Woody General Store

woodygeneralstore: Woody General Store

Born in Vienna, Austria, Joseph Weringer sailed to America in 1876 and later settled in California. He was the proprietor of a saloon/brewery and opera house in Bakersfield in the 1880s and 1890s.

He moved from Bakersfield to Woody in 1891 and established a store in that small community. The general store at the museum was built in the 1920s.

HISTORY:
Mr. Weringer was Woody's most prominent resident, and the location came to be known as "Weringdale." Mr. Weringer had visions of Woody being a metropolis. Having the courage of his convictions, he subdivided and recorded a townsite in 1909. By 1914, Mr. Weringer operated a store, garage and service station, blacksmith shop, community dance hall, and hotel at Woody. He also established orange and lemon groves, grape arbors, and fig orchards on his property. He had terraced picnic grounds with tables the length of the aisles built on his property. In addition, he donated the land for the Blake School at Woody.

Mr. Weringer owned the "Greenback" copper mine on a hill overlooking Woody. He started mining in the 1890s and removed ore over a period of 30 years, whenever the price of copper warranted the expense. The mine proved to be highly successful, with some forty miners working for him around 1909-10. Mr. Weringer died in 1937 at the age of 82.


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