Bulletin Briefs

In this area you will find excerpts from previous Bulletins—a quarterly booklet that is one of the perks of membership in the Halifax County Historical Society.

Hyco Country Store—Lost but not forgotten

(Excerpt taken from article in Fall 2021 Bulletin.)

Hyco country store, built in 1871 but demolished in 2018, was unusual for its abundance of architectural elements—details that would more likely be found on a stately family home. Thought to have been built by Joseph Edward “Ned” Ragland, is was operated as a general store until it closed in the early 1900s. The storefront was located close to a well-traveled country road, while the rear was in walking distance of the Hyco River, offering the merchant additional means to procure and transport goods.

Ragland had entered the mercantile business in Cluster Springs with William L. Owen. Later he formed a partnership, Ragland, Traynham & Company Mercantile Business operating in the Harmony community. When he decided to open his own business, he constructed Hyco Country Store using “refined architectural” elements. The front gabled-roof featured narrow boxed cornices with returns, a treatment Ragland repeated on the rear of the building.

Brackets with pendants supported the front returns and the pent roof that ran atop the storefront windows and door. See detail below.

Interior architectural elements such as crossetted window and door surrounds, panel doors, deep baseboards, decorative panels under the windows and an unusually wide winder stair, suggested that there were living quarters at the rear of the first floor and on the second floor.

Ragland’s brother, Major Robert L. Ragland, who founded the Slate Seed Company, may have used the basement or part of the building to store or package tobacco seed. Major Ragland’s nearby farm was the largest producer of tobacco seed in the world and following his death in 1893, his sons and William C. Slate operated the seed business. Slate married Major Ragland’s adopted daughter Fanny and following her death, married Ned Ragland’s daughter, Janie. Around 1900, the Hyco Country Store closed and the Slate Seed Company moved to South Boston.