Florida Scenes & Family Connections

Old Country Store with Royal Crown Cola Sign

A few days ago I took a drive to just look around and enjoy the country side.  I love to travel the Florida back roads and see what there is to discover.  Now a days I try to always have my camera with me to take pictures of what interest me.  Curiously, for some reason I have always been attracted to old buildings and structures.  I think it's because I like to imagine what it was like when the buildings were new and who may have frequented or used them. 

It was during this last drive that one particular building, pictured above, attracted my attention and I would like to tell you why by way of a little story.  It's a story about my grandfather, the one with the scratchy cheeks, and it's about how he came to Florida and how he eventually came to Ocala and how he then became a traveling salesman.  No traveling salesman jokes please.

Now this is a somewhat interesting story to me and the following is what I know of it.  My grandfather’s name was James Oscar Myers.  He was born around the little town of Jefferson in Chesterfield County South Carolina on May 12, 1880.  Grandpa was the only son of a poor dirt farmer by the name of John Wesley Myers and his wife Axie Missouri Ingram Myers.  Grandpa also had one sister by the name of Emma who it is said got married and moved off to Pennsylvania and was never heard of again.

Now John Wesley was apparently not a very good farmer and sometime shortly after 1880 he along with his brother in law Benjamin Rush Ingram moved to Live Oak Florida where John Wesley went to work in the lumber mill and where Benjamin Rush continued to farm.

Grandpa Myers grew up and went to school near Live Oak and they lived near a little place outside of Live Oak known as Falmouth, Florida.  Today Falmouth is nothing more than a crossroads in the middle of Suwannee County with a few structures and the Mount Gilead Baptist Church where grandpa, my Uncle John Myers and Grandpa Myers' mother Axie Missouri are buried.  

Neither my great grandfather nor my great grandmother had a great deal of education, in fact he could barely read and write and she could do neither, so it was a small wonder that my grandpa completed school.  (Sometime I'll have to tell you the story of the three legged stool and the hickory stick.)  So fortunately Grandpa Myers did finish school and he went on to work his way up from being a laborer in a saw mill to a clerk on the railroad and on to being a successful salesman.  It was shortly after 1910 that Grandpa Myers was able to get a job with the railroad and he eventually moved to Martel where he was hired by the Martel Lumber Company.  During the time he worked for the Martel Lumber Company he was employed as the rail station clerk, managed the commissary and was Postmaster and while he was busy with those jobs my grandma Daisy ran the boarding house.  It was while they lived at Martel that my father, J.O. Myers was born as were my Uncle John and Aunt Jean.

In September of 1919 Pillans & Smith opened a wholesale grocery in Ocala.  Grandpa Myers had worked for Mr. Pillans at the Martel Lumber Company and in late 1920, as the lumber business in Martel faded, he offered my grandfather a position at the wholesale grocery in Ocala. I'm told that my grandpa readily accepted the position and moved into Ocala.  

Grandpa Myers, Martel, Florida 1920

This brings me to the point of my story.  Working for Pillans & Smith became my grandpa's life.  He worked for the company until he was forced to retire well over 30 years after he began.  Working for this company necessitated that my grandfather travel throughout Marion and all the surrounding counties.  He was on the road nearly every day visiting dry-good, mercantile, and grocery stores throughout central Florida.  I think my grandfather loved what he did.  Growing up and even today, I still picture him stopping by those stores and "visiting".  Through the great depression and World War II, I can see him traveling through and telling stories and greeting owners, farmers, business men and wives.  All of them in their local stores shopping for the essentials of life and just visiting and taking a break from the hard work of life.  I can see him sharing the latest news and then moving on to the next "country" store.  Yes, I'm sure that's why I like these old buildings.  Dilapidated and falling down, they are another connection to family long gone but remembered.  A Connection to hard times and good times and stories shared.  It's my history and the history of all my children and their children.  It's the story and not just the facts that make up the tapestry of our lives.