Vintage Village Antiques

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"Step into the Past"

Jerry & Theresa Hiltner & their young children opened West Union General Store Antiques in May of 1988. The building caught the eye of Jerry & Theresa & held fond memories for Theresa, whose families; the Bentfields & the Gans have been in the West Union area since about 1900. The store and town of West Union also touched Jerry’s childhood memories-stories told by his grandma Katherine Messer, whose families the Santers & Messers, were in and around West Union since 1886.

The General store and upstairs living quarters are very much today like it was when Tony Poplinski built it in the 1880’s. In the following years, it had many owners. 1880- Ritter’s Store was owned by Peter Ritter, 1890- Klatt Bros. store where town meetings were held. 1909-F.H. Opitz opened it as a general merchandise store. 1914-1916-Teske & Barchenger General Store. 1920-downstairs was Maus Brothers Furniture Store and upstairs was an undertaking parlor, although most people were still being laid out at their homes in those days. 1928-Old Highway 52 was built through West Union. During the construction years, the town was a lively place and Sylvia Maus turned her husband’s furniture store into a restaurant.  Later, it was sold to Ruth Hinton Nieters in 1930. Herb Linn bought a liquor license and the building continued as a restaurant and bar until 1941, when Herb Linn was electrocuted while trying to unplug a clogged street drain during a summer storm.

The building was then purchased by Joseph & George Marthaler, a father & son, who leased the building to Leo & Veronica Schlicht for $25.00 a month, for a five-year term. They lived upstairs & had a small kitchen on the main floor at the back of the store. They ran a successful grocery store, post office, & egg business. The garage was added on the store during the 1940’s to accommodate the growing egg business. During those years & the 1950’s, most farmers had large flocks of chickens. The Schlichts had about 100 patrons who brought in eggs regularly & they then hauled the eggs to Swift & Company in Sauk Centre. The egg & chicken money was often the farm wives spending money, used to pay grocery bills, buy household items, & Christmas gifts. Because the wives did not go to town often, the men dropped off the grocery list on the way to the creamery. The clerk filled the order & the men stopped back to pick it up.  The Schlichts ran the post office from a narrow building that was adjacent to the General Store building. The post office was established October 20, 1860. Charles E. Buss was the first postmaster of West Union. In 1898, Frank Norman held the position & in 1901, Anton Dirke. In 1902, Herman Bentfield became postmaster of West Union and held the position for forty years until retiring at the age of seventy.  After Bentfield retired, the post office was moved adjacent to the store and later moved into the store building, where it still stands with original boxes & all.  After living upstairs several years, the Schlichts built a new home. The upstairs of the store building was then used for storage, but sat vacant for over four decades. The Schlichts sold the store in 1974 to Ray Walker, who became postmaster and ran the store on a small scale until 1980 when he sold it to Sharon & Mike Deters. Sharon ran the post office from the building until 1983 when the building was closed.

The building stood empty until October 1987 when Jerry & Theresa Hiltner acted on a nostalgic dream, went into the building to look & truly “stepped into the past.” Quickly the project began to give back the building’s dignity. After repairing decades of neglect, they started a successful two story antique business in West Union, MN. The population was 83 people & about 30 sheep.

After twenty years of being open as an antique store in West Union, the complete building was moved in October 2011 to the owner, Jerry Hiltner Farm, five miles outside of West Union. The store is now a part of Vintage Village Antiques, along with a one room schoolhouse, livery stable, millinery, blacksmith shop, hardware store, gypsy wagon, farmhouse, and country church. Providing a large assortment of antiques for shoppers, along with historical reenactment tours,  horse & buggy rides, the building proudly continues to educate people on history & allows them to “Step into the Past.”