Albert Broadus Ware was born in the long-gone community of Mason City (located south of Lake City) on Jan. 20, 1893. His parents were Baptist minister General Winfield Scott Ware (named after the Second Seminole War hero) and Katherine (“Katie”) Frances Ware. Both parents were born in Catoosa County, Georgia. A. B. was the fifth of 11 children. His father, besides preaching, also farmed the land to make ends meet. In 1903, the Wares moved to Alachua County, but a year later moved to Worthington Springs (now Union County). Ware attended school at Worthington Springs through the eighth grade before transferring to Lake Butler for the ninth and 10th grades. His years of farming with the family mule taught him the virtues of hard work.

Ware’s first experience with drug stores came in 1911, when he was a “soda jerk” at a local drug store. In 1913, A. B. moved to Mayo to work in the drug store of R. G. Ware (his uncle). It was at this point that Ware decided to become a pharmacist. He entered pharmacy school in Macon, Georgia, where he studied for two years. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Ware volunteered for duty. He entered military service on July 26, 1917, and spent 13 months in Europe. Serving with the Medical Corps, he was eventually discharged in January 1920.

Upon his return to civilian life, Ware moved to Savannah to work as a pharmacist. It was in Savannah that he married Edith Williamson, who had been a teacher in Mayo while Ware worked for his uncle. They married on September 5, 1920. Deciding that Savannah was not the place for his family, Ware and his wife moved to Live Oak in September 1921, where A. B. worked at the Suwannee Drug Company under Dr. H. F. Airth. This job only lasted a year, but in the meantime, A. B. and his wife had their first child, W. S. (Bill).

In 1922, Ware decided to move to the growing town of Branford and open a drug store there. His shop opened on April 10 in the building known as the Noah Green Hardware Store building, located on Suwannee Avenue. Like most of downtown Branford at the time, it was a wooden structure. Branford was just beginning to receive electricity through the electric plant of Miles A. Best (for whom Ware would be an honorary pallbearer at his 1957 funeral), and things were looking up for the community.

Unfortunately for Ware and many other businessmen, 1922 was a hard year for Branford. Within four weeks of opening his business, Ware lost revenue as the Branford Lumber Company burned to the ground, taking with it nearly 100 jobs that were a main source of income to Branford. Two weeks later, the entire block of wooden buildings on Suwannee Avenue, including Ware’s Pharmacy, burned to the ground. The community reeled from the twin calamities so close together.

Ware took a month to reopen his business, this time in a building adjacent to the bank that had survived the fires. Ware had been fortunate in that he had been able to save most of his store’s merchandise, although all his fixtures had been destroyed. Ware remained in the temporary location until November 1922, when he purchased a large storeroom and general mercantile property from the C. A. Howell estate. Ware updated the building over the years, adding a new roof and flooring, partitioning the building into several storerooms, and adding a barber shop and prescription room. Remembering his own introduction to the pharmacy business, Ware added his first soda fountain in 1926.

Ware made it his mission to provide the best to the citizens of Branford. As with other drug stores of the day, Ware’s store carried a large selection of general merchandise. His slogan was “Try the Drug Store first.” In 1928, when the Suwannee River overflowed its banks and flooded most of Branford, Ware rowed drug prescriptions to his customers so that they would not be without. In 1948, when the Suwannee River again flooded Branford, Ware was there for the community.

More on A. B. Ware next week.

Eric Musgrove can be reached at ericm@suwgov.org or 386-362-0564.