By Beverly Belcher Woody
I was recently contacted by a woman inquiring about her grandfather, Julius Joseph Goldstein. She shared that Mr. Goldstein had once run a store on Main Street in Stuart, Virginia, during the 1920s and into the mid-1930s. Her family knew that he and his wife had lived in a house on Chestnut Street, but little else was known about their time in Patrick County.
Curious to learn more, I reached out to local historian and Chestnut Street expert Larry Hopkins. Hopkins purchased his home from Jimi Mitchell, the grandson of Frank Hylton. The Hyltons had built their home on Chestnut Street around 1930, but soon after, the Great Depression struck. The family moved to the mountain and rented the Chestnut Street house to a Jewish family.
I then contacted Hylton’s grandson, my former teacher Jimi Mitchell, to see if he remembered anything further. Mr. Mitchell said his grandfather had never told him the name of the family who moved into the new house or what business they were in. However, his mother Sue remembered the story well. She told him that during those hard years, the Hyltons rented a small house below Laurel Fork School and lived off the rent they earned from the Chestnut Street property. Those were lean times—she said they often had nothing but cornbread, milk, and spring onions to eat until the gardens came in.
The hardships of that era were shared by nearly everyone, and the Goldstein family was no exception.
According to the 1930 United States Census, Julius Joseph Goldstein—listed as Joseph Goldstein—was born around 1893 in Maryland. At the time, he was thirty-seven years old, married to Mary Ann Robertson Goldstein, and living on Chestnut Street in Stuart, Virginia, with their seven children. The census shows that the family rented their home for $25 a month. The family did own a radio—one small luxury in a decade of scarcity.
Julius was a salesman in a retail dry goods store, a wage worker earning his living in the heart of Main Street Stuart. His wife, Mary, stayed home to care for their large family. Their children were: Dora (19), Mildred (17), Marguerite (15), Reubin (10), Rebecca (9), Lewis (5), and Leonard (3).
Julius’s granddaughter later shared family memories that shed light on the difficult path that had brought him to Patrick County. Born in Maryland, his childhood was marked by tragedy. His mother was severely burned in a hearth fire in 1893 and died a few days later in the hospital. His father, overwhelmed or unwilling to care for the children, abandoned the family soon afterward.
The orphaned children were taken in by their grandfather, who eventually placed Julius and at least one brother in the St. Vincent Orphan Asylum in Baltimore. It was there, among hundreds of other children left behind by fate, that Julius learned to survive through determination and hard work.
As he grew older, family stories tell that he found employment in a general store owned by a man named Mr. Hiner, who recognized his honesty and work ethic. When the time came, Mr. Hiner sent Julius to Stuart, Virginia, to manage a store there—a journey that would forever connect the Goldstein name with the small mountain town.
Like so many immigrants and first-generation Americans of that time, Julius faced prejudice as well as hardship. His granddaughter shared that over the years, he changed the spelling of his last name several times—Goldstein, Goldstene, Goldstone, and Goldstine—perhaps in an attempt to sound “less Jewish” and blend in during an era when anti-Semitism was common, even in rural communities.
Yet, despite a lifetime of struggle—losing his mother as an infant, growing up in an orphanage, and raising a large family during the Great Depression—Julius Joseph Goldstein persevered. He worked hard, provided for his wife and children, and left behind a legacy of resilience.
Life in the early 1900s was never easy. Families like the Goldsteins and the Hyltons faced uncertainty with faith and grit. They made do with what they had—cornbread and milk, spring onions from the garden, and hope for better days. Though their names may have faded from store signs and census records, their endurance and quiet courage remain woven into the history of Patrick County.
Thank you so much to Ellen Goldstein Baker, Larry Hopkins, and Jimi Mitchell for their help with this story. For questions, comments, or story ideas, Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626.
