Movers and Shakers Meet at Stapleton's Drug Store

The gleaming marble top of the soda fountain bar caught your eye when entering the drug store's front door. Overhead two original Hunter fans gently stirred a comfortable breeze. That was Stapleton's Drug Store on Folkston's Main Street in the depression days of the 1930s, long before air conditioning.

The drug store was owned and operated by E. B. Stapleton, Sr. who first opened it as Stapleton Pharmacy in the early 1920s, although its predecessor drug stores, Napier's Pharmacy and Pearce Drug Store had their beginnings in Folkston in 1917. Stapleton, along with Dr. J. A. Moore and Donald F. Pearce, bought the drug store from Napier in 1917. Stapleton managed the fledgling business.

But, it's not the pedigree of the drug store that made it a Charlton County legend before it was closed in March of 1994, after Stapleton's death in 1966, fifty years after the Weston, Georgia native arrived in Folkston, looking for a business to open.  His two sons, Pearce and E. B. Jr., operated the drug store for 28 years following their father's death.

Inside that drugstore was a virtual history of Folkston's tumultuous years of the roaring twenties, the Great Depression of the thirties, and World War Two. On the slick oval marble tops of the wrought iron tables inside the drugstore, movers and shakers made decisions that shaped the destiny of Folkston and Charlton County for over a half century.

E. B. Stapleton, Sr. was known as a shrewd businessman. Since arriving in Folkston in 1916, he had accumulated considerable pinelands and real estate with profits from made from his drug store and accompanying general insurance agency business.

Political leaders sought Stapleton's business advice. Worried widows turned to him for help, and blue-collar workers asked his advice on difficult problems. The silver-haired Stapleton was always eager to help.

During the dark days of the nation's worse economic depression, the frugal Stapleton tightened his belt to ride out the depression. His drug store sold coal for the community's pot-bellied heaters and stayed open long hours to serve the public.

Folkston banker, William Mizell, Jr., who headed up the Citizens Bank just two doors down the block from Stapleton's Drug Store, was a frequent visitor to "talk with Stape" about some community problem. The two sat hunched over one of the oval marble tables and talked. Mizell would rub his rather bulbous nose, a sure sign that the banker was worried. He always went away from the drugstore convinced that his and Stapleton's collective decision would solve the problem.

Perhaps it was not the depression years, although they were horrendous, but the war years of World War Two, when Stapleton's Rexall Drug Store was the loudest heartbeat of the county. Inside that drug store the town's business leaders met up each morning to compare notes on the war. Later in the day, Henry Gibson, one of the county's rural mail carriers walked inside, followed in order by the town's Chevrolet dealer, Charlie Passieu, and cattleman Clifford Mizell. The three were just a few who daily met together inside the drugstore to learn of the war effort, to talk of the weather, and to spin yarns. Somehow they all went away feeling better for the interlude.

On June 6, 1944, Folkston mayor Charlie Passieu dashed excitedly into the drugstore, shouting, "Our boys have landed!" This was a reference to the Allies landing at Normandy on D-Day that marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. The news was greeted with shouts of joy. The visitors inside picked the genial mayor's memory for more details. Passieu's only son, Louie was Flight Officer on a B-29 bomber in the China-Burma-India Theater. Passieu always pridefully updated the drugstore visitors about the latest adventures of his son, Louie.

Stapleton's drugstore at Christmas time was the "in-place" to shop in Folkston and Charlton County in the 30s and 40s. A white latticework barrier separated the pharmacy section from the rest of the drugstore. Stapleton had his insurance office near the pharmacy department. In the showroom the shopper could choose from a giant collection of Christmas gifts, ranging from ladies' makeup kits, to chocolate-covered cherries. On Saturday nights, the drugstore, as most other stores on Folkston's Main Street, remained open until near midnight. That would allow rural county residents to catch up on their visiting "in town" before doing the week's shopping.

Inside the walls of Stapleton's Drug Store raged all sides of community problems: Voting in the "no fence law," bond issues for school constructions, Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" and National Recovery Administration. All sides of every issue got a complete airing from customers inside those drugstore walls.

Stapleton served in a number of local government elective offices including County Commissioner and Mayor of Folkston. His progressive ideas often moved the county forward. It was the druggist that came on the scene in Folkston in 1916 that insisted that Folkston's Kingsland Drive be widened inside the city limits when Highway 40 was first paved in 1937. He helped organize the county's first Timber Protective Organization, an embryo organization to help prevent forest fires, and the forerunner of the Georgia Forestry Commission.

When Stapleton's drugstore closed its doors for the final time on March 31, 1994, a part of Charlton County and Folkston died, leaving only poignant memories of nearly eighty years as the heartbeat of Folkston's Main Street: Its rejoicing and sorrowing as it breathed in synch with the nation's rhythm from the days of World War One until the doorsteps of the Twenty-First Century.