MARIE W.Va. (Hinton News) – It is time for another edition of a Peek into Summers County’s Past. Every week, local history collector William Jones discusses items from his collection and their historical significance. In this edition, Jones is talking about a store in the Marie area.
Jones began by saying, “This week’s story has an interesting twist to it. The store seen in this early photograph still stands in Marie, West Virginia. This photo was recently mailed to me by retired Kanawha County Magistrate Judge Tim Halloran. He is a direct relative of the Halloran family. Mr. Halloran had seen my piece about dairies in Summers County and contacted my friend and editor of The Hinton News, Rebecca Stalnaker, to find a way of contacting me.”
“He called me in May of this year; we had a lovely chat and intend to meet one day. He told me about his family’s connections to Summers County and the Halloran’s Dairy. He called me a second time a month or so ago to ask for my address, he had some things he wanted to mail me. One thing was a 1907 or 08 class photo of Hinton High School. The other was this great early photo of the store in Marie, West Virginia.
“I am not sure of the exact date of this photo, but since the store was built in 1898 and its subject matter, it must be from the first part of the 1900s. It is more than likely one of, if not the oldest photos in existence of this structure in Summers County. The store itself has a home that was built onto the right of it during the same period. That was a common practice of ‘storekeepers’ of the time who were in operation in a relatively secluded area like Marie to add living quarters onto their store building.
“In doing research for this article I found this quote that explains who owned the store in its early days in the West Virginia Archives. The following is a quote taken from the History of Marie Community prepared by W.T. Maddy in 1925 ‘The first store at Marie was owned by Robert Miller. A room in W.A. Goode’s home was used, and in 1898, Mr. Miller sold to Young and Company and they erected the store building that is being used now. Later, the style of the firm was changed to W.A. Barger and Company, then to C.N. Vass and Son, then to McNeer Brothers and then to E.J. Vass, the present owner who has been clerk or owner for 25 years.’
“Little is known of the history of this store other than what I just described until the time my father was working for David and Judy Osborne’s construction company. They had bought the old store building and built their home to the right of the store with intentions of restoring it to open an antique store complete with early items like candy displays, antique store scales and everything you could find in between the two. He also carried the basic staples so if you lived in the area you could just run to the Marie Mercantile to grab your basic needs.
“Like I said, my father was one of their contractors and would work on restoring the store building in between jobs. The Marie Mercantile opened sometime in the early 2000s. When the Osbournes closed it they had what has to be my all-time favorite event in 2002. An onsite outdoor auction under a tent. Sitting outside and drinking coffee while holding my bid card in the air to try to win the next piece to add to my collection has always been my favorite way of spending a cool fall morning.
“It was at this sale that I purchased the antique brown liquor bottle from the West Virginia Liquor Company from Hinton that was featured as one of the bottles in my March 27 article. My grandfather also purchased the photo of the dairy truck that he had driven when he used to drive the delivery truck for Halloran’s Dairy, which I used in my Aug. 15 article. Most everything in history can be connected in some fashion or another. The same is true with this piece. Mr. Halloran tracked me down because of the piece I had written about the dairies in Summers County. My grandfather had purchased the photo of the Halloran Delivery truck from an auction that was associated with this building.
“Shortly thereafter a man by the name of Chuck Johnson and his mother Emma Jean from Maryland purchased the property. They further restored the structure and they too opened an antique store that was almost a museum of sorts called Emma Jean’s General Store. It was like walking back into a store from the 1890s and Emma Jean, who has since passed away, was quite the people person. That added an extra element of charm to this already unique store. It was sometime around 2009 or 2010 I recall going with my grandfather to a little fall festival with him at the store. We took his 1931 Model A sedan that he had just brought from his house in Charleston. We took it out that day with my mother for one last hurrah before he sold it.”
In conclusion, Jones stated, “In keeping with the tradition of the previous two stores during the past nearly three decades, Roger Hicks, who had Old School Antiques in Forest Hill, West Virginia started renting this building from Mr. Johnson a few years ago. Roger says he is ‘retired’ from dealing in antiques but still ‘piddles’ in the trade. He and his son Amos also ‘tinkers’ in the production of custom-made furniture as they had done in their previous business. Since its establishment 125 years ago this building has served the Marie community as a store in some fashion or another. Be it a general store supplying the locals with their everyday needs without having to go into town to Hinton. Or an antique store that resembles what a general store looked like back in the day. To now being the staging area for occasionally selling antiques and the showroom of sorts for the custom furniture that is being produced in Marie, West Virginia.”
This brings us to the end of another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Did you know about all of this information?
Anyone wishing to share a story from the area’s history should send an email to news@hintonnews.com
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