At the last membership meeting of the Historical Society, I presented a lengthy slide presentation on the many gasoline stations that have populated Chillicothe since the arrival of the automobile. I tried to include as much of the history of each station as I could which named many of the people who worked at or managed the stations. One of the stations was Larry Mannering’s Standard Station which he built in 1940. It was located at the south end of the block where the new Casey’s station is today. Back then, the middle of the block was the location of the Chillicothe Dairy operated by Homer Gill. Casey’s now fills the whole block.

When those attending the presentation saw the list of people who were associated with the Mannering’s station the owner of the Chillicothe A & W Root Beer Stand was shown: Thomas Roehnelt. How the Root Beer Stand came to be on that location was discussed briefly and most of our guests seemed to remember times when they had a cool root beer or meal there and where the stand had originally been located in Chillicothe.

The discussion also brought up a childhood memory of my own with regard to root beer. Besides A &W Root Beer, I grew up with the Dad’s Root Beer brand. Our family had Dad’s in quart bottles, not the big ice-covered mugs that were available at an A & W stand. The title of this piece is a quote of a Dad’s Root Beer commercial that played on WIRL radio what seemed forever at my young age. My siblings and I would repeat the above ad whenever mom and dad would bring home a bottle of Dad’s Root beer. We would chant “Razzle Dazzle Root Beer” with our own emphasis and laughter. The memory reminded me of the research I had done on the Chillicothe A & W Root Beer Stand. 

The A & W began at 600 S. Fourth Street which changed to 322 N. Fourth Street when the street address system was changed in 1958. Today it would be located at the north end of the parking lot of the Picket Fence Gift Center. The original franchise holder was Mel and Gert Summers who opened the A & W on June 18, 1952. The stand operated from a small house at the edge of Route 29, which was only a two-lane road at that time. Automobile entrance to the parking lot was from Maple Street but people could enter through doors on both the north and south sides of the building. The “curbies” worked from the south side of the stand. The Summers ran the stand until May of 1959 when they sold it to William Traub.

In early 1960, Terry Longenbach was listed as the Manager but by the end of that year Spence Morris was listed as the Manager. Some of you might remember Spence from his later employment with the Paul Beard Motor Company that sponsored Saturday Night Late Show on WEEK TV. Spence was the man who drove the used cars into the station when Paul called for them.

In April 1962, Traub sold the business to Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Evans of Farmington, Illinois. The Evans’ ran the stand until they sold out to Thomas, Mary, and J.B. Roehnelt in 1964. All of the operators of the A & W owned only the business, never the land. The land had been owned by the Charles Shaw family since 1898. As time passed, each of the members of the Shaw family died with Charles’ daughter Daisy being the last member to own the land.

Records show that Daisy married James A. Burner in Peoria in 1908 at age 31. They had no children and James passed away in 1917. Daisy never remarried and when her father died in 1915, she and her brother Edward inherited the house and land where they lived. Their father had owned lots 1, 2 and 3, but lived in the house on lot one. After her husband died, Daisy lived there until the late 1940s. The 1950 US Census shows Daisy Burner was living in the Peoria State Hospital for the Insane in Bartonville, Illinois at age 70. Daisy died in 1963 and is buried next to her brother Edward in Chillicothe cemetery. 

It appears that her administrator had leased the house and lot to Mel Summer who held the A & W franchise in 1952. The life of the A & W at this location came to an end in 1966. Following Daisy’s death in 1963, her estate had to be resolved by the Probate Court. The Estate Administrator Mills put the property up for public sale in June of 1965. The highest bidder was Gnile Beebe Jr. who bid $10,200. The Roehnelt’s were forced to close the stand or relocate the business because Beebe had other plans for the property.

The Roehnelt’s petitioned the City Council to rezone a lot on the east side of Fourth Street in the block north of Truitt. The City Council held a hearing on the request and numerous residents of the area appeared to voice their objection to the petition. The Council voted to reject the proposal and Roehnelt’s were pressed even further to find a location.

That is when the Mannering Gasoline station property at 1232 N. Fourth Street entered the picture. The station had been closed for a lengthy period and Roehnelt’s and Mannerings reached an agreement. The house containing the stand was hauled up Fifth Street to the corner of Fourth and Ash. The A.M. Trulin Construction Company constructed the awning that extended west from the house to establish the parking stalls. The new A & W stand was opened by August 1966 and ran until 1980. Mannerings sold the property to the Roehnelts on June 15, 1981 for $11,500. The Roehnelts, on the same day, sold the property to Glenn Page for the same amount.