IMBLER — The new owners of the Imbler Market, Johnny and Malinda Gunnels, admittedly knew very little about its past.

However, thanks to the memoirs of late Imbler resident Bus Hoover and the archived pages of The Observer, the history of this iconic store and its owners can be modestly reconstructed. 

In August 1902, a man by the name of W. E. Anderson came to Union County from Utah to purchase farmland and city lots on which to start businesses. In that endeavor, he purchased lots 1 and 2 of block 5 in the city of Imbler, where the Imbler Market stands today.

On those lots, the Anderson Brothers built a one-story redbrick building. It was leased out to Walter Stringham Jr. as a retail mercantile store and was fully operational by July 12, 1903, as noted in an advertisement in The Observer bearing that date.

Walter Stringham Jr. was born Jan. 18, 1865, in Manti, Utah, to Walter Stringham Sr. and Mary Ellen Tuttle. He married Mary Eliza Metcalf on Nov. 30, 1892, in that same city, and they eventually became parents to three sons, two born in Utah and the third in Oregon.

The Stringham family relocated from Utah to Summerville, in 1901 and in 1903 they moved to a residence in Imbler in order to conduct business from their new general mercantile, hardware and grocery store. It was known simply as Stringham’s Store.

On Sept. 9, 1904, Stringham was officially appointed as the eighth Imbler postmaster, and the post office was physically set up in the east side of Stringham’s Store. As a result, “Walter Stringham will now dish out the love letters,” wrote The Observer.

An early pioneer, Clara Perin Gekeler, claimed to be one of the first residents in the town of Imbler. She shopped at Stringham’s Store, describing it as a general mercantile store, having dry goods, kettles, pans and dishes on one side and on the other side a grocery store.

Immediately east of the store was a hotel or boardinghouse, where visitors stayed while doing business in Imbler, and next to the hotel was a much larger warehouse structure called Stringham’s General Mercantile and Hardware, so the Stringhams were busy and life was prosperous.

More good news came to the Stringhams when, in January 1909, the landlord, W. E. Anderson, sold the city lots and store to Mrs. Walter Stringham for $5,000. Eight years later, Stringham brought some technology into the store’s bookkeeping department, its first adding machine.

Meanwhile, Walter Stringham held the postmaster job at the store until Sept. 28, 1914, when he forgot to apply at the last examination, and the job went to John T. Witty, a druggist. An article covering the news explained, “Mr. Stringham had the Uncle Sam job in his mercantile so long he grew tired of it, and there was no animosity developed when the job went to Mr. Witty.”

By that time, Stringham had many business interests going concurrently, in addition to being president of the Imbler State Bank and being a notary public. Consequently, he was probably relieved that he did not have to sort and post mail any longer.

As for the store, it was thriving and growing, but then in March 1918, the Stringhams experienced a robbery by a young man named Roy Parker, who was indicted by a grand jury on the charge of burglary. The Stringhams stayed in business another year after this and then started to look for a buyer so they could relocate to Astoria near family. 

They sold the store in 1920 to Bert Tucker, and he ran it as Tucker’s Grocery Store until January 1928, when he sold it to Irwin A. Westenskow. That’s when the shop became known as the Imbler Cash Store. Westenskow also became the acting postmaster at the store for a few months, from Aug. 11, 1930, to Nov. 24, 1930, after which Mrs. Bessie E. Hale was appointed postmistress for the next 17-1/2 years.

Brothers Irwin and Alford Westenskow carried a good line of reasonably priced groceries as well as window glass, much to the relief of all the softball players in Imbler, wrote Hoover. The brothers then sold the store to a third brother, Wally Westenskow, who operated it until about 1946 and then sold it to the Webb brothers from Oklahoma.

At the store, the Webb brothers added a soft drink and ice cream bar near the front door, and their milkshakes were touted as the best in the valley. Meanwhile, Amacy “Tom” Webb was appointed the next postmaster in the store, and he started on June 1, 1948, just as Hale was retiring.

In 1952, the Webbs sold out to Charles C. Richmond, who operated the store and served as postmaster from 1954-1974. He also added a lumber line to the Imbler Cash Store in December 1960.

When Clifford and Bertha Smith purchased the store, according to Hoover, they wanted the post office moved out of there. The search for a new post office went on for months until space was secured across the street in a redbrick building where a beauty salon had been.

The store changed hands again, this time to the Elroy Fuller family from the Prineville area, and two years later to a gentleman (name unknown) who worked as a backhoe operator. He sold it to Robin and Sylvia Digerness in the early 1980s. They were experienced merchants from Portland, and they built the Imbler Market’s inventory back up, adding video and DVD rentals to its offerings.

After three years, they sold the store to Charles Richmond’s son, Dell Richmond, and his wife, Barbara. That didn’t work out for them, so the store went back to the Digerness couple again. They did quite a bit of remodeling, including adding coolers, counters and cabinets, likely made by Bus Hoover. They also hired Sharon Nelson, who worked as a checker and part-time manager for 20 years off and on. 

Sharon and Rick Nelson bought the store in 1994, and they added some lighting and made a few small changes to the store. In June 1999, they sold it to Larry McLaughlin, who added walk-in coolers and walk-in freezers in the back, replaced the floor, added air conditioning and put in ice equipment.

Karen Olson worked for McLaughlin. In fact, she worked a total of 27 years between the Digerness and McLaughlin owners. She and her husband, Glen Olson, bought the store from McLaughlin in November 2006. While the Olsons owned it, they put on a new roof, siding, exterior paint, new flooring and coolers on the side by the highway.

“We lifted the back wall off the ground and put concrete under it,” Karen Olson said. “We put a canopy over the front door too.”

In terms of food, they added pizzas and upgraded the sandwich station and salad bar. For a time, they also sold soft ice cream cones.

The Olsons never had any burglaries over the years, “but we did have three people crash their vehicles into the building at different times,” Karen Olson said. 

After so many years working at the store, Olson was feeling it in her knees and back. That’s when she knew she had to quit working, so she and Glen sold the store to Johnny and Malinda Gunnels on Dec. 20, 2022.

From the Stringhams to the Gunnels, the store has had a few different names and about 15 different owners. But one thing didn’t change — it is one of Imbler’s few buildings of its era still in public use today, and the Gunnels want to keep it that way.