141. Randolph County Misc.

1956.  Ridgeville.

  Fisher's Drug Store, owned and operated by Lee Fisher and one of the oldest businesses continually operated by one man, sold this week to Mr. and Mrs. Harry M. Mull of Winchester route 2. The selling of the store was prompted by the recent illness of Mrs. Fisher, who underwent major surgery recently and still is in Fort Wayne under treatment.
  Mr. and Mrs. Fisher came here in 1916, forty years ago, when they purchased the drug store from Frank Pence. The store was located then, where the Top Hat café is now. During the following years the store was moved to the south room of what is now the Marsh Foodliner, and then to its present location on the corner of Walnut and second streets in the M.H. Atkinson building.
  During the time the Fishers were in business, both took an active part in the civic, fraternal and church organizations. Their only child, Emerson Lee, graduated from the local high school and graduated from the school of pharmacy of Indiana University. He is now located in Fort Wayne and operates two large stores.
  Mr. and Mrs. Mull came from near Winchester where they have been operating a farm. Prior to being in the farm business, Mr. Mull had been in several business adventures over the past years. Business is not new to him and his wife, Nettie J.
  The Mulls' will operate a drug package store. At the present, the Mulls' are going over the stock, rearranging the equipment and soon new stock will be coming in to fill the shelves. In order to get the store running on a smooth schedule, they will soon hold a clearance sale. Watch for the announcement in this paper.
  The Mulls have moved into the apartment above the post office and will make their home there for the present time.  Winchester Journal-Herald from Randolph County News At Ridgeville.



1956.  Saratoga.

  At eight o'clock Monday morning, the citizens of Saratoga picked up their mail 200-feet east of where they picked it up Saturday.
  No, nobody hauled the mail to an empty lot; the earth did not move; neither did the town of Saratoga.
   But the post office did.
  Between closing time last Saturday and opening time Monday the post office moved from its old headquarters at Joe Almonrode's former gas station on the corner of Main and Evans Streets to a new facility fixed up by Robert L. and Joan Warren.
  The new office is a big improvement over the old one, and it's been a long time coming - many years, Robert Warren said. Was the old facility adequate? Warren answered this way: "When it's 10 or 15 degrees outside and it doesn't get up to 30 inside; when you have to carry water to flush the toilet, and carry you're own drinking water, well, I'll let you decide for yourself."
  In winter, his sister-in-law, Helen Warren, the town's postmistress, would wear insulated long-underwear all day, it was so cold.
  Warren has been postmistress since April of 1979; but the problems existed before. "It's been dragging out for some time," her brother-in-law said.
  "But I want to forget all that," Warren said optimistically. "It's something we did for the betterment of the community." And it's turned out very nicely.
  Warren and his wife did the paneling, built the porch and did the landscaping. They built a separate office for Helen the postmistress.
  The property is one of several Robert Warren owns and leases. The U.S. government provided a counter and a set of 142 boxes for mail. In the old office there were only 111 boxes, which was getting to be a slim number considering the volume of business. Mrs. Warren said she has tried to give her customers their same box numbers to minimize confusion.
  The weekend was a tough one for the postmistress as she and her clerk, Jenny Holder, and other helpers moved the necessary postal materials from the old to the new office. They worked from the end of office hours until 3 p.m., then had dinner. Then they came back at 9 p.m. and worked until 2 a.m. Sunday. Which was not the end of their labors, as they got to work again in the morning and finally finished their task to be ready for business Monday.
  Monday was a big day for the new post office for another reason: it was the first day of registration of 20-year-old men for the draft. Postmistress Warren had her brown paper envelope full of cards and other draft materials on hand, but she expected less than 10 men to show up. "Most of the ones who would be eligible are already enlisted," she said.   Winchester News-Gazette, July, 1980.