Our History

Fairview Hardware is currently owned by Paul & Ruth Ressler.  Fairview Hardware and Lumber were originally owned by Bo-ton Industries (Bob Handrich, Clayton Miller, Doug Winton, and Ray Swartzendruber).  Clayton Miller operated the hardware portion.  In February of 1976 Ray purchased Fairview Hardware and his son-in-law, Paul, moved his family from Harrisonburg, VA to manage the hardware and gradually purchase it from Ray.  From the beginning, Fairview Hardware was part of HWI, a member owned co-operative that increased individual store’s buying power. 

At that time the Fairview Food Market and the hardware both occupied the building that is currently Fairview Food Market on the NE corner of M-33 & M-72.   It was actually divided diagonally from the NE corner to the SW corner!  The sales floor was 2600 sq. feet.  Along with Business Administration, Paul brought with him knowledge of the wood stove manufacturing business and they began selling stoves out of Clayton Miller’s storage building. 

In 1978 the Fairview Hardware Annex was added across the street.  Previously it had been a feed store owned by Clayton Miller and operated by Ron Handrich.  Ron became the assistant manager in charge of the Hardware Annex.  This allowed them to expand the lawn and garden, stove, and major appliance departments and add small engine repair.

The next step was a new building located next to the feed store.  In the winter of 1981 the hardware moved into a new 7200 sales floor and the Fairview Food Market could now expand into the rest of the other building.  In 1994 the feed store was gutted to add more room to the sales floor. 

Ken Troyer was hired in 1988 and brought with him experience as a builder to his role as Plumbing and Electrical Department manager.  He has since retired in 2008.  Don Wyse was hired in 1990 as the paint and tool department manager, again bringing building experience with him.  Gail Singler began as a part-time clerk in 1994 then added Housewares Department Manager to her title when Edith Rogers retired and Gail transitioned to full time.

In 1998 there were more changes with the addition of the Rental Department.  Don took on the management of the Rental Department and continued as Tool Department Manager.  Gail Singler took over the paint department at that time.  We also said goodbye to the HWI name and Mr. Friendly as the Co-op became known as Do it Best Corp. instead.

In the spring of 2001 Martin Troyer became the manager of the Repair Center, replacing the previous manager, Mike Freese.   Paul still remembers Martin telling him, “I can make anything run”.

When Paul began talking about retirement, Paul’s daughter, Marika, realized that it would be hard to have someone outside the family purchase the store that may or may not have the commitment to provide full time jobs to the employees or with the heart to give generously to the community.   In June of 2001, Marika returned and worked into the Assistant Manager role as Ron retired (or at least moved to part time) at the end of 2001.  Marika brought back with her a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources and had experience working in several different environments.  Marika is learning all she can so she will be ready to take on the Manager role when Paul retires, and she and her husband Tom, the sporting goods department manager, are slowly working to purchase the store from Paul and Ruth.  

The most recent changes to the business were in 2007.  The repair center building was changed to accommodate moving Rental in with the Repair Center.  The stove area expanded into the area that had previously been rental which allowed for a much better presentation.  Because of this, many more products were added to the rest of the sales floor.  Tom took over the sporting goods department at that point and greatly expanded our sporting goods department at that time.  

We currently have 11000 sq. ft. of sales floor and are looking to adding more to this story of a hometown business in a small community as the future unfolds.