Meet Thomas Elder, Dayton’s first great merchant

Elder was known throughout the country as one of the nation’s foremost merchants and called the “merchant prince’ by his contemporaries in the business field.

Here are some things to know about the Dayton business leader:

Early life

Thomas Elder was born on a farm near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Dec. 3, 1845, the youngest of six children.. He was 13 when his father was killed in a runaway horse accident while returning to the farm in Harrisburg.

At 17, Elder went to Philadelphia and started working for the Presbyterian Board of Publication. Later he traveled for the wholesale dry goods firm Jordan, Marsh & Co. of Boston.

In his travels he met J. Russell Johnston of the Brown Thompson Co. of Hartford, Connecticut, a department store, and William Hunter. The three friends formed Elder, Hunter & Johnston, and on March 1, 1883, bought up the stock and business of a Dayton firm that had suffered heavy loss in a fire.

Boston Dry Goods

The original one-room store, named “The Boston,” was located at 116 E. Third St., between Jefferson and Sinclair streets. At the time, it was popular in the Midwest to name retail stores after big Eastern cities. Soon after, they expanded to include the address next door at 114 E. Third St.

An advertisement in the Dayton Daily Journal in 1883 heralded the opening of the new Boston Dry Goods Store.

Several years later, Elder and Johnston bought Hunter’s interest. The business had expanded and included two storerooms side by side.

Elder & Johnston Co.

In 1896, the store moved to Dayton’s newest skyscraper at the time, the Reibold Building, at the corner of Fourth and Main streets.

They now had space on three floors. Three years later, a south annex was built and they had the business occupying five floors.

The company became the Elder & Johnston Co. and remained there for more than six decades.

Elder was innovative for installing an electric elevator and later an electric escalator.

In 1911, Elder bought out Johnston’s shares in the company, and despite damage from the Great Flood of 1913, Elder expanded in the Reibold building once again. New departments were added. Thomas’ son, Robert Elder, started to learn the business after leaving college, eventually becoming vice president and general manager.

In a 1915 Dayton Daily News article, Elder said a department store offered good opportunities for young employees because “it runs nearly the whole gamut of modern urban life.”

More than a half-century

Elder was 87 when his 50th anniversary in business was celebrated in 1933.

Employees (by then 600 of them) paid tribute when they celebrated the company’s golden anniversary with a banquet. A bronze plaque was presented to Elder.

His business interests were not confined to merchandising. He was president of the Gem City Building and Loan association and was also elected president of the YMCA multiple times.

Elder-Beerman

In 1962, Dayton businessman Arthur Beerman, who had opened two Beermans for Bargains junior department stores since 1950, merged his store with the Elder & Johnston Co.

During the 1960s, the Elder-Beerman Co. opened numerous department stores in the region, including Hamilton and Richmond, Indiana.

The Courthouse Square store, the flagship for the company, opened in downtown Dayton in 1976.

Later life

Elder liked to travel. For years he vacationed at Bay View, Michigan, where he had a summer home. He was fond of sea voyages and took a number of trips to Europe. He also returned frequently to the area in Pennsylvania where he lived as a boy.

Elder was known to be a terrible driver, having “frequent mishaps.” Almost daily, about 2 p.m. he would go for a drive, then keeping his car in a garage behind the store. Once, when Elder parked his car diagonally in front of the store, he left it in gear, and when he started it again the car crossed the sidewalk and demolished a plate glass window.

Not long after, the Elders purchased a new car and added a chauffeur. Then the grandchildren, who up to that time had been forbidden to ride in the car, were permitted to accompany their grandfather.

Spiritual life

Elder played an important part in the founding of the Forest Avenue Presbyterian Church, and was always in the forefront in the affairs of Westminster Presbyterian Church, of which he was a member.

He had been an elder in the church almost since coming to Dayton in 1883. He was superintendent at the Third Street Presbyterian Church Sunday School when he became interested in starting a Sunday School mission in Riverdale. With William Patterson, he opened the mission on Nov. 16, 1884.

For his 90th birthday, in December, 1935, he was honored with a dinner by 200 friends and business acquaintances at the Westminster Church.

Tributes upon his death

Thomas Elder died at age 90 in 1936 of complications from pneumonia.

Henry Dickson of the YMCA said: “We can never forget his poise during and following the 1913 flood, when his business, which he had taken a lifetime to build was in jeopardy. During many conferences on grave matters he never referred to his own personal problems and never struck a note of discouragement or lack of faith.”

Dr. Hugh Evens, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church said, “Mr. Elder was a man who possessed high ideals and stuck to them no matter what might be the opinion of others.”

Joseph Thal, president of the Dayton Retail Merchants’ Association said: “Mr. Elder set a standard of leadership hard to follow. Merchants of today will go far if they maintain the high principals adhered to by Mr. Elder during his long business career.”