January 20, 1955

L.M. Wilkes is entitled to a salute as one of the business veterans of Appomattox County. On Janary 2, 1955, he observed his 75th birthday. But he has been in business in the county as watch clock repairman and later as jeweler, for all of 61 years. It is an interesting story and worth the telling.
It all started in 1894, when Wilkes was a lad of 14, living near Evergreen, Appomattox County. His first deal was to swap an augur for a clock that would not run. He took the clock to pieces and was fascinated by the inner workings of a clock. Some parts were missing, so he could not get this first clock to run, but he did learn how clocks were put together and how they ran. Soon thereafter, Mr. Sam Moore Wooldridge, father of Appomattox’s George Wiley Wooldridge, gave young Wilkes his first real repair job. Mr. Wooldridge had a clock that would not run, and offered Wilkes 25 Cents to make it run.

Wilkes repaired the clock, collected the 25 cents. He promptly went to Martin’s blacksmith shop and paid 15 cents for a pair of pliers, and then 10 cents for a punch.
Mr. Henry Cheatham had a 98 cent watch: a good one in those days. But the watch was broken, and Wilkes got the job of repairing it. He found that a spring was broken, but he had no replacement. But Wilkes was inventive, and he fashioned a wooden spring out of a white oak bottom. It worked, and he proudly took the watch to Mr. Cheatham, and asked 30 cents for his work. Mr. Cheatham paid off with a small pig, which later turned out to be blind. Wilkes borrowed a saddlebag to carry the pig home, and by fall had the pig up to 200 pounds. At that time Atwood’s was a leading business place in town, along with Purdum and Caldwell at the old Alliance Store stand just below the railroad, and a store where Mrs. W. R. Reynolds now has her store.

And Mr. Robert Irby had the post office and a store at the corner of the present residence of Miss Lula Irby. Mr. Wilkes has a splendid memory and recalls in detail many events of the 1890 period in and around Appomattox. He recounted to the Times-virginian his first trip to Lynchburg, in 1889. The trip required two days on a tobacco wagon.
T.M. Trent now owns the place near Evergreen where young Wilkes lived as a boy and started his career in clock and watch repair. Soon he decided to make this his trade, and he went to Pamplin each Wednesday and to Appomattox each Saturday to take in jobs and do repair work. He put his earnings into tools and soon had a tool chest, which when loaded weighed 60 pounds. Many was the day when he walked into town, up the railroad track carrying that tool chest. He still has the chest. He decided that Appomattox offered the better opportunity, and set up shop here in Mays barber shop, at the Atwood corner, on the spot Robinson’s Furniture store is now located.

A few years later, Wilkes moved into the drug store building of Lawrence Furbush, where Appomattox Hardware is now. The town was growing rapidly in that decade. This newspaper had been started in 1892, two years before young Mr. Wilkes started his business career. Soon the business district was expanded, a bank and several new stores were in operation and there were blacksmith shops, and two hotels.
Wilkes spent 29 years in business in quarters over H.C. Babcock store. His daughter learned the jewelry trade, and in the 1940’s they moved into the present modern building of Wilkes’ Jewelers on Church Street. So today, at 75 years of age, Mr. Wilkes is a veteran of 61 years in business and can look back with satisfaction on a long and successful career.