Robert C. Kalthoff

My Dad saw my blog and saw my interest in the old neighborhood and Detroit, so he gave me a large envelope full of old newspaper clippings my Grandpa kept. Why did he keep them? I don't know, but I have them now.

Included in this packet is a copy of a short book chapter, "Chapter 3, Robert C. Kalthoff," pages 166-167, and a photo on page 228. But it doesn't give me a clue what book it came from. Do you know? Anyway, from what I can tell, this story takes place in the old neighborhood, around the I-94 exit at Gratiot. Here it is:

"Among my earliest memories were the trips to the grocery store. Cash and carry business in those days was, of necessity, confined almost entirely to small items. We would pick out what we wanted, with the help of the clerk, just as we do nowadays, but instead of carrying it out with us the clerk would put it aside for delivery. The first grocery I remember was Kalthoff's, in a building thatw as afterwards torn down to cut Pennsylvania Avenue through to Gratiot. There was a saloon on the Harper Avenue side of the store and the grocery on the downtown side. Mr. Kalthoff spend [sic] most of his time waiting on trade in the saloon. If I remember correctly, Robert Kalthoff, Jr., generally waited on us. He was just a boy, 16 or 18 years old, but very businesslike.
August Kalthoff built the store in 1871 as a hardware store. He had the first hardware store and the first Post Office in Leesville. Robert C., his son, was then four years old. The settlement was just beginning to look like a village. In summer they called it Leesville and in winter they called in Louisville. Sometimes they had to put three or four 18-inch planks in front of the store so people could get to it. I can still remember that mud and it was really something. Riding the "plug" down to Sheridan Avenue we would often see wagons stuck in the mud, abandoned by the owner until he could come back with a shovel and dig it out. They used to tell about a man finding a hat in the middle of Gratiot Avenue. Going over to pick it up he found a man's head under it.
"Want some help?" He asked.
"No, I'm alright," replied the other, "I'm just driving to town with a load of hay."
All the farmers wore rubber boots and had trouble keeping them on thier feet. We put stepping stones at Jean Avenue (Marcus) so we could cross Gratiot to get the street car, but in two or three days they had sunk out of sight and we had to get some more.
At the age of 23 Robert C. Kilthoff marrie dMiss Matilda Michaels. They moved to Mt. Clemens, but returned a year later to buy the entire Gratiot-Harper corner and open a grocery and saloon in his father's old store. Thier children, in order of birth, were: Matilda Gertrude, Antionette Dorothy, Viola Elizabeth, Robert A. and Edgar N. During the drive for state and national prohibition of the liquor traffic people used to say that if all saloons were run like Kalthoff's there would be no need of prohibition.
Mr. Kalthoff recalled that there were 22 brickyards and a sawmill along Fort Gratiot Road. Later he built a new front on the store and when the city street numbers came along it was 2396 Gratiot Ave. Back of the store, almost halfway to the Church of our Savior, was Nelson Jackson's blacksmith shop. Although there was no "spreading chestnut tree" over his shop, he exemplified to us children that Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith." tot he grownups also, I beleive, for he, his work and his family were loved and respected for miles around. They were members of the Church of Our Savior.
Isadore William Connors, nicknamed Dick, a descendant of Henry Connor, tended bar for Mr. Kalthoff from 1904 to 1915. After about a year of bartending he got quite a scare one day when two Walpole Island Indians came in, got drunk, and began breaking furniture. Young Dick, 23 years old, was alone in the store and at first did not know what to do. but he could talk French and tried it on them. They understood the French and he soon quieted them down and they went out.
In 1912 the Kalthoff grocery and saloon was torn down to cut Pennsylvania Ave. through to Gratiot, and Mr. Kalthoff built a block of stores and moved his home around on Pennsylvania Ave. Soon after that he opened a hardware store in East Detroit for his children, who now had families of thier own."

Then on page 228 there is a photo of the Kalthoff building, captioned: "Leacock's Corner, Gratiot & Harper." My Grandpa's writing underneath says: "The name on the building is Kalthoff. This picture is about 1910."