Special to the Enterprise

There are all kinds of boxes: jewelry boxes, packing boxes, ammo boxes, wooden boxes, tissue boxes, gift boxes, candy boxes, music boxes, and others.

Few are as rare as the one recently mentioned by a neighbor. The contents of this box were of great interest and historical value.

The simple corrugated cardboard box was unmarked, sitting on a shelf in a downtown Stuart office. What treasures this box contained: newspaper articles, clippings from magazines, flyers, handwritten journal pages, photos — a vast collection of local historical information accumulated over a period of many years.

The neighbor’s father, Fulton E. Clark, is a history buff. He has been saving the contents of the box for a long time, no doubt with fond memories.

The contents revealed the mind-boggling changes that occurred over the past 130 years — a veritable history of the Town of Stuart and the surrounding areas.

While some of the items contained in the box relate to the Clark Brothers business, in many ways the items help chronicle the story of us all.

The business began as a general mercantile store in the late 1800s in Taylorsville, which is the former name of the Town of Stuart.

Stuart was chartered in 1884 and W.H. “Will” Clark started the Clark Brothers’ store in 1885 in present day downtown Stuart. Then, the streets were mud and the transportation was horse and wagon.

An extensive article by J. Clayton Boaz, former owner of The Enterprise, described the beginnings and growth of Uptown and Downtown Stuart through the eyes of Myron Clark, Fulton’s father, who became the business owner after his uncle Will Clark.

Boaz described the progression, from the beginning of Clark Bros. Store through the many changes that followed, including the paving of the road from Stuart to Martinsville in 1925, the era of the Danville & Western Railroad, which came from Martinsville and turned around in downtown Stuart. Known locally as the Dick & Willie, the train started running in 1884. It stopped in 1941 when it was determined by the War Production Board that the rails were needed for the war effort.

As the article written by Boaz indicated, changes during Myron Clark’s lifetime were fast and furious.

Buildings and businesses were built and many torn down, streets were paved and eventually water and electricity came to Stuart. Many of the changes were affected by Clark Bros. as they added a construction segment to their business in 1932.

By 1986, the company had 60 employees. It had built many of the present-day structures in Stuart, Patrick County and nearby areas.

Will Clark built a mill on the Mayo River that was later sold to the Georges. It was operational until 1954. It was later condemned by the county, eventually torn down and removed in 1987 as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ flood-control project.

In July 1997, Rite-Aid was built and remains near where the mill was located on the north side of the Mayo River.

Many other changes were revealed when delving deeper into the box.

There were newspaper clippings and advertisements from numerous businesses that were a vital part of Stuart. Many no longer exist: Alexander’s Food Market, which began in one location but moved to a larger, improved store plus added an addition — all built by Clark Bros. Construction; Mayo Funeral Home; Mills Department Store; Stuart Drug Store; Hudson’s Drug Store; Mick or Mack; Ashby’s Grocery Store; Jenrette’s Dress Shop; the Bull Mountain Bugle newspaper; The Olde Shoppe; Sears and Montgomery Ward’s catalogue stores; Beasley’s Furniture & Variety Store; and the Star Theatre, just to name a few.

Clippings also showed that banks were started in buildings specially built to house them. As the banks grew, they relocated, sometimes again and again. There was both a Ford and a Chevrolet dealership. Anglin Tire Service was located on North Main Street.

So many businesses have disappeared that recalling them all is difficult.

Several churches were built in Stuart, and many still remain. The Clark Bros. remodeled the front of Stuart Baptist Church in 1991. Some folks recall the Stonewall House built in 1793 that sat at the head of North Main Street but was torn down to construct a new bank building.

A service station and a bus stop were situated across from that house, and a hospital stood where the present Patrick County Branch Library stands today.

Countless news articles in the box tell of the changes to county schools, and Clark Bros. Construction often was the low bidder and received the construction contract.

For example, Red Bank School, which no longer exists, was a three-room school but in 1938. The county contracted with Clark Bros. to tear down the old school and build a new one with an auditorium, classrooms and agricultural building. Eventually, Red Bank became a high school, was later changed to a grade school, and then closed by the Patrick County School Board in 1984.

Gyms at Stuart Elementary School were built by Clark Bros. as was an addition at Woolwine Elementary, including an elevator to make the school handicap-accessible.

Digging deeper into the box, one finds that a multitude of other projects were completed by Clark Bros.: the solid-waste transfer station, the Rotary Building, the cottages at the hyrdoelectric plant in Kibler Valley, DeHart Park, the park ranger’s residence at Fairy Stone State Park, Cedar Square Apartments.

The business also helped with Chateau Morrisette’s new winery building, the renovation of Mabry Mill’s lunch and craft shop, and the WHEO building on Wayside Drive.

While this list contains only a few of the projects in Boaz’s article, according to statements by Myron Clark, the company had completed hundreds of projects back in his day, including most of the houses on Sunset Drive and Mountain View Heights in Stuart, as well as numerous residential, commercial and industrial buildings, not only locally but throughout Henry and Floyd counties.

Clark Bros. is no longer in its original building. It relocated just across the way into what was once the railroad depot. It has operated for more than 130 years as Clark Brothers Co. Inc., and recently became a fifth-generation entity with the addition of Fulton’s granddaughter, Laura Clark. Her father Joseph F. Clark was the fourth generation and is the current president of the company.

It is remarkable that a small box can tell such a story: A business that would buy your butter for 18-cents a pound at its inception, and still is active and thriving in Downtown Stuart 130 years later.

Sifting through all the records, one can only imagine that this quote found in the box by Del. Robert L. Clark (Myron’s brother) has helped steer the company as it moved forward.

“There are more good people in the world than bad ones,” he wrote. “That’s been my philosophy of life and living.”

Perhaps other boxes, shelved for safe keeping, have histories to share and their own stories to tell.