Picturing the past: Purd Osborne and his Many Businesses

By Laura Sperry

Early Brevard’s downtown area was characterized by growth. As the county exited one century and entered another, the push for entrepreneurial industry drove many of the early residents to start businesses. Once such business was the Royal Café, pictured here with Walter Clayton Whitmire (1893-1919), Luther Franklin Cooper (1892-1962), and another Whitmire, perhaps Walter’s brother Roland (1898-1974). Although this, the only picture in the NC Room archives of the Royal Café, includes these young men, they were not owners of the Café.

The first owner of the Café was Charles Spurgeon Osborne (1884-1960), who was also known as Purd, Spurgeon, or C.S. Osborne. Purd was 12^th child of William Kimzey and Elizabeth Mills Lyday Osborne and married Ellen Bishop in 1909.

Purd and his business associate Julius Aiken opened the Royal Lunch Room, as it was first called, in December 1910. It was located in a first-floor commercial space in the Aethelwold Hotel. The large hotel sat on the corner of Broad and Main streets, and it appears that the Royal Lunch Room was on the Broad Street side, approximately where Crystal Mountain Gem Mine and the neighboring Allen Tate Real Estate office are presently located. At the time, the location was described as the “old Pickelsimer Drug store room”.

Like many early Brevard businesses, The Royal Lunch Room and what followed after it catered to a variety of needs. There were only a few business locations downtown, and so these “Swiss Army knife” general merchants would provide numerous goods and services under one roof, perhaps even shifting their sales offerings and services to reflect the most profitable ventures.

Julius Aiken withdrew from the business in August 1911, and Purd only operated The Royal Lunch Room until June 1912, when he sold the business to Joseph Pickelsimer and Huey Aiken, who renamed it The Royal Café. It would seem that Purd let go of this business so he could start another, because in August 1912, he opened a bike repair shop on Main Street in “the new building of W.E. Bishop”, who happened to be Purd’s father-in-law.

Later that year in November, W.E. Bishop and C.S. Osborne began to operate out of the same location, but instead selling plumbing supplies. He seems to have stuck with this enterprise for several years before an April 1917 ad in the local paper promoted Purd’s new venture – a meat market. It is unclear if this was his only business, or if he conducted this as well as continuing to work for his father-in-law.

In February 1924, W.E. Bishop passed away, but Purd continued to operate the business selling hardware under the name “W.E. Bishop & Company.” He continued with this business until March 1926, when he sold it to D.F. Moore. Purd then went into the automotive business with Judson McCrary with their joint effort the “Brevard Hudson Company” on the corner of Main and Gaston Streets. He seems to have stayed with this business for about two years.

In January 1928 Purd purchased interest in a meat market, becoming a partner in the Robinson-Osborne Market for a time. In July 1929 he bought into the D.F. Moore hardware business that he’d previously left. They announced the opening of “The Brevard Hardware and Furniture Company” next to the Clemson Theater, approximately the location of the former Harris Ace Hardware and its present-day neighbor, the Co-Ed Theater.

The two also provided funerary services out of the location, boasting ambulance services at any hour of the day or night. This may seem like an odd pairing of services, but it was quite common closer to the turn of the 20^th century to pair hardware and funerary services, as the materials need for coffin building and burial would be found at a hardware store.

This role seems to have naturally led to Purd’s appointment as the County Coroner in February 1932 after the previous Coroner resigned in order to accept a federal job. By March 1933, Moore-Osborne were advertising for their funerary services under that name and without mention of hardware or furniture.

In September 1935, Purd opened a home furnishings store on Main Street. It may have been a sort of placeholder for his next business, because in December 1935, he advertised the Osborne-Simpson Funeral Home, located at 143 East Main Street. Purd and his family moved into upstairs apartments and resided at this location in addition to working there. It seems to be the building which is now Brevard Clay.

One of the most successful and long-lived ventures that Purd was involved in began in March 1936 when he and business partner Orville Simpson started a funerary insurance company called the Osborne-Simpson Mutual Burial Association. It allowed people to put away money toward after-life expenses to ensure a proper burial. This venture outlasted Purd himself, who passed away in 1960.

It’s hard to believe the variety of businesses that this one man undertook during his full life in Transylvania County. Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Local History Librarian Laura Sperry. Sources available upon request. For more information, comments, or suggestions, contact NC Room staff at [email protected] or 828-884-1820.