Radeackar’s AG Market in Cedar Hill, better known as just Radeackar’s to local shoppers, celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.
With the start of the new year, the store, which opened in 1917, will be 101 years old, longtime proprietor Jerry Radeackar says.
Not many local businesses have that kind of longevity, he said.
“We are a dinosaur roaming the earth,” Jerry said.
Not only has the store withstood the test of time, but also it’s remained in the Radeackar family all those years.
The grocery store originally was established by George B. Radeackar, but not in Cedar Hill.
An entrepreneur and one of Louis and Elizabeth Radeackar’s nine children, George moved from Cedar Hill to St. Louis and built a store in the 4300 block of Manchester Road in 1917. He was 34 years old at the time.
George’s father, Louis B. Radeackar, who was born in 1857 in Manchester, moved to Cedar Hill with his father, also named Louis Radeackar, a German immigrant. If stories passed through the family are correct, the Radeackars first came to Cedar Hill sometime before the Civil War.
What the family knows for sure is that George’s father, Louis B., purchased the Cedar Hill Mill in 1882, just a year after it was built, Jerry said.
Most of Louis’ sons either worked farms or, like their father, ran grist mills in west Jefferson County and Franklin County along the Big and Meramec rivers, Jerry said.
He said his father told him that at one time the family owned the Catawissa mill on the Meramec River and leased the Byrnesville mill on the Big River in House Springs and the Pine Ford and Brown’s Ford mills on the Big River in Dittmer. Of those mills only the Cedar Hill and Byrnesville mills survive.
In the meantime, George was making a go of it in the grocery business in St. Louis. In 1936, however, with the new Hwy. 30 nearing completion, he moved back to Cedar Hill and opened a store there, Jerry said.
“He saw it as a business opportunity, and he wanted to come home to be close to his brothers,” Jerry said.
George built a store on the north side of the intersection of Hwy. NN and Hwy. 30 where he sold groceries, feed and hardware.
He also built a dry goods store called the A&V Variety store that his sisters, Agnes and Verona, ran. The store sold “linens, overalls, shoes, material and cards,” among other items, Jerry said.
George operated the grocery store until 1946 when he retired and sold it to his brother and Jerry’s grandfather, Walter Radeackar Sr., who owned it for just one year.
“The business was failing,” Jerry said. “My grandfather was a numbers guy. He wasn’t a worker bee.”
His son and Jerry’s dad, Walter “Sonny” Radeackar Jr., just home from serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, was a worker and stepped in to save the business.
“My great Uncle William encouraged my dad to help his father,” Jerry said.
So, Sonny, who had worked as a page for August Busch III before the war and had been guaranteed a job with Busch after the war, decided instead to return to Cedar Hill to be near his family, Jerry said.
He borrowed $2,000 with a GI Bill loan to use as a down payment to buy the business. For years, though, everyone thought that Walter Sr. still owned the store, Jerry said.
“He greeted the customers as they came in and balanced the registers at night,” Jerry said. “My dad supported him all his life.”
As for Jerry, he grew up in the business. He began sorting soda bottles for $2 a week when he was about 6 and later was promoted to cleaning the meat department for $5 a week.
When he was about 10, Jerry and his sister, Lois, got the job of candling eggs the store bought from local farmers, which meant they shined a light on the eggs to see if there was a chick inside.
Jerry candled and graded the eggs for two cents a dozen, that is until he found out his dad was paying his younger sister, Lois, three cents. He confronted his dad when he found out.
“He told me he wanted to see how long it would take me to figure it out,” Jerry said. “My dad was a jokester.”
Jerry said he has fond memories of growing up in the store, which was a hub in Cedar Hill.
“The ballpark was across the road. We’d call our friends on the land line and say we’re going to be there at 9 o’clock. We’d play ball and then we’d go swimming.”
As a young man, Jerry was racing motorcycles professionally when his life took a new direction after Sonny had a massive heart attack.
“In June of 1973, at the age of 21, I took over the store loaded with employees who were older than me,” he said. “I had mountains to climb, and I survived.”
Sonny recovered enough to still work in the store, but Jerry continued to run his father’s business.
It became a challenge, though, to grow the business at the small, aging store, so something had to change, Jerry said.
In 1981, a new 13,000-square-foot Radeackar’s Market was built at 6771 Mall Drive in Cedar Hill, where the store still operates.
“We needed to grow, if it was going to survive,” Jerry said.
Walter “Sonny” Radeackar died in 1987 at age 65.
Today, Radeackar’s Market is still competing, Jerry said.
It has a deli, a bakery department and butchers who will special cut meat to order.
“We’re known for our good meats and our personal touch,” Jerry said. “The employees are well liked by customers and us.”
The store sells some signature items, like pork steak burgers, bratwursts of all kinds, hot redneck sausage and Sonny’s slaw – a German sweet sour slaw.
“My dad stole the recipe from his sister. She complained to me till the day she died,” Jerry said.
Longtime customer Pat Janssen of Cedar Hill, secretary for the Big River VFW Post Auxiliary, said there are many reasons she likes to shop at Radeackar’s – she knows the employees, she meets her neighbors in the aisles and she appreciates that the store gives back to the community.
“Anytime we have any kind of fundraiser, Jerry is right there,” Janssen said.
She also likes the personal service she gets at the store.
“If they don’t have something you want, they’ll get it for you,” Janssen said.
Jerry and his wife, Ann, who handles the books for the company, continue to run the store. They are not sure what lies ahead for Radeackar’s Market, but for now, they are glad to continue, Jerry said.
“I feel very fortunate. I’m very happy to be where we are at this part of our lives,” he said. “It’s still a viable little store and people like to shop here.”
