Armstrong Grocery, Salem, VA

This past week I've been trying to organize letters that have been stored in plastic bags for years, letters that are not arranged in any order that I can understand, letters from the early-twentieth century in the same bags as letters from the 1880s and 1890s. But in organizing and quickly reading the letters, I discover patterns emerging, relationships coelescing in my mind. In one photograph album I came across a photo of an old store with this inscription beneath it: "Armstrong Grocery, Salem, Va." Edward McCarty Armstrong had a store in Romney, in what is now West Virginia. But Edward sold his property after the Civil War and moved to Salem, Virginia. Did he open another store there? In none of the letters (from the 1880s) I have read so far, does Edward mention a store, just the headaches and heartaches of trying to get his farm to produce. However, it may have been that Edward opened a store in Salem after selling his businesses in Romney and New Castle, West Virginia. His obituary indicates that he purchased the farm some years after moving to Salem: "Moving to Salem, Va, March 1866, he began business with his accustomed energy, and only laid it aside in 1882 in order to cultivate a farm, which he bought near Salem. After farming for five years, he rented his place and came back to Salem to live." Then, today, looking through a file of letters I had arranged by date, I came across a letter from Robert Armstrong to his brother Baker, dated November 30, 1882, and written from Baltimore, where Robert evidently was living. In the letter, Robert mentions "Cousin Will" and "Aunt Susan"--I suspect that "Aunt Susan" would be the wife of William Armstrong, the brother of Edward McCarty Armstrong.

It must be that, by 1882, one or two of the older sons of Edward McCarty Armstrong owned or managed the store in Roanoke or Salem that the father had, perhaps, started when he moved to Salem in 1866. Edward McCarty Armstrong had two families: one by his first wife, Hannah Pancake, and the other by his second wife, Louisa Tapscott White. Baker and Robert are sons of the second marriage. And evidently, Robert and Baker felt that they had not been served well by their older half-brothers, William Dillon Armstrong and David Gibson Armstrong. Robert writes that he's thankful that he has "some relations here who do seem to appreciate me more than any at home except you all at Edgewood." Edgewood was the family home of Edward McCarty Armstrong and his second wife Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong, and the name appears as a heading to many of the letters that mother Louisa wrote her sons Robert and Baker in later years.

Later in the letter Robert writes:

Neither of us has been treated properly at home--the Dr., as you well know, acted in any but a [unreadable] manner toward you; and Bro. G. [that would be "G" for "Gibson," for David Gibson Armstrong was called "Gib" or "Gibson" by his family]--well, if he had done the square thing by me, he would have offered me a share in the profits and thus made me a partner in the store. He does enough business to afford it and, besides that, I think I had worked long enough with him to entitle me to something better than I was getting. But, sometimes a "man's foes are they of his own household." Therefore, I think it better for us both to have left since neither of us were appreciated or ever received the slightest encouragement from our brothers, whom we served. But, if you will come here, we will "make it or bust."

The "Dr." in the letter may have been Dr. Perry, whose signature appears in one of the images below and who probably worked as a druggist for the grocery store. I suspect that Baker was learning his trade from the good doc. At the end of the letter, Robert adds a postscript, with a request that Baker evidently did not honor because this letter still exists!

Destroy this letter, please, when you have read it for I don't wish anyone else to see what I have written in ref. to W. D.  & D. G. A. [William Dillon and David Gibson Armstrong]. They are kind in other respects, but as regards the matter mentioned, they did not do the square thing. R.

Also among the family items is a pharmacy or grocery notebook filled with printed advertisements and blank, lined pages for notes. The pages have headings such as: Yankee Notions, White Goods, Dress Goods, Groceries, Paper Hangings, etc. On some of these pages are written pharmacy recipes for ointments and cures. The final page has a calendar for the year 1873. Tucked in the pages are newspaper clippings of humorous stories and pages from a pharmacy tablet from Geo. W. Norrell, Pharmacist, Bryan, TX. Baker White Armstrong, who eventually went to Texas and worked for a while as a druggist for Geo. W. Norrell, clearly owned this notebook. On the outside is stamped "David G. Armstrong & Co., Salem, VA." And so the puzzle is nearly completed. Baker's and Robert's older half-brother David Gibson Armstrong owned a grocery store in Salem, Virginia. Both Baker and Robert worked for their brother. Below are images from the old pharmacy notebook. Note, 22 November 2009: Later letters reveal that William Dillon Armstrong owned a Drug Store in Salem, and David Gibson Armstrong owned a store, as well. It could be that the brothers were in business together, but by 1885 or 1886, Baker Armstrong and his brother Robert were exchanging letters about the possibility of Baker's buying out William's Drugstore. In the end, Baker did not do this, and William began business in another town. Brother Gibson also sold his storeroom.