From way back in 1888, a tale of woe to a gang of small boys who only wanted to make a little candy money selling rags to the Dietrich department store but ran afoul of the long arm of the law in the person of marshal Henry Wagner.

Bremen Enquirer - 4 Feb 1888
Bremen Enquirer – 4 Feb 1888

Dietrich’s store was constructed in 1875 by John R Dietrich, Jr, after his father, John Sr, originally of Switzerland, had made a good business in furniture, undertaking, and grocery. Note: the building next to Hoople’s that looks just like Hoople’s was the original location of John, Sr’s business and was open in the interior to the newer building. It was eventually stripped of its ornamentation and made to blend into the later building.

That building, on the southeast corner of Plymouth and Center, is in 2016 the location of bFit.

Bremen downtown - 2016
old Dietrich department store – 2016