A couple of weeks ago the heart of my home town died. I was raised on a farm, about four miles south-west of the small town of North Branch, Michigan. At its peak, North Branch had maybe 2,000 residents, the township had probably 10,000 residents and for 150 years, at the heart of town was the Daniel Orr and Sons Hardware store. The store closed permanently on January 11, 2025.
Orr's was an old fashioned hardware store. Operated and mostly staffed by members of the family. It was the kind of place you could go to ask how to fix, or build almost anything and they would gladly help you. If you needed one special bolt, or three brass screws you could buy them there. If you needed 20 bolts, they would tell you if it was cheaper to buy a box of 25 or just the 20 you needed. Many of the farmers had open credit accounts there, payable when the milk check, or the grain check came in. Having been in business for decades, they had an amazing stock of unusual items that farmers, homeowners, or hobbyists might want. I went there many times as a kid and teenager for help with one project or another. It is where I picked out the Sir Charles Gold paint for my bedroom that my father hated so much.
Orr's was also the place you went for a hunting or fishing license, or fishing equipment and for years a new gun. My grandfather's prized Browning 16 gauge was bought there. He had a Browning 12 gauge and was complaining about how heavy it was, the 16 gauge was about 2 pounds lighter. My oldest brother ended up with both of those.** One night about 40 years ago, a guy broke into the store and held the police at bay for several hours with guns from the case. They stopped selling guns sometime after that.
When I was growing up, two brothers ran the store and a brother-in-law ran the local lumber company. The son of one of the brothers was a year ahead of me in school. Bill took over from his father and uncle and ran the store for decades. He died a couple of years ago. One of the daughters was in my class. Cindy taught science in the local schools. (She is on the far left in the photo below.)
The closure cuts the heart out of a small town.
The remaining Orr family members.
* Try as I may, I was unable to locate photos of my home town in Michigan. These are borrowed from a high school classmate, Cindy Orr Mitchell https://www.facebook.com/cindy.mitchell.1000
** About 20 years ago, I bought myself a Browning Gold 12 gauge. It filled a hole left when all of grandfathers shotguns went to my oldest brother. I have no use for it, I should sell it.
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