PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2022

F or a century, Beecham’s Market in Tremont has not only survived, but thrived. The grocery burned to the ground twice, rising back each time. In more recent years, as Tremont lost multiple markets and mega-grocers poppedup in central Illinois, Beecham’s pushed into its fourth generation of family ownership. Though still a general store, the business has found a niche as a destination meat market. “We can’t compete with Walmart and the big chain stores in Froot Loops and Cheerios,” said Keri Hughs, the 43-year-old great-granddaughter of a co-founder of the family business. “But we can compete in the quality of fresh meat we provide.” In 1922, Wi l l iam and Clarence Beecham opened Beecham Brothers Grocery in the Peoria County village of Glasford. They offered a foreshadowing of the meat expertise to come, as they would slaughter chickens in the back lot to provide fresh poultry inside. In 1939, Jerry Beecham – the son of William and Iva Beecham – opened Beecham’s Market in Tremont, an ag town smack-dab in the middle of Tazewell County. (The Glasford spot would eventually close). The couple lived upstairs of the new Beecham’s Market – on Sampson Street, the main commercial strip – and got off to a solid start before a fire of unknown Jerry Beecham pauses inside his Beecham’s Market in Tremont (photo taken in 1940s)

origin broke out one night in 1940 as the pair slept. After Jerry Beecham awoke coughing on smoke, the couple struggled to get outside to a second-floor porch. As the first floor burned, their cries for help woke up a neighbor, the townmortician, who dragged a ladder to the porch and helped the couple escape. In the end, the entire building was destroyed, along with the market’s inventory, plus the couple’s car and a delivery truck parked directly out back. “All Mr. Beecham saved from the fire was a pair of trousers he slipped over his night clothes,” according to the Tremont News. “Mrs. Beecham saved only (a) fur coat which she threw around herself as she was carried to safety.” But soon a new Beecham’s Market opened, a few doors down on Sampson Street. Inanother strokeofmisfortune, a 1959 fire wiped out the place, prompting a third Tremont store – the current building – to be built on the same site. Eventual ly, the business was joined (and eventually run) by a third generation, Lanny and Mary Beecham. Meantime, their daughter Keri grew Second version of Beecham’s Market in Tremont, after the original Tremont location burned in 1940

up in the store, learning the trade and enjoying the customer interactions. “I’m very blessed that my grandfather and grandmother and my parents taught me (a) work ethic and to always put the customer first,” she said. In 2004, she wed Dave Hughs, a Morton native who worked at a lumber business. About seven years into the marriage, with her parents looking to retire, Lanny Beecham asked if the Hughs couple wanted to take over the business. “Her dad wanted to make sure we really wanted to do it, because it does consume your life,” Dave Hughs, 41, said with a grin. He works 12-hour days Monday through Saturday. His wife works weekdays at home for an insurance company, mostly for the benefits, but she comes into the shop in the late afternoon to lend a hand. Also keeping things humming are five full-timers and five part-timers. In addition to a deli, Beecham’s showcases top-shelf beef, pork and Third version of the Market in Tremont, after the second Tremont location burned in 1959. The building, still in use, soon will undergo an exterior remodeling.

SEPTEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 19