The business my family owns today began as a general store in the 1800s. We’ve tracked the ownership as far back as the early 1900s when a plumber named William Rubly ran it as a hardware and plumbing supply store in Tuckahoe. When Tuckahoe officially became a village, Rubly was elected its second mayor and sold the store to the Cornell brothers around 1909. My grandfather, John Fix, Sr., began working there after school and on weekends in 1916 and, over time, he was given some shares of stock. In 1932, the business faced hard times and the brothers sold the remaining stock to my grandfather.
After a huge fire in 1946 that basically destroyed the business, we stayed in temporary quarters one block away. A year later, the store opened for business in the original location. Eventually, we moved to Route 22 in Eastchester.
My grandfather passed away in 1997 at the age of 95. Today, my dad, John Fix Jr., oversees the daily operations and I manage the business along with my cousin, Thomas Fix Jr., and my sister, Mary Beth Wellington.
—John Fix III, Owner, Cornell’s True Value Hardware
â–º For more of Westchester’s 100-Year-Old Businesses, click here.Â
â–º For more from 914INC’s Q2 2013 Issue, click here.
