Amos Wagoner Jr. pauses for a photo with his daughter, Marsha, who manages Farmer's Hardware in Sparta. Amos Wagoner Jr.'s father, Amos Sr., first bought an interest in the store in the late 1930s.

Amos Wagoner Jr. and Farmer's Hardware have deep roots

Editor's Note: This article on the Wagoner family and Farmers Hardware is part of an occasional series in honor of the county's 150th anniversary. A special publication on the sesquicentennial appears in this week's edition.

An accident involving a train led Amos Wagoner Sr. to a career in Alleghany County and eventually led to his family owning and operating the county's longest-running business that is still open today.

Farmer's Hardware has been at its location at 11 S. Main St. in Sparta for longer than most local residents have even been alive. The Wagoner family has operated the business for more than 60 years. Guy C. Wallace, J. Horton Doughton and J. Bain Doughton incorporated the business as Farmer's Hardware and Implement Inc. on April 16, 1936. Amos Wagoner Sr. bought into the business in 1937 after the train accident. Mr. Wagoner owned a farm in the Whitehead area and was involved in selling patent medicine prior to the accident. He started selling the medicine in the early 1930s and was on his way to Maryland on business when the train accident took place on Jan. 1, 1933. He was out of work for about two years after the accident, which his son, Amos Wagoner Jr., said, "crippled him up."

Amos Jr., himself born in 1919, recalled that Bain Doughton was hired to manage the store and couldn't handle it on his own, giving the opportunity for Amos Sr. to step into the business as a co-owner.

"Guy Wallace operated the fish hatchery out at Roaring Gap for the state for years," Amos Jr. recalled, his eyes still bright and his step still spry, although he is nearly 90 years old. J. Horton Doughton, was the son of Congressman R.L Doughton, better known as "Farmer Bob," a well known Laurel Springs resident with a great deal of influence locally and even nationally. Horton managed Belk's stores after marrying a Belk, Amos Jr. said. "He was a district manager for them in Sparta, West Jefferson, Elkin, Statesville and I think Mooresville," Amos Jr. said. The four men—the two Doughton, Wallace and Wagoner Sr.—continued to operated the business until Oct. 16, 1951, when Wagoner bought out the others. The Wagoner family, which at the time consisted of Amos Sr., his wife Emma Pate, son Amos Jr., and daughter Marjorie Wagoner Choate, ran the business together. His father continued to work at the store until he passed away in 1964 at the age of 74.

At one point, the town needed funds to install a new water system. Lacking federal or state help, the town devised a plan to use slot machines to pay for the water upgrade, recalled Amos Jr. Some of the machines were in Farmer's Hardware. Amos Jr. also served 39 years on the board of Alleghany Memorial Hospital. He also served for many years on the advisory boards of Northwest Bank, First Union and First Charter banks.

Hardware and WWII

Amos Wagoner Jr. said he was at Oak Ridge Military School near Kernersville from 1936 until 1938, during which time his father got into the hardware store business. He then attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from 1938 until 1940, where he received his bachelor's degree in political science.

"I had planned on going on to law school," he recalled. However, his father caught an employee stealing in the Ashe County Farmer's location and asked his son to go there and work.