Medford Mail Tribune, July 13, 1931, page 8


    Greeting old friends and new at its beautiful store at the corner of North Bartlet and East Sixth streets, the Monarch Seed & Feed Store will hold open house tomorrow (Saturday). Two pounds of Crown flour will be presented free to each adult who visits the establishment during the opening, and corsages have been provided for lady callers.
    The Monarch was founded in 1910 by Leo J. Miksche and his son, Raymond, in the building now occupied by Lamport's. Raymond R. Miksche now owns and manages the business, with the assistance of his brother, Robert, the second member of the firm.
    For 18 years the popular store at 323 East Main Street furnished hundreds of Rogue River Valley ranchers and farmers with seeds and feeds, each year securing many new customers, until it became practically impossible to accommodate their patrons in such small quarters.
    The new store is 100 feet by 40 feet, covering a total of 4000 square feet, and as a result of extensive remodeling and and decorating the Monarch's fine home is one of the most attractive business houses in Medford. Better parking facilities are available at the new quarters, and the location is near to the city's busiest shopping area.
    Artistic window displays have always been featured by the Monarch Seed & Feed Company's management, and the new store's additional window space will afford even more interesting exhibits. High-quality poultry supplies, feeds of all kinds, garden and field seeds, spray materials, insecticides and sprayers are some of the products offered at the Monarch Seed & Feed Store.
    One of the finest and largest feed milling plants in the state is operated by the Monarch on South Fir Street.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 21, 1932, page 7


    News was received here Saturday of the death in Portland of Geary Miksche, young son of Mr. and Mrs. Wilford Miksche, formerly of this city, now of Portland. The little boy died Saturday morning of pneumonia, according to the report.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 11, 1932, page 1


    Loaded with two and one-half tons of feed, the Monarch Seed & Feed Co.'s truck left this city early this morning for various parts of the valley, distributing feed to the wild birds. The blanket of snow covering the valley has deprived all wild bird life of their "daily bread," and reports coming in from the country tell of the many dead birds which have fallen prey to the wintry weather through lack of food to sustain life.
    The recent heavy snows have completely covered all natural food, and as a result birds are dying from starvation. The food being distributed by the Monarch Seed & Feed Co. consists of cracked wheat, corn and miscellaneous cracked grains accumulated at their milling plant in this city.
    "The Monarch Seed & Feed Co.'s mission of mercy should be backed up by a general campaign by all," said one bird lover, who continued, "scatter grains or bread crumbs, suet or fruit on the snow so that the birds will receive food to keep their bodies warm.
    "Birds serve humanity to such a degree as to warrant protection in times of need. But for the birds our gardens and orchards would fall prey to untold millions of insects which our feathered friends keep under control. Feed the birds. Don't let them starve."
Medford Mail Tribune, January 26, 1933, page 3


