Traveling Through Time With the Shelby County Historical Society
     Feature on Commercial Club. Topic: INDUSTRY & ORGANIZATION
Written by Rich Wallace in March, 1998

THE COMMERCIAL CLUB KEY TO RECRUITMENT OF INDUSTRY TO SIDNEY
At the annual banquet of the Sidney-Shelby Chamber of Commerce, equal measures of accolades for past accomplishments and predictions of a rosy economic future were handed out. The work of several chamber committees was recognized. The night was highlighted by the presentation of the Zenith award for community service to Patrick Milligan. He was honored for decades of volunteer work, much of it in the area of business development. Milligan's record of service brings back memories of an era in Sidney history when the top business leaders in the community considered it a sacred responsibility to work collectively for the common good of the community. This is the story of their efforts and the organization they founded.

Six years after the founding of the Sidney Commercial Club, Sidney attorney Hugh Doorley addressed those attending its annual banquet concerning the genesis of the club. "Each and every community, whether great or small, has a few, and only a few, original, independent and constructive thinkers," he said. It was decided to gather Sidney's "leading citizens...representing its industrial, commercial and professional life to be utilized as a potent factor in promoting the future welfare of Sidney."

The first meeting of the Sidney Commercial Club was held on February 20, 1903. (The club was a successor organization of the Board of Improvement, which was formed in 1891, and had been responsible for bringing several new businesses to Sidney). The leaders who gathered to set up the club read like a ‘who's who’ of business leaders in Sidney at the time: James Anderson, president of Anderson Body Company, B. M. Donaldson, the owner of the Bryant and Donaldson Broom factory, William Haslup of the Haslup foundry, William Piper, the proprietor of Piper's Dry Goods, and E. J. Griffis, the owner of Griffis Brothers grain merchants and general 'deal maker' in the business community.

The first president of this august group was none other that I. H. Thedieck, the owner of Thedieck's Department Store and future founder of Monarch Machine Tool Company. James Anderson was the vice-president, and Ben Wagner (Wagner Manufacturing), Judge J. D. Barnes, and William Haslup were among the directors.

From the power of these assembled business leaders came a vision for the community that had never been created before. These men were serious about making an impact in the community. They decided to sell stock in the club, and promptly raised $5,000. Eighty-eight members enlisted at the first meeting. Each paid an initiation fee of $25 and annual dues of $10 per year. At that meeting, the members voted to lease space for the club in the Harry G. Wagner post office building for not one, but five years to serve as club headquarters. A long range plan was developed that called for the creation of fifteen committees. One year after the founding of the Commercial Club, another election of officers was held. The power of the club was consolidated with the installation of E. J. Griffis, James Anderson, William Piper, William Carothers of Buckeye Churn, J. B. Tucker, president of Tucker Woodworking and Charles Benjamin, president of Benjamin 'D' Handle factory as officers and directors.

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