Throwback Thursday: Small Town Indiana, 1890s

My grandma Mary LeSourd Reed grew up in a small town called Sleeth, Indiana.  It had been named for the family of her mother, Rachel Anna Sleeth, who married Levi Curtis LeSourd in 1868.  Sleeth is not much more than a ghost town today, so I'm told.  It is in Carroll County, northwest of Delphi.  My grandma told me some tales about the area, including her mother's thrift one Sunday ride.  Rachel Anna Sleeth would go on buggy rides with her husband Levi.  They stopped one day at a roadside stand where the farmer was selling corn for 2 cents an ear.  These days, that would be an unheard-of opportunity.  But the ears of corn were snug in their shucks, so Rachel turned up her nose, saying, "Corns not shucked.  Drive on."  In my grandma's family down to my own life, that became a way of saying that something had not met your standards and you were going to keep searching until you found an example that did measure up. 

One feature of small-town life in the late 19th century, all the way up until the mid 20th century was the general store, whether it was located in an Indiana town or one in Georgia, like the general store in Darien, Georgia that my husband's step-grandfather owned.  The photo below is of the I. G. Wilson General Store, which may have been in Sleeth, but I don't remember what grandma told me about it.  I also don't know the meaning of "Lest We Forget" written in pen at the bottom of the photo.  Grandma told me that, among the children, I. G. was not well-liked, and the children would taunt him with, "I. G. Wilson.  Nut! Nut! Nut! Nut! Nut!"