Cutcher's Brownhelm Store – Part 3

Bill and Bonnie Cutcher at the time they sold the Brownhelm Store in 1999.
(Photojournalist photo by Katy McElroy)

When the Cutchers sold the Brownhelm Store in 1999, the Lorain Journal sent well-known staff writer Darlene Brown to do a final interview with Bonnie. It was the end of an era and fortunately the Journal recognized this. The well-written article has an appropriately wistful tone. It appeared in the Journal on August 5, 1999.

Bonnie Cutcher passed away on June 26, 2019; Bill Cutcher followed on December 8, 2023.

Photo courtesy of the Cutcher family

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There's not a lot of information available online about the Brownhelm Store. Before the Cutchers bought it, Clifford Elliot and William R. "Bud" Nickel owned it during the early and mid-1960s.

And before them, a longtime owner was Ben Shaeffer, who appears to have operated the store from the late 1940s until the early 1960s.

An undated vintage photo of "Corners, Brownhelm" appeared on eBay back in 2019. 

I have no idea if it shows a predecessor of the Brownhelm Store (at least one of them burned down), but I suspect it does. Is it possible that the pump and horse trough mentioned in a few of the articles are shown in the photo? Perhaps a member of the Brownhelm Historical Association will leave a comment.