Cole's General Mercantile

Matthew Cole started the store and other businesses in 1869 to supply the miners and the quarry. The store held on and was the last business in Marble Springs when it closed in 1944. Rachel Cole sat between the window and the counter, so she could look out on the denizens of the town both within and without the store. Inscribed on her chair is:
The having and selling of bread, coffee, flour, and eggs is what holds a town together¹.

Footnotes

1. We, the shelves who saw all the denizens of the Valley, we, who knew who bought what and on how much credit, we think on these things and do not understand.

Marble Springs 2.0 screenshot of the store

Marble Springs 2.0 screenshot of the store

It's Marriage

Rachel Cole and Matthew Cole

It's Family

Rachel Cole and Matthew Cole's sons and daughters worked in the store: Wayne Cole, Walter Cole, Leah Cole, Ruth Cole, Naomi Cole.

It's Hatred

It's Friends

Millie Horner
Edna Harris
Mollie Mateson

It's Business

Rachel Cole
Matthew Cole
The Ladies Aid Society

It's Complicated

Mandy Turner

It’s a secret tearing at the soul

Alvina Heollstar
Peggy Dagmar
Red Birch

It’s a secret growing in the soul

Penny and Ida May

It's outside the wall

Hezekiah and her daughter Ivy

Map