By CHARLY MARKWART
PRINCETON — Frank Nash has seen many changes in his native Mercer County throughout the past 51 years, but for him, life has remained relatively the same.
He still spends his nights at the Elgood farm where he grew up, and he still spends his days at 201 Princeton Ave., where he has supplied the community with farm and garden supplies for more than half of a century from behind the front counter of Princeton Supply Company.
“I came to work here when I was 23, after the Korean Conflict,” said the down-to-earth store owner, in his trademark gentle tone. “I was on the bomb squadron in the Air Force, and when I got back, I went to work under the GI Bill. It was a training plan to become a store manager, and instead of college, I took a three-year course and was certified by the state as a qualified retail store manager. I trained under a former Kroger manager who owned this place at the time.”
That owner was Roy Steele, who couldn’t have known when he hired a young man just out of the U.S. Air Force to work at his small feed store that one day that employee would stand as the business’s 42-year owner.
“It was kind by accident that I got this job; I had worked for the Old Virginian Railroad, but when they merged and closed down here, a lot of us lost our jobs,” said Nash. “Of course jobs were hard to find at that time, but I loved agriculture, so this was a good fit for me. I was here nine years before he (Steele) came of an age that he wanted to retire. That’s when I took it over.”
Since that day, Nash hasn’t looked back, turning what was basically a feed store when he started into the Princeton Supply Co. of today, one of the city’s main resources for not only horse and pet feed but also animal supplies, garden seeds and supplies, and hardware. That growth, he says, has been a necessary adaptation to the natural progression of the times.
“As the times have changed, we’ve tried to change,” he said. “The farming business has dwindled in the city; we’ve had as many as 39 dairy operations, and now, we don’t have any. There have also been several big poultry operations over the years, and there are no more. So, we’ve had to go to other things, garden supplies and pet supplies, and especially the horse business is big nowadays. We’ve grown from the feed business to garden supply, and it’s been real good for us.”
His product offerings may have changed considerably throughout the years, but the way Nash does business, and the place that he does it from, haven’t. Although Princeton Supply Company was founded more than 60 years ago at a different downtown site, it has been located in the same Princeton Avenue building for all of Nash’s 51 years with the business. And, since the day he took over ownership of the store more than 40 years ago, the feed and garden supply company has continued to be run as a family operation.
“My son, Chris, has been with me for 19 years; he manages the store, now,” said Nash. “And my wife, Ethel, is our secretary and treasurer. During the summer months, my grandsons come in and help out. It’s great to be able to do this with my family.”
Like his father before him, Chris Nash seemed to almost fall into his now long-held Princeton Supply Company position. A Bluefield State College graduate with a degree in engineering, the younger Nash had plans of a career in the mining industry. But, after what was supposed to be a temporary summer job at his father’s store, those plans were just never pursued.
“He asked if he could help our here for a summer, and I think he was kind of like me; he just fell in love with it,” said Frank. “He’s been here ever since…he never did pursue the mining engineering road.”
“The mining industry was not real strong when I graduated, and I just stayed here,” added Chris. “What I love about working here is talking to the people and meeting so many different people. A lot of the regular customers, you form relationships with them; you learn their names, where they live, what they do. You learn a lot about people that way. I’ve been around the store over 28 years, now, and a whole lot of nice people come and go through here. Actually, I’ve been here long enough now that people who were little kids when I started are grown with small kids of their own, and still coming in here.”
In fact, Frank says, the store today is serving several third-generation clients and even a few fourth-generation customers who talk of the days when their great-grandfathers did their trading at the good old Princeton Supply Company. That rare longevity, the owner believes, is because of the “personal touch” that the small store offers to its customers.
“I had someone ask me once what was special about our store, and I said, ‘If one of my customers has something good happen, we laugh with them and enjoy it,’” he said. “And, if they have a tragedy in the family, we cry with them. So many of our people, I see them on a weekly basis, in here trading with me. Our customers are tremendous good friends, and they’ve stayed with us through thick and thin over the years.”
That family-like atmosphere is important, Chris says, but there is also a more technical aspect to the store’s success. Customers have come to know that they can count on the Nashes’ superior knowledge of the products they sell and the business that they conduct.
“I think it’s probably the service that keeps people coming back,” he said. “If somebody comes in, they can ask a specific question about how to do things, especially with feed and things, which is always changing, and we can usually answer it. We keep up with the changing market, and people know that. They don’t have to read the directions or figure out how to use the things they buy here on their own, because we can tell them.”
Sandy Lilly, owner of Mercer Springs Farm, in Athens, agrees. For three generations, Princeton Supply Company has been where her family has shopped to fulfill all of their horse feed needs.
“It’s the only place we go for our feed,” she said. “They are always able to help me out, and whenever I want to try a new type of feed, they’ll research it for me and let me know if it will be good. They’ve done a lot of research for me. The Nash family offers a very personalized business, and I really appreciate that.”
Perhaps that personalization, a rarity in today’s corporate-based business world, has been the key to Princeton Supply’s durability in the midst of what through the years has been a competitive field in Princeton.
“There have been seven feed stores come and go in the area since I started here, and we’re the only one left in Princeton,” said Frank. “We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of support from our friends and neighbors and everyone in the community, really, and we’ve been able to make a living at it. I guess that means maybe we’re doing something right; I like to think so, anyway.”
While Frank still works daily as the “semi-retired overseer” of the store, the passionate agriculturist is also highly involved in the promotion of agriculture throughout Mercer County and beyond. As the 28-year president of the Mercer County Farm Bureau, a member of the county’s West Virginia Extension committee, and a main force behind Princeton’s soon-to-be-completed agriculture museum, the business owner continues to commit himself to his firm belief in community service.
“I’ve always tried to keep up with what’s going on in Princeton and to really be a part of it, because, over the years, that has seemed like the right thing to do,” he said. “I make a living here in this city, and the City of Princeton has supported me over the years, and I want to give back. My wife also serves on committees with the Farm Bureau, and we have really always been all out for promoting agriculture. Working with the agriculture museum, working with the local farm organizations, working with the Mercer County 4H Camp, those are the things that I like to do. I enjoy volunteer work more than anything else.”
But for all that he has given, the father of three and grandfather of nine insists that Princeton has given much more back to him during the 51 years in which he has done business in the city.
“I came into town one day and saw the banner saying 100 years of Princeton, and I thought to myself, ‘I’ve been in business for half the time Princeton has been a city,’” he said. “I’ve seen my business grow; I’ve seen the city grow, and it’s been great. I had a preacher ask me once how we’ve lasted so long, here, and I said, ‘you know, I think it’s just from good clean living and honesty.’ If you follow those guidelines, it will all work out for you.”
— Contact CharLy Markwart at cmarkwart@ptonline.net.
