Ashland Memories: The Freer Brothers, from clothing and grain to establishing Farmers Bank
The brothers Freer, Randolph and Jonas, were prominent businessmen in Ashland starting before the Civil War. Their grocery, hardware and grain trade businesses eventually led them to establish the Farmers Bank in 1874.
The Freers purchased a building next door to the town hall on the southwest corner of Main and Center streets. After the town hall burned in 1880, an opera house replaced it in 1882, dwarfing the Freer block next door.
The original Freer building stood on the front part of the lot and housed several businesses in addition to the bank. The F.R. Marks’s tin and stove shop was there until it moved into the Opera House around 1899, and the Vanosdall furniture store took its place.
Another business in the building was a clothing store started by two of Randolph Freer’s sons in 1875. They received some initial assistance from their father, but soon went into business for themselves as the Freer Brothers.
Getting a start studying business at Iron City College
Frank Freer was born in Ashland in 1855. He studied business at the Iron City College in Pittsburgh before returning to Ashland and embarking in the clothing trade. His brother Charles was born in 1858 and graduated from Ashland High School before joining the business.
In the early 1880s, the Freers built a one-story brick building on South Street, behind the Freer block. It served as a wool house for the elder Freers, where bales of wool were packed for shipment to markets. Both Randolph and Jonas Freer died in the 1880s, and in later years the old wool house was used as a tailor shop and storage for the clothing store.
In 1915, the Freer Brothers advertised you could count on them for “quality and price” in custom tailoring and gents’ furnishing. In that same year, Will Duff noted in his centennial history that among Ashland’s clothiers, they were “one of the oldest and most reliable in the county.”
By 1916, the Farmers Bank decided the Freer block was insufficient for its needs. The news broke in February that the bank would purchase the property from the Freer family, taking ownership on April 15. Building plans would be forthcoming.
At the same time, Freer Brothers announced they were discontinuing their ready-to-wear lines of clothing. They planned to continue making suits to order and provide tailoring services.
Change and growth in the early 1900s
Early in 1917, local architect Vernon Redding had drawn plans for a new bank, and the Carmichael Construction Company of Akron received the contract to build it. The old wool building was torn down in February 1917 to make room for a new, larger Main Street building that would fill the entire lot.
The Freer Brothers had a big sale to empty out their store and moved out of the space they had occupied for forty-three years. It was an opportunity for Ashland men to buy some of the best quality suits at cost, including the Hart, Shaffner and Marx brands.
The Freer Brothers moved into temporary quarters in the Frazee building on Orange Street, where they expected to remain for about eight months, during the construction.
That timeline may have been a bit optimistic. The following spring, Freer brothers were advertising Easter suits in their store, still located in the Frazee block of Orange Street. By June, Ashlanders were buying summer suits at that location.
On July 25, 1918, the Farmers Bank finally held a grand opening in the new building on Main. And that October − in the midst of the flu epidemic − the Freer Brothers announced they were also open for business in the new building.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ashland's Freer Brothers had a nose for business in late 1800s
