Hardware merchant patented bucket/mop wringer combo

By MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

The 1901 Hannibal City Directory, accessed via the Hannibal Free Public Library’s website, carries this illustration of “Peck’s Bad Boy” Mop Wringer. The inventor was E.J. Peck, a South Hannibal hardware merchant. It is unclear where the name “Bad Boy” came from. This is the only reference found to this name.

In mid June, 1900, Edward J. Peck’s primary focus was on a device of his own invention, and its potential for adding dollars to the till of his hardware store, which was for a short time (circa 1897-1900) located on the corner of Union and Fifth street, South Hannibal.

Peck registered for a patent for his new invention: a combination scrub bucket and mop wringer. He planned to manufacture these buckets utilizing Hannibal labor, and to distribute the buckets via rail to locales throughout the midwest.

Three months later, in mid September, 1900, he received good news. The Hannibal Morning Journal reported in its Sept. 14, 1900 edition: “E.J. Peck, of Union street, is in receipt of news from Washington that he had been granted a patent on his combination scrub bucket and mop wringer. Mr. Peck is arranging to have a number of buckets made for the market.”

Information accessible via Google Patents offers an illustration of the bucket and the details on how it is unique from other products of the era.

In addition, an advertisement in the 1901 Hannibal city directory shows an illustration of the bucket at work.

Peck, who was about 50 at the time of his invention, was new to the hardware trade; having devoted prior decades to butchering and the operation of a South Hannibal meat market at 620 (later renumbered 623) Union.

By 1897, he had turned over the keys to the meat market to C.F. Bulkley, who operated the business until circa 1900. Peck, in turn, operated the aforementioned hardware store at 501 Union.

When Bulkley vacated the premises at 620 Union, Peck moved his hardware store into the former meat market building, at the address where he would continue to do business for another two decades. E.J. Peck died April 30, 1920.

Merchandising

His butcher’s apron set aside and his scrub bucket a predicted success, in April 1901 he appointed William McClain, who made his home at 135 Riverside, as agent to sell the buckets in Hannibal.

In June 1901, Mr. Peck shipped 20 buckets to St. Louis.

At the end of 1901, he shipped 36 of his patent mop ringers to Richards and Conover of Kansas City, doing business at the corner of Fifth and Wyandotte streets.

Illinois roots

Mr. Peck came to Hannibal from Illinois in 1854  with his parents, Conrad and Elizabeth. He was married to Miss Cinderella (Ella) Jones circa 1870. Together, they had four children - listed in a 1906 newspaper article: Mrs. J.W. Foss, Detroit, Mich.; and Mrs. Paul Raukohl, Harry and George Peck (1873-1924), all of Hannibal. Circa 1906, Mr. Peck represented the Fourth Ward on the Hannibal City Council.

A recent story in this series describes Peck’s role in the establishment of a fire station for South Hannibal. He and his neighbors raised money for and arranged for the construction of the fire station, which long stood on the corner of Fifth and Union streets, opposite of Peck’s original hardware store. E.J. Peck hosted most of the planning meetings at his hardware store. By 1901, he had relocated the hardware store to 620 Union, the location of his previous meat market.

In October 1911, E.J. Peck’s son-in-law, Paul H. Raukohl (1881-1969), purchased a share of the business. (See newspaper advertisement that accompanies this story.)

That same year, Peck and Raukohl replaced the existing frame building at 620 Union with a two-story brick building, completed in October 1911. (That building is still standing. At some point a second brick building was evidently constructed adjacent to that building, and today the two buildings are merged into one.)

In 1912, the street numbers were adjusted on Union Street. The Peck Raukohl Hardware Store address changed from 620 to 623 Union. The Peck family lived next door, at 619 Union, while Raukohl and his wife, Hettie, lived upstairs over the store.

Business went on as usual during the ensuing years. In addition to his affiliation with the hardware store, in 1917, Paul H. Raukohl was named assistant manager of the International Shoe Company in Hannibal. That same year, Raukohl and his wife Hattie Eleanor Raukohl (1884-1937), became parents to a daughter, Georgia R. Raukohl (1917-1993.) In 1939, Georgia was married to Clarence Lampton (1915-2015).

Edward J. Peck died April 30, 1920, at the age of 69. At the time of his death, he and his wife, Ella, were living at 619 Union, and the Peck Raukohl Hardware Store remained in business at 623 Union. Ella died in in 1935 at the age of 83. They are buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

By 1923, the business had sold. Percy Haydon and his son, Claude Haydon, operated Haydon Hardware Co., at 623 Union. Percy Haydon also owned a hardware store with the same name at 217 N. Main.

For a time, Claude Haydon and his wife, Goldie, lived upstairs over the Union Street store.

In business in 1925 at 625 Union was the Henderson Grocery Co.

In the 1960s, the combined building, by then numbered 625 Union, housed the South Side Hy-Klas Market.

 The Peck-Raukohl Hardware Co., advertised a move into a new two-story, brick building located at 620 Union Street on Nov. 2, 1911, in the Hannibal Evening Courier-Post. The following year, the address of this building would change to 623 Union. The building remains in place in 2026, with an address of 625 Union. newspapers.com

This double-brick building, combined address 625 Union, remains a familiar South Hannibal landmark. The right half of this building was constructed in 1911 by E.J. Peck and his business partner/son-in-law, P.H. Raukohl (1881-1969.) The left half was added later. File photo by Mary Lou Montgomery

E.J. Peck was granted a patent for his invention of a Mop Wringer on Oct. 9, 1900. At the time he was operating a hardware store on Union Street in South Hannibal.