What was originally a wagon repair shop, the building that houses Drier's Meat Market was converted to a butcher shop in 1875 by an Englishman named Alec Watson and called it The Union Meat Market.

Ed Drier, Sr. was hired by Alec Watson when he was only 10 years old for a 25-cents-a-week delivery boy. Ed was eventually promoted to clerk at $6 a week and, in 1913, he bought the store from Watson.

Drier's Meat Market has been recognized by as a National Historic Site since the time of it's opening in 1875 which means it has been in continuous use as a butcher shop since shortly after the Civil War.

It has a pre-Civil War front and many of the original elements of the building still exist, including the four-paned windows that pre-date plate glass. There's sawdust on the floor, old butchering tools and a meat rack with ornamental cows. The smoke house used to produce Drier's famous ham's, bacon and ring bologna (spelled "baloney" by Ed Sr.) is more than 100 years old.

The ring bologna was a favorite with the Michigan Central Railroad workers, who made special stops in Three Oaks to pick some up. The famous bologna is actually a kind of small salami in natural casing shaped like a horseshoe. Of course, the family recipe is a secret but it is an all-beef sausage with salt and pepper.

Drier's has been written about in the Chicago Sun Times and Tribune, Michigan papers from Benton Harbor to Detroit and in many Travel Magazines (such as Food Finds magazine.) The theme is always the same: It's a pleasure to see a family doing something they enjoy for so long and doing it so well.

Over the past century many famous people have became regular customers of Drier's Meat Market to purchase their famous ham, bologna and sausages.

Some of these people are: Carl Sandburg, Larry Hagman (J. R. Ewing of the Dallas series. His hat still hangs as part of the memorabilia at Drier's), Mayor Daley of Chicago, the Hormel Family and Roger Ebert to name a few.

Carl Sandburg wrote a poem about Ed Drier's baloney:

Thank you, dear Eddie
For your bottles and basket.
We've only one question
And now we will ask it.
We know cheese in a tub
And that liver's not bony.
But how in the world
Do you make your baloney?

Drier's Meat Market is open 7 days a week. Monday - Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and on Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Drier's is closed from January 1st till 2 weeks before Easter.

Drier's Old Fashioned Meat Market.
14 South Elm Street
Three Oaks, MI 49128
(269) 756-3101
(888) 521-3999

http://www.driers.com