By Ashley McCarty-
The legacy of The Adams County Department Store — once affectionately known as Ms. Greene’s — will come to a close as Town and Country, it’s spiritual successor, officially closed its West Union location on July 30.
In the summer of 1962, 58 years ago, the Adams County Department Store was but a small corner store on Main Street. Esther Greene – at that time, a single mother and nearing 50 – had moved up from Kentucky, belongings carted in a horse-drawn carriage, as she made the pilgrimage to a new life in the north.
In 1961, she mortgaged her small cottage to secure a loan, opening up the store the following year. With no money, no credit, and children which relied on her to provide, Greene rolled up her sleeves and rebuilt their life from the ground up, laying the bricks of her success with painstaking perseverance.
In the store’s early years, Greene found herself working tireless 16 hour days, hauling merchandise from Kentucky in the trunk of her small car, and then unloading it herself. The prepositional phrase “on her own” came to embody the work ethic of Greene. Growing up on a Kentucky farm during the Great Depression, Greene was no novice to the idea of labor and hard work – and those long hours and laborious efforts paid off.
On Nov. 11, 1976, the Adams County Department Store moved down on to State Route 41. From it’s inception in 1962, to its heartbreaking closure in 2010, the Adams County Department Store had grown from that small, corner parcel, to a 53,000 square foot emporium which featured a plethora of goods from every domain of life. During its years of operation, the store had gained an affectionate reputation among the residents of West Union, earning the nickname which still sticks to the lips of the community today, “Ms. Greene’s”.
In those early years, when the store moved and was being built in its new location, Robin Coyle, granddaughter and owner of Town and Country, can recall fond memories of her childhood with Greene.
“As young kids, we’d go in there as she was building that building [on 41], and we’d roller skate and skateboard in there as kids,” said Coyle.
Coyle can also remember when she and her cousin Sandy made a terrarium for Greene – which she sold.
“I would stay with [my cousin] Sandy all the time, and we would run around Grandma’s store. We would make her homemade things all the time. Sandy and I took our money, and we bought these plants and we got an old plastic empty candy jar, we put [the plants] in it and made a real nice terrarium for Grandma. We gave it to her, and she liked it so well she sold it and wanted us to make more. We’d make fun of that all the time, because she just knew how to make a dollar,” Coyle said. Greene was born with an inkling to make money; even as a child, she’d sell mail-order seeds, and Rosebud salve.
In 2010, Greene passed away at the age of 94. Green ran the store up until a couple of months prior to her passing. In 2011, Town and Country opened.
“We had been in retail for years, that’s just what we know. Ms. Greene’s daughter, which is my mother, Phyllis, she really thought she could make something of that store, you know, continue with Grandma’s legacy. So my mom, Jeff Page, and me and my brother all went together and bought it from the estate and ran it until now,” said Coyle.
Coyle and family decided to close the store due to too many things going on, and wanting to concentrate on their Hillsboro location.
“I would just [like to] tell everyone thank you for supporting us over the years. They can now visit the Hillsboro store, because we have moved all the merchandise up there, and we’ll continue running that, and be able to service what their needs are there,” said Coyle.
The store in Hillsboro is located at 838 South High Street, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133, phone number (937) 393-2055.
