Holst Sons Co. Department Store Reminiscing Article

A newspaper article reminiscing on the early days of the Holst Sons Co. Department Store (Holst Cheap Cash Store), which was located between 506 and 442 E Main Street in Mishicot, Wisconsin.

Full article text:

The Holst Brothers

Herald Times Reporter

“They had everything imaginable.”

That’s how retired Mishicot area dairy farmer Paul Mueller remembers the Holst & Sons Store in Mishicot. The sons were longtime local sponsors in a period spanning both horse and buggy and the Corvette. Founded by A. Holst in 1889 and passed on to his sons, Hugo and Arthur in 1918, Holst & Sons sold everything from food staples to family apparel to phonographs. The store was purchased in 1963 by George Krause, who later razed the building and opened Krause’s Shopping Center. Families could have an all their needs met at the Holst Bros. Store, said Ray Kronforst, himself the operator of Kronforst Electric for 50 years. Holst & Sons competed with other grocers, including the Pfingsten Brothers and Wojta’s, another general retailer. The long store contained clothing on one side and shoes on the other. In between was a general store filled with groceries, Mueller said. In a cramped world of case upon case, box upon box, the brothers provided full customer service. Shelf after shelf of products, ranging from ointments and salves to shoes were available. Fresh produce arrived on a seasonal basis. “Whatever the small country stores sold, they were limited by space, too,” said Kronforst, who went to the store from the time he was a baby. It’s where he got his first knickers and suit, and dress shoes such as those made by the Peters Co. The Holst brothers were a lot more than just shopkeepers, though, Kronforst recalled. Hugo, for example, was on the board of directors for the Mishicot State Bank. Both were local firefighters. Kronforst, once a Mishicot High School basketball player, remembered the rides the brothers gave. The team rode in the brothers’ large comfortable cars to Door County schools in the Peninsula Conference.

Neither Hugo and his wife, Nora, nor Arthur and his wife, Eva, had families of their own. Rides from the brothers might have been another one of their ways of giving back to Mishicot. “Hugo and Arthur were very good sponsors of anything for the community,” Kronforst said. “They were very supportive of the community in all ways.” — KURT RENTMEESTER