Clawson Family & Clawson’s Grocery and Bakery

 

Clawson's Grocery and Bakery in 1912

Charles Alfred Clawson Sr. (1841–1908) [born Carl Lars Alfred Claesson] was born in Stånga, Gotland, Sweden, the son of Claes Claesson and Christina Magdalens Larsdotter. In 1866, 28-year-old Swedish-born C.A. Clawson Sr. came to Beaufort, where he met and married Irish-born Mary Louise Donovan (1840–1929) December 24, 1868, minister John Rumley. (Mary Louise was born in Middleton, County Cork, Ireland, daughter of Michael Donovan and Joane Saunders.) Charles and Mary were parents of Christina (1870-1964, married Joseph William Moore), Alida Frances (1872-1873), Charles Alfred (1873-1957, married Jane Pigott Pool), Lillie Frances (1877-1965, married Luther Augustus Perry), Marie Ella (1879-1951, married Charles Ives Hatsell), Warren Wheeler (1881-1969, married Evalyn Carmeleta Burchby), and Annie Fales Clawson (1883-1961, married Cleveland Lafayette Short).      

Charles and Mary Clawson first opened a general store on the south side of Front Street; they lived upstairs where Mary baked bread and pastries. 

In the late 1880s, the Clawsons bought land on the north side of Front Street, where they built a 1-story Bakery on the front part of the lot, shown on Sanborn's 1898 Map. By the 1904 Sanborn Map, a House and small Bake House (Oven) had been added; same on the 1908 Sanborn Map. By the 1913 Sanborn Map, the 2-story brick building, Clawson's Grocery and Bakery, replaced the 1-story Bakery on Front Street, and the small Bake House (Oven) had been enlarged into a 2-story brick Bake House, with 1-story oven at rear. See 1913 Sanborn images at the bottom of page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When his father's health was failing, Charles Jr. took over the bakery business. During 1908, he began building a new 2-story Classical Revival brick store on their property (427 Front Street), replacing the bakery, just west of his parents' front yard. Shortly afterward, the bakery operation moved into a new 2-story brick building behind the new general store, enlarging the original small bake house oven (now Backstreet Pub). According to Frank Clawson, "Charles Jr. moved into his new building in 1909—Clawson's Grocery and Bakery."

Bake House from the 1997 Survey: 2-story Classical Revival building, with buff brick veneer façade, round-headed 1/1 sash, pilastered bays, stone lintels with keystones, a corbelled and dentilled cornice, and roof-line balustrade. Former Bake House circa 1908: Built in common bond brick, this front-gabled building has front and rear parapet walls. It replaced a smaller bake house.

Charles Clawson Jr. (1873-1957, married Jane Pigott Pool in June 1899. Jane (1873-1951) was the daughter of James Harrell Pool and Cinderella Roberson, daughter of Malachi B. Roberson and Sarah Bell. Charles and Jane were parents of James Pool, Charles Alfred III, Marie Hinton, William Carlton, Franklin Doane, and David Pool Clawson.

According to their son, Frank Doane Clawson, in The Researcher 1998:

“In 1905, Charles Jr. and Jane Clawson moved into their new ‘dream house’ at 505 Ann Street. …The yard was deep, featuring a windmill with a large water tank for supplying the house plumbing. At the bottom of the lot was a single-story stable with two horse stalls, a feed house, shelters for a buggy and a delivery wagon, and a coral enclosed with a picket fence. The first tenant of one of the stalls was a big red horse called ‘June Bug,’ that pulled the delivery wagon for the store. Charles Jr. also enjoyed hitching him to the buggy on Sundays to take his two young boys for a ride in the country. At one time they had a marsh pony broken to the saddle. Charles III had a billy goat he hitched to a little wagon.

“When Charles Jr. moved into the new building in 1909, Clawson’s Grocery and Bakery would become a prominent establishment, a modern grocery store, with the added service of a six-stool soda fountain. …The clerks reached items on high shelves by means of a ladder that moved back and forth on rollers. …Many of the orders for groceries and baked goods came in by telephone, and each customer coming into the store was waited on by a clerk―there was no self-service in those days. Deliveries to the residences and institutions were made by horse-drawn wagon. Goods were also sent by mailboat to the Down East communities.

“Access to the second floor was by a covered staircase. For a few years it served as a millinery shop run by Mr. Clawson’s sister Christine [who married Joseph W. Moore, son of Tyre Moore.] This level was covered with a beautiful hardwood floor. After World War I, his older children, James, Charles III and Marie turned it into a Thursday evening ballroom to be shared with friend, music coming from a hand-cranked Victrola.”

The business prospered until the Great Depression, finally closing in 1934. Thereafter, several businesses occupied the building. Sold on the courthouse steps in the 1970s, it was purchased by Candy and Bill Rogers, who opened the first Clawson's Restaurant. They operated the restaurant for 7 years, and the Hill family operated it for one. In 1985, Fred and Joyce McCune purchased Clawson’s and the neighboring building which housed the Fishtowne Alley shops in the old P.H. Rose 5 and Dime store.