Hauff, C. C.

HAUFF, CROUCH

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer
Date: 1/9/2011 at 19:10:55

LeMars Semi-Weekly Sentinel
February 8, 1952

C. C. Hauff Recalls He Was His Own Best Customer Back in January 1904

A glance backward at earlier days in Merrill was to be glimpsed in an article written by Floyd Powell in the Merrill Reminder, based on an interview with C. C. Hauff, Merrill’s oldest business man.

Mr. Hauff’s memory is a long one, for he will be 84, this year, having been born on a farm near Magnolia, Iowa, June 30, 1868.

Brought up on a farm, he planned to carry on the family tradition, and moved to a farm on Perry Creek near old Potosi, about three miles south of Liberty school in 1899.

Mr. Powell continues:

It wasn’t long before the little fellow of bow and arrow fame entered the picture and Claudia Crouch became the bride of Conrad Charles Hauff, Oct. 2, 1901, at LeMars.

Jan. 1, 1904, Mr. Hauff purchased a building at the present site of the Peduzi Oil Co., and set up in the implement business. What made him forsake the old grey mare and whiffle tree for the businessman’s role, he doesn’t remember.

He does recall that during the first month he was assailed with grave doubts as to the prudence of his venture for at the end of January, gross sales stood at $8.75. of this amount, $5.00 was a charge account listed as one buggy tongue sold to none other than C. C. Hauff.

In contrast to the implement business, the town was booming—it boasted two banks and seven livestock buyers of whom Frank Hoese, Horace Hancer and Wm. C. Peck led the field.

Nor did the implement business remain dull for long—soon additional space was needed and a lean-to was built to the side and rear. When this was outgrown Conrad traded a wagon and some to boot for an old church which stood on the Cecil Simpson corner.

In 1908 Mr. Hauff took on the agency for the old Jackson automobile. The first such agency in Merrill. As business prospered he traded an auto for the site where he built the present brick structure in 1911.

In addition to his business, he had other interests. He joined the Volunteer fire department in 1904 and has been an active member ever since.

When they purchased the first fire truck in the early 20s, the two wheeled cart was stored in the hardware store for a few days. Days became months, months years, in 1949, it was taken out of storage for the Ag Days parade.

Conrad served as councilman and clerk for 23 years and was a member of the school board for 19 years. At one time he carried seven bank accounts for the various organizations in Merrill.

In 1946 Mr. Hauff retired. Not one to let the ole rockin’ chair get him, he still spends 90 percent of his time at the hardware store. He has been active in business longer than anyone else in Merrill.

Conrad has many outside activities, he never misses a hardware convention, a community club or Izaak Walton League meeting, or a basketball game without just cause.