Michigan Retail Hardware Association / Michigan Retail Hardware Association

With the philosophy, “in union there is strength,” twenty Michigan hardware retailers convened in Detroit on July 9, 1895, and organized the Michigan Retail Hardware Association. Frank S. Carlton of Calumet was elected the first president. The group worked toward the enactment of state and national legislation on behalf of the retail, wholesale and manufacturing trades. The first success was the passage in 1897 of a state mechanics lien law. Hardware retailers in attendance at the association’s organizational meeting in 1895 were: R. B. Bloodgood, C. F. Bock, L. B. Brockett, F. S. Carlton, Thomas Harvey, George W. Hubbard, T. Frank Ireland, H. C. Minnie, J. H. Moyes, John Popp, J. B. Sperry, N. B. Wattles, Henry C. Weber, S. L. Boyce and Son, Casper Gnau and Company, Edwards and Chamberlin, Foster, Stevens Company, John W. Jochim Company, McDonnell Hardware, and Scott Brothers and Delisle.