Fluvanna Mercantile Company

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Out in Scurry County, there's a store with a story worth pullin' over for. The Fluvanna Mercantile Company.

A pioneer store, and the marker makes a point of sayin' so, noted for its continuous career on its original site. That's not nothin'. That's a thing to be proud of.

It started in 1915. D. A.

Jones and John A. Stavely, along with associated shareholders, put this thing together out in Fluvanna. Now, you want to know how you stock a general store in a place like that in 1915?

You get the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railroad to freight it in for you. And what came rollin' off those cars? Clothing, materials, groceries, hardware, millinery, patent medicines, seeds, shoes.

The full spread. If you needed it to live, work, or look halfway decent on a Sunday, the Fluvanna Mercantile Company had it. And they weren't messin' around on the big-ticket items either.

Flour and stock salt, those weren't sold by the bag. They were sold by the carload. Let that sit with you for a second.

Carloads. Then came the 1930s. The Depression rolled across Texas like a slow hard wind, and cash got scarce.

But the store kept going. How? Barter.

Local people would come in and trade cream and eggs, what they had, for store-bought supplies. No money changed hands, just necessity meetin' necessity across a wooden counter. There's a whole world of quiet dignity in that arrangement.

By 1958, the early stock and those original display cases had been given to a museum. The kind of thing that happens when a place has been around long enough that its past becomes somebody else's treasure. The Fluvanna Mercantile Company.

Founded in 1915, still on its original site. Some things in Texas just dig in and hold.

What the marker says

Pioneer store noted for its continuous career on original site. Founded in 1915 by D. A. Jones and John A. Stavely, with associated shareholders. Stock--freighted in by Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railroad--was typical "general merchandise": clothing, materials, groceries, hardware, millinery, patent medicines, seeds, shoes. Flour and stock salt were sold by carloads. During 1930s Depression, barter prevailed, as local people traded cream and eggs for "store-bought" supplies. Early stock and display cases were given to a museum in 1958. (1970)