Uncle in the Furniture Business - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Uncle in the Furniture Business

When we first moved to Michigan in 1973, I recall a catchy ad for a local furniture store by the name of Joshua Doore, whose theme was “You’ve got an uncle in the furniture business”, implying you’d get family pricing on the home furnishings being offered. Well, coincidently, my Dad’s brother was co-owner of Ft. Loramie Furniture located on Main Street in the same building where the hardware store is located today. See building circled in blue on this 1960’s era aerial photo.

The furniture store’s founder was Elmer Dapore, who had two cute young daughters, the oldest of whom, Irene dated my uncle Frank after WWII. They were married in 1947 and shortly thereafter, my uncle Frank started working at the furniture store for his father-in-law. Eventually, Elmer's younger daughter Miriam also married and her husband Jerry worked at the store as well, allowing Elmer to retire. 

About the same time, my mother-in-law Hilda served as the store's bookkeeper-secretary until she got married in 1951. She apparently must not have been too busy working at the furniture store because in letters to her sister while in nurses training at the time, she wrote that Frank was coming so she had to quite writing for the moment!

So fast forward to about 1967, while I was in college at General Motors Institute. GMI was a co-op college, which meant we would work at a GM plant one quarter and go to school the next, alternating that way for all four years of college. I worked at Frigidaire in Dayton, which at the time was owned by GM, but now owned by Electrolux. That meant there were 1500 students at school (termed A section) while 1500 were away working (termed B Section). The income from working allowed us co-op students to pay our tuition and living expenses while on campus and while working, still have some money left over for fun stuff like partying, girls and cars. Some past blogposts expand on those adventures.

Anyway, it was always a challenge finding short term housing during our work sections in Dayton, so 6 of us students, three from A Section and three from B, leased out a three bedroom apartment that we shared. When it came time to furnish the place, needless to say, we went to see my uncle Frank in Ft. Loramie. Each of us threw in $200 towards furnishing, so I recall asking uncle Frank if he could help us furnish the 3 bedroom place for $1200.I remember him laughing heartily, but said we’ll have to see. So he showed us around the store to pick out some furniture. After about an hour or so, we had selected twin beds, mattresses, dresser, nightstand and lamp for each of the three bedrooms as well as a fold-out couch (for crashers to sleep), two end tables, two lamps, a lounge chair, a coffee table, a dining room table with 4 chairs and a console TV, including delivery to Dayton, for just under our $1200 limit. We enjoyed that place till graduating, then sold each of our shares to younger students for $200, getting our money back! Thanks uncle Frank; it really does pay to have an uncle in the furniture business! 

Our story ended much better than 'ole Joshua Doore, as the owner, Harvey Leach, was murdered mob style on the day of his wedding at age 35. Although never proven, the mob kill was directed by notorious Detroit gangster, Tony Giacalone, aka Tony Jack, the same mobster who likely ordered the hit of Jimmy Hoffa a few years later.

The mob was probably trying to shake down Leach and he wouldn’t cooperate, or he owed them money and wouldn’t pay. Joshua Doore soon went bankrupt, with Tony Jack’s lawyer buying it for pennies on the dollar, changing the name to Robinson’s Furniture, still in business today. Read the whole story here.

Fast forward to today, Irene, uncle Frank’s wife Irene and my mother-in-law Hilda, both in their 90’s, are residing at the Landings assisted living facility in Sidney. A wonderful feature about the Landings is the residents can outfit their living quarters with furnishings from their homes to help them feel more comfortable.

So who knows, but I’m betting some of those old furnishings may have originated from my uncle in the furniture business.

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