Time Capsule

Welcome to this week's "Weaver Wednesday" on this beautiful October day!

Our past few posts have been about our family's stores on the square in Talladega, Alabama. This week, let's go a bit farther back in time and rediscover Grandfather Weaver's first store. Our family is so fortunate  that Lora Antoinette Weaver Ragsdale wrote a paper on her family's history in Talladega to be included in a time capsule for the Talladega County Historical Society. She wrote a long and descriptive narrative that we can look at over the course of our year ahead on Family Trails. Today, I will share what Lora wrote about her father when he started his first store in Lineville, Alabama. I will begin after she described her parents' farmhouse: 

After our father managed to get his farm under control, he opened a country store. In order to keep up his stock, he would go about 20 miles to market in Talladega in his wagon with the bow frame cover. 

 A few days before leaving, he would let it be known in the community so his customers could bring in different kinds of produce to be sold:  chickens, eggs, beeswax, sheep skins, potatoes, honey, onions, corn, and many other items. 

He would bring back staple items that could not be grown on the farm, such as sugar, salt, lard, and flour. he would also buy lamps and kerosene oil.

In those days eggs were not graded; an egg was an egg-pullet, hen, guinea, duck, or goose. Father would pack these in a large wooden box. In the bottom of the box he would put a layer of cotton seed, then a layer of eggs and continue layering cotton seed and eggs until he had as many as 500 eggs. Kiser, who would go with him to market, said that not one was ever broken. 

This is all that Lora wrote about the store in Lineville. We will continue in the weeks to come to look into her article that was placed in the time capsule. She described their family's home life, store life, and farm life.

We are the fortunate ones that are able to read this without waiting on the time capsule to be opened. 

Love,

Mariellan