To celebrate Father’s Day, I wanted to look back at some of the things my great-great-grandfather, Louis Oswald (the store’s second-generation owner and namesake), accomplished during his time as owner. His last name is why people often think my name is Alex Oswald! I take that mistake with pride. I would have loved to meet Louis in person.
Below I’m going to post his Obituary, printed in the Naperville Clarion in 1955. It was titled ‘Naperville Loses Colorful Citizen Louis W. Oswald’. The stories my grandmother Jean has told me about him paint him as a colorful person! She always said he enjoyed talking with people more than being a pharmacist.
He navigated the pharmacy through probably some of our country’s hardest times from 1915-1955: the 1919 Flu Pandemic, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and World War II. At the height of the depression, he had to borrow money to keep the store from going under, running the store on a shoestring budget with only a few employees.
Oswald’s Pharmacy Soda Fountain
The pharmacy change he made that I would have liked to see the most was adding the soda fountain! Or, should I say, 4 different versions of the fountain over the years. The original
fountain, installed around 1920, can be seen in the top picture on the right. While it was very small, it was his first step into a very successful venture for pharmacies across America during prohibition. As the store grew and changed, he would move the fountain four times. The soda fountain was removed after an illustrious career during the 1960 addition by my great-grandpa, Harold Kester.
If you find any of these stories interesting, ask me to tell you a story of one of Naperville’s most ‘colorful citizens’ next time you see me at the store! I hope you and your family have a wonderful Father’s Day, celebrating those who are still with us and those who have passed on.
Louis W. Oswald 1879-1955
Monday, Naperville lost one of its most colorful citizens, Louis W. Oswald, who passed away at the age of 75, at the Oaks Nursing home in Hinsdale. He had made his home with his daughter Mrs. Harold Kester, and family, 15 S. Loomis st., since his wife’s death in 1943.
Born in Wauzeka, Wis., April 30, 1879, Mr. Oswald was known in Naperville since he entered North Central College in 1903, where he met the future Mrs. Oswald. She was Susanna Wickel, whose father, W.W. Wickel owned Wickel’s Drug Store in the same location as the present-day Oswald Pharmacy. They were married in 1907 and he decided upon his career, receiving his pharmacy degree from Northwestern University in 1909.
His boyhood days included life in the plains of South Dakota where his family had homesteaded near Mt. Vernon. His family later lived in California at the time that he came to North Central.
He practiced pharmacy both in Illinois and California before buying the Wickel Drug Store in 1915. He was a founder of the Retail Druggist Association of DuPage County, a member of the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, the National Associations of Retail Druggists, the Chicago Retail Druggists Association, and the American Pharmaceutical Association. He was a nationally known druggist having served as the Illinois representative on the resolutions committee of the National Association of Druggists and was a member of the Drug Code Authority during World War II.
He was active in these organizations as recently as October 1953, when he attended the convention in Chicago.
In addition to Mrs. Kester, Mr. Oswald is survived by two brothers A.G. Oswald, Fullerton Cal. And W.F. Oswald, Upland, Cal; one sister, Mrs. Emma Wickersheim, LaHarbe, Cal; two granddaughters, Mrs. R.J. (Jean) Anderson and Anita Kester, and a great-grandson, Robert John Anderson III. The funeral services will be held at 2 pm today at the first EUB Church with the Rev. Paul Washburn officiating. Interment will be in the Naperville Cemetery.
