So in the Pamplin area in the 1860s general stores were taking clay pipes made in the home industry, allowing about ½¢ each in trade for commodities, and at least in one instance were shipping them west for use by the miners in the gold fields.
Mrs. Betty Price has said that the Powhatan “Original” ([Plate 13] A) the “Hamburg” ([Plate 14] F) and the “Zuvee” or “Zoo” ([Plate 19] T) were some of the first pipe forms made in the area. (News-Leader, April 30, year unknown).
Many of the clay pipes made at homes near Pamplin were traded for commodities at the Thornton General Store in Pamplin, and this store was truly “general”, for it handled, in addition to groceries, everything from threshing machines and horsepower mills to silk thread.
Miss Wilsie Thornton had a copy of her Father’s letterhead: the letter was dated, Jan. 9, 1892. The letterhead reads,—
W. D. THORNTON, DEALER.
General Merchandise and Agricultural Implements.
Wholesale dealer in All Styles of Clay Pipes and Stems
Manufacturer’s Agent for
Aultman and Taylor Threshers, Horse Power and Farm Engines.
Also Buckeye Reapers & Mowers & Thornmill Wagons.
“The pipes made by the local women,” Miss Thompson said, “were traded to the Thornton Store for the necessities of life. The pipes were stored in the basement of the store and packed in barrels, in either pine needles or sawdust, and shipped to the Baltimore Bargain House, or to other wholesale houses. From the wholesale houses they were shipped to the Cotton States and to the West. Large orders were filled for a tobacco factory in Pennsylvania, where they sold bags of tobacco with the pipes.”
Pamplin pipes have been reported from the sites of Fort Laramie, Wyoming; Fort Sanders, Wyoming; Fort Stambaugh, Wyoming; Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming; Fort Union, New Mexico; Fort Sully, South Dakota; and Fort Davis, Texas (Wilson, 1971).
Miss Thornton’s parents were married in 1874, but the store was already in operation at that time. Her father continued operation until his death, December 16, 1897; after that the store was run by her brother. A bank, the “Farmer’s and Merchant’s National Bank” was also operated in the store. In later years the building became a drug store.
Finally with time and disuse the old building came down and erosion, with perhaps some intentional filling of the area, took place. So the site of the old general store, which in its heyday had meant so much to Pamplin and Appomattox County and its people in their daily living, became simply a vacant area.
Some years ago Miss Thornton had made a train trip and met an old colored woman in a rest room to which they had both gone to smoke. (When we met her, Miss Thornton chain-smoked at the age of 89). The colored woman had a sack of tobacco and pulled out a clay pipe which Miss Thornton recognized as of the kind that her father used to take in trade, so she asked the woman if it was a good one.