The drug store line: Hoffman to Moak to Merrick's — and no successor

1864 – 1967; present-day negative

One drug house anchors the line for a century, and the line ends in the present directory's silence. Daniel Hoffman settled in Liberty Township in 1864 — the atlas prints "Hoffman, D. — Drugs and Groceries — 1864" — kept a first store at the southeast corner of Main and Market, then built the Hoffman Block at 108/110 North Main about 1885 for his drugstore and grocery: the drugstore in the north storefront (still so in the 1909 and 1917 Sanborns), a barbershop in the south, a community and social hall and offices above. By the early 1900s the firm was Hoffman Brothers — sons William and John — still operating in 1940 and also selling shoes: Polk 1916–17 in full, "Hoffman Bros (Wm F and John C), grocers, drugs and shoes," and the 1940 directory's "Hoffman Brothers Drugs and Groceries"; the building was still called the Hoffman Building as late as 1960. A second, shorter tenancy stood at 135 North Main, a drugstore in 1909 and a meat market by 1917. The line's next name is a woman's: "Moak Lavina, drugs" (Polk 1916–17) and "L. V. Moak Drugs, Sundries, Cosmetics, and Notions" (1940 directory) — the same initials in two carriers twenty-four years apart, printed as one line at directory strength. In 1967 the yearbook carries Merrick's Liberty Pharmacy at 100 North Main — the Worster Building — "Prescriptions Are Our Business"; a Rensberger's Drug also advertised that year, its ad stating no town, printed at name strength only. Present day is a negative: no pharmacy or drug store appears in the town links page's business list, read whole. The line that runs Hoffman to Moak to Merrick's has no present-day successor on that carrier.