Businesses and Mama Work That Last
Chester A. Arthur was in the White House 141 years ago when Dr. S. B. Fowler of Gainesboro, Tennessee, bought out a stock of medicines from Mr. Andrew Alison of neighboring Smith County in October of 1883. In November Dr. Fowler opened a drug store in Gainesboro. Dr. Fowler’s drug store has changed ownership and druggists a few times since 1883, but it is still going strong in our adopted hometown. Since 1918 it has been called Anderson and Haile.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development is honoring businesses which have been operating for a century or more. This past Tuesday, Ray and I attended the ceremony honoring Anderson and Haile for being in business for 140 years.
Soon after we moved to Gainesboro in 2003, someone in the family needed a prescription filled. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was less expensive to purchase it at this local drug store than at the national chain stores we had used before. We became faithful customers of Anderson and Haile. The owner, Teneal Jenkins, and the rest of the staff have always gone far out of their way to be helpful.
I remember a time when Teneal helped me get a large discount on an expensive medication for my mother. When I picked up a prescription for Ray last year in the midst of his medical difficulties, one of the pharmacists noticed the marked change in the amount of medication he was taking and asked me about it. She listened sweetly as this stressed wife told her his story. During the conversation, she warned me that one of the medications needed to be taken, not simply two times a day, but that it was extremely important to take the doses 12 hours apart, something the doctor had not mentioned.
Teneal began working at Anderson and Haile when she was a teenager. She worked for owner Benton Haile Quarles, who graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Pharmacy in 1959 and became owner of the store that same year. Teneal went on to pharmacy school after high school. She began working as a pharmacist at Anderson and Haile in 2004. In 2007 she purchased the business from Mr. Quarles.
What a joy it was for me to see the joy on Teneal’s face as she and Mr. Quarles received the centennial award from Tennessee Commissioner of Economic and Community Development, Stuart C. McWhorter. Her love for Mr. Quarles was obvious.
I was fascinated when I read the list of other centennial businesses being honored around the state. They include:
- an insurance group
- a hardware store
- a funeral home
- 4 banks
- a furniture store
- a handmade broom company
- 3 newspapers
- a grocery store
- 2 restaurants
- a company that makes scythes, and
- two general stores, one in historic Rugby, Tennessee, and the other in Pall Mall, Tennessee, hometown of World War I hero Alvin C. York.
According to one chart I saw, one-third of new businesses fail within the first two years and one-half fail within the first five years. A centennial business is certainly something to celebrate.
In John 15, Jesus talked to His disciples about things that last. He encouraged His disciples to stick with Him, telling them in verse 4: “Abide in Me.” He said that if they would abide in Him, they would bear much fruit.
In verse 12, Jesus told them to love one another as He had loved them. In verse 16, He told them that He appointed them to go and bear fruit, fruit that would remain.
Yes, a centennial business is something to celebrate. Of much greater value is bearing spiritual fruit that will last. As parents, that is what we want. We want the work we put into our families every day to last for generations. Two keys to that are family members who abide in Jesus and family members who love one another as Jesus loved us.
You did not choose Me but I chose you,
and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit,
and that your fruit would remain,
so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name
He may give to you.
This I command you, that you love one another.
John 15:16-17