When I decided to write my first book in 2006 about the history of Rogers, I got a lot of help, inspiration and memories from the local Townzen's Barber Shop. Gary is not only a barber but a historian who is an authority on Rogers' history. Many of the customers who patronize the barber shop grew up here and watched as Rogers developed. Each person had their own memories and stories about growing up in Rogers. So Gary and I decided that these memories needed to be preserved for future generations. We began the Rogers History Club to meet once a month with a featured speaker, who would tell his experiences and share pictures about Rogers. The club had no officers or dues, and the only requirement was that you loved Rogers and its history. With the help and support of the Rogers Historical Museum, each meeting was recorded and kept for posterity.
The first meeting on Jan. 14, 2010, was in the museum's old Post Office annex on Poplar Street. It was a power point program about Coin Harvey and Monte Ne and was attended by 17 people.
The first notable speaker was at the second meeting on Feb. 18, 2010.
Gary Townzen introduced Clarence Leis, the second manager of the very first Walmart No. 1 on Walnut Street. Here are excerpts from his story:
"I was running a McClellan's store in Vinita, Okla. Sam Walton and his wife, Helen, came up, and I remember very distinctly. They parked around in back of the store, and he and Helen, and I and my wife, Betty, visited that day. As you know, I was hired, and we opened the store (Ben Franklin) in Coffeyville, Kan., and ran it for two years. One day early in 1962, Sam called me and said that he would be there in a little bit and to meet him at the airport. Of course, the only thing at the airport was a building and a phone booth. We didn't have anyplace to go to sit down or anything, but there was a telephone pole lying on the ground, and we sat down on the telephone pole and visited, and he asked me to come to Rogers.
"Well, anyway, when I came to the store (Walmart No. 1), of course I had not seen it and didn't know too much about it at that time except what Sam had told me, so when I came in, about all there was was tables. I think there was a sporting goods department in the back corner, and they had a jewelry department up in the front, along the wall. I had been with McClellan's and Ben Franklin -- everything had to have a department and everything had to be filed. When I came to the store, nothing was there. All of the order copies were in a file folder and that was it; no record of anything. There was an office inside the back door, and there was a restroom, and they had a room for lay-aways. And in the other end they had a receiving room. In all of the years that I was there, I didn't really have an office. Even in the newer times, the office was up above, and where was I to have meetings with my employees? Most of the time, we would pick up two chairs and go out on the back dock. That is where I interviewed my employees, and that is where we talked. That was just the way it was.
"We had no stock room; it was a receiving room. We received freight and if it came in the afternoon, then the first thing the next morning, we would come in real early, get it and stack it down the center aisle of the store. Back in the early days, you had a pricing wheel, and if something cost $3, you added the markup and that would be the sales price. Sam taught me how to formulate the markup in my head without using the wheel. It was real easy. We would price it, mark it, and it would go to the counter right then and there.
"As far as merchandise from vendors, most of their salesmen came around and called on you. They would come in the store with their goods, and lay them on the counter, and you actually saw the merchandise, and you made the purchase from that.
"The early return policy was formulated when a lady brought back some panties for a refund. I explained that we could not do that because it was against health department regulations. She said, 'Can I use your phone?' and I said sure. She called Sam Walton and talked to him for a while, then said, 'He wants to talk to you.' Sam told me he didn't care what I did with the panties, but to do whatever was necessary to make this woman happy. After that, we did whatever it took to make the customer happy, because we didn't want them calling Sam anymore.
"All the time, people would bring things to the store that wouldn't work, and I would take it home at noon, work on it, and bring it back in the afternoon and give it to them. On one side of the garage, I had a workbench, and I would repair things. With lawn mowers, many times people would hit something and break the shear pin. I would take it home, replace the shear pin, sharpen the blade and bring it back to the store and give it to them. It was just part of the service that we gave them.
"In 1964, on Aug. 2, I won't ever forget it, because we opened up the Harrison store on my wife's birthday. Well, let me tell you, it was hotter than Hades, and Don (Whitaker) bought a, well Don didn't want to, but Sam bought a truckload of watermelons and lined them up on the front of that store. Don had already scheduled the donkeys about 100 feet out in the lot, where they go round and round, and the kids would ride them. The people around Harrison loved it. The store sat in front of a hay barn, and Don kept his excess merchandise in the hay barn. That was the way it was in those days.
"I don't know if any of you remember, but here in Rogers, on Saturday night, we would pull a flatbed trailer in here and have a band. They would strike it up at about 8 o'clock, and the lot would fill up with people listening to western music. The fiddle players and the whole bit; it was just part of what we wanted to do.
"We opened at Harrison in August, in Springdale the next year, and also Siloam Springs in the fall. I remember in Springdale, we bought I don't know how many gallons of Prestone (antifreeze), but we ran it at a dollar. Sam had me to stand at the door and open it for five minutes and close it for 10 (to control the crowd). There were so many people that the fire department made us do that or close the store.
"The first remodel Walmart ever had wasn't done by a group of professional people. It was done by Charlie Cates, Gary Smith, myself, my wife, her two sisters and her sister's husband. We moved every counter in that store that night, and we finished at 5 o'clock in the morning. I went home and shaved and cleaned up and came back to work.
"From that next day as long as I worked at the store until 1975, sales increased and really took off. Now Sam, at one point in time, told me that he promised Helen that he would never build another store, but after our store took off like wildfire, then that changed everything. Walmart No. 1 was a training center for managers for all of the new stores opening. All told in that store by the time I left in 1975, I had 50 assistants. Most of those went on to become district managers, regional managers, and up.
"Sometimes on Saturdays, people were just running over, and I wasn't prepared. My wife and kids always helped me. The older ones were Danny and Gary. Danny was old enough that he could actually be seen behind the register, and Gary would have to stand on a pop box and run the register. The other two little ones sacked. You wouldn't hear of that today; it is just not done. I treated all of my employees like family. They were family to me and that is how I treated them.
"Sometime about 1970, the sporting goods was moved from the back of the store to a little store out in front near the corner of Walnut and Eighth (the store is still there, with a big arch in front). That was an experience in its own, because we had minnows in the back and crawdads, and all kind of stuff.
"In 1975 about Thanksgiving, we moved into the new store across the street (Walnut Plaza Shopping Center)."
The Rogers History Club continued, and attendance grew to about 50 to 70 per meeting. The meetings were discontinued this year due to the virus pandemic, but we will resume when it is over.
James F. Hales is an author and local historian. His column appears monthly. Email him at jfhales@aol.com.