INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PHOTO
This photo shows Lizzie Smelser behind the counter of her store on the Bentonville Road, just west of the bridge across the Gooney. This photo, taken by Ginger Perry, originally appeared in the 1988 Browntown Friends and Neighbors Cookbook.
SOME MEMORIES OF LIZZIE SMELSER AND HER STORE
Lizzie was the owner and operator of this store from 1947 until 2003, when Mrs. Smelser broke her arm, and went into a nursing home. She was a much-loved member of the Browntown community. Many of her former customers have very fond memories of visiting her store. Here are a few examples:
“When I was a little girl, we lived in the house next door and we would frequently go next door for a sweet treat or staple items. I remember the hunters would often come by the store with their catch (usually a deer) in the back of their pickup.” Rebecca Stubbs
“Kids and I would get a coke from O. J’s, then go across the road and get a snack from Mrs. Smelser. Then we drove the loop!! Our favorite “field trip”. Ahhhh… great days!” Jean Mauck
“Awww, so many childhood memories of Mrs. Smelser and the store. She was information central! Whatever you needed to know, Mrs. S was several steps ahead of you and already knew.” Shannon Poe
“My mom Martha (Bill) Jones worked for her many years, then my sister Dorothy Bennett did.
We used to play there growing up. She gave me a nickname, Liza Jane—Never understood why, but loved her. She was the sweetest lady.” Lisa Feathers
“Great memories going in the store and just sitting down talking with Louie and Lizzie
Miss those days.” Aubrey Henry
“When you went in, you sat and talked awhile, no ifs, ands, or buts! She was the sweetest.” Margie Faulkner Miller
“Sometimes when the power went off, Mrs. Smelser would spread the word, that ice cream was free. Kids would come running.” Tom Lacombe
A LONG AND VARIED LIFE
Lizzie’s full name was Elizabeth Gertrude Smelser. She was born in 1914 in Buckton VA. and came from a large family of four sisters and seven brothers. Her parents were Samuel and Iva Mae Andrews. Lizzie moved to the Browntown area in 1932 at age 18 when she married Louis Edward Smelser known as “Louie,” or “L.E.,” the son of George Edward Smelser (known as “Edward”) and Blanche Smelser. Louie, like Lizzie, came from a large family. His parents, Edward and Blanche Smelser, also had seven sons and four daughters. all of whom lived close to one another in the area known as Smelser Hollow at the east end of Fetchett Road, on Broad Run Road, very close to the National Park boundary.
Times were hard in the 1930s, especially during the Great Depression, and most people living in Browntown had very little cash and relied for food on what they could produce themselves or barter from neighbors and relatives. Fortunately, there were a lot of Smelsers living nearby who Lizzie and Louie could call on when needed. The Smelser family were obviously very entrepreneurial, especially Ed., Louie’s father. He was in the sawmill business and during his lifetime acquired approximately 800-1000 acres of land in Smelser Hollow. He knew the sawmill business intimately and ensured that his sons would all become sawmill men too. It was said that Ed could simply look at a tree and tell you how many board feet of lumber it contained.
Soon after Louie and Elizabeth were married, they decided to build their own house in Smelser Hollow. There, their son, Billy, was born and delivered at home by Dr. Hansborough. Their son, Ray, was also born while they lived there. The house they built was made using slab wood from the sawmill and had dirt floors. It was difficult to keep warm in the winter and plagued by snakes. During the winter sometimes Lizzy would have to shake out the bedspread to remove snow, then sweep all the snow out the front door, as the cracks and voids in the slab wood let snow into the house. One of her great grandchildren once asked what they did for money during the depression. Her reply was they didn’t have any money, they raised hogs and chickens and had a big garden. They didn’t have much. Sometimes they’d take in a neighbor who was worse off than them. Sleeping on the dirt floor was a blessing to some.
