The history of J. Perrine & Sons as told by Daniel J. Gieringer

Our business was founded in 1850 by John Perrine. It was established as a lumber business which catered to a small rural village known as Harrison Ohio. My great grandfather not only sold lumber, he sold all the many materials it took to build a complete house. Back in those days John Perrine & Sons was a striving business. My great grandfather had two sons, and shortly after the turn of the century, the oldest son acquired the business and renamed it Atwood Perrine Lumber Co.

Failing health kept him from effectively running the company and my Grandfather John took the company over in the early 1900s. My grandfather kept the name the same and ran the business until 1937. At that time my mother and father, Paul and Jane (Perrine) Gieringer acquired the business and kept the name the same.

During my parents era the village of Harrison saw quite a growth spurt and business was good. I suppose as WWII came to a close everyone was wanting to settle down and put those days behind them. My mother and father also added many useful items to their inventory. One of the biggest items was coal. In the 50s and 60s, coal was a predominate source of heating homes.

As our company reached the 70s coal became scarce and many people were heating their homes with other sources. In the early 70s as a young teenager, I began working for my parents. (actually my love for this business started when I was around six years old)

The 70s were pretty rough, as many businesses started specializing in insulation, drywall, electric and other fields related to what we sold. As this happened, we started specializing in things ourselves. One of our first things was custom-fabricated cabinets.

In 1978 I purchased the company from my parents and the story continues. I kept the name the same and continued with a good mix of contractors and homeowners.

The 80s were lean years, as material prices skyrocketed and interest rates were their highest ever. As the big boxes started popping up all over the place, I was forced to make further changes. By the early 90s it was hard to compete in the lumber business and I change the name back to John Perrine & Sons.

My main goals, besides keeping a 140 year old business alive, was to move my business into the service arena. As I made these changes things were still lean but also heading in the direction I wanted to go. Today this company survives by giving good service in the areas of glass and screen repair, antique furniture repair, installation of garage doors, prime and storm doors, garage doors and making professional looking wood products from customer specifications.