GROCER AND MARKET GARDENER
AN IMMENSE BUSINESS
WALTER LOWRY
GROCER AND MARKET GARDENER
AN IMMENSE BUSINESS
Mr Walter Lowry, located in Keyser about 26 years ago,
first operating as pottery for the manufacture of stoneware, etc.,
which he discontinued some two years later and, forming a partnership
with Mr T R Carskadon, started the market garden that has attained
such enormous proportions.
Mr Lowry secured full control of this business some five
years later. In 1892 he opened a retail grocery, which, with ?
produce shipping room occupies a building having a frontage of 100
feet and an average depth of about 75 feet situated on the corner of
Centre and Water Streets. The grocery is fully stocked and is
accorded a large trade both wholesale and retail. A specialty is made
of stoneware, flower pots, vases, etc. Mr Lowry buying by the carload
and distributing throughout three counties . Potatoes and cabbage are
also handled by the carload. In the month of May ? past, three
carloads of nearly 1800 bushels of potatoes were bought and
distributed. Country produce of all kinds finds a ready market at
this store. Mr Lowry never cares to buy a part of one's load of
produce. Heavy equipments of poultry, eggs, butter, etc., are made to
outside points.
The market garden, which requires Mr Lowry's personal time
and supervision in its season, is the largest. In this section, and
is conducted along ? gardening lines. the vegetables raised meet with
a ready sale, and besides supplying a large local demand both in
Keyser and surrounding towns shipments are extensively made along the
line of the W Va railroad. At present some nineteen employees are
required at the garden, and in the delivery of its products. Market
wagons are run to Piedmont and Lonaconing semi-weekly, and two wagons
cover the trade of Keyser. taken altogether the vehicles and horses
used in connection with the gardens and grocery would equip a fair
sized livery, and include 7 horses and 9 wagons.
Mr Walter Lowry was for many years in the pottery business
in Roseville, Ohio, and while there married Miss Aurilla Weaver in
1868. Mr and Mrs Lowry have an interesting family of eleven children,
four of their sons taking an active part in the business, viz: T R,
Ira, Earl and Clarence. To a considerable extent the management of
the business is vested in T R Lowry, as the direct supervision of the
gardens engrosses most of Mr Lowry's own time. He is a veteran of the
Civil War, enlisting at the age of 16, and serving four years in the
32nd O V V I. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, I O O
F., R of M C and Jr O F A M.
TRANSCRIBED OCTOBER 28, 2001 BY PATTI MCDONALD
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TRIBUNE JULY 1898
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