Picture it: Marquette, 1869. Settled only twenty years ago as a shipping center, the future looks promising for this young city. Marquette General Hospital (known then as Marquette City Hospital) is in its first year of business, but it will be thirty years until the city has its own college campus.
The burgeoning downtown area does not yet boast the Gothic-inspired clock tower of the Marquette County Savings Bank building, but down the street there’s a new candy, tobacco, peanut and fruit stand owned by a man named Fred Donckers, who previously lost an arm in a hunting accident and has gone into the candy business because it accommodates his handicap well. He can be seen manning the popcorn popper and selling treats to the passers-by on Washington Street.
More than 100 years later, “Donckers” has evolved from a modest street stand to a familiar family business, which moved into its current location in 1909. Donckers’ grandson, also named Fred, now owns the store and continues to make the fudge and other confectionaries that have brought local acclaim to his family.
“I started here in the sixth grade stamping bags and worked off and on until 1950, when I joined the Air Force,” said Donckers, now in his late 70s. “When I came back four years later, I helped my father and brother run it. It was a family thing; I was born into the business, as they say, so that made me stay with it.”
The store’s vintage décor dates back to 1917; the same year the family expanded its business with a small restaurant that offered sandwiches, soups, salads and fancy ice cream sundaes, Donckers said. The restaurant acquired a soda fountain in the ’30s, which Donckers said was a popular hang-out spot for high school and college students from the ’40s to the ’60s.
“At Christmastime, the kids would meet here when they were home from college, and the younger ones would come after school and come back right after dinner,” he said.
The restaurant closed in 1969, but Donckers said running the store still is fun for him.
“Everybody’s happy when they enter a candy store, and I want them to stay happy,” he said.
The Washington Shoe Store a few doors down also has sustained a strong history downtown. Opened in 1910, Washington Shoe Store offers name-brand, comfort-oriented footwear and five staff members who have 135 years of combined experience in the shoe business, said Ray Kuczwara, who has been involved with the business since 1980 and the store manager since 2000. Kuczwara’s father-in-law was its previous manager.
“When I first started, I fit [shoes for] babies,” Kuczwara said. “Now I’m fitting those babies’ babies, so it’s fun to see that.”
Washington Shoe Store moved a few times before settling on its current location. It resided in what is now Richardson Jewelers until 1915, when it moved a few doors east. After the current building was constructed in 1962, Kuczwara said the business found its permanent home and has done well ever since.
“This is a flourishing business and we’re doing well; we’ve increased about ten percent a year for the past five or six years,” he said.
He added that much of that success has to do not only with a loyal customer base, but also Marquette’s placement in relation to big cities.
“Marquette is far enough away from urban areas that our business can thrive,” he said. “I think we’re one of the only family-owned shoe stores left in the U.P., and people really like that about us.”
It’s the atmosphere of the U.P. that kept Kuczwara here after graduating from NMU with a business management degree in ’83, he said.
“I was offered a few jobs out of the area and then offered a permanent position with the business here, and I decided I liked the area enough to stay,” he said. “Now I manage the family business and it’s a rewarding occupation.”
“Mom and pop businesses branch out of downtown and extend along the highway as well. Although Frei Chevrolet is not normally pegged as a family business, dealer Jim Grundstrom said his family tree has been crucial to Frei Chevrolet’s ninety years of success, starting with the important decision of what kind of vehicles to offer. Grundstrom’s grandfather, Clayton Frei, initially offered Ford vehicles with his partner, Elmer Jones, when the two opened “Jones and Frei Ford” in 1917.
“The story, as we are told, is that along with cars and trucks, Ford tractors were also a mandatory item,” Grundstrom said. “Grandfather had way more tractors than he knew what to do with. At about the same time in history, Henry Ford said all his cars had to be black, and Chevrolet was also coming out on the market.”
In 1922, Frei bought out Jones and switched to dealing Chevrolet vehicles, and Frei Chevrolet was created, Grundstrom said.
The dealership originally was located on Spring Street, where The Coffee Cup now stands. It relocated to the highway in 1976. Grundstrom took over the dealer position from his father in 1990 and said the family aspect of the business has not changed in a near-century, but other aspects of the business have.
“In the world we live in today, we’re so used to being mobile; it’s a huge inconvenience to have your car break down and a huge inconvenience to give up your car, so we started a twenty-four-hour-a-day service department (nine years ago),” he said. “In the last decade that’s been the strongest point of our success; we will drive you home and figure out some way to attach you and your car back the next morning. That adds a lot to customer satisfaction.”
An increased want for safety, fuel-efficiency and longer warranties also have developed, he said.
“The kinds of vehicles families want are different as well as the families themselves; we have lots of vehicles for lots of walks of life, and the younger families can relate to the young, energetic staff we have,” Grundstrom said.
In its sixty one years, Johnson’s Sports has adapted to an evolving community and the result is a long lasting, successful family business.
“My father, Bob Thomsen and my uncle Walt Johnson opened Johnson’s in 1946,” said John Thomsen, current partner with Rex Elliott.
At first, Thomsen and Johnson simply needed inventory and they sold just about anything they could get their hands on. At one time they had a large record department and were known to have one of the largest selections of RCA televisions north of Green Bay.
“When Rex and I began working here, thirty five years ago, we still had a large electronic section in our store,” Thomsen said. “Our repair man, Buster Bonamie, enjoyed a tremendous reputation for good service: when he retired and larger electronic stores became part of the population, we moved on to other pursuits.”
Over the years, hunting, fishing and camping have come and gone through the doors of Johnson’s. Today, it focuses on athletic footwear, ice hockey, tennis, cross country skiing and team sales.
“We are expanding our flourishing departments, with a spotlight on hockey and footwear,” Elliott said. “This is a hockey town and we are doubling the size of our hockey selection. We have also become a strong source for corrective footwear advice.”
Thomsen said business opportunities always are available.
“We need to just adjust to the times. That is what has made our store stand the test of time,” he said. “Small, family-owned business is difficult, to say the least; however, when you find an area you are passionate about and you service that area, customers will find value in what you offer.”
Donckers said he agrees that great products and service are crucial to the longevity of small family businesses, and added that Marquette itself is an important factor.
“It’s just nice to be in a small community rather than the hustle and bustle like California and all those other crazy places,” he said. “The people are friendlier, so we’ll just keep going as long as we can.”
—Becky Korpi

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