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Caledonia family business alive
for nearly 150 years The late William Hamilton would certainly be pleased if he knew that the business he started in the mid-1800’s still bears his name and is going strong nearly 150 years later. Wm. Hamilton and Son Ace Hardware on North Street, Caledonia, the last remaining ancestor of Hamilton’s original venture, a flour mill, has done more than just survive the retail big box explosion of the last 20 years; they’ve defined a recipe for success. Even more impressive, the hardware store is owned and operated daily by Hamilton’s relatives Joseph Ward, Jay Ward and Scott Ward, fourth, fifth and sixth generation owners, respectively. Wm. Hamilton and Son Hamilton owned a sizable amount of land in Caledonia that included his residence, a stately Italianate brick home on North Street. He located his flourmill, along the water in Honeoye Falls in 1859. The business was very successful, producing all types of flour and shipping throughout the northeast. In the 1880’s Hamilton expanded the business to Caledonia where he built a grain elevator for storage on his North Street. Both the large grain storage building and the Italianate Hamilton house, still stand on North Street. Hamilton’s son, William Valance Hamilton, joined the flour manufacturing business. Joe Ward’s great grandfather, also named Joseph, married William Valance’s daughter, Gertrude, and became involved with the family business. The Ward family has carried on the Wm. Hamilton & Son business name ever since. The name may be the only thing that has remained the same over the years. The business has changed and evolved to meet the changing consumer demands over the decades. For example, with the advent of the boxed cake mix in the late 1940’s, housewives celebrated the new, quick and easy way to bake a cake and no longer required the large quantities of cake flour in their homes. Wm. Hamilton & Son found producing small packages of flour to be very expensive, eventually leading to the sale of the Honeoye Falls mill. Back in Caledonia, the Ward family bought a GLF (Grange League Federation) franchise and operated Wm. Hamilton and Son’s dairy cattle feed store out of a space in the North Street grain storage building. The store later became an Agway livestock feed and grain store, answering the regional dairy farmer’s demand for cattle feed. The Hamilton Shop Saying the words Hamilton Shop around Caledonia evokes many fond memories and big smiles among the residents who, as children, browsed and dreamed over the aisles of toys at the Hamilton Shop on the corner of Main and Center Streets (now the Gigglin’ Pig). The family continued the Agway feed and grain store on North Store but expanded into a totally new venture with the Hamilton Shop. Virginia Ward, sister to Joseph Ward of Ace Hardware, married William Elkins and wanted to enter the family business. They opened a hugely popular store in downtown Caledonia that carried the original family name, the Hamilton Shop. The store, which local history will recall as a very popular store with the locals, was a combination toy, appliances and electronics store. The senior Joe Ward recalls the beginning of the Barbie doll. "Virginia, Bill and myself were the buyers and we would go to Rochester to pick the toys for the Hamilton Shop. We looked at the Barbie doll and thought, "Who the heck would want to play with this?" Ward laughed. The family soon realized that a whole lot of little girls wanted to play with the Barbie doll, and later the G.I. Joe, the Tonka truck and the slinky too! Many children hurried in to the Hamilton Shop to spend their allowances on a toy or to select a bright, shiny new bicycle for their birthday gift. Ace Hardware Meanwhile, back on North Street, family members built and expanded another building across the parking lot from the grain storage building around 1968. Here, they sold snowmobiles for a few years until the mid-1970’s when the local agriculture business began to decrease and the energy crisis hit hard and diminished the snowmobile sales. Virginia Ward Elkins and her husband William were ready to retire from the toy business. The Ward family had started to offer a small number of hardware items at the North Street store and so they decided to close the Hamilton Shop, and cease the feed and grain business and try their hands at the retail hardware business. Caledonia already had a Main Street hardware, recalls Jay Ward, but he and his father decided to expand their hardware store and in 1982 they became an Ace Hardware franchise. By 1986, they had complete evacuated the grain building and began to expand and renovate the new block building. They went from 1,200 square feet in the grain mill to 3,500 square feet in the new building. "In six years, from 1980 to 1986, the business went from reliance on the agriculture business to the hardware business," Jay Ward explained. In 1995 they expanded the current building to 5,000 square feet of retail hardware space and dismantled the grain elevator for good. "We have successfully fought the big box competition. Anybody that wants to run their own business better be a fighter," Jay Ward commented. Family Legacy of Service to their Country All three of the Ward men that work daily at Wm. Hamilton and Son Ace Hardware, have a proud legacy of military service to the United States. Fourth generation owner, Joseph Ward, a 1940 graduate of Caledonia High School, was a member of the first class to graduate from the new North Street school building, now the current elementary school. Ward participated in the great march, the student walk from the Main Street school (now the Big Springs Museum) to the new North Street school with books and chairs in hand. A student at Hamilton College near Utica, NY, Ward very clearly recalls Pearl Harbor Day. "It was Sunday, December 7, 1941. The first thing I heard on the radio was Lowell Thomas reporting that the Japanese had invaded Pearl Harbor. Then, of course, I listened to President Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy speech," Ward recalled. "A few of us guys couldn’t stand what was happening; we were going to take care of it so we went to the recruiting office in Utica. Of course it wasn’t open on Sunday so we went back on Monday." The young 18-year-old Ward and his buddies enlisted in the U.S. Army and Ward was activated in February 1942 to the European theater. He was among the first troops to leave directly from American soil to the mainland in Europe. His was among 62 ships that sailed across the ocean. Once on land, Ward and the 44th Infantry Division moved into Normandy and though not a participant in the D Day events, Ward and his division engaged in 180 days of continuous combat. He held two ranks throughout his service, PFC and 2nd lieutenant. He was glad to get home after the U.S. victory in Europe so he could join the family business. Sixty years later, he’s still working the aisles of the hardware store six days a week. He is proud of his military service but doesn’t regard it as anything special, only what any man would do to fight for his country. Just a few months ago, he received a recognition that he will never forget. "It was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day and I received a card in the mail from my grandson Scott’s wife, Adrienne, thanking me for my loyalty and dedication to our country. In 60 years I’d never received anything like it," Ward proudly said as he place the card back on his desk in the office. His son and fifth generation owner of the family business, Jay Ward, is a 1964 graduate of Cal-Mum High School and a 1968 graduate of Clarkson University and the ROTC program. He postponed taking a job at Ford Motor Company to answer his call to duty in the Vietnam War in 1970. He intended to resume his career when he got back to American soil. Instead, Ward had an opportunity to examine the important things about life. "In the middle of the jungle in Vietnam, I thought about what was important in life and at that point, the prospect of money was not going to do it. Caledonia was looking good and so I sat down and wrote a letter saying that I’d like to come home to the family business if there was a place for me," he explained. He’s never regretted his decision, though he laughs when admits he probably could have made much more money with Ford Motor Company. Sixth generation Scott Ward agrees that working in the family business provides a lot of fulfillments that money just can’t buy. The youngest Ward is a 1989 graduate of Cal-Mum High School who also completed a three-year tour in Germany with the U.S. Army. In 1994, he asked his father and grandfather if there’d be room for him in the hardware business. "This business a great source of pride for me. I am the sixth generation coming through. It’s not a ton of money but there are a lot of other more important fulfillments," he commented. All three men say the future may likely hold another expansion to the building and business. They aren’t at all slowed down by the competition that continues to grow all around them. More importantly, they all really love what they do every day at Wm. Hamilton and Son Ace Hardware. "You’ve got to hire friendly Caledonia faces and give the customer what they want, good quality at a fair price," he added.
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