Retail Stores and Peddlers

The General Store

I’d know it by the Sight of it, I’d know it by the smell;

I’d know it by the sound of it, and know it mighty well,

I’d know it if you set me down at midnight, ‘mid the scent

Of coffee bags and sugar bins and country butter blent.

With eyes shut I can smell again the prints upon the shelf

Amid the hickory shirting -— you could do the same yourself.

Examiner, May 6, 1905

According to tradition, Mount Stewart’s first retail establishment was located in an over—turned boat. We know with certainty that Mr. Fade Goff built a store “on the south side of the ferry to sell goods” sometime between 1810 and 1812. This edifice, some twenty years later, was des- cribed as having been “something called a store,” but whether the store of fact and the store of tradition were one and the same may, at this late

date, never be known.

Over one hundred and sixty years have gone by, and, during this period, a large number of stores were located in the area. At one time, it is said that eleven such enterprises were operating in the village con- currently. Today, there are only two. A one-line entry in an obscure directory is the only evidence that many of these ever existed. The mem- ory of some has vanished without a trace. What follows is an attempt to chronicle the histories of some of the better-known establishments. A detailed survey would be far beyond the scope of this volume.

John Roche Bourke

The retail outlet of this prominent landowner, shipbuilder, miller and manufacturer is one of the few structures on Main Street Whose exis- tence pre-dates the ravages of the 1894 fire. Located in the building which, until recently, was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bertram MacDonald, the business was originally a partnership between Mr. Bourke and William W. Moore. Although the Islander for September 7, 1860 informed its readers that the firm of Bourke and Moore was a sub-agent for Ayer’s sarsparilla, there is evidence that the enterprise may have existed some years prior to that. Thus, the October 30, 1857 issue of the same paper records the marriage of Mr. Moore, “merchant of Mount Stewart Bridge,” to Miss Mano Madeline Holland.

After the Bourkes left Mount Stewart during the early 90’s, the store remained vacant for a number of years. In 1897, Miss Jessie Shaw, the new owner, rented it to William H. Pigot who soon built a store of his own. Miss Shaw’s tenancy was followed by that of A. E. MacKinnon. Mr. John A. Barrett was the last merchant to operate from the premises Which subsequently became a private residence.

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