Sam Garber's Dry Goods Store
by Tim Campbell · first published 22 August 2017 · his original post
This old covered vegetable dish is stamped "Sam Garber's Dry Goods Store, Blooming Grove, Texas" underneath both the main dish and the lid (which is missing it's handle). It belonged to my parents, who spent their entire lives in and around Blooming Grove. If they ever told me how they acquired this piece, well let's just say the gray on my chin may be a culprit, for I have no recollection at all. At first I thought it to be circa 1915, but it may be pre 1890s. IF it is foreign made, ( I think it might be made in Czechoslovakia, based on some similar works I've seen) , then it was made before 1891, as beginning in that year all such items had to be stamped with the name of the country in which they were made, and this piece is not marked with such.
From what I can determine, Sam Garber was a native of Russia. If I have identified the correct "Sam Garber", he and wife Rose operated a dry goods store in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana as of 1900 and 1910. By 1920 Rose and the kids were in Missouri, and Sam had either passed away, or as Mr. Hogwallow so eloquently put it in the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou", Mr Garber had R.U.N.N.O.F.T.
At any rate, any good detective would arrive at one of two theories.
The 1st - that sometime after 1910, Sam, and perhaps his family, hopped a train in Louisana and went west, and finding Blooming Grove an agreeable location, set up a dry goods store. Then, for whatever reason, by 1920, the Garbers seem to have been gone, for as previously stated Rose was in Missouri and Sam is no where to be found on the 1920 census.
The 2nd - that Sam Garber's Dry Goods Store was in existence in Blooming Grove during the earlier days of the town, between 1886 and 1896. Then Sam moved East to Louisana, where he tried his hand again with a fresh start. The 1890 census is lost. But we know that BG was renamed about 1886, and Sam and Rose's first child was born in Louisiana in 1897. Rose was also born in Louisiana, so Sam might have been single when he had the Dry Goods Store in Blooming Grove. (Personally I think this theory makes more sense than the first).
Either way, Sam's time in Blooming Grove was short lived. Maybe the BG locals didn't cotton to Sam, or his wares, or maybe there were family issues. Or maybe Sam fell in love with Rose, and she is the reason for his exodus from the Grove. Perhaps some avid reader of this article will have more insight as to what happened to Sam and his store.
This piece was published without a title. The one above was written here; the words below are his.