Pengal's Basswood Trading Company

This building started as a general store in 1900 and remained a general store through 1906 (or later) when it was owned by the Satoria Brothers, Frank and Dominik. We find them in the 1900 U.S. Census, living on the second floor above the store, with Frank’s wife, Angelica, and his daughter Maria. Frank and Dominik are young immigrants from Italy who have partnered to start their business on Sheridan Street. By 1917, they have sold their business and left Ely. Their fate is unknown to us. 

In 1917, Frank Pengal, an enterprising immigrant from Slovenia, bought the building and started a General Merchandise outlet at this location, beginning a 106-year history of Pengal ownership that continues to this day. The Pengal story follows.

Franz (or Frank) Pengal was born in Slovenia on October 4^th, 1878. He arrived in New York in January 1905 when he was 26 years old. He had a friend in Ely, Minnesota.

Francis Sheryak arrived in June of the same year. Francis had a sister, Mary, in Ely, Minnesota. 

And so, it came to be that Frank and Francis started their new lives together in Ely. They were married later in 1905 by Father Buh. 

Initially Frank worked in the Pioneer Mine, but by 1915 he had started his own retail establishment on Central Avenue where he sold candy and housewares. In1916, he purchased the building next door to this building and ran a dime store. In 1917 he bought the present building at 137 East Sheridan, opened Pengal’s General Merchandise Store, and sold groceries and clothing.   

Frank and Francis had six children and as was traditional at the time, lived above their business. Grocery was more labor intensive then, than it is now. The grocery clerks would walk through the neighborhoods in the morning to take orders. In the afternoon, they delivered the orders by horse and wagon. When telephones became more commonplace, the orders were taken by phone. They also smoked their own polish sausages. 

Frank died in 1934 and Francis later in 1951. By then, two of the six children, daughters Frances Pengal and Josephine Pengal Grahek, ran the business. Groceries were phased out and the store featured women’s and children’s clothing and fabric. 

When Frances retired in 1975, the business closed temporarily. The entire Pengal family rallied to keep the store going while the current owners graduated from high school and later college to ultimately manage the business. Paul, at only 17 years old, worked after school as part of a work-study program, and attended buying trips with his aunt. Other siblings worked on weekends and during the summers.  Francis and her brother filled in. The Pengal business reflects the family commitment that allowed many of the early businesses in Ely to survive.

In 1983, the family expanded the business to the west and changed the store front. In 1987, there was an additional expansion that allowed for the sale of specialty candy and chocolate.

The Pengal Family has run a retail business in Ely for over 100 plus years and are valued members of the Ely community.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

1900 – the Satori Brothers General Store

1917 – Pengal’s General Merchandise

2013 – Pengal’s Basswood Trading Company

The Sanborn Insurance Maps 1900-1924.

1900 AND 1907 Ely City Directories

Ancestry.com. Accessed April 8th, 2022.

Ely Since 1888 (The Blue Book. Ely, Mn. The Ely Echo. 1988.

Ely Phone Directories from 1949 to 2020 (available at the Ely-Winton Historical Society).

Information from the Pengal Family (grandchildren of the founder)