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Up to the year 1837, the business of the town was carried on in various parts of town, but, in 1837, James T. Schenck, Otho Evans, W. V. Barkalow; Anthony Fay and Isaac Van Tuyl advertised for bids for the construction of a building, to be two stories high, and to contain five business rooms, each to be eighteen feet wide and forty feet deep, with cellar under the whole building, and each room to have two doors and six windows. This was built in 1838, contained six rooms instead of five, and bears the name of Merchants' Row. Here the largest establishments of town were soon settled, and to-day, being as it is, in the center of town, it is a good business locality. A seventh room, was erected by Philip Weber in or about 1858.
The buildings of W. R. Dial, Thirkield & Sons, D. Adams, Rossman & Co., A. Walling and W. Coleman are the more prominent-business houses.
The house of Thirkield & Sons is the oldest house doing business
in town, the house having been established in 1832. Mr. J.
L. Thirkield entered the store of Jonathan Mooney
when but a lad, and, by his integrity and industry, soon accumulated enough
to start in business for himself. In 1837, he and Mr. Mooney formed a
partnership and continued for several years, when Mr. Thirkield bought
out Mr. Mooney's interests. In 1842, Mr. George
Balentine became his partner. They kept their stock of goods in an
old building just north of the Presbtyerian [sic] Church, until
1850, when they found their business too large for the small building,
and they erected, in conjunction with G. Scharf, the block where the store
now is. Mr. Balentine dying in 1852, his
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Mr. W. R. Dial is perhaps the next oldest business man of the town having carried on the baking and confectionery business for over thirty years.