Grab It Here

C. Sherman Paxton moved to Illinois from Kentucky as a coal miner around 1901. He began saving money to open his own grocery store, and in 1903 he had saved $185 and opened a small store in Georgetown, Illinois. The store was originally called simply the "C. S. Paxton Store", and he ran it on credit and made deliveries; Paxton closed the store for a time during a coal strike but returned later and opened the store again. Then in 1919 Paxton opened a cash-only store managed by his son Ernie, and it was here that the "Grab-It-Here" name first appeared. By the 1930s there were several cash and carry stores in operation; and by the 1960s there were 24 stores in Illinois and 11 in Indiana. In 1968 Grab-It-Here became affiliated with Dolly Madison Industries. By the 1980s the chain was defunct.

C. S. Paxton died in 1950.

Here is a list of stores according to an anniversary brochure from the 1960s:

References

* Grab-It-Here anniversary booklets from the 1950s and 1960s, courtesy of the Vermilion County Historical Society
* The "Heritage of Vermilion County" magazine, published by the Vermilion County Museum Society

External links

* [http://www.vermilioncountymuseum.org/ Vermilion County Museum]