Ol' Store Virtual Cache
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Not too long ago, 1980 in fact, amidst weeds, tangled vines, kudzu and downed trees was hidden a small building made of logs and boards in the northern part of Mecklenburg county. This small building was just off a twisting road that led towards the Catawba river. Concerned citizens and historians who discovered this building raised some public and private funds and within nine years the OLDEST, SURVIVING GENERAL STORE IN MECKLENBURG COUNTY was open to the public once again.
Hugh Torance had come to this country from Ireland during the mid 1700’s. At first he lived in Pennsylvania, fought in the Revolutionary war, then married the widow of his calvary captain and moved to McDowell creek. They built and settled in a log house with two rooms and a loft. Soon they had opened a store in the front room and sold potatoes, grain, nails, salt, whisky, brandy, rope, tea, coffee, cloth, sewing supplies, plows and other items.
Customers would ride up to Hugh Torance’s store, tie their horse to a convenient tree and then enter through the large, heavy, basket weave door that was studded with handmade rose-headed nails. Business was good at the store. So good, in fact, that the loft area where the children slept became storage area for the store and Hugh had to build a two story addition for his large family. In 1796 Hugh built a large wooden house just a “stones throw” away which he called “Cedar Grove”. The house was surrounded by fourteen hundred acres of his land. Much later, his son, James, a cotton planter, tore down the house and built a large imposing brick home, also known as “Cedar Grove”, just west of the store. This house still stands and James became known as the largest slave holder in Mecklenburg county. The small house/store remained in business until 1825 when the merchandise was sold to a Charlotte merchant for five thousand dollars.
To get credit for this historical, virtual cache, I ask that you e-mail me by my profile and not by encrypted note on the cache page the number of individual window panes that are on the back side of the house. (take your calculator)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[You might have to park on the side of the road or at the entrance gate but you should get out of the car and walk around the store and peer through the windows and look at the basket weave doors with handmade nails.]
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