Riter Brothers Drug Company records, 1903-1918

The Riter Brothers Drug Company owned retail stores in Logan and Garland, Utah and in Franklin, Preston, and Montpelier, Idaho. The Logan store was located at 33 North Main. In addition, Riter Brothers did business as a wholesale distributor throughout northern Utah, southern Idaho, and western Wyoming.

The officers of the company were members of the Riter family. According to the 1904 Polk Directory for Logan, William W. Riter was president, Benjamin Franklin Riter was general manager, and Samuel W. Riter was secretary and treasurer.

The history of the company can be told in large part by tracing the career of Benjamin Franklin Riter (1859-1925). The son of Levi Evans and Rebecca Wollerton Riter, B. F. was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on August 31, 1859. After studying chemistry at the University of Utah, Riter started work in 1876 as a pharmacist for retail druggists Taggart and Son in Salt Lake City. In 1878, he worked for George W. Hoyt in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 1880 Riter formed a partnership with Dr. O. C. Ormsby and went into business in Logan, Utah as Ormsby & Riter. The company filled an important niche as it was the only drug store between Ogden, Utah and Helena, Montana. Finally, in 1891, Riter Brothers Drug Company was incorporated in Logan.

The Utah State Historical Society holds related records in the Franklin Riter Manuscript Collection. Franklin, as he preferred to be called, was Benjamin Franklin Jr. the son of Benjamin Franklin Riter. Although most of the collection documents Franklin's life, box one contains Riter Brothers Drug Company financial ledgers for 1882-1905.