BIO: George W. SHAFFER, Blair County, PA

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Donehoo, George P., Editor-in-Chief.  Pennsylvania, A History, 
Vol. 3, Biography.  New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 
1926, page 8.
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  G. W. SHAFFER - Of those Pennsylvania men of abounding enterprise and 
business resourcefulness who have sought and found great opportunity, and 
upon the basis of a small capital and honest dealing have built the solid 
structure of a prosperous mercantile house, G. W. Shaffer, president of the 
Shaffer Stores Company, Inc., with headquarters at Altoona, has established a 
repute in modern store-keeping that for utility and popular service is quite 
the equal of any in the domain of the chain store.  Originating in his own 
clearly wrought plan, and continuing with a gradual and substantial 
upbuilding in many desirable locations, Mr. Shaffer's incorporated stores 
have met with increasing favor and appreciation; and meantime his own 
personal counsel and direction in the various other business institutions in 
which he is an official are welcome aids to their progress and influence in 
the community.  Mr. Shaffer is the son of Charles Shaffer, who was born in 
Blair County, and was employed as a stone mason to the time of his 
retirement, and of Sarah (Seaman) Shaffer, who was born in Wilmore, Cambria 
County.
  G. W. Shaffer was born February 14, 1873, at Roaring Spring, in Blair 
County, where he attended the public and the high schools.  He began his 
business life in a grocery store, and he has continued in the grocery and 
allied interests to the present.  At first he was employed as a clerk for a 
grocer, so continuing two years, when he became proprietor of the same store, 
and he managed that establishment until he started the Shaffer Store Company 
in 1898.  This, in brief, then, is the story of the widely known Shaffer 
Stores Company, Inc.:  The company was first established in 1898, when the 
business was located at Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street, a single store, 
and doing only a retail grocery business.  Several years afterward, a second 
store was opened by Mr. Shaffer, who made his brother, F. E. Shaffer, its 
manager, later making him his partner.  In the course of time, a third store 
was established, and therewith, J. C. Calhoun was appointed as its manager, 
and then as a partner.  Successively, with the further opening of stores, W. 
A. Wagner, D. G. Werdle, and J. Q. Replogle became partners.
  In 1912 G. W. Shaffer and the partners in the different stores incorporated 
the Altoona Merchandise Company, wholesale grocers; and in 1913, the same 
individuals organized and incorporated the Shaffer Baking Company to supply 
their stores with bread.  In 1917, the retail stores combined and 
incorporated as Shaffer Stores Company, when the organization had twenty-
three stores under its control.  Finally, in 1920, the Shaffer Baking Company 
and the Altoona Merchandise Company and Shaffer Stores Company merged their 
interests under the name of the Shaffer Stores Company, Inc., with these 
executive officers: G. W. Shaffer, president; C. E. Shaffer, treasurer; W. A. 
Wagner, secretary; J. C. Calhoun, first vice-president, and D. G. Werdle, 
second vice-president.  The company now operates forty-six stores and meat 
markets, as well as its wholesale house and bakery; while, in addition to 
supplying its own stores, it sells to the retail grocery trade.  In 1925 G. 
W. Shaffer personally took over the management of the M. and M. grocery and 
meat stores of Altoona, and these, too, are conducted in conjunction with the 
Shaffer Stores, which company employs about three hundred and fifty hands, 
and operates twenty trucks and forty-five one-horse wagons.  The corporation 
is accounted as one of the largest chain store companies in Central 
Pennsylvania, with their business amounting to about $4,000,000 annually, not 
inclusive of the wholesale or the bakery interests.  At the beginning the 
company was the possessor or a capital of one hundred dollars; today, the 
capitalization is over $700,000.
  Mr. Shaffer was the organizer and is president of the Penn Real Estate and 
Insurance Company; is president of the G. W. Shaffer Building and Loan 
Association; and is a member of the board of directors of the Bankers' 
Mortgage Company.  He has served as vice-president of the Kiwanis Club; and 
as a member of the board of directors of the Altoona Chamber of Commerce; and 
he is a member of the Credit Men's Association and the Blairmont Country 
Club.  He is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, and a member 
of its Finance Committee, and superintendent of the Sunday School; trustee of 
the Sunday School Conference Board, and of the Children's Home; and president 
of the Methodist Training Camp, at Newton Hamilton.
  G. W. Shaffer married Margaret C. Miller, and they are the parents of the 
following children: Clyde E., a biography of whom follows; Harold C., now 
superintendent of equipment for the Shaffer Stores Company, Inc.; Sidney A., 
and Russell G.