SUMMERS COUNTY W.Va. (Hinton News) – This week’s piece is not going to provide nearly the history I would like to have been able to. But it is too interesting of a piece not to at least mention. Everett Smith more commonly known as “E.P. Smith” by the locals of Summers County during the early 1900s through the 1960s was a “door-to-door salesman” having his home store in Charmco, West Virginia.
I can remember my Grandfather Bernard Thompson telling me stories of his childhood in Talcott, and E.P. Smith, much like the door-to-door salesman you would often see on television in shows such as “Little House on the Prairie” with the most notable being Mr. Haney from “Green Acres,” was a salesman that started with a horse and wagon until becoming “more modern” when he started driving this Model T Ford you see here during the 1930s Depression.
During the Depression, it was hard for people to get their staples (basic needs), yet along with luxuries like a new coffee pot or shoes. One of the biggest reasons was a lack of transportation. E.P. capitalized on this and started driving this truck he built this colorful box on the back that says, “Smith Products Co. E.P. Smith Pro. Charmco, W.Va. Distributors Manufacturing Plant Charmco, W.Va.”. He also listed the items he carried on the truck around the top of the box on white signs with gold letters.
Granddad told me if E.P. did not have it on the truck when he would make his regular stop at your house he would order it and he would bring it by on his next trip through. Kids didn’t have many toys in the county at that time and most of their parents couldn’t afford to buy them any. E.P. would let them play with the ones he carried on the truck while he was selling to the parents.
I remember Granddad saying the last time he saw E.P. traveling through this area was sometime in the early 1960s in the same old truck that he had been “peddling” in for decades in Alderson, West Virginia. Which had to be sometime prior to 1963 as E.P. passed away on May 23 of that year. Granddad’s best friend and fellow Summers County historian John Kesler tracked the truck down in 1999.
Granddad and John made a trip just to see the truck, reminisce about their childhood, and share memories they had of E.P. with this truck. Please forgive the quality of these photos, it was behind many other antique vehicles in a dark garage and these were the clearest photos they could take of it. My Grandfather Bernard Thompson is the gentleman standing beside the truck, and the other photo is a closer view of advertisements on the side.
If your grandparents or great-grandparents lived in Talcott, Pence Springs, Lowell, Balangee, Marie, etc. during this time chances are they too had bought items off of E.P. and his truck during one of his many trips through our part of the county.
