Gene's 1947 Butler University Picture (Class of 1948)

The Rushville Pharmacy was conceived in 1944 as a package drug and sundry store by Robert Moster. The business began in the Tyner Building at 208 North Main Street in Rushville. Merchandise in the store included packaged drugs, toiletries, cosmetics, gift items, and a soda fountain. Moster was not a registered pharmacist so the store did not have a prescription department. After two years, Moster realized a prescription department was needed for the business to be successful. On December 7, 1944, he sold the store to Charles Buennagel and Donald Price, both of whom were registered pharmacists and had worked together at the Keene Prescription Center in Indianapolis. They added the prescription department, and the package store was transformed into The Rushville Pharmacy.

In May 1952, Buennagel sold his interest in the business to Gene Kinman, a pharmacist who had also been associated with the Keene Prescription Center. Under Kinman’s guidance, two remodeling projects took place over the next six years. The first project in July of 1952 saw a back wall removed to provide more “out-front” selling area in the store. In 1958, a major remodeling project was undertaken. The building, which housed the Main Street Tavern, immediately to the north, was purchased. A dividing wall was removed, and the floor space for the business was doubled. The remodeled building included an all-new prescription department and soda fountain. A welcome addition was an air conditioning system.

In 1964 Kinman purchased the Mauzy Building located on the northeast corner of Third and Main Streets. When the building was built circa 1905, it housed the Mauzy Company, one of the finest department stores in the state of Indiana. After the closing of the Mauzy Company in the mid-thirties, the building was occupied by a dress-manufacturing firm, unoccupied for a time, and then occupied by the Hendren-Foster Furniture Company, then again unoccupied for a short time prior to the purchase by Kinman. The Mauzy Building underwent extensive remodeling including removing one and a half stories off the top, removing an elevator, and relocating the entrance among other changes. One Sunday in March 1966, the Rushville Pharmacy was moved into the building it presently occupies by a virtual army of employees and volunteers. The 6,500 square foot store featuring wall-to-wall carpeting and stereo music opened Monday morning ready for business.

In the fall of 1967 Daniel R. Billman, a pharmacist who had been associated with the Hook Drug Company as a store manager in Greensburg, moved to Rushville to work under Kinman and Price. In the spring of 1969, Billman purchased Price’s interest in the business and thus became a partner of Kinman. Only minor changes took place over the next few years until January 1983, when Kipland J. Burkett purchased Kinman’s interest in the business. Burkett had grown up in Rushville, attended Butler University, and returned to his hometown to work at The Rushville Pharmacy as a student and then as a registered pharmacist. Billman and Burkett continued a successful partnership until 2007 when Burkett purchased Billman’s interests allowing Billman to retire.