The Simmons & Wright Company

The Simmons & Wright Company is a historic general store established in 1884 in Kewanee, Mississippi, a small town just outside Meridian in Lauderdale County. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.HistoryThe store was originally built in 1884 by William Simmons and Tom Wright before what is now known as US Highway 11/80 was built. What is now the back of the store then faced the Old Dixie Highway, which ran west through Meridian and east all the way to Key West, Florida. The site was most likely chosen because of its close proximity to the railroad, so trains could stop and unload cargo for local farmers.Though the store still operates today, the period in which business thrived began with its establishment in 1884 and lasted until the 1960s. The company relied heavily on the cotton industry and the many farmers that needed supplies in the area. In the 1880s, the store included a blacksmith shop, a gristmill for grinding corn and wheat, a cotton gin, and a sawmill and carried every day items such as groceries, clothing, and other necessities. During the Great Depression, customers who built up a tab at the store were allowed to pay it off with cotton. The owner would purchase cotton from them. If the cotton was insufficient to pay the customer's tab in its entirety, the owner would allow the tab to roll over to the next year.

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