Jean and Robert Anderson

Four generations of our fmaily are pictured in this photo. Members of each generation have worked in our family business.

Our family roots began in Naperville in 1872 when William Wallace Wickel and his wife Sarah arrived from Pennsylvania. He founded Wickel's Drug Store when Naperville was a small farming community. At that time, Mr. Wickel not only compounded prescriptions but sold books and school texts as well as farm remedies and much else.

Their daughter, Susanna, married Louis Oswald, who became a pharmacist and purchased the business from his father-in -law in 1915. Louis gradually expanded the business, changing with the times as the town grew. He added a soda fountain, a big hit with the community.

Louis and Susanna's daughter, Helen, married Harold Kester, a pharmacist, and they bought the business from Mr. Oswald. The Kesters enlarged and modernized the store. Harold saw the need for a bookshop in Naperville, and in 1964 he opened Paperback Paradise.

Harold and Helen's daughter Jean married pharmacist Bob Anderson, and they later became owners of the businesses. The thriving book business, now Anderson's Bookshop, moved and doubled its size, and the W.W. Wickel Bookfair Company was founded.

The next generation, Tres, Bill, and Pete Anderson and their sister, Becky Wilkins are the present day partners in the enterprises. Between them they have thirteen children, the oldest of them now working in the family businesses.

For six generations we have loved and worked for this town. It has been a wonderful place to rear children and to earn a livelihood. For 128 years our family has served this community in countless ways. We are proud of Naperville and of our place in its history, and we look forward to serving our town in the new millennium.