RHODES: Meyer and Yetta Tyshler established retail business during the Great Depression

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If your last name is Tyshler, you’d be the possessor of the 1,415,499th-most common name in the world. 

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I am not sure you needed that information, but I recently learned as much while researching the Tyshler family of Chatham. 

I suppose, having to do the same diligent ranking for the names Smith or Jones, the number would probably be a little tighter. 

On Feb. 6, 1966, I began my training program in the advertising department of the Chatham Daily News with one of my principal functions being that of taking advertising proofs to the various stores on King Street. In this venture, I got to know many of the Jewish merchants who operated retail concerns in the core area. 

I recall several of these merchants including Jack Solomon, Eddie Steinberg, Irving Kopstein, Herman Seltzer, Ben Millman and Ben Richman. 

The Chatham Jewish community was never a large one, maybe 35 families at most, but in my research, I often see those names and many memories return. 

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A name I came across several years ago, one with which I was only vaguely familiar, was that of Meyer Arthur Tyshler and his wife, Yetta Tyshler. 

Finding information on the Tyshlers was not a simple task. 

I was not familiar with them because they had left the retail business before I started with the News and they had entered the retirement portion of their lives. 

Obtaining information on Meyer was not a simple task and I had to get help from my friend and colleague, Chris Rankin, who, as is always the case, was eager to help. 

Meyer was born at Orgieve, Russia, circa 1897 and Yetta, at Baranowitz, Poland, but I do not have the year of her birth. 

I do know that she was the sister of Max Ordon who founded Artistic Ladies Wear in the former New York House Grocery (1842) at the upper bend of King Street, north side. 

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Like most Jewish persons of that era, they probably left their place of birth to escape the violent pogroms and hatred. 

I also have learned, from the family, that Meyer and Yetta met and married in Yonkers, N.Y., lived there for a time, and were in Chatham by April 7, 1932 and established a women’s wear retail store in the new William Pitt Hotel King Street front. 

I believe that Meyer and Yetta operated this store in conjunction with that of brother-in-law, Max Ordon, who operated Artistic Ladies Wear on the opposite side of the street. 

The William Pitt Hotel had been built at the southwest corner of King and Sixth Street which had been built in replacement of the Garner Hotel which had been destroyed by a kitchen fire in 1929. 

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The William Pitt, in turn, was removed in 1980 to make way for a mall. 

The Tyshler business was known as the Fashion Shop. 

Women’s apparel shops were, in that era, making the conversion from yard goods – make your own – to ready to wear off the rack.  

It was a unique time to be in retail, in spite of the Great Depression, as merchandising was changing in a drastic fashion. 

Once in Chatham the Tyshlers made their first home in the Kent Manor Apartment building.  

I have always liked this building and I am pleased to know that the owners consider it to be an upscale residence and are working, constantly, at maintaining and improving that status. 

Several years later, the Tyshlers obtained a ranch style home at 252 Elizabeth St. where they remained for several years. 

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The photo I have included was taken at that home and was supplied to me by my friend David Cepler. 

Meyer Tyshler was not just a success at retail, but he also became a commercial landlord when he purchased what was subsequently known as the Tyshler Block at 135-139 King St. W., north side, second building west of Fifth Street. 

This structure is substantial in size and was, for several years, home to the downtown A & P Store until they moved to Nortown in the early 1960s. 

The Tyshler Block then became home to Adams Furniture who operated here for many years. 

The Tyshler Block has been through several renovations, and I am glad to know that it will survive. 

After the Tyshlers retired, they moved to the new Terrace Forty Apartments where they were neighbours to my grandmother. 

They are listed in the directories until 1967 and after this time, I think they moved to London, Ont. 

I do not know the year of their deaths, but I think both of them rest in the Or Shalom Cemetery near the corner of Proudfoot Lane and Oxford Avenue West. I did a recent grid search of that cemetery and I could not find stones for them, but that does not mean they are not there.