When his manager at Charley Miller’s left for a job in Ft. Wayne, IN, Arthur, now 25 years old, followed him and took a position at the Wolf & Dessauer department store. This store was well known throughout the area for their brightly lit Santa with his reindeer and the Merry Christmas wreath on the side of their building that was put up every holiday season. Today, each Christmas season, you can see these lights on the side of One Summit Square and PNC Bank at Main and Calhoun in Ft. Wayne, IN.
Following a fire at Wolf & Dessauer’s, Art took a job selling Hoover sweepers door to door. This position took him to Huntington, IN in 1932. Three years later in 1935 he brought his family to Wabash where he operated an electrical appliance store on 14 West Market Street.
In 1941 Arthur purchased the store and in his first year of ownership grossed $40,000, increasing their sales 10% each year following. Shortly thereafter he purchased a large building on the South side of East Market Street, Wabash, IN. It is here that the Fedewa Appliance Store became a well-known community business.
Arthur Fedewa died on May 4, 1974 and is buried in Memorial Lawns Cemetery, Wabash, IN.
This audio is an interview that was conducted by George Dingledy on March 27, 1973 as part of the Wabash Carnegie Public Library Oral History Project.
From 1970 to 1987 Wabash Carnegie Public Library and members of the community worked on an Oral History Project that interviewed multiple people in Wabash. These were recorded on cassette tapes, which were later converted to CD in 2006.
Subscribe to keep up with our local history!
For any questions or inquiries regarding this video please reach out to info@wabashmuseum.org.
Follow us on our other platforms: • Facebook - Wabash County Museum • Instagram - @wabashmuseum • TikTok - @wabashmuseum
27 сен 2024