According to Lizzie Smelser, in 1939 they decided to move their house about a mile down the road, to be closer to Browntown, and a spot where there was a very good spring. So they sawed the house in half, and moved each half down the hill on a wagon, as pictured on the left.
This old newspaper photo on the left shows “The Smelser men, Benny, Louie and Ed, pulling their house down Broad Run Road. The house had been up near the park boundary. They sawed it in half, then pulled the sections down the road to relocate it close to where Stacey Lockhart used to live.”
Note: Louie and Lizzie appear in the 1930 and 1950 census returns but not the 1940 census – presumably because at the time of the 1940 census the shack in which they were living was not listed in any official records.
Eventually, Lizzie and Louie moved into the heart of Browntown where they bought the old Keene Updike house & store and opened their first store. This was a 2-story building with a large store area and kitchen on the first floor, and living quarters upstairs. It had a concrete floor and stove with chairs around it for those who stopped in to rest, talk, or get warm – beginning a tradition that Lizzie would follow throughout her years as a shop-owner.
According to Anna Rae White, the outside of the building looked like it belonged in a western movie set. It was located opposite the bridge at the junction of Browntown and Bentonville Roads.
After a few years Louie and Lizzie decided that they liked the store business but not the old Updike building. In 1947 they built a new house and connecting store on the north side of the Bentonville Road about 100 yards from the bridge. The old Keene Updike building was rented to the Hawkins who continued running the store and Louie rented out apartments in the building. Later the Steele’s ran the store. Eventually the old store closed and the apartments fell into disrepair. The building was finally torn down in the 1980s.
Once they moved in to their new store, Mrs. Smelser was always in charge. She, rather than Louie, was definitely the “Boss”. The sawmill crew, including Billy aka “Chin” and Ray aka ”Blue” would show up at the store before heading to work in the nearby mountains. There was no brewed coffee for sale in the mornings because she didn’t like the smell of coffee. However, if you were a regular customer, she might let you carry in a cup of coffee.
Mrs. Smelser knew a lot about many Browntown families and would always remember to ask her customers how their families were doing. If she didn’t have what someone wanted in the store, she could often find it on her private pantry shelves or her refrigerator or freezer.
She also sold gas, but no tobacco and no alcohol. It was kind of a joke in town, to have a newcomer go to her store and ask for one of those last two items. She would give that customer a little scolding.
Photo of Lizzie’s new store on a snowy winter’s day.
Once a man who had already had a few cold ones drove up in his convertible, actually running one tire up on the porch. Then he threw his empty beer can into her trash barrel. He wanted to buy some beer. Lizzy came out, told him he’d had enough already, picked his can out of her trash threw it in his car, and told him to drive on, she didn’t want his business.
Her kitchen was right next to the store, so she could watch the store and what was cooking in her kitchen at the same time. She loved to have all of her family for dinner on Sundays and “whoever could come” on a Wednesday evening. She was known for her good cooking and for being a well-organized and efficient person.
Photo of Lizzie and family member in her store.
In the years leading up to her retirement in 2003 she began to “scale down” and no longer kept her shelves as well stocked as they used to be. She was in bed every night at 9:30 and up every morning at 5:30 and ready for the day soon after. She had a comfortable chair to sit in when not waiting on a customer and kept her well-used Bible on the counter right next to her chair. She particularly enjoyed in those days having her lady friends stop by in the evenings to spend time with her.
In an interview with Anna Rae White (published in the BCCA Newsletter, February, 2003) she summed up her life simply by saying that “Life has been wonderful”. Lizzie died on April 13, 2007 at the age of 92, four years after she finally closed the doors of her store for the last time.
NOTE
In writing this paper we have relied heavily on Anna Rae White’s interview with Lizzie in 2003. Anna Rae carried out an amazing number of such interviews with residents of Browntown over a number of years, all of which were published in the BCCA Newsletter. We are very grateful for the effort and care she put into those interviews, which provide a fabulous insight into the lives of many of those living in Browntown and Bentonville in the early years of this century.