100 years ago: Lynch & Roberts

M.A. Lynch behind the counter of Lynch & Roberts in Redmond

In January 1910 two young businessmen, M.A. Lynch and J.R. Roberts, opened a store in Redmond that would last more than half a century and leave its mark on a downtown building a century later.

In January 1960, when Lynch and Roberts marked its 50th anniversary, J.R. Roberts was still active in the business then managed by his son, Maurice F. Roberts. Lynch had died a few years earlier.

In an interview with The Spokesman, J.R. Roberts recalled the events that led him and Lynch to come to Central Oregon: Roberts and Lynch both worked in Portland. Lynch, a pharmacist, and Roberts, who worked for a wholesale grocer, lived with another young man, Guy Dobson, who opened Redmond’s Bank of Commerce.

“The girl whom Guy Dobson later married was quite a friend of the daughter of J.P. O’Brien, president of the OWR&N (the Harriman railroad line),” Roberts recalled. “Guy was talking to O’Brien about starting a bank and O’Brien suggested that he come to Redmond, as Central Oregon was being opened up by the railroad. We told Guy jokingly to find us a place, too, and when he came back from a trip to the new town, he said that he’d found just the spot. Between us we had $2,200. I told M.A. that if he’d look over the prospects, I’d pay half the expenses. It took him 10 days to make the round trip from Portland to Redmond in December 1909. He liked the future of the area and we decided to start a store selling drugs and groceries. We took $675 from our capital to make the down payment on half of a two-story frame building, located where the Atkinson building now stands. M.A. opened the store in January 1910, but I didn’t come until May. My partner knew the drug business, but nothing about groceries, so I’d figure the cost of each item, including freight, and send him the selling price.”

Once the store opened, getting goods to Redmond often was a problem. Roberts said one shipment which left Portland on Jan. 15 arrived in Redmond Feb. 5. Charley Muma, who was freighting from Shaniko, was stuck on Shaniko flats and could move a wagon only five miles at a time. Muma had 10 horses, which were needed to pull one wagon, and Lynch & Roberts had two wagons loaded with stock. Muma would pull one wagon, then unhitch the horses and go back for the other wagon.

Still the store prospered, and it soon was evident that there was a market for dry goods in addition to groceries and drugs, so Lynch wrote to Roberts asking him to get items such as overalls, socks, and calico and gingham fabrics. Roberts went to a wholesaler – Fleischner & Mayer – and managed to get $300 credit for 60 days. That was how Lynch & Roberts started on its way to become a department store, Roberts said.

The business grew rapidly: by October 1910 they were ordering $3,000 worth of dry goods a month from a salesman who came to Redmond in a buckboard and set up his samples in the Davies blacksmith shop.The original Lynch & Roberts store was on southeast corner of what is now Sixth and Evergreen.

In the early days, the young businessmen had a room in the building and the upstairs was being operated as the Hotel Oregon by Frank Redmond. Roberts said he and Lynch would take turns sweeping at 6 a.m. while the other ate breakfast. At night they stayed open until the last stage arrived, which was pretty late sometimes. Saturday night dances were held in part of the building and on Sunday morning church services in the same place.

The store grew with Redmond and in 1917 Lynch & Roberts built the brick building that still bears its name at Sixth and Deschutes in the center of downtown. The business partners sold the drug store business early on to Jess Butler, whose widow, Meda Butler, ran it after Jess died in the 1918 influenza epidemic.

The building was enlarged to the south in 1930 and in 1931 J.R.’s son, Maurice, joined the business, though he had worked in the grocery since he was a schoolboy. The business was divided in 1946, with the Robertses keeping the grocery department, women’s wear and domestics, and Lynch taking the men’s shop, which by 1960 was known as Rogers & Lynch. The brick building still shows evidence of the split, with the facade reading "Lynch & Roberts" on one side, "Lynch & Rogers" on the other. The grocery department was sold in 1950.

- story by Trish Pinkerton