Everets Stores and Businesses

Kea Store

This store operated by Mr. and Mrs. Kea was located on Quaker Road in Isle of Wight County near the Brooklyn Pruden home place.  Frank Kelly remembers delivering them ice in the 1930s and noted that they only had items in brown paper bags on shelves in the small store.  Not much else is known about this store.

Martin’s Store

From the late 1920s until the early 1940s there was a store in a converted warehouse run by Rufus Martin.  It was located on the northeast side of the road prior to crossing the bridge.  He made two bedrooms and a living room upstairs with the store area and a kitchen downstairs.  Two different pictures show the store with a flat roof and later an A-line roof indicating the renovations.  Gas was sold here from a tank with a hand pump.  William Baker, a cousin, lived with him and helped run the store.  Rufus had also run stores in Chuckatuck and Exit for awhile.  When Rufus died in 1939 William went to work for W. K. Wagner in a store on the other side of the creek.  J.R. Kirk bought the Martin store and Clifton Morgan ran it for awhile and, later, Ercelle Copeland.  Ercelle said it stopped being operated as a store in October 1943.  It was torn down about 1944.  The left over stock was in the Kirk garage at one time.  Lynn Rose remembers cards of buttons, aspirin, bottles holding various items, etc.  (insert picture showing this store)

To show the goodness of these merchants we quote Stokes Kirk who with his father employed close to 100 people after the depression to work on the farms as well as in the cotton gin and sawmill.  “In 1933 and 1934 the lumber business was paramount.  Dad had built the office at the edge of the road next to the saw mill.  Cotton was still being ginned when the bank holiday came along.  There was no more money that could be transferred.  The two store owners, Rufus Martin and W. K. Wagner, agreed to honor requests to grant our employees groceries up to a certain amount in dollars.  After the bank holiday was over, we paid for the orders or requests by check.  Then Roosevelt’s “National Recovery Act” became law and business began to gradually improve.”  Note: Wikipedia states that the Emergency Banking Act “Bank Holiday” (the official title of which was the Emergency Banking Relief Act) was an act of the United States Congress spearheaded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. It was passed on March 9, 1933. The act allowed a plan that would close down insolvent banks and reorganize and reopen those banks strong enough to survive.)

The Wagner / Martin Store

This store was located along the western branch of the Nansemond River at the base of the T. J. Saunders’ home place, later known as the the Russell home.  It is believed to have been built in the 1890s at a cost of about $500.00 according to some hearsay comments.  The post office was located in this store beginning in 1907 with Edward E. Wagner as postmaster.  His brother, W. Kasper “Kas” Wagner, was postmaster from 1914 until the post office was discontinued in 1915. He was running the store in the early 1930s and ran it until approximately 1946. It is not known if he ran it from 1915 until the early 1930’s.  His granddaughter, Celia Wagner Coughlin, related that this was a perfect place to wait for the school bus. 

The store operation was owned and operated by William Baker from the mid 1940s until 1959.  (insert pic of this store) It was then sold to Atlee Martin, Rufus’ brother.  Atlee, his wife Mary and their son Earl operated the store until it closed in 1962 due to the formation of the Western Branch reservoir.  The building continued to be owned by the land owner who at that time was Alfred Russell.  Earl has a “credit box” from the old store as well as other items.  Inventory was stored on the Martin farm in 1962 because a replacement store was not complete. 

They still had customers to come to the farm to buy groceries.  Mr. Martin died in August 1962 before they had moved into the new store which was located approximately ¼ of a mile from the old store.  The new store, built by Mr. Z. Turner, was run by Mrs. Martin until 1968 when she rented it to a Mr. Brewer.  In 1972 she sold it to Alvin P. Thomas who had run a store in Orbit.  Mr. Thomas died in November 1975 and his wife, Mary Frances Ivey Thomas, operated it for several months. 

It was then converted into a home and was later inherited by her daughter, Phyllis Thomas Brock, and her husband Peter who live there now.

Kirk Cotton Gin

Kirk Lumber Company

Kirk/Martin Store

The next Everets’ store known to us was located down the hill and across the road from the J. J. Kirk home and in front of the Kirk Company sawmill. The store was in a large two story building with living quarters upstairs.  The December 1874 application by J.J. Kirk for a post office indicated it was “30’ from the Western Branch of the Nansemond River on the east side”.  The number of inhabitants of the village listed on the application was 75 and the population to be supplied by the proposed office was listed as 300.  Mail as well as store provisions, ice, beef, flour and clothing came in by boat.  Earl Martin has an early ledger for this store from when it was run by John W. E. Martin, his grandfather.  The ledger has over 100 named entries for people who charged purchases or sold items to Mr. Martin from 1888 to 1893.  (insert pic. of this store)

Z. Turner later ran this store, but was not postmaster.  His daughter, Anna Goode Turner, was born there.  She fell off the counter as a baby, breaking her hip which did not heal properly causing her to have a severe limp.  Rufus E. Martin clerked for Mr. Turner at one time.  In 1924 Alex Moore’s uncle, Samuel G. Moore, was running the store.  Everets was a bustling community during this time.  The store owned by the Kirk’s at least part of the time was torn down in the early 1930s by Russell Kirk.

The Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1897-’98 published by the J. L. Hill Printing Company lists three “General Merchants” for Everets.  They were Mrs. V. L. Pope, M. L. Underwood, and T. J. Saunders (agt.).   It is not known which stores Mrs. Pope and Mr. Underwood were affiliated with, but it is assumed the T. J. Saunders was connected with the store located below his home on the west side of the bridge.