The commissary was a type of company store that offered basic living materials such as food, clothing, and medicine to workers at sawmills and turpentine stills (as well as at other industrial concerns like coal mines, though not in this area). Sawmills and turpentine camps were generally located in the “backwoods” away from towns or scattered at points along the rail line. This made it difficult for workers in these two industries to obtain goods from a store in town, so the company maintained a store for the workers. Generally, instead of the workers being paid in cash, they received credit in the commissary ledger (or via another means such as scrips or tokens, which they exchanged for items at the company store – somewhat like a primitive charge card system). Any supplies they obtained from the commissary – food stuffs, yard goods, or tools – were charged to their account. Periodically (usually annually), the accounts were tallied. If a worker needed money for something the commissary could not provide, he could request to be paid in cash, but normally the greater part of his business would be conducted at the commissary. Workers often “owed” more to the store than they earned, keeping them in servitude to one company.
The commissary at the GMA was built in 1889 and was run by Toombs Taylor Morgan. The commissary remained in the Morgan family and was last owned by Joseph L. Powell of Vienna, who donated the building to the Agrirama in 1974. Through a careful study of the 1884 commissary ledgers of the Kittrell and Smith Company of Jacksonville, Georgia, the furnishings of the commissary here were planned.
Guest Experiences May Include
Social interactions; Needs and Wants activity; Cash vs. credit systems
