Pins, Pepper, Plows, and Patent Medicines
The Superstores of the Past
Third Thursday Talk, May 21, 2026, 7 pm (hybrid event)
Long before the internet and big box stores, Shenandoah Valley residents found everything they needed at the local general store. These mercantile hubs offered goods for every stage of life—from birth to death—while also serving as banks, post offices, and centers of news and gossip.
Local historians and educators Linda Petzke and Nancy Sorrells explore the rise and fall of these all-in-one businesses, from their origins with traveling peddlers and tinkers to their 19th- and early 20th-century heyday, and ultimately their decline with the advent of mail-order catalogs and the automobile.
Through historic photographs and store ledgers, Linda and Nancy bring to life this essential part of Valley community life. Copies of Cradle to Coffin: Remembering the Country Store, the exhibit catalog from The Brownsburg Museum in Rockbridge County, will be available for purchase.
image: Post Office and Sampson’s Store at Sampson, located in northeastern Augusta County north of Crimora.
Linda Petzke is a retired Augusta County public schools history teacher with more than 40 years of classroom experience. Linda also has extensive museum education experience. She is the former Education Director at the Frontier Culture Museum and is currently the education liaison at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. She is a former Augusta County Historical Society President and current board member. Linda has an undergraduate education degree from Courtland State and a master’s of arts and teaching from James Madison University. She is also a board member at Oak Grove Theater in Verona, Va. Her research for general stores has been turned into an SOL-coordinated program for multiple grade levels.
Nancy Sorrells is a historian, author, and journalist, who is passionate about Shenandoah Valley history. She earned an undergraduate history degree from Bridgewater College and a master’s in public history and secondary education teaching certificate from James Madison University. She is a founding partner in the history publishing and museum consulting firm Lot’s Wife Publishing. She has more than 40 years of writing and editing experience and has authored, co-authored, or edited more than 30 books. She is a past president and current board member of the Augusta County Historical Society and is co-editor of the Society’s journal. Nancy was the exhibition historian in charge of developing Cradle to Coffin: Remembering the Country Store, an exhibit featured at The Brownsburg Museum in Rockbridge County.