D.C. Powers, Pioneer Merchant

Dewitt Clinton Powers was born in 1844 in Jefferson County, New York. After he came to Sandusky in 1865, he began working as a clerk in the dry goods store of Charles E. and George A. Cooke. After working with C.L. Wagner in dry goods, he began a partnership with William Zollinger. The Powers and Zollinger dry goods store was located at 142 Columbus Avenue and 629 Market Street, in the Cooke block of downtown Sandusky.

By 1890, Mr. Powers was in business on his own with D.C. Powers and Company. He continued in this business until his retirement in 1914. Hewson Peeke wrote in his book A Standard History of Erie County (Lewis Publishing Company, 1916), that D.C. Powers and Company “was recognized as a landmark in the shopping industry of Sandusky.” Mr. Powers is the third individual from the left in the picture of the interior of the D.C. Powers and Company store, according to notes on the original photograph.

On April 23, 1919, Dewitt C. Powers died at the age of 75, after suffering a heart attack. His wife, the former Mary Alvord, had died in 1909. Mr. Powers was survived by a son, Royal A. Powers, and a daughter, Mrs. M.J. Bender. Funeral services were held at the Powers residence, with the Rev. R.J. Beard and A.H. O’Brien officiating. Burial was at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.