Dewart's General Store opened in 1873. It sold a little bit of everything — clothing, hardware and food — and housed Dewart’s post office. For more than 100 years the store was owned by the Sterner Family, and each of the owners also served as the towns postmaster.
Note - the 1874 directory for Dewart shows two merchants: Goodman & Bro, and J.A. Weidenhammer.
Today, the Dewart Country Store is located in the old Sterners Store Building
The 1907 Record & Star tells us that "Mr Sterner has a first-class general store, carrying a nice assortment of dry good and notions, boots and shoes, hats and caps, clothing and furnishing goods, groceries and provisions - in short a complete line of merchandise, such as is found in a first-class general store."
From 1992 to 2008, the Store was Antiques store.
1993
In 2020, The Dewart Country Store, which had opened just a few years prior in the Old Youngs Hardware, moved into the Sterners Building.
Today, the Dewart Country Store is located in the old Sterners Store Building
The 1907 Record & Star tells us that "Mr Sterner has a first-class general store, carrying a nice assortment of dry good and notions, boots and shoes, hats and caps, clothing and furnishing goods, groceries and provisions - in short a complete line of merchandise, such as is found in a first-class general store."
In 1958, there was a barbershop in the store. From the obituary of James C. Young, 2017 - "In 1958 he went to Barber School and had cut hair at Sterner’s General Store in Dewart. "
Once, there were young women dressed in white, wearing doilies and caps, working behind the soda fountain, while George Sterner sold Country smoked ham from a nearby counter. Bolts of cloth, nuts, and bolts, tufted animals, candy, groceries, and clothes were all displayed in about 8,000 feet of store space.
And this was in 1989.
George Nicely Sterner and his wife Charlotte (Roat) Sterner were running the store in the 1980s, when they decided to restore the operation to the way it looked at the turn of the century. Charlotte is quoted as saying "George and I like antiques, we like old thing, we have a strong feeling for the past"
What the Sterners found was that "old is in". Tourists came from more than 20 states, and even foreign countries, to visit the old fashioned store.
The Sterners purchased a soda fountain from a local farmer and had it restored, and they added an ice cream parlor too. Charlotte remembered her grandfather taking her to a soda fountain when she was 5 years old, and during her high school years the fountain was a gathering place for her friends to gather after a movie or school event.
The back bar came from an antiques dealer in Philadelphia, and the molded tin ceiling "came from an old school in McEwensville".
George Sterners great uncle purchased the founded the store in 1873. His grandfather (George Bieber Sterner) and father (Hope Sterner) took turns running it. They were all also the postmasters for Dewart.
In 2020, The Dewart Country Store, which had opened just a few years prior in the Old Youngs Hardware, moved into the Sterners Building.
I'm still searching for who originally opened the store. This is what I found so far:
In a 1988 newspaper article about Sterners Store, George N. Sterner stated that his great uncle started the store in 1873, and that his grandfather and father took turns running it, and serving as postmaster. None of his Sterner great uncles however, were old enough to have opened the store in 1873. The 1874 directory for Dewart shows two merchants: Goodman & Bro, and J.A. Weidenhammer.
George Bieber Sterner 1861-1944
George B. Sterner owned the store in 1907, when the Record & Star Anniversary edition was published.
He was appointed postmaster in 1901.
Hope Bieber Sterner 1887-1955
In 1955, Hope Sterner died suddently of a heart attack, at the age of 67.
Born Nov. 25 1887, to George and Elizabeth Sterner, he was the postmaster, and he operated the Sterners General Store.
Hope married Ruth Nicely.
George Nicely Sterner 1918-1989
In 1956, Hope's son George Nicely Sterner was appointed postmaster of Dewart. He fook over the store as well, operating it until his death in 1989.
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Find More Stories & History Of Dewart Here:
And more local history from the Susquehanna Valley here:
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The Sterner's Home, Dewart Pa
From The Anniversary Edition Of The Watsontown Record & Star
George B. Sterners Obituary, 1944
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OMG....I remember as a kid going to Sterners store to buy PENNY candy...For a dime you could get a whole bag full of candy....Enough to last a week....But of course mine NEVER lasted a week...That was what we spent our chores money on....LOVED THAT STORE!!!!!
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