Jacob Brubaker

For many years the Brubaker Bros' have held a prominent and leading place in the dry good trade, in this town, and hold it to day.  They started in business as farmer boys with not much else than pluck, energy and sagacity, and by their own work have achieved a grand success and proved their abilities.

In the spring on 1865 they started in the trade in the room now occupied by E.S. Briggs, with a stock which would now be valued at not over $4,000.  In 1873 they leased the room in which Jacob Brubaker now does business, and enlarged their operations, until he now has a stock many times larger and better than that with which they started.  It is paid for and Brubaker is one of the "solid men" of Ashland and is a fixture here.  He makes it an object to keep everything a customer can desire, and has a force of clerks, sufficient to wait promptly and intelligently upon the purchaser.  He has eleven men in the store constantly occupied, and not unfrequently is compelled to secure additional help.

His rooms are 90x22 feet, with a basement of the same size.

He makes a specialty of fine dress goods in all varieties;  of silks both black and colored;  of silk and satin trimming;  of carpets, imported and domestic;  of fine laces, corsets and gloves.  The stock of domestics is always full and of the best brands.

The sales for 1880 will exceed $100,000, being the greatest amount ever sold by this firm or any other in Ashland in a single year.

Ed Lepper

Has been in business in the various branches since a boy. In 1872 he and Jacob Calin formed a partnership under the name of J. Cahn & Co. and did business in the room he now occupies.  Ed afterward took and controlled the entire stock.  For two years he has been gradually changing his stock into a novelty store, and has now in that line anything you may wish.  He makes a specialty of his 5, 13 and 99 cent counters.  They are always filled with the latest novelties that can be sold for that price and are being enlarged to keep up with the times and growth of our town.  He is assisted by his "better half" and goods are guaranteed to be as represented.

Kunkel, Good & Miller

Kunkel and Miller have been in business here for many years;  Mr. Good only a few.  They began as a firm in the old Town Hall corner in 1875, and sold there until they, in 1878, purchased the east half of the Bushnell block where they now are.  Their rooms are 90x22 feet with basement of the same dimensions.  They are compelled to keep a large clerical force to accommodate their many customers.  They make a specialty of fine dress goods, of which they carry a large stock;  of foreign and domestic carpets of all shades and brands;  they carry a large line of domestics and are fully stocked with all the novelties of the trade.

A.P. Mann

While Mr. Mann has not been known very long to the trade at Ashland, his name has been a house-hold word to the customers in the region of Sullivan and other northern townships.  When Kunkel, Good & Miller left the Town Hall corner in 1878, he and Mr. Parmely associated themselves in business and continued as partners till the disastrous fire of June 6th., when he was thrown out of business for a short time.  With a desire to again enter the trade, he procured rooms in the Freer-Mason block then in course of erection, where he now is.  He has excellent taste and ability and does a safe and thorough business.  He has now an entirely new stock;  occupies two rooms which are filled;  makes a specialty of his 5, 8, 13 and 18-cent counters;  fine dress goods;  cloths, cloaks and cloakings.  For the holiday trade he is fitting up the south room and proposes to fill it with articles for that trade.  He has seven men engaged as clerks who are attentive and painstaking.