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Historic Deadwood Store Served Hopeful Prospectors

By: By Lois Miller

"That stock: of groceries ain't goin' on this wagon train," snapped the wagon boss, for such men food had to be hard-boiled in 1876 in order to get their outfits through. A pair of six shooters hung at his side.

“Don’t pay any attention to that,” said the young said the young man named Connors. He had bought the grocery stock from disgruntled gold-seek -- bought at ten cents oil tile dollar -- ers who had headed back east -- recalls P. A. Gushurst, who at 96 is one of the few living 1876 pioneers. His home is in Denver.

The wagon boss bristled, repeated his statement, so Connors was willing to do his reasoning with his six shooter which he leveled as he spoke; "I may never reach the Black Hills, but this young Gushurst will, and so will out stock of groceries. Want to shoot it out? Say the word."

Having no hankering for serious gun play like that the wagon boss kept still and the groceries were loaded. The two young men reached Deadwood with them in August 1876. Connors, the elder of the two, knew his prunes, having been in the business in Omaha, Neb.

They pitched a tent, and with their stock of groceries opened up for business. Gold seekers were swarming into Deadwood,which was a city of tents.

When the weather became severe cold, young Gushurst paid $75 and a rifle for a lot, the first lot ever sold in Deadwood. The two men slapped up a frame building, doing their own work. It soon made its bid for fame by getting its picture in Harper's Weekly in 1876.

A gold rush was on in the Big Horns, and folks just naturally stopped at the store on the way to buy bacon and beans. It became known as The Big Horn Store.

But the partnership didn't last long and the store was sold to some people from Omaha. Gushurst went on to Lead to start another grocery, and Connors died.

Jake Goldberg became the next owner, but the store building was destroyed by tire in 1879 and had to be hurriedly rebuilt of brick. It still stands today with but very few changes.

It wore its old name until in the early 1900s when it was changed to The Goldberg grocery, under which name it still operates today. It was both retail and wholesale in those days.

According to old ledgers still in thie store, the business came from such towns as Chadron, Neb., Hot Springs, Custer, Pierre and even from Sioux Falls.

Homestake Mess, World’s Fair Restaurant, Lead, and the Golden Reward Mining Company are a few of the firm names on the old ledgers. And Calamity Jane must have bought her bacon there for her name appears often. Seth Bullock's name, and Sam Wing and Mike Russel appear on the ledger. Often beside the name is an adjective to describe each customer, such as "woodchopper," "prospector" or "lawyer." For almost 30 years James O'Hara was associated with tile store as employee and partner of Jake Goldberg, and in 1934 he bought the store -- name, traditions and stock.

O'Hara was a coffee roasting expert and the place soon became famous for roasting its own coffee. When manufactured gas went out of Deadwood, O'Hara sold the roaster to a Nebraska firm, but five years later when natural gas eased into Deadwood he bought it back.

It still stands there in the third story attic of the building, and the sacks on the floor contain the green coffee beans. The store carried quite a stock of imported groceries which brought trade.

In 1945 when O'Hara died, his attractive widow sold the business to Arnold Johnson, the present owner. Although he appreciated the traditions, coffee roasting was not one of his accomplishments. The roaster went on permanent vacation. Johnson still carries imported groceries by way of keeping up traditions.

He's a soft voiced, youngish man, never happier than when listening in on old Gold Rush yarns the oldsters love to tell. But he's willing to go a little farther, for in the summer of 1949 he enacted a transaction that might have come to life from 1876.

It happened one morning when an old prospector, Miner Scurlow, came into the store, carrying a bottle of gold dust, all neatly protected by its little chamois-skin "poke."

He'd like to trade the gold for a little grub, he said. Johnson dusted off the gold scales, They are of Japanese make, having a magnet which the Japs used to take the black sand out of the gold. There were two such transactions recently -- one time the gold had a valuation of $14 and the other time $35.06. Johnson stored the gold at once in the old safe upstairs and Scurlow took home the bacon.

But the transaction didn't end there. Eyebrows, including the bankers' began to go up, wondering what Uncle Sam would say about anyone fooling with gold like that.

Johnson asked the U. S. Mint just what it thought, and a letter came from Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross of the Mint. There was a sheet of paper a yard long with all kinds of questions on Johnson's desk as he showed the letter,

"Uncle Sam wants to know just who shook the shovel and rocked the gold pan to get the dust into the bottle," said Johnson, "and this form has to go along with the gold to the mint."

"But you can't send it to the mint unless you have an ounce," he said, "and it has to be raw untouched gold, just as it comes from the ground.”

You can't use any chemicals or heat processes on the gold, or change it in any way when you buy it and send it to the mints.

Published Online: March 23rd, 2007