Clyne Angle’s Store

Landscapes from Floyd County, Southwest Virginia by Fred First
I feel certain that, while I’m not able to find anything on the web, there is plenty of information about Clyne Angle’s Store at the Floyd County Historical Society.

Mrs. Angle still lives in the house across the road, there at the intersection of Shawsville Pike and Daniels Run, and there is a commemorative plaque to Mr. Angle embedded in a stone marker. I don’t think I have any photos of it, but wish I did. It’s text would shed some light on this image, and on the old Post Office (Floyd County’s first, I think I remember) and a building that was active during the Civil War.

You can see the small, green sign in the window that locates the store in the community of SIMPSONS, now not much more than an intersection of two roads. This was once a thriving farming community. A steep mountain path, and later a motor road, was constructed by hand to allow mail delivery and commerce between Simpsons and the similarly active community down the mountain in Goose Creek.

That old road follows along the descending waters of Nameless Creek, and ends up at our barn. We walk it every day–another place in our valley that harbors “good ghosts” as I say.

I’d be interested if there are any readers who have knowledge, stories or recollections of Simpsons or Clyne Angles Store. Please offer comments or emails to share.

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Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Morning Fred…You shouldn’t do this to someone with the genealogy bug this early in the morning.

    Clyne Selvan Angle and I share a birthday. He was born Feb. 6 1917.
    He enlisted in the service on 7 Mar 1942. He married March 9th 1950. He died 10th of Oct 1986. His Parents were Leonard Chester Angle a Floyd County native and Maud Lena Sisson from Alleghany Va. They were married in Christiansburg in Aug of 1910.

    Clyne was 5′ 7″ tall and weighed 173 lbs in 1943. He listed his occupation as “Bandsman, Oboe or Parts Clerk, Automobile”.

    Going by addresses listed Simpsons was incorporated into Check in 1996 and the area code was changed at that time.

    That’s about all I could come up with in 10 minutes, but it gives you a better picture of the man.

  2. Sorry, Fred, but would you pass this message along to Gary? I don’t see an e-mail address on his blog:

    Gary, that’s an amazing amount of info to come up with instantly. What records are you accessing? Are they online, free?

    Welcome to VA, by the way!

    Lin B, in Danville,VA

    And thank you, Fred, as always, for posting words and pictures that just happen to be on subjects that interest me – more consistently than happens on any other blog. No offense to the four or five others that I check daily, which come close. 🙂

  3. Hi Fred,

    I have fond memories of my visits to Clyne’s Store when I was a kid. We spent one month, every summer visiting my grandparents in the Locust Grove area. I also swam in their pool, with Myrtle as the lifeguard. That was quite a treat in for us. I have a chapter (with numerous photos) of Clyne and Myrtle, in my soon to be published book “Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” It’s about the culture and traditions of the mountain people and the places that make up a community between 1700 – 1900. Mr. Angle was a true Southern Gentleman and I sure do miss him.

    Camelia McNeil Elliott
    http://www.cuniquec.com