By Jared L. Olar
Local History Specialist
Continuing now with our series on Pekin’s downtown businesses featured in the group of 19th-century business cards that we’ve been examining, this time we will recall the history of a business that once was a landmark of Pekin’s downtown: Reuling’s Dry Goods.
For most of its history, Reuling’s was located at 359 Court St., next door to Herget National Bank, on the north side of Court Street across from the Tazewell County Courthouse. But this vintage business card dates from Reuling’s early years, when the store was at 427 Court St.
Reuling’s was founded by and named after a German immigrant from Hesse-Darmstadt named Nicholas Reuling (1832-1913), whose wife was Mary Herget (1836-1913) of the well-known Herget family of Pekin. Charles C. Chapman’s 1879 “History of Tazewell County” (page 605) includes this brief biography of Reuling:
“Adam and Elizabeth Reuling, the parents of Nicholas, were natives of Germany, and he was also born in the Fatherland. Coming to this county in the year 1854, he engaged, not many years after, in the dry-goods trade, in which business he has been eminently successful, having, by his ability and integrity of character, rose to be one of the leading men in the trade in Tazewell county. In Dec. 1858, Mr. Reuling was united in marriage to Mary Herget, the fruits of the marriage being four children, all now living. Perhaps no man in the county has a larger personal acquaintance, and certainly none who stand higher in the estimation of the people. He is a member of St. Paul’s Evangelical Church.”
Reuling appears in the 1861 Roots City Directory of Pekin as a business partner with another prominent German immigrant named George Ehrlicher:
“Reuling & Ehrlicher (N. R. & G. E.), dealers in groceries and provisions, Court, ss., 11th d. e. Fourth.
“Reuling Nicholas, firm R. & Ehrlicher, res. Elizabeth, ns., 3d d. e. Fifth.”
The Reuling & Ehrlicher store was located in the 400 block of Court Street. Reuling’s daughter Amelia later married Ehrlicher’s son Henry M. Ehrlicher.
Records in the Local History Room files place the founding of Reuling’s Dry Goods in either 1868 or 1869. Be that as it may, the 1870-71 Sellers & Bates Directory of Pekin indicates that by 1871 Reuling had gone into business with his brothers-in-law John and George Herget. Together they operated a dry goods store known as N. Reuling & Co. that was located in the 300 block of Court Street west of Capitol St.:
“Reuling N. & Co., (N. R., J. & G. H.), dealers in dry goods, clothing, boots, shoes, hats, caps, notions, etc., ns Court 3 d w Capitol.”
Within a few years, Reuling had moved his store back to the 400 block of Court Street, because the 1876 and 1887 Pekin city directories give the store’s address as 427 Court. In the 1893 directory, however, the store was across from the courthouse at 339 Court St. Finally, in the 1895 city directory we find Reuling’s at the address where it was to remain for the rest of its history: 359 Court St.
In the 1949 Pekin Centenary, page 64, the advertisement for Reuling’s includes this informative summary of the store’s history up till then:
“The year 1949 marks the 50th Anniversary of the incorporation of N. Reuling Company. The original store, which was operated for a good many years by Nicholas Reuling, occupied the west room of the property known as the Herget Building. Previous to that time, Mr. Reuling had been in partnership with a Mr. Becker, in the first 300 block Court Street.
“In the year 1899, the company was incorporated and enlarged to include an adjoining room, which had formerly housed a wholesale grocery. The dividing partition was removed, and a new front, modern for the times, installed.
“In 1925, the building was purchased from the Herget Estate, and since that time, the business has expanded to occupy the second floor and basement, in addition to the spacious main floor.
“In 1941 a modernization program was started and completed on the main floor, and the resulting increase in business proved very satisfactory.
“N. Reuling Company has endeavored through the years to provide quality merchandise in leading name brands at moderate prices, and to live up to its motto, ‘The Store of Satisfaction’.”
When the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial volume was prepared, Reuling’s got a brief but notable paragraph and three photographs on pages 43-44. This was the paragraph:
“The Reuling’s ‘dry goods’ store alone preserves for present-day Pekin a name from its commercial past. The shop, founded in 1868 (although not incorporated until 1899) by Nicholas Reuling, still stands on the same spot it occupied in the post-Civil War city; and the present owners are descended from the Reuling family line. The original store was only one room, with a hitching post out front and dry goods displayed in boxes on the sidewalk or hung above the door, as well as inside. Since those early days, though, the store has been extensively remodeled and extended, and it is today an ‘institution’ in Pekin’s downtown section.”
“Pekin: A Pictorial History” (1998, 2004), page 91, likewise says Reulings Dry Goods was founded 1868. As we have seen from the early city directory entries, the earlier write-ups on Reulings’ Dry Goods have some omissions, not mentioning where Reuling’s earliest store locations were.
A lengthier historical account of Reuling’s Dry Goods was published by the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce in their “Commerce Newsbreak” newsletter (Jan. 1991), in an article simply titled, “Reuling’s.” The article does have one error – the store did not operate at the same Court Street location under the same name since 1869, but only since about 1895 – but otherwise is very informative:
“For 122 years, four generations of the Reuling family have owned and operated the Reuling dry goods store on the corner of Court and 4th Streets. Founding in 1869 and incorporated in 1899 by Nicholas Reuling, Reuling’s has operated at the same Court Street location under the same name for its entire history. Because of this longstanding tradition, Reuling’s was recognized as one of the few centennial businesses in the state and has been added to the State Centennial Business Register in 1985.
“For over 62 years, Oscar Winkel was an active part of the operation at Reuling’s. He started his career with Reuling’s as a bookkeeper in March of 1923 upon the insistence of his Aunt Martha Reuling. Martha was married to Lewis Reuling, the son of founder Nicholas Reuling. Lewis and his brother Edward had married Winkel’s aunts Mina and Martha, and thus the second generation of Reuling’s to run the business.
“Upon the death of Lewis Reuling in 1927, Winkel became a corporate vice-president. In 1937 when Martha Reuling and her daughter left California, Winkel became president of the company. Winkel’s daughter, Harriet Harris, started working in the store in high school and never considered not joining the family business. Harriet Harris became president in 1987 upon the death of her father, Oscar Winkel.
“In the case of Reuling’s, not only is the original family still running the business, but the same name is being used, the nature of the business is the same and the original building is still in use.
“Originally the building was attached to the Herget Bank. When the bank chose to remodel externally shortly after the turn of the century, Reuling’s was also remodeled. When Winkel came into the business, merchandise was kept behind the counter, customers waited for help, and operations were on one floor. The basement and upstairs were expanded later. The design of the front window display has been changed twice, and in 1960 all the fixtures on the main floor were replaced.
“Retailing, fashions, and customers have changed during the many years of operations. What hasn’t changed is that many people who were brought up in clothes purchased in the children’s department now bring in their own children. In the age of self-service stores, more and more people who walk through Reuling’s front door come for personal service.
“The motto, ‘The Store of Satisfaction,’ has served for many years.”
Harriet Harris and her husband Walter kept Reuling’s going for a few more years after that article’s publication. Pekin city directories continue to list Reuling’s until 1995, about which time what was a living piece of Pekin’s past finally passed into history. Harriet Harris still lives in Pekin, though, now 101 years of age. An oral history video interview with Harriet Harris may be viewed at the Pekin Public Library’s YouTube channel.
From the History Room 