New Vienna Drug stores & Druggists

The 1976 booklet, Historic Buzzard's Glory: New Vienna, Ohio 1827-1976, lists one druggist (Rogers) in 1856, 2 drug stores in 1876, and one in 1976.

New Vienna Drugstore, known later as Noble's Drugstore and then as New Vienna Pharmacy, was in operation as a pharmacy from the 1880s until the 1970s.  The drug store was a long narrow building in the center of the downtown block on the south side of Main Street.  In 2013 the former drug store location is on the west side of the Sunrise Bakery which is owned/run by the daughter of Doc Noble's stepson.

The drug store during Doc Noble's tenure was a dimly lit space with a magazine rack near the front window and though Doc Noble generally sat behind a counter in the middle of the store, he kept an eagle eye on anyone looking at the magazines or comic books.  He was known to call parents if young eyes wandered to the more racy magazines or acted at all suspiciously.  There were many glass cases around the walls, small tables (at one time there was a soda fountain), and shelves going up to the ceiling along the walls.  There was a postcard rack with New Vienna and other local scenes depicted.

There were at least four pharmacist/owners:

1. William Henry 1880s -1890s
2. Unknown(s) 1890s - 1900s
3. John M. Bettetao (Battelas, or Bettatas) listed on 1900 census as 55-year-old druggist/proprietor in New Vienna.  No other information found on him other than he was single and living in the Fealy Hotel (later Wells Mfg. building).
   
   Fairfax West (1844-1927) is listed as a druggist in New Vienna in 1900; a pharmacist in 1910 and a drug store clerk in 1920.
   
   Also on the 1900 Census, Richard Mason Williams is listed as a druggist as he was on the 1880 census. Possibly he ran one of the two drugstores listed as being open in 1876.
4. William Cushing Higley 1900s - 1924 
5. Norman Cyril Noble 1924 -1967
6. Charles Henderson 1973 - about 1977

Frank Hussey drowns
Hillsboro News-Herald July 28, 1887 p. 7

William Henry had a New Vienna drug store in the 1880s.  In 1887, one of his clerks, Frank Hussey, son of the deceased Simon Hussey, drowned while bathing in an old gravel pit on the Conard farm near Auburn Meeting-house in Penn Township.  He was with two or three other young men about his same age (21 or 22), but none of them were able to swim, and Frank evidently got beyond his depth. [Hillsboro News-Herald, July 28, 1887.]  In 1900 the census records show the Henry family, which then included six children, living in Greenfield.  Daughter, Della C. Henry Dunlap, graduated from NVHS in 1892.  Henry's wife, Leanna Hussey Henry, born in New Vienna in 1854, was the daughter of Nathan Hussey.

Fairfax West, son of Joseph Benson West and Sarah Olive Grice West, was born in Wayne Township, Clinton County in 1844.  After serving in the Civil War, he married Mary Lurena Susannah Wilkinson in 1866, and worked as a druggist in New Vienna for the rest of his life.  They were the parents of nine children including: Edmund, Effie, Sarah, William, James, Martha, Olive, Zilpha (NVHS 1897) and Fairfax, Jr., West.

Richard Mason Williams married Margaret Adelia Rulon in 1871 and they were the parents of Guy Rulon Williams 1872-1940.  Guy graduated from NVHS in 1889.  Margaret was born in New Vienna in 1849.  Richard was born in Virginia in 1846 but his family moved to Green Township, Clinton County in 1849.

William Cushing Higley, operated a drug store in New Vienna from the early 1900s until 1924, when he died at age 71.  His family, which included a daughter, Mamie, born 1898, lived in Penn Township in 1910 and in Green Township in 1920.  Mamie was a pharmacy student in 1920 but was not a graduate of NVHS as far as can be ascertained.  Prior to moving to New Vienna, Higley was a druggist in Coolville, Ohio, Athens County, where he was later buried.  Ancestry details on him can be found at this link.

Norman Cyril "Doc" Noble – see separate blog post.

In 1973 the New Vienna Pharmacy reopened after renovation by Charles Henderson, a registered pharmacist-manager, who operated the store for a limited period of time.  Little is known of Charles Henderson and his efforts to continue operating a drug store in New Vienna.  Possibly he was from Hillsboro.  There was an ad in the Dec. 1976 Hillsboro newspaper for the New Vienna Pharmacy but nothing can be found after that date.

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Sources:
Ancestry.com info about William Henry
Ancestry.com info about Fairfax West
Ancestry.com info about Richard Mason Williams
Ancestry.com info about William Cushing Higley