Hub of Information: The General Store

The general store stocked a few of the most popular books of the day. When Goss & Darling was in business in 1848, their store might have carried The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, or Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. And of course the general store always had Bibles to sell. Kalamazoo's earliest settlers were mostly Baptist and Presbyterian, and while most had a family Bible in the home, they might buy a nice new one for a baby's baptism or a god child's birthday. The Bible displayed here was given to a young lady named Auguste Patterson by her grandfather. Because settlers were so far away from their loved ones and so far away from big cities, they craved information of all kinds. The general store was the place to go for that information. They could catch up on the latest news with their neighbors, pick up a Kalamazoo Gazette to read the news from far and near, or they could buy the latest edition of the Farmers Almanac, filled with helpful information like weather predictions, health remedies and farming advice. And before the day of door-to-door mail delivery, the general store was the place to pick up your mail. Settlers were always hoping to receive a letter from back home.