    "Everything for your garden but the rain" may sound like a big order, but the Monarch Seed and Feed Company, Southern Oregon's most comprehensive seed and feed store, just about lives up to the letter of the slogan, explained Raymond A. Miksche in a special interview given the Miner this week.
    The store, said Mr. Miksche, was started by him and his father back in 1910. "It was a very modest store--little more than a hole in the wall," he remembered. "Father and I opened up on $1000 borrowed capital in what is now Lamport's sporting goods store in Medford."
    The gap between the opening of the little store and the present large complete establishment makes a story that almost shames the famous Horatio Alger series. The elder Miksche, Leo J., at one time operated the finest general store west of the Mississippi, at Breckenridge, Minnesota, but after two disastrous fires decided to come west with his family of nine children.
    The Miksches, with about $10,000 salvaged from the smoking ruins of their Breckenridge store, headed for Hornbrook, Calif., where the money was invested in a gold mine, which soon faded and died, taking the remaining family funds with it. It was at this time they moved to Medford and a year later--1910--father and son borrowed the $1000 and set themselves up in business as seedsmen and feed dealers.
    In the years that followed the senior Miksche not only returned the borrowed capital and raised and educated his family of nine children, but, at the time of his death in May, 1928, had accumulated an estate valued at $60,000. It was not, however, easily earned money. Long hours of work, diligence, an ever-alert eagerness to improve and develop the seed and feed business, careful management and strict adherence to rigid business ethics were woven into the business that grew and prospered.
    The Monarch Seed and Feed Company--the only seed and feed company still in business that existed back in the formative days of 1910--was the first to ever machine blend feeds in this section of the state and today boasts the finest feed milling plant in Oregon outside the city of Portland. The largest and most varied stock of seeds, feeds, accessories, implements, pets and supplies on the Pacific Coast--which is not an idle boast, but a reality--has been assembled at the large 4000-square-foot storeroom at the corner of Sixth and Bartlett streets, while the warehouse, built by the Miksche family and still owned by them, is a reinforced concrete building 50 by 170 feet with basement and first floor and is located at Tenth and Fir streets.
    At time of the death of the elder Miksche the son, Raymond A., assumed active management and in 1927 a younger brother, Bob, became a partner in the business. Another brother, Wilfred, formerly was connected with the store, but a few years ago withdrew his interests to start a seed and feed store at Beaverton, Oregon, and now operates another establishment at Sherwood, Oregon. Mrs. Leo J. Miksche, mother of the large family, is of German descent while the father was Austrian and the hardy, businesslike characteristics of the two races have been reflected in both the children and the Medford seed store, which is unequaled anywhere on the coast for cleanliness, arrangement, stock and service.
    Raymond Miksche, who today is active manager of the firm, attributed the growth and development of the store which, until October, 1933, was located at 328 East Main Street following the first two years in the Lamport building, to a strict adherence to the soundest of all business practices--the sale of quality merchandise only. In 1929 the Monarch Seed and Feed store sold Southern Oregon orchardists more than a million pounds of fertilizer, and such huge volume is not the result of accident or consumers' whims, it was pointed out.
    "As far as we are concerned, the depression IS over," commented Raymond Miksche as he concluded his reminisces. "July of this year we increased our business 37 percent over the volume for the same month in 1932, and customers come [from] as far as Red Bluff and Redding on the south and Roseburg on the north in response to our 15,000 illustrated seed catalogs sent out every year."
    The Monarch Seed and Feed Company, one of the few old established business houses in Medford still in existence, has specialized in developing a balanced feed that meets all requirements, and as a result the company's Madrona Brand feeds have become the oldest established feeds in Southern Oregon, Miksche said. Another specialty of the seed and feed store or rather, of Raymond Miksche himself, is unique window displays. The downtown store always boasts at least one panel ornamented with readable, neat signs made of various colored seeds, grains and kernels.
    The store, too, added the Miksche brothers in unison as they busied themselves, is 100 percent NRA in spirit and practice, and looks forward to a steady improvement in business conditions---particularly among farming and ranching sections--until complete, normal prosperity has been restored.
Jacksonville Miner, September 8, 1933, page 3


    Raymond Miksche, of the Monarch Feed and Feed Co., who has just returned from a meeting of the board of governors of the Oregon division of the Northwest Feed Dealers Association in Portland, reports that upstate there is a wonderful enthusiasm for the NRA. Mr. Miksche says: "People everywhere in the city, in hotel lobbies, in the stores and on the trains are talking about the accomplishments under the NRA banner."
    The board of governors met to add the final points to the retail feed dealers code which will be submitted to the administration October 20, according to Mr. Miksche.
    Floyd Oles, of Portland, president of the Northwest Feed Dealers Association and a close friend of A. H. Banwell, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, is on his way to discuss the code with NRA administrators.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 2, 1933, page 7


    Only pedigreed B.W.D.-tested chicks will be sold by the Monarch Seed and Feed Company this year, according to Raymond Miksche, who says they are the best chicks it is possible to obtain. A new electric battery has just been installed in the front of the store, and chicks will soon be placed in it to show the results of feeding Madrona and Crown feeds.
    Mr. Miksche says they have just received a shipment of a new line of incubators and brooders. The newest type electric incubator now on display at the Monarch looks like a fine electric range.
    Mr. Miksche says business is already much better than last year and that they have ordered three times as much garden seed as they have in the past. This year's wide assortment will include several new varieties, according to Mr. Miksche.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 14, 1934, page 3


    The Monarch Seed & Feed Company's annual catalog for 1934, with the famous slogan "Everything for your garden but the rain," is being mailed out to their customers, and orders are already pouring in from all over Southern Oregon and Northern California, according to Raymond Miksche.
    This catalog, which contains 60 pages of illustrations and descriptions of flower seeds, vegetable seeds, grass seeds, field seeds, fertilizers, bulbs, insecticides, sprays, dusts, brooders, incubators, poultry equipment, Crown feeds, garden and farm equipment, dog foods and medicines, berry and onion plants, shows only a part of the large stock carried by the Monarch. Mr. Miksche says that seed and feed men who have visited the store say the Monarch has one of the best and most complete stocks on the coast.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 4, 1934, page 3