In the very first “Yearbook” of the Bruce County Historical Society, in 1967, you can read McLeod Orford’s story about his family’s country store in Tiverton.
For 26 years, until the store closed in January 1943, the Orfords sold groceries, candy, tobacco, baked goods, fruit, ice cream and some patent medicines.
Marshall Orford had arrived in Bruce Township, with his sister Sarah and his brother George, in 1866. They spent their first winter at the home of Lachlan McLean, their maternal grandfather, on Concession 4 and, in 1895, Marshall married Margaret McLean, of Fergus.
In 1913, Marshall opened the first Orford store in Tiverton, on the north side of Queen Street, opposite the store of N. McInnes & Co. In 1917, he bought the building next door and opened a general store.
At that time, chocolate bars had just begun to appear in rural areas. At first, all Orford could obtain was a cherry bar made by McCormick Co. in London. It came in a small, triangular cardboard package decorated with a picture of luscious cherries. It didn’t sell well and a box of 24 would last two months. But within a year it caught on and the regular order became 1,200 instead of 24.
Bulk candy was displayed on shelves in ornate glass containers. Peppermints were a popular item: star mints, imperial mints, after-dinner mints, Scotch mints. Chiclets came in fancy green boxes with a glass top. Boys and girls collected the empty boxes to exhibit nature study collections such as nuts and insects.
On top of the two counters were five showcases. One case, that was about eight feet long was always filled with one-cent candy – chocolate-covered marshmallow objects such as brooms and teddy bears; jawbreakers, bull’s eyes, sponge toffee and liquorice plugs. This case also had a glass front about four inches high so that small children could peer at the treasures within. While the momentous decision was being made, a lone copper was held securely in a tightly-closed fist.
To the left of the front door, with its bell at the top to announce your arrival, were nailed large Old Chum Tobacco calendars, one on top of another as the years went by. Each carried a picture of two ruddy-faced, jovial, middle-aged men, always smoking clay pipes with extremely long stems. They wore the gaudy garments of the Victorian era and looked like two members of Dickens’ Pickwick Club.
Chewing tobacco, such as Queen’s Navy, Stag and King George’s Navy, came in slabs about a foot long. It was marked off in five-cent plugs that were cut apart with the tobacco cutter.
Some boys picked up a tobacco chewing habit at a relatively early age. One way a boy could get his hands on a supply was when his father sent him to the village to buy two or three plugs. With his jackknife he hacked a strip off the end of each plug, then smoothed the ragged ends by rubbing them vigorously over the top of the kitchen stove.
A big feature in winter was the store’s wood stove where the menfolk would gather about a roaring fire to chew tobacco, smoke cigars and thaw out after a trip in from the country. If someone happened to be a skunk hunter the penetrating warmth soon produced convincing evidence of his occupation.
What does a turn-of-the-century general store look like?
Visit Bevan’s at the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre (brucemuseum.ca/exhibit/bevans-general-store).
—————————————–
by Robin Hilborn
Bruce County Historical Society
