Nevin Community --- Statesville Rd
Remembering Joe Mullis Store

Hey Bernie,
We used to go to Joe Mullis store all the time when I was little. He sold groceries, general mdse. and fish bait. Those crickets all chirping in that big cage and those minnows swimming around used to tickle me, but they didn't like ole Joe. After his son Jerry took over the store I would go there and buy the best steaks around. He and Helen were very nice and took good care of the neighbors around the store.


"Bud" (Carl) Davis and wife Lucinda Bell Davis ran the store from 1932 til about 1948. (Lucinda is not quite sure about the ending date, cause as she said today, "I'm 99 years old and things just don't pop into my mind like they used to, let me think on it a while". She said they were married in 1933 and lived up Statesville Rd near where Ranson School is now. A few years later Bud built the house next door to the store. This is where Silas Terry Davis, my boss, was born.

He said the store used to be closer to the road and when they widened Statesville Rd, his dad had the store moved back off the street. This is the original store, which is located behind the existing store now. Then he built the new store.

Bud had the farm that surrounded the store, even had a hay field where Statesville Rd. Baptist Church is now. They also had a grit mill behind their house and sold bags of grits throughout the area. Bud was a master of many trades and built many of the houses across the street from Mullis Store. He then sold his house to Consos, which is still there, and moved into the big brick house across the street from the store.

Boss can tell you everyone that lived in every house from the old Pump House all the way to Gibbon Rd, down Nevin. He said that a fellow named Hoopie Works was a carpenter that lived near the store and he helped his dad build houses. The Kerley & Edwards gang helped with the hardwood flooring. Jerry Ivester was one of Terry's good friends and would also help in the fields and at the store. He said the Kelly's had a garage near the store.

He said there were some other stores on Statesville Rd near Goat Hill, those being Buff's and Caraway's. Also there was a place called Lake Joe near Goat Hill. (He is going to ask some old buddies why they called it Goat Hill, and I will get back with you when he finds out).

He went to Nevin school and said they walked there, always barefooted in the warm weather and their feet would get black from all the oil they would use on those old hardwood plank floors. He is 72, so this goes way back. Someone that lived there on Nevin Rd had a parrot that stayed on the front porch. It fascinated them as kids to see the parrot. The man had a dairy and would bring milk down to the school and sell it to the students for a nickel. He said it always tasted like onions. LOL The man's wife would make hamburgers and send them to sell for a dime. He said it was the best hamburgers he ever ate.

I need to hook you and Silas Terry up one day and let him tell you his stories. See, his uncle, Wash Davis is the one that had Wash Davis General Store in Croft, not Joe Mullis' store as one of your readers previously wrote about. His cousin, Silas Davis runs Wash Davis Store now. (and yes, there are a lot of those Davis' named "Silas", just an old family name.

He told me that his dad had several black ladies that worked for his dad at the store and they would kill the chickens on Friday nights, hang them on the fence beside the store, pluck them and sell them all to customers on Saturday mornings. There is still the chain in the big tree behind the store that they used to butcher the hogs & cows for meat to sell at the store. He said you can still see the Davis name on the old store behind the existing brick building.
--- Peggy Almond.

Doris Crittenden pointed out that the butcher who trimmed out those good steaks was Melvin Edwards, who later ran a service station and used car lot at Nevin & Gibbon, then later moved it to West Sugar Creek Rd. (near Graham St.) where his son runs it now. Nice Man. Soft spoken and always a smile for everyone. --- Bernie Samonds