The Store: The First Sixty Years

by Mary Ann Jost and Gerald Heiser

Book Cover

Harve and Jesse in front of the Heiser & Ingold Grocery Store in the early years

The mysterious and fascinating egg candler

The first 60 years story of the Heiser & Ingold grocery store in Fisher, Illinois.

The Store begins in Fisher in 1921. Two Heiser brothers, Jesse and Roy, called their business Heiser Bros. Store. Roy left the business in 1924, but in 1926, Jesse’s brother-in-law, Harve Ingold became his partner. The store was renamed, Heiser & Ingold. They continued on until 1983 when the business went to Harve’s son and grandson. At that time, the name changed to Ingold’s Grocery. (Links to: Heiser and Ingold in our Family Tree)

With compelling stories and period illustrations, it is time well spent remembering a different era. It was my experience to shop the store from time to time as a child. “Run to the store and get a loaf of bread for supper.” It was just a few short blocks away, minutes on my bicycle!

Over the past number of years, I visited with Jerry and his wife, Pat Birkey Heiser, and we discussed how important it was to record this history. I’m so happy sister and brother completed it before Jerry’s death. Thanks to Mary Ann Heiser Jost (and Jerry) for letting the story be told even more widely on this website.

The downloadable, 71-page book is a treasure-trove of Heiser and Ingold family history, as well as the unlikely story of a successful grocery business in a very small farming town community in central Illinois.

Donna Schrock Birkey

Download this document in PDF format by using the button below (4.5 MB).

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