Daniel Evan “D.E.” Strayer was born in Allen County, Ohio in 1861 to William M. and Mary Jane Strayer. The Strayer family moved to DeGraff in 1864. Five years later, they opened the W. M. Strayer Dry Goods Store that included a millinery, and fancy dry goods department run by Mary Jane Strayer. As their business became profitable, they added more general merchandise.
When D. E. Strayer was fifteen, he played shortstop on the DeGraff Blue Stockings baseball team. In a 1950 interview with the Columbus Dispatch, Strayer recalled, “I was the youngest player on the team. We had overalls cut off at the knees and store caps as our “uniforms”, and when we went to play Bellefontaine, with its fancy suits, I guess we had an inferiority complex. Anyway, after a game, all the boys would go have a few at the nearest tavern. My Dad only let me play on condition that I wouldn’t join them. So, they called me “the Deacon” and the nickname has stuck all these years.”
Strayer also recalled the tornado that hit DeGraff and Quincy on June 7, 1872, when he was eleven years old. “It was a vast, funnel-shaped monster and it came at us about fifty miles an hour. It killed sisters, Lulu, and Callie Rall, and took all but the foundation of the Methodist Church.”
Growing up, Strayer worked in the family store cleaning and filling kerosene lamps. Most of the store’s business was done on credit with farmers paying once a year after they sold their wheat. They often bartered with their customers and, for example, traded eggs for fabric or a cord of wood for a pair of boots.
After graduating from High School, Strayer enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan University. Sadly, his father passed away in 1884, and he quit school to manage the family store. Strayer recalled the early days of managing the store, “Coffee was sold in the grain, and every housewife had a grinder. Heavy brown paper, which came in a variety of sizes, was used to tie up the coffee. The sugar for the most part was brown, and we bought it in 500 lb. casks, shipped from New Orleans.”
Strayer further stated, “It was the age of the hoop skirts and bustles. An age when all men’s clothing was made by local tailors. When women’s dresses were homemade or made by local seamstresses. When underwear was made from cotton flannel or wool flannel and wool hosiery was home knit. When wages were $1.00 per day and a day was 12 hours, from sunup to sundown.”
Strayer was one of the founders of The Creamery Co. in DeGraff when it opened in 1891and served as director for 15 years. The business became known as the DeGraff Creamery in 1928. He also served as president of the DeGraff Canning Factory.
In the spring of1902, Strayer traveled to the Holy Land and countries around the Mediterranean Sea. He sent long detailed letters about the places he visited to the Bellefontaine Republican. The newspaper reported that their subscribers loved hearing about his travels.
In October 1905, Strayer married Bertha Cobb from Aurora, Indiana. They had three children, William, Robert, and Betty.
Along with managing the family store, Strayer was also president of the United Telephone Co. from 1916 to 1940. When the telephone company was purchased by George B. Quatman, one of the company’s directors, Strayer, retired. His son, Robert, who was also employed at the company remained.
In the 1930’s the W.M. Strayer Co. began selling Clover Farm Store groceries at their general store. The store was an essential part of the DeGraff community.
Bertha Strayer passed away unexpectedly in February 1941. Two years later, Robert Strayer resigned as commercial manager of the United Telephone Co. and became a partner with his father at the W.M. Strayer Co. store.
In August 1949, the W. M. Strayer Co. store celebrated its 80th anniversary with a storewide sale. The store had a style show with local women and girls modeling gowns which dated from 1869 to 1949. That same year, plans began for DeGraff’s centennial celebration. D.E. Strayer, the town historian, authored a well-written 140-page book that detailed the history of DeGraff from the early days to 1950.
D.E. Strayer passed away in June 1951. He was prominent in civic affairs and promoted industry. Strayer served as a director and vice-president at Citizens Bank of DeGraff, starting in 1908, a position he held for over 40 years. He was also a director at the People’s Building & Loan Association for many years. Strayer traveled extensively during his life and proudly stated he had “been to every state in the union, and been in every ballpark, both National and American.”
In May 1975, the Citizens Bank of DeGraff purchased the Strayer building and razed it for a new bank building.
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