THOMAS A. HENSEL
THE LEADING UPPER END CLOTHIER IS A GOOD ADVERTISER
From mine worker to the leading clothier of Upper Dauphin County, Thomas A. Hensel has proved to what standing and success a man may attain who tends to business and uses brains and discretion in the conduct of his affairs. Mr. Hensel has steadily grown and progressed, and established on a firm foundation a clean business. This he has accomplished not only but courteous and considerate treatment of his trade, but by the use of modern methods, and more than all else, by having the right stuff and selling it at very reasonable prices. He has always made it a point to handle the best brands of merchandise that the market afforded. Another point about which he has always been particular, and with good results, is the appearance of his store.
When, in March 1904, he moved into his present quarters in the Israel Building, at the corner of Main and Market Streets [Lykens], then just completed, he had and still has the largest and finest clothing house in either Dauphin or Schuylkill Counties. It has nine show windows, in which the Frink patent window lighting is used, over a hundred electric lights, and floor space of 3200 square feet. He had started in a room that measured 18 x 65 feet. That Mr. Hensel is a clever merchant and a man of ideas is very well illustrated by the novel way he takes of giving publicity to his business. As an advertisement he distributes souvenir postals [post cards] showing photographs of his establishment and selling force. The scheme is more than an ordinarily good one and worth being adapted by other wide awake merchants.
BEGAN AS A MINE WORKER
Mr. Hensel, who during his younger days was a mine worker at the anthracite colliery of the Lykens Valley red ash coal, had the pleasure of entertaining President John Mitchell and his private secretary, Miss Morris, for a week while Mr. Mitchell was making speeches in the Ninth District.
Mr. Hensel was born in 1853 at Lykens, and educated there and at Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He learned printing, and then from 1872 till 1885, worked at the top of Lykens Valley Slope, where he had the responsible and hazardous job of unhooking cars. Following this engagement, he served as a clerk with Ed Kohlberg, clothier, from 1885 to 1894, when he and J. J. Nutt, as partners, bought the clothing establishment of L. Marks, who removed to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1895, Mr. Hensel bought his partner’s interest.
MERCHANDISE RIGHT, STORE RIGHT
Perhaps the best idea of the character of Mr. Hensel’s store may be got by noting some of the brands of merchandise handled by him. He sells Hart, Schaffner and Marx, J. S. Frank and Son, F. Schwartz and Son, Clothing; Freeman Hats, Boston Derby, and J. H. Welsh and Company, Hats; Walk-Over, Freed Brothers, Johnson and Company Shoes; Sweet-Orr, Overalls and Pants; Present and Company, Fine Pantaloons; and misses’ coats, capes and furs. It could well be called the daylight store, for nine big show windows admit the sunlight and exhibit the latest styles, while the place is brilliantly lighted at night by 104 electric bulbs. Mr. Hensel is thoroughly progressive, keen, alert, active and energetic. His phenomenal success during the last seventeen years easily places him at the head in his particular line, and he is appropriately termed the “leading upper end clothier.”
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Part of a series of biographies of prominent people and stories of Lykens and Wiconisco, that appeared in the Lykens Standard as part of a special anniversary supplement, March 13, 1908
From Newspapers.com.
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