Comments from our past newsletter about the old country stores of the area are still coming in. One reader asked if anyone else remembered Mr. Clarence Berryman and his wife Miss Ethel and their traveling store. She said they had everything in their traveling store (truck), even chickens. Her favorite item on the truck was a piece of candy!

Some of the peddlers were on foot, carrying their wares on their backs. One that I remember was called “Cheap John” and I believe he came from Fulton. He would walk his route, sleeping in barns unless someone offered him a nice, warm bed.

Pictured above  is Dempsey Casey, my husband’s great-grandfather, and his daughter Susan standing beside his peddlar’s wagon in the 1920s. He also traded for chickens and eggs which he would take to Fulton and sell. He ran a store for years until declining business caused him to close; he then took up the traveling store.

Although he lived near Pilot Oak in Graves County, KY, this rig is typical to those seen throughout the countryside.

Another picture we have shows him with a load of chickens in coops on the wagon, probably poised to make the trek to Fulton.