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Painting graces wall of Iredell post office
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Published: October 11, 2009
Mrs. Iona Walker Grant, 98, knew just what to do with the painting of her late husband, George W. Grant, who was the proprietor of a general store near Rocky Creek in Turnersburg for 29 years and the postmaster for 21 years. The painting, by Merry Johnson of Indiana, shows Mr. Grant standing on the porch of his establishment, which also housed the post office.
What better place to put the painting than in the current Turnersburg Post Office? Today's post office is a ½-mile south of where Grant's Store stood and is on the western side of Highway 21.
The contents of the old Grant's Store were auctioned off and the structure razed. The razing of the 70-plus-year-old building, a community landmark owned by the J.P. Stevens textile plant, marked the end of an era. Ledgers were found in the building listing customers and stock back to 1890s. The structure is believed to have been erected in 1893 beside the old cotton mill.
The painting came about because of Dottie Rash, whose daddy's farm adjoined the back of Grant's Store. Dottie was a frequent customer at Grant's Store.
She was at a benefit at Fiddler's Grove in Union Grove and won a painting as a prize.
"You could have Mrs. Johnson do a painting of yourself or your family, or whatever," said Mrs. Rash. "I knew I wanted to have a painting made of Grant's Store and had seen the photo of it that Mrs. Grant had."
The painting was made, and Mrs. Rash decided to give it her friend, Mrs. Grant.
Mrs.Grant's husband moved his family from Taylorsville to Turnersburg in 1940 and ran the store, previously called the Rocky Creek Mills Store, for the next 28 years. He passed away in December 1973. Well respected in the community, besides being postmaster, Grant had been a committeeman for Harmony High School and a Sunday school teacher and deacon at Hebron Baptist Church.
Grant's store was a place, once common in the rural South, of which it was said, "If they ain't got it, you don't need it." They sold fresh meat, coffee, sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, salt, calico cloth, mule harnesses and shoes, plows, chewing tobacco and snuff and a myriad other items to the mill workers and their families. The store/post office was the hub of the little community of some 17 homes.
According to Iredell historian Homer Keever, the cotton mill at Rocky Creek was built in 1849, the first textile factory in the county.
There was a post office in Iredell County called Turner's Store, established on Dec. 29, 1831, which was discontinued in 1844, which may have been the first post office there.
A post office was definitely established (or re-established) as Turnersburgh in 1858 and operated under that name until the "h" was dropped in 1894, giving the post office its current name.
Mount Mourne holds the honor as our county's oldest post office under the same name, having been established in 1805. The Statesville Post Office dates from 1819. Before that it was known as Iredell Court House, which was established in 1795.
Mrs. Grant said she worked alongside her husband in the store after their children were old enough to go to school, and that it was "the hardest work I ever did."
"I had to watch that no one walked out the door without paying. And I made the sausage and the livermush. I had to crank a sausage maker by hand, then cooked it up in a pressure cooker. The livermush was so good that Mr. Columbus Vance Henkel, who owned the textile plant and the store, regularly bought a supply for his Vance Hotel in town."
Carolyn Steelman, Turnersburg's postmaster since October 2007, was delighted with the idea of hanging the painting in the post office.
"I enjoy reading about old post offices and I think the community should learn about their local history — particularly the new people who have moved into the community. It's important to save local information," she said.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, 41 years to the day after the new post office opened, the 25-by-31-inch painting was hung where all the postal patrons could see it.
The historic painting will be on display through the first of the year.
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