The following article written by Robert Carol Emerson appeared in the local newspaper, Glo-Quips – December 5, 1996
The Legacy of a Country Store
After my aunt, Edith Oliver Fleming, died in 1992, an old ledger was found among her possessions. This ledger recorded the day-to-day transactions in my grandfather’s country store during the 1880s. The discovery of the ledger both reminded me of the stories my mother told about her father’s store and confirmed the accuracy of her memory.
My grandfather, Thomas Andrew Jackson Oliver, ran a country store at the end of Cedar Bush Road in Coke. Today’s marketing analysis would say that this dead end of a country road would be a most unlikely place to locate a store. The fact that a store once flourished there demonstrates how much our lifestyle has changed over the last century.
Located on a slight bend in Cedar Bush Creek, giving a straight view of the creek as it leads to York River, Jack Oliver’s store was ideally situated for commerce in the nineteenth century. At that time, commerce was maintained by riverboat transportation. Cedar Bush Creek offered a deep channel for workboats as well as a safe haven from the rougher waters of the York River.
Watermen, working in York River, would bring their catch to my grandfather’s store and exchange oysters, clams, fish, and crabs for merchandise which included almost all of anyone’s physical needs. My grandfather made routine trips to Baltimore where he sold the bounties of York River and purchased stock for his store.
Oliver’s store had characteristics of a department store in that it stocked a wide variety of items: clothes, shoes, hardware, sugar, salt, etc. It also had characteristics of a trading post in that most of the transactions took the form of bartering. All the ledger’s records are calculated in terms of dollars and cents, but many of the actual transactions were the trading of item for item. For example, page 11 records that on Sept. 1, 1884, Mr. E. S. Stubbs bought $21.20 worth of “Merchandise” and paid $9.75 on his account with oysters. On Dec. 1, 1984, he bought $46.06 worth of merchandise and paid $20.90 with “oysters and a calf.”
Items listed in payment by various customers were not limited to seafood. Other items listed are “cows, peas, sheep and chickens.” (page 26) R. B. Hornsby must have been a clammer in 1885-7 because most of his purchases were paid for with “clams,” occasionally supplemented with “eggs, poultry, oysters and beans.” (page 55)
Most of the “payment” items are not stated in terms of quantity or value; that is, a certain amount of money ($17) is credited for a certain item received (oysters). (p.55) However, a clue to monitory value is given on page 106 in which R. B. Hunley’s account was credited with $5.80 for two bushels of oysters on Aug. 20, 1889. Though many of the transactions were made through bartering, there were also items paid for by “cash” and a few by “check.” It seems that my grandfather’s store was a transition between a trading post and a modern store.
The ledger also records items purchased to stock the store and lists the price paid for the items: Page 77 — 1 coil of rope, $3.51, 10 lbs. of sail twine, $2.39, 13 yards of hard ducking, $4.55, 1 bolt of 8 oz. ducking, $7.79; Page 103 — 1 doz. pails, $1.35; Page 71 – 1 case of baking powder, $11.80.
My mother told stories that reflected fond memories of an era in which life moved at a slower pace, when workers could see the relationship between their toil and the fruits of their labor. It was also a time when the livelihood of the family was a cooperate effort of the entire family. Jack Oliver’s store was located in the yard of the “homeplace,” and there was continual movement between the home and the store. My mother was very proud when she became old enough to clerk in the store.
The country store was more than a place to shop. It was a symbol of communal cooperation in meeting the needs of physical existence. For example, one person had more eggs than he needed, and another person had more oysters than he needed; the country store became the mechanism whereby a mutual exchange of needed items could be made. Also, there was a socialization with this commerce that gave identity to the community.
The lifestyle of the past century entrenched within the store’s proprietor and the customers an appreciation for the environment from which the harvest came. Within my mother and her brothers and sisters, there was a grateful respect for the river and the land surrounding it. They had a sturdy sense of dependency upon the Creator of the river and its surrounding lands.
Many years later, my mother had a gleam of joy on her face as she told of the days when her father returned from his trips to Baltimore. There was joy that his sailboat had returned safe and sound. There was also excitement in finding out what good things “Pappy” had brought from Baltimore. “It was the closest thing we had to a modern day Christmas,” my mother said.
The times — They have changed. Railroads, superhighways, and air freight have replaced the river as the mode of transportation supporting commerce. Supermarkets and malls have replaced the country store. Credit cards and lay-away-plans have replaced the barter system. Within all of the changes, it has become more difficult to see the connection between our work and its reward, and especially more difficult to see our dependency upon the Creator of the land and the rivers from whence our resources come.
Yet what our parents and grandparents were in the last century is a part of our heritage and determines what we are today. As I look at the old ledger that Aunt Edie preserved for us, I realized that I am indebted to all those who lived before me. I also realized that the good life that was available to them is available to us.
Jack Oliver’s interest and activity in shipping industry via the river and the bay is verified by his being a co-petitioner in a request for authorization to construct a pier on York River “for the purpose of shipping and receiving freight.”
—An ACT to allow John T. Fosque and others to erect a pier in York river, in Gloucester county.
Approved April 28, 1887.
- Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That John T. Fosque, W. F. Hogg, John A. Bridges, T. A. J. Oliver, W. W. Thompson, and Charles Catlett, of Gloucester county, be and they are hereby authorized to erect a pier in York river, between Timber Neck creek and Cedar Bush creek, for the purpose of shipping and receiving freight on or from vessels or steamers, and be subject to all laws of Virginia governing all wharves or piers erected in the waters of the commonwealth: provided, that said pier shall not interfere with navigation. 2. This act shall be in force from its passage. (Acts and Joint Resolutions Passed by the General assembly of the State of Virginia During the Extra session of 1887, Chapter 87, p.120.)
In addition to being a sailor-merchant, Jack Oliver was a farmer. One of his farming endeavors exemplifies that he was a man who was very particular in maintaining a high quality of workmanship. A field between the home and Briggs Cove known as the “check field” derived this name from the manner in which Jack planted corn. The seeds were planted in straight rows and equal distance apart with the following row aligning with the first so that the rows were straight in parallel lines and perpendicular lines. The corn could be cultivated in either direction or both directions if necessary. The field continued being called the check field even when later generations were not so meticulous in seeding the field.