Western NC Genealogy Resource Center
for Cherokee County
I'd like to thank Mary Sue Mason, for forwarding a copy of this article. Unfortunately, I no longer have a current email address for her.
"Suit Is Barely Big Enough To Wear, Much Less Live In" By: John Parris (Roaming The Mountains)
SUIT---Yes, there really is a place called Suit.
It is situated on the headwaters of Bearpaw Creed in the rolling hills of Cherokee County 18 miles west of Murphy.
But a stranger traveling this way, unless he paid sharp attention, could pass through Suit and never know it.
For the only identifying sign-and it's quite small - projects over the door of the community's original emporium. It reads "Suit Country Store. Est. 1886."
There's a padlock on the door and the weather- boarded building, painted white and trimmed in red, its windows protected by iron bars, is empty of merchandise. A hand drawn sign in big letters say "CLOSED" and underneath a telephone number and in parenthesis the words "Store for sale."
Across the road stands, the Friendship Baptist Church, established in 1866 as a member of the West Liberty Baptist Association, organized 15 years earlier by the Rev. Humphrey Posey, the leading Baptist minister of his day in Southwestern North Carolina. Earlier, in 1817, Posey became the first Baptist missionary among the Cherokee and three years later helped establish the Baptists' first Cherokee mission above the mouth of Peachtree Creek east of what is now Murphy.
Besides the church, there are less than a dozen houses within sight of the old store building where Johnson Suit began operation a country emporium more than 100 years age.
When he petitioned the U.S. Post Office Department for a post office, he proposed that it be named Suit. So it was, and on Feb. 1, 1886, he became Suit's first postmaster and set up the post office in a corner of his store.
Back in those days, postmasters received no salaries. They made even less than the folks who carried the mail on horseback from Murphy. The postmasters were paid only on the number of cancellations.
Between the store and the post office Johnson Suit managed to make out. But in November of 1891 Thomas FR. Starnes became postmaster. Seven months later he turned it over to Isaac N. Taylor. And on March 3, 1894, J.D. Suit became postmaster.
From then until 1928, when Oliver C. Payne was appointed postmaster and became owner of the store . Suit had 15 different postmasters.
Before becoming postmaster at Suit, Payne had been postmaster for 12 years over at Birch on Beech Creek, where he was born and where he had a store.
After 39 years in the postal service, Payne retired and turned the store and the post office over to Henry Truett and a short time later on Jan. 31, 1955, the Suit post office was discontinued and rural delivery began with the mail being handled out of Murphy.
During the time Payne ran the store and the post office, drummers and others from afar were always coming around and making jokes about Suit and another post office six or seven miles north of her named Vests.
One time the post office department sent a new postal inspector into these parts. He rode in here from Vests and the first thing he asked was: " Where's Pants? I've found Suit and Vests."
As far as folks around here know, you never could buy a suit in Suit. And you can't now.
Suit's only commerical emporium now, Hiwassee E-Z Mart, which is just down the road a little piece from the old store building and only opened eight months ago, handles everything but clothing.
"No, we don't carry suits - men's or women's," Rhonda Wood, 18 year old daughter of owners Stanley and Lynda Wood, said the other day. " I guess if you want a suit you'll have to go into Murphy."
She said she hoped we would get a list of all of the Suit postmasters. With the help of U.S. Rep. James McClure Clarke's staff we did. Here are the names and dates of appointment:
Now, as to the place named Vests ---that's another story.
- Johnson Suit, Feb. 1, 1886
- Thomas F. Starnes, Nov. 18, 1891
- Isaac N. Taylor, June 2, 1892
- J.D. Suit, March 3, 1894
- Jeremiah W. Jones, April 3, 1895
- W.H. Hickey, July 25, 1895
- William L. McNabb, July 17, 1896
- William Sparks, Feb.11, 1898
- Minnie Ensley, July 3, 1902
- Lizzie Keasler, Aug. 31, 1906
- Lizzie Johnson, June 20, 1908
- William K. Johnson, Aug. 6, 1914
- David McNabb, Oct. 20, 1915
- Lena Ledford, March 13, 1916
- Lena Blackwell, Sept. 20, 1919
- John R. Mason, Feb. 20, 1920
- Walter N. Anderson, June 30, 1921
- Buster Mason, March 1, 1924
- Setah Wood, Dec. 22, 1925
- Oliver C. Payne, acting postmaster May 21, 1928 Appointed postmaster June 21, 1928, and served until it was discontinued Jan. 31, 1955.
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