Service station has generations of history
BY CASEY KRAUTKRAMER
THE RECORD-REVIEW The Telschow family has owned and operated a gas station in the Stratford area for nearly a century. Brothers Leon and Gordon Telschow took over for their late father, Reinhold, in 2000, and they still own and operate the business today.
Their grandfather, Charles, and his sons, Walter and Reinhold, started the business in 1931 as a service station in Fenwood known as Telschow Brothers. Fenwood is located between Edgar and Stratford.
The railroad brought oil and gasoline, which needed to be ordered several weeks in advance, from Oklahoma to their gas station in Fenwood. When it arrived, the oil and gasoline were unloaded from the railroad tank cars into the Telschow tanks consisting of 17,000, 12,000 and 1,000-gallons. They hauled fuel all day long, approximately five to six loads per day, to supply the needs of local farmers.
They moved the business from Fenwood to Stratford in 1936 by constructing a new building in a prime location at the intersection of highways 97 and 153. Since then, highway 153 has been rerouted and the main intersection of highways 97 and 153 is located a few blocks south of the gas station.
Leon and Gordon Telschow recalled when local businesses helped each other out, even though they were competitors. They gave an example of what Telschow Brothers did during the 1973 Oil Crisis. The crisis began when the Arab producers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) put in place an embargo on oil exports to the United States in October of 1973 and threatened to cut back overall production by 25 percent.
“We went one month without having any gas,” Leon Telschow said. “Our dad, Reinhold Telschow, and our cousin, Delmar Telschow of the town of Frankfurt, went to the state capitol in Madison to ask for gasoline. They received eight local transports of gasoline at one time. They filled their gasoline tank and then sold the remaining gasoline to the other gas stations in Stratford. Back then, you helped everyone out even if they were your competition.”
It was a long journey for Leon and Gordon Telschow through life before they entered the gas station business. Leon Telschow was drafted into the U.S. Army on April 2, 1963, and Gordon Telschow was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968. Both brothers are Vietnam War veterans. Leon Telschow was a member of the 25th Infantry Division and he was stationed in Hawaii in what was termed the “secret war.” Gordon Telschow, meanwhile, was in the 1st Aviation Brigade and he was stationed in the Mekong Delta in 1969. Gordon Telschow loaded ammunition into the helicopters.
Following their service in the U.S. Army, the Telschow brothers attended vocational college in Wausau where Leon Telschow earned a business degree and Gordon Telschow earned an auto mechanics degree. The brothers worked in the vehicle repair shop, which was part of their family’s gas station business in Stratford.
Major changes occurred at the gas station in 1984. The two bay-vehicle repair shop and self-service car wash were removed and this space was remodeled into a convenience store. Family members also transitioned from pumping gas for customers to self service.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is the family atmosphere at Telschow Quick Mart, which has regular customers who’ve been visiting the business for several years. Leon Telschow said the business is similar to “the family farm.”
Leon and Gordon Telschow’s retired friends, such as Paul Kolb and Jerry Frodl, just to name of few of them, come into the gas station in the morning for the “Coffee Klutch,” in which Gordon Telschow said they discuss the world’s problems but never solve anything.
The brothers might be getting older in age, as Leon Telschow is now 81 years old and Gordon Telschow is 72, but they don’t have any plans to sell the business anytime soon because this is their perfect retirement job.
“We are retired but this is our hobby,” Gordon Telschow joked.
Leon Telschow serves as president of Telschow Quick Mart and Gordon Telschow as vice president. They have the following three convenience store employees: Full-time worker Marilyn LeVoy, who has worked at Telschow Quick Mart since 1985; and part-time workers Kim Daly and Amy Bell.
