It is fondly remembered by many of the residents of Kennett and the surrounding region as a place where they, their children and grandchildren would shop. The story of the James Kahn Department Store, located for years on the town square in Kennett, Missouri, begins with the story of James Kahn. James was born April 2, 1891, in a small Russian town called Nieswitz, which after WWI became a part of
Poland. James had one sister, Sonia, and four brothers -- Victor, Jack, Robert and Charles Kahn, all of whom eventually came to America. In 1917, after serving in the Russian army during the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I, James left the army. He then walked across Eastern Russia and Siberia in order to come to America, where two of his brothers had already come before him. A year later, when James arrived in San Francisco where he didn’t know anyone, he sent a wire to his brother Robert, who lived in St. Robert, scarcely believing that James had made it to America, first required that James verify it was really him by wiring back the first names of their mother and father. After James did so, Robert sent James the money for his passage to St. James then went to work for Rice-Stix Dry Goods in St. Louis where he worked for a number of years until he met E.P. Cabe, a salesman for the Ely Walker Manufacturing Company. Cabe told James of a small town in Southeast Missouri called Kennett, where he might be able to open up a dry goods store of his own. (The salesman, Cabe, who told James this, later became the President of Ely Walker and remembered the young man whom he had helped so many years before.) When he first came to Kennett in 1925, James Kahn had only fifty cents in his pocket. He went to see the local Station Master, Mr. Goldsmith, who took him in during his visit and introduced him to Frank Shelton, a local banker. Shelton if he could borrow the money to open up a store in the building that was once the old Opera House of Kennett, and later the Ely Walker Shirt Factory before it closed. Shelton told James he couldn’t loan him the money from the bank because he didn’t have any collateral, but Shelton offered to make him a personal loan of two thousand dollars. James accepted and signed a note bearing interest of two per cent. Grateful for the opportunities and kindnesses he had found, in America and in Kennett, James opened the James Kahn Department Store. At first, lacking the money to stock all of the merchandise that he needed, he stacked the shelves, instead, with empty boxes. If a customer saw a sample of something he liked and requested it in his size, James, would go and look in the (empty) boxes and say, “no, we’re out of that… just temporarily” so as not to give an impression of having so little merchandise. In 1938, James brought his nephew Sol Astrachan down from St. Louis to Kennett where he remained and worked for the store after school each day and all day on Saturdays. Sol still remembers receiving his first paycheck of two dollars for a week’s work. James and his wife Edna slowly built the business throughout the years. In 1939, he built a new front for the store, making it the most modern building in the City of Kennett. At that time Kennett had five general department stores, and all managed to stay busy as a result of the local cotton planting and shopping agricultural programs that were in effect at that time. When the War came in 1941, rationing came with it. Along with everyone else, James had a limit on the gas that he could use, but shoes were also rationed. Stamps had to be acquired in order to buy a pair of shoes. In 1946, after having served in the US Army, Sol’s brother Jack came to Kennett, and helped James in the store. Two years later, Sol and Jack’s parents, Sonia and Morris Astrachan, came to Kennett, moving into a house on South Main Street. (James and Edna rented a home on Ballard Street.) Sonia Astrachan, who became the family matriarch, began working in the store in 1951. She operated the main register which was the central gathering place of the store. Over the years, she was known for her endearing personality and love for the patrons of the store and of the community as a whole. The store continued to expand its operations throughout the 1950’s. James Kahn bought the building next to his, which had been used as an insurance company. He then opened a Children’s Department in that building. On March 31, 1969, James Kahn passed away, leaving the store to his two nephews, Sol and Jack. As with any retail business, advertising was essential to growth. The store was proud to feature customers and family members in its newspaper advertising. The tag line, “James Kahn Department Store, It’s fun to shop with us!” assisted the store in becoming a recognized local brand. In the 1980’s Sol and Jack opened a gift department and spearheaded an effort to bring the popular Estee Lauder cosmetic line to the store. James Kahn’s was the only department store in the southeastern part of Missouri that Estee Lauder opened an account with. It took three trips to New York by Jack and two trips to Kennett by the Estee Lauder representative to see the store, before they sent a wire that simply said “you are an Estee Lauder account.”
One of the stipulations by Estee Lauder was for the store to have an attractive counter ready by three months from the signing. Jack went to Memphis and found a cabinet maker who made the beautiful Estee Lauder cabinet, just in time for Mother’s Day. The store itself grew in the 1990’s, becoming the largest area department store in its time. Through the years James Kahn’s was blessed with wonderful employees, many who worked at the store for years and who built up a regular clientele. In 1998, the brothers decided to close the store, due to the large chains that had come into Kennett and the difficulty in obtaining enough merchandise to stock all of the different departments. James Kahn Department Store had a run of 73 years during which it served the City of Kennett and all of its neighboring surroundings. It is fondly remembered by many of the residents of Kennett and the surrounding area. They, their children and grandchildren found that, indeed, it was fun to shop at James Kahn’s!
