Welsh Furniture Company

The Welsh Furniture Company

Know Your Firms

(15th article of a continuing series giving the history, development and interesting facts about community business firms).

The Miller Hardware and Furniture Company was founded under the name of the Welsh Furniture Company about 1900 by A. R. Miller. He opened his store in the building now located on the northeast corner of the intersection of South St. and E. Elm St., selling furniture and caskets. He only had two employees which were his son, Roger and his daughter, Pearl.

The late John J. Miller bought the firm from his father in 1907. He was formerly employed by the Morse Hardware Company which was in the same building know known as the Wisteria Apartments. His experience in the hardware business and his keen business sense showed him the advantages of adding hardware to his newly acquired furniture business. At the time he added the new line, he changed the name of the firm to Miller Hardware and Furniture Company. Soon after taking over the business, Mr. John Miller went to New Orleans and took a course in embalming and became the eighth licensed embalmer in the state.

Kenneth M. Miller, son of John J. Miller, joined the firm in 1928, was licensed in 1934, and bought the business in 1940. He sold the funeral business to Hixson Funeral Home in 1946. In 1946 Kenneth Miller became manager of the Miller Hardware & Furnitire Company when his father became ill.

During the years, other lines were added to Millers' stock in order to keep pace with the changing demands of the community brought about by the machine age. In 1947 the firm moved to its present location at 201 South Adams St. and tripled its floor space. In 1949 Kenneth Miller moved to Florida and Luther C. Stubblefield was appointed manager and still holds that position.

Among the national trade names carried are RCA and GE radios, GE appliances, washing machines and refrigerators, Plumb and Kelly tools, Carrier and GE air conditioners, Serta mattresses, Broyhill, Basset, Berklock rockers and other nationally advertised furniture.

The firm has two trucks which deliver within a thirty-mile radius of Welsh. This is quite different from the transportation used in the old days. According to tales told by Webb Harris, Frank made his deliveries by wheelbarrow.

Miller Hardware & Furniture Company attributes its growth to the services it is able to offer its customers, the many items carried, the constant repeat trade, their credit policy, and the quality of merchandise which they handle.

Currently emplyed at the Miller Hardware & Furniture Company are: Frank S. Harris, assistant manager and buyer; Miss Myrtle Belle Stubblefield, bookkeeper; C. F. Cullumber, salesman; A. E. Notestine, salesman; and Harry D. Guidry, Jr.

Miller Building To Be Razed

The old Miller Building at the northeast corner of East South Street and South Elm Street has been purchased by S. O. Scoggins. A check with Mr. Scoggins reveals that the building will be torn down within the next month. He did not purchase the lot from the Miller estate.

The building, an old landmark on the Welsh scene, is reported to have been built between 1900 and 1904 and first housed the Welsh Furniture Company which later became the Miller Hardware and Furniture Company. This firm moved to its new building in 1947. The old Miller Building has not been occupied since that time.

The Miller Hardware and Furniture Company frame building at the intersection of E. South and Elm Streets is being demolished and with its removal one of the communities oldest business establishments will become history.

The building was vacated several years ago when the firm [moved] into their new brick building on S. Adams Street.

J. S. Osterland and Vernon Scoggins purchased the structure and work of demolishing the building began this past week end.

Materials salvaged from the structure will be used for future construction by the purchasers.