Mount Union borough

Appleby's Drug Store, Mount Union

Fred B. Appleby bought the drug business of E. M. France in Mount Union on March 9, 1929, according to McElroy's Family Memories, a book of Huntingdon County biographies published in 1930. By then, the book says, it was known as Appleby's Drug Store. France's own entry in the same book says he had conducted a pharmacy in Mount Union for five years.

Appleby was born at Decorum in Dublin Township on October 18, 1902, a farmer's son. He graduated from Mount Union High School in 1921 and from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, then spent four years at clerical work in Philadelphia drug stores before buying the Mount Union business.

Fred's son, Fred B. Appleby Jr., graduated from the same college in 1953 and worked with his father in the store. He was a registered pharmacist and had been Mount Union's fire chief since 1969. He died at his work in the store on Shirley Street on July 10, 1974, at 43, the Huntingdon Daily News reported the next day.

Fred Sr. died on March 7, 1988, at 85. His obituary calls him the owner of Appleby's Pharmacy, Mount Union, since 1929, and says he served 33 years on the board of directors of Unitas National Bank. The store's website lists its address as 133 East Shirley Street.

Checked against the record. We read the 1929 purchase on the page image of McElroy's Family Memories, published in 1930. Fred Sr.'s 1988 obituary and his son's 1974 notice were read as transcripts on Find a Grave, not as newspaper pages, and the first transcript does not name its newspaper. The obituary gives 1924 for his pharmacy degree, while the 1930 book and a list of graduates printed in August 1925 give 1925. Because the sources disagree, this story leaves the year out. Still open: who ran the pharmacy before France, whether the store stands where his did, how long the store has been at 133 East Shirley Street, and who has owned it since 1988. We did not see state pharmacy license records or newspaper coverage from the 1950s and 1960s.

Sources

Checked 2026-11-01 · Primary sources and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive

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