Fluvanna Mercantile Company

The store opened in 1915 at a railhead and outlived it. The Handbook of Texas says the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railway extended 18 1/2 miles from Snyder to Fluvanna, finished September 11, 1909. Fluvanna had its townsite staked and lots on sale before the trains came. When the railroad closed the Fluvanna station in 1941, the extension was abandoned and its track taken up, ending the town's days as a shipping center. The Fluvanna store kept its original site, and Fluvanna still had a population of 180 in 2000.

What the plaque says

Fluvanna Mercantile Company Pioneer store noted for its continuous career on original site. Founded in 1915 by D. A. Jones and John A. Stavely, with associated shareholders. Stock--freighted in by Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railroad--was typical "general merchandise": clothing, materials, groceries, hardware, millinery, patent medicines, seeds, shoes. Flour and stock salt were sold by carloads. During 1930s Depression, barter prevailed, as local people traded cream and eggs for "store-bought" supplies. Early stock and display cases were given to a museum in 1958. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Scurry County Museum — 19 mi
  Snyder's county museum on the Western Texas College campus, with the rifle used to shoot the white buffalo, an 1878 chuckwagon and the millionth barrel of the Canyon Reef oil boom.
• Garza County Historical Museum — 25 mi
  The county museum of Post, C. W. Post's planned town below the Caprock, kept in the stone sanitarium the town opened in 1912 as the best-equipped medical building west of Fort Worth.

More markers nearby

• Fluvanna — steps away
• Dermott — 7.0 mi
• Home County of Famous Frontiersman J. Wright Mooar — 8.8 mi
• The Brazos River in Justiceburg — 11 mi