SOUTH DAKOTA RETAILERS ASSOCIATION | THE BEGINNINGS
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It all started with a few letters.
In the summer of 1896, a number of South Dakota business owners began corresponding with each other. They wrote letters to each other, as well as to editorial columns in newspapers. They felt, as one wrote, that there was "a profound and just discontent with existing conditions, coupled with the desire to change and better the same." As a result of those letters, when the spring of 1897 rolled around, an Alpena business owner decided it was time for the retail business people of South Dakota to begin doing some serious thinking about establishing a permanent organization to represent their interests. C.C. Issenhuth called together a handful of his colleagues from across the northeastern part of the state to take the preliminary steps toward forming an association. Those nine men met at the Spink County Courthouse in Redfield on May 18, 1897. That was the beginning. Within a few months, the South Dakota Retail Merchants Association was off and running. Today, The South Dakota Retailers Association represents over 4,000 members in more than 160 business categories and is one of the country’s oldest and largest retail trade associations. |
From 1897: The very first page of the official records of the South Dakota Retailers Association.
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A CALL IS ISSUEDThe nine founders who met in Redfield on May 18, 1897 decided to take the first steps toward a goal they had been discussing for a year: to establish a permanent association for retailers in the state. They decided to call a general convention.
Eighty-five business owners gathered at the Spink County Courthouse in Redfield a month-and-a-half later to draft a constitution and bylaws for the fledgling organization. G.A. Wood of Wood Brothers Hardware, Implement and Lumber Dealers in Milbank was unanimously elected the first president of the South Dakota Retail Merchants Association. D.D. Gross of Yankton was named vice-president. An Executive Committee was also elected: L.G. Ochsenreiter of Webster, H.R. Bartlett of Groton, S.N. Brown of Clark, R.S. Vessey of Wessington Springs, and C.C. Peterson of Newark. Peterson was named Secretary. |
THE NINE FOUNDERS
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FIRST ASSOCIATION GOALS |
FIRST CONVENTION |
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The 85 charter members who gathered in Redfield on July 7, 1897 agreed that their aim was to "improve and increase the business now being done by the merchants of South Dakota; this is to be accomplished by adopting such new and improved methods as will accomplish this result... By adopting these methods, we feel confident that we can make it of advantage to the purchasing public of the state not to give its patronage to concerns in distant states, but to bestow it upon local dealers, whose interests are identical with their own."
The group was also in agreement that there was a need to lobby the Legislature on behalf of business interests. Secretary C.C. Peterson was authorized to provide himself with suitable stationery and books for the use of the Association. He was directed to make a personal canvas of the State in the interest of the Association, for which he was to be paid a salary of $50 plus expenses. Dues were set at $3 a year. Membership was not allowed to catalog houses or anyone doing business with catalog houses. They were confident that organization would force the majority of catalog houses out of the business world for good. |
A year after its inception, the fledgling organization held its first Annual Meeting at the Grand Opera House in Huron. 58 people registered for the two-day session.
The program included presentations on:
Grand Opera House in Huron. (Courtesy of the Cultural Heritage Center)
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FIRST LEGISLATIVE SESSION
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In 1899, the Retail Merchants Association lobbied the Legislature for the first time (in the original state Capitol Building, a wood structure.)
That year, the organization sought a more effective law relating to druggists and doctors, an effective garnishment law, a decrease in the matter of exemptions, a pure food law, changes in the law affecting chattel mortgages, a law against fraudulent advertising, and a decrease in the interest rates to 10 percent. W.J. Healey, a hardware dealer from Mitchell, had been hired as the Association's secretary in 1898, at a salary of $30 per month. He served as the first lobbyist. The first year's legislative efforts saw only one success: passage of the Pure Food Law. |
The temporary first South Dakota Capital Building. (Photo courtesy of the South Dakota Historical Society)
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Board President Harvey J. Rice of Huron called it a good beginning. In June of 1899, at the second Annual Meeting, he stated, "Our Association is still in its infancy and we should not be discouraged if great ends are not attained at once. It is by slow earnest labor, overcoming disappointments, still pushing ahead, clinging to what we gain, that all goals are finally reached."
AND SO IT CONTINUES...
The nine founders of this Association had incredible vision - but they probably could not have imagined that, more than 125 years later, their fledgling organization would be the largest South Dakota business organization, still strong, still fighting for retailers, and a model for other retail groups on a national level. The organization that was started by a small, hopeful group of business people in 1897 has fulfilled all of their expectations, and more.
