July 22, 2019 / Joanne Yeck

Pluckett-Meeks Store at Clover Hill, Appomattox County

Post Office, Appomattox Court House. Photo by Joanne Yeck.

At least two of my ancestors ran general stores. My Buckingham-born grandmother’s great-grandfather, Alexander Cheatwood Smith of Cartersville, owned a lucrative store in Cumberland County. Some of his ledgers survive at the Library of Virginia. My grandmother’s father, Clay Harris, operated a more modest store in Buckingham County and later in Leon, Iowa.

Another ancestor and longtime Buckingham County resident, John M. Harris, never owned a store to my knowledge, however, he was a regular visitor to the Plunkett-Meeks store in Clover Hill, Appomattox County. How do I know? Miraculously, his name is preserved on a pigeon hole in the store’s post office, located at the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. Harris left Buckingham in about 1857 and removed to Appomattox County where he lived on a farm close to the Plunkett–Meeks store and post office.

Plunkett-Meeks Store, restored.

Courtesy Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

Another Buckingham County connection. . . . When the Plunkett-Meeks store was restored and refurbished, historian and antiques expert Lucille McWane Watson, who assisted with the furnishings and restoration of buildings at Appomattox National Park, used pieces from Buckingham County’s Well Water country store to reconstruct the interior of the Plunkett-Meeks store.

Click here for much more about the Historical Park: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park