It’s hard to fathom that a one-time corporate international salesperson is vital to the success today of Ohio’s oldest general store in Mesopotamia. You simply don’t think “big business” when you visit End of the Commons old-time general store at the intersection of Routes 87 and 534 in the heart of Plain Country.

And, in fact, the only connection between big business and End of the Commons General Store is that one of the most recent owners left corporate international sales to run an operation with all the charm of a small-town shop of yesteryear.

Ken Schaden, who was in corporate sales for many years, his wife Margaret and their 11 children make today’s End of the Commons what it is. First established in 1840, their old-time, one-stop shop now is a recently upgraded, unique family-run general store much like some you visited as a kid. Maybe you even stopped to gas up and snack at a place like End of the Commons on your way to a Howard Johnson’s or a roadside motel near Niagara Falls.

After recent expansion and remodeling, End of the Commons is still old-fashioned. It’s also spacious and features large, state-of the-art, new public restrooms and a sit-down cafe.

Ken and Margaret bought End of the Commons in 1982. Born and raised in Chicago, Ken was transferred to Cleveland where he worked for a clothing manufacturer, coordinating all of the company’s clothing operations in the Orient with those in Cleveland. Constant business travel and pressures made Ken and family think a change of jobs would be good.

Ken, living in Mesopotamia, visited the very store he now owns often to buy milk, groceries and penny candy for his own brood. When the store was for sale, he thought that it would be a great way for his family to work together while serving the needs of their own neighborhood.

End of the Commons offers more than 1,000 practical bulk-food Items and the sharpest American-made kitchen knives I’ve used in a long time, as well as all the stuff you know you don’t need but want anyways. Things like old-time memorabilia, old-fashioned candy, Amish Country meats and cheese, hand-dipped ice cream, and more than 100 different kinds of old-fashioned sodas tempt you at every turn. If they don’t get you, the popcorn and penny candy might.

The Schadens run the End of the Commons General Store just six miles east of Middlefield geographically but a century-away in feeling. They sell over 1,000 products in bulk to Amish families who shop for their large families. Many arrive in horse-drawn buggies, which park out front at the hitching rail.

Familiar with shopping in bulk for their own large family, the Schadens decided they could best serve the Amish with bulk products at reasonable prices. The old grocery store had to be cleared out to make room for the bulk goods. Cleaning soon revealed that what was thrown into backrooms, the basement and attic was store history! Hundreds of old store products, supplies, furniture, fixtures, cash registers, scales, needle boxes, dry goods, and actual food products in cans, tins and boxes dated from the late 19th century.

Today one finds on display old clothes, shoes, a barber chair, a post office, a player piano, and many antiques. Outside the store on a sunny summer afternoon, a visitor may find the Schadens collection of cars, including vehicles ranging from a 1916 Depot Hack to a 1959 Plymouth.

Penny candy still lines the shelves. Hand-dipped ice cream is dispensed from a window where stamps once were sold.
Find licorice creams, honey-filled queen bees, gummy bears, jawbreakers, salt water taffy, orange and cherry slices, cherry bites, spearmint leaves, lemon and horehound drops, old time chewing gum, and licorice twists for Easter, Valentine, Halloween, or Christmas celebrations. Many thousands of pounds of chocolate wafers are sold for candy making at Christmas time.
  Bread bakers who come across the general store by accident return again and again. They find the unusual flours they seek in quantities suitable for frequent baking. Get rice flour, potato flour, rye flour and semolina flour here along with wheat gluten. Whole grains are bagged in another section.  Fat plastic bags hold 2-pound quantities of Trix, Lucky Charms, Rice Krispies, Cheerios, and oatmeal, ideal for large families and thrifty shoppers.  Buy Cream of Wheat cereal by the pound or by the 50-pound bag.

 One entire shelf section is devoted to soup mixtures of beans, rice and other ingredients. A section for jellies has dandelion and corncob jelly and jellies made from elderberries, gooseberries, and pumpkins. As the Amish community expands, so does the store’s business.

All of the Schaden’s 11 children have worked in the store.  Currently one son, Peter Schaden, is the general manager. His brother Scott A. Schaden is marketing director and business and office manager. Various children and grandchildren now work the store as well.

As its name indicates, the store is at the end of a park-like central commons. You can better enjoy a trip to the End of the Commons if you know a little about how it got there.

The Mesopotamia commons was a public land with the original road running straight through the middle of the park. In the center, a watering trough (eventually replaced by a fountain) was placed for traveling horses. 

Just like their relatives in the Northeast, the Mesopotamia residents built New England style houses completely enclosed within a picket fence. The fences not only kept the children within eyesight but also kept grazing cows and horses off the front lawn and on the public grounds.

In 1882 a proposal was made to the trustees to put a road around the outside of the public commons, fence it in and make it a “pleasant place.” Use of the park was to be sold at an auction to any responsible bidder who would fence it, grade it, and otherwise care for it.

After the sale of the park, an order was issued to haul and plant 80 rock maple shade trees in the town commons. Decades have worked their changes, and the once miniature saplings have grown into stately monarchs that surround Mesopotamia’s park. Many of the homes that surround the commons are marked as century homes. Each building has its own story about who lived there and what part they played in the upcoming years.

Several other buildings make Mesopotamia’s historical district complete. The present church building is home to the First Methodist Church group. Elias Lyman built the Lyman house after the civil war for his love. And the store with the balcony and pillars presently known as the End of the Commons General Store was once operated by C.P. Lindscott. Most of the time it was a general store, but it housed several different services throughout the years, including an undertaker’s establishment where handmade coffins were for sale.

Visit End of the Commons at 8719 Route 534 in Mesopotamia (44439). Phone the store at 440-693-4295. Hours of operation are year around, Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and closed on Sundays.