1954 NV Woman's Club program given by Jean Jan.13

Wilmington News-Journal January 13, 1954. Transcription follows.

New Vienna Club Has Program 

on The Wish Book

New Vienna Woman's Club members and guests were received by Mrs. Robert J. Custis for the first meeting of 1954 Wednesday evening.

Mrs. Walter Drake, president, presided during the business meeting.  She read an interesting story titled "New Year's Resolutions" written by Daniel Poling which has been published in the Christian Herald.

Mrs. Harold H. Uible, program leader, had as her subject "The Wish Book," or mail order catalog.  She gave the history of each of the four larger mail order houses.

Montgomery Ward is the oldest of the four, being established in1872, she said.  The first picture catalog was published in1878 and contained 24 pages.  In 1921 Montgomery Ward established its first retail store.

Sears Roebuck & Co. was next mentioned.  Mr. Sears began the present day huge business by selling a shipment of watches that would not be accepted by a jeweler in North Redwood, Minn., where he was the station agent.  Mr. Roebuck, a watch repairman from Chicago, became a partner some years later and today they are selling everything, the leader said.  In 1925, the Sears-Roebuck retail stores were organized.

Spiegel's was established in 1865 as a furniture store and developed into a mail order business in 1904, and Alden's ranks next to Sears Roebuck in their public relations program while they are considered the best in their stockholders' relation program, Mrs. Uible said.

Mrs. Custis invited her guests to the dining room where she served a salad course from a table that was covered with a homespun cloth and centered with an arrangement of red candles in a brass holder.  Mrs. Glenn Southerland poured.

Mrs. Wendell Walker and Mrs. O.F. Boyd, of Wilmington were guests of the members present:  Mrs. Charles R. Blackburn, Miss Mary Blackburn, Mrs. Homer Bohl, Mrs. Ralph Carey, Mrs. R. W. Cornelius, Mrs. Harry W. Curtis, Mrs. Mabel O. Davis, Mrs. Drake, Mrs. A.W. Hause, Mrs. George Neffner, Mrs. Howard N. Penn, Mrs. Geneva Phillips, Mrs. Harley Phillips, Mrs. Thomas M. South, Mrs. Southerland, Mrs. J. Guerney Terrell, Mrs. Paul Terrell, Mrs. Uible and Mrs. Homer K. Williams.

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Montgomery Ward declared bankruptcy in 2000 and the original company became defunct in 2001.  The last Wards catalog was issued in 1984.

Sears, founded in 1893, was purchased by K-Mart in 2005, which renamed itself Sears Holding.  The last "big book" catalog was issued in 1993.

Spiegel filed for bankruptcy in 2003, reorganized and assumed the name of one of it's units, Eddie Bauer.  In 2009 they became a Lynn Tilton company.

Aldens became part of a conglomerate of retail chains operated by Gamble-Skogmo, closed 1982.