In his Gazetteer of May 1885, historian James Soutar devotes considerable space to recording, not only who had business concerns within the town, but how many of each variety there were.

Chatham at that time had about 8,000 citizens who were sufficiently served by 16 hotels, eight hardware stores and a whopping 53 grocery stores.

Dry goods stores, though not as common as the food emporiums were, nonetheless, to be abundantly found, scattered along the north and south sides of King Street, from Third Street to Adelaide Street. There were 17 of them at this stage and over the next few years there would be several more added.

These were the department stores of that era.

They sold blankets, pillows, rugs, combs, brushes, underclothing, socks, gloves and hats, with much of the merchandise being “ready-made.”

Their main trade, though, was yard goods.

In that era, “off the rack” dresses and coats were practically unheard of as Mom made most of what her family wore.

Among the dry goods merchants of that era was T.L.L. Lewis, who operated a dry goods store in the Garner Hotel Block at the southwest junction of King and Sixth streets.

This store was known as the Golden Beaver and was probably the best known of Chatham’s 19th century dry goods emporiums.

Another of these prominent........

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