Bill Witschey

On the last Monday in December, Bill Witschey left for the final time the business he and family had worked to build for 70 years. Bill sold the store a few years ago, with the agreement he could use the upstairs offices as a place to turn his many business enterprises into his word, “paper”. A lifetime of buying and selling. At 94, Bill is still robust and full of life. He never misses a chance to stop and talk with his old customers. You see, Bill never thought of them as customers as much as friends.

Over the town’s history, the name Witschey has been on three different store fronts owned by Bill and his family, Wayne, Warren, Walter and Lila. Throughout those years, what many did not know or realize, Bill and his family often offered a helping hand to those who may have needed a little help. Bill believes his customers were family.

Bill explained at one time he had a little over 100 employees. At the peak of his business, Witcheys Grocery store was a place people enjoyed going. Partly for its family atmosphere, and community gathering place. It was difficult to enter the store and expect to hurry through. You always met up with someone to talk with, and Bill was one of those people.

Bill is proud to say every job he has had in his life has been seven days a week, twelve hours a day. He began at 16 working for the sand company from six at night until six in the morning for 7 days a week and $.80 an hour. At 17 he got a little better job working at the Shady Side Inn south of town. All night 8 to 8 for $1.00 an hour. He got to keep tips. Finally, he got work driving a military surplus 6×6 for Chris Concrete out of Parkersburg. They were building the Union Carbide Plant at Hastings.

Bill explained that when the Korean War came along, he tried to sign up in 1950. He was not able to get in until a little time later. He chose to become a radio operator and navigator. He spent some of his time in Germany. Bill began learning Russian coding along with their alphabet, which has six more letters than our language.

Getting out of the service in 1954 and working with Wayne who graduated in 1954, they began to rebuild the business that sat on the corner of Main and North Street. Bill returned home to help his dad with a troubled business. The truth was as Bill said it, “I grabbed a tiger by the financial tail. The bankruptcy papers were in the mail.”

Bill and Wayne worked twelve-hour days, seven days a week for three years. Finally, the business began to take hold and the red ledger book began to turn black. They opened their second store in 1959 in the building that now has the pawn shop. Later they grew into the building they owned until the final sale.

What does the future hold for Bill, “Not sure, my daily habit for seventy years has been to go to the store. Now, I’m not going to get a paper subscription, that way I’ll have a reason to go to town and get a paper for the cross word.”

With Bills’ leaving the business he built and loves, an empty space for a long-time business will fade into the history books. People I speak with may still say, “I am going to Witschey’s to shop” out of a long-time habit. Thanks Bill and the entire Witschey family for being part of our community and town.