Our mission is to supply quality
electrical, plumbing, voice, and data supplies
at a fair and reasonable price to
contractor, commercial, industrial, school,
government, agricultural, and residential customers.
We aim to serve the Ohio counties of
Van Wert, Paulding, Putnam, Allen, Auglaize, and Mercer
and several counties in Indiana, along the state line and beyond.
~~~
Front Row: Lynn, Sue, Ava, Cathy,
Don, Larry ~~~
~~~
Second Row:
Dave, Carl, George, Karen, Justin, Dick, Kevin ~~~
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Third Row:
Bob, Jerry, Kirby, Walt, Randy, John ~~~
George hosted a get-together at Huggybear Campground on July
14, 2007 for all employees,
past & present, who have worked at Flat Lands during George's time
of employment at Flat Lands.
A wonderful grilled steak & chicken meal was served (mmmmm...and
pumpkin roll). A good time was had by all.
Flat Lands Supply was
founded in 1966 by Everett J Koenig in Venedocia, Ohio, a small
Welsh community located in Jennings Township in Van Wert County in
Northwest Ohio.
After teaching school for a number of years and then working several
years for National Brands Supply, Everett decided to start his own
business in Venedocia at the age of 50. He named his business Flat
Lands Supply, due to the rich, flat farmland found in the area.
Flat Lands opened in the old Uhl Grocery Store building on Main St.
Everett ran a one-man operation. He would be up early in the
mornings to do bookwork, then head out on the road in an old station
wagon to call on customers. When he returned home in the evenings,
there was more bookwork to be done.
In the early days when Everett would be gone during the day,
contractors would stop by the Koenig home, pick up a key to the
store, go get their supplies, jot down what they were getting, and
return the key.
In the early 1970's, Everett purchased an old grain elevator, seed
house, and quonset building located at the north end of the village
to use for warehouse space as the business began to flourish.
Everett added a few employees around this time also.
In 1976, Everett's son, Jerry joined the business full-time.
A new 5000 square foot facility was constructed in 1981 on Williams St in Venedocia, near the other warehouse buildings.
In 1989, Jerry took over the business so Everett could enjoy
retirement, but still drop in on a regular basis to be sure that
everything was running smoothly.
In 1992, a second store was opened in Van Wert, Ohio on Market St.
After two years of operating both stores, the difficult decision was
made to close the Venedocia store and operate solely out of Van
Wert, where there was a noticeably larger amount of walk-in customer
traffic than in the fairly remote Venedocia store. In the first
years of operation, the general procedure had always been that the
contractors would place an order and usually have it delivered to
the job site. Therefore, it didn't really matter where the store was
located.
Flat Lands was once again on the move in March 1998. In just four
business days, the entire store was moved from Market St its current
location at 1220 E Jackson St, overlooking historic Marsh Foundation
and Lincoln Highway. The 26,000 square foot facility features a
spacious showroom, large counters, and wide self-serve aisles. The
building also includes a large warehouse with three truck docks and
one ground level overhead door.
On April 27, 2004,
Everett J Koenig passed away at the age of 88 at Joint Township
District Memorial Hospital in St Marys. Mr. Koenig was born on
November 15, 1915 in Auglaize County, OH to Emil and Bertha (Sunderman)
Koenig. On August 10, 1939 he married Dorothy Dickman, of Otterbein
of St Marys.
Mr. Koenig was the father of four children; Beverly Koenig of
Napoleon, OH, Deanna (A. Paul) Hoadley of Charlevoix, MI, Karen
(John) Koenig-Herman of Tipp City, OH, and Jerry (Laura) Koenig of
Venedocia, OH. He also had two grandchildren; Daniel (Vanessa)
Hoadley of Bozeman, MT and Lisa (Mike) Watson of Lakewood, CO.
Mr. Koenig was one of five children...a sister, Joanne (Myron)
Katterheinrich of New Knoxville, OH; and three brothers Paul (Janet)
Koenig, Daryl (Louise) Koenig, both of New Bremen, OH and David
Koenig, who died in World War II.
Mr. Koenig had lived most of his adult life in Venedocia, OH and had
recently moved to Otterbein of St Marys, OH. He was a member of the
Salem Presbyterian Church of Venedocia and a member of the Venedocia
Lions Club.
Mr. Koenig was a graduate of New Bremen High School in 1933 and of
The Ohio State University in 1938. He taught Vocational Agriculture
in Van Wert County for a number of years.
Mr. Koenig owned and operated Koenig Home Hardware in Venedocia and
founded Flat Lands Supply in Venedocia, now located in Van Wert, OH.
His knowledge of the electrical and plumbing business will be
missed, but his legacy lives on in the form of Flat Lands Supply.
