General Store Leetonia

Shaut and Co. Limited

This is a picture of the general store in Leetonia at the turn of the century.  This could be today in Leetonia with snow freshly on the trees. This is where everyone in Leetonia got paid, and bought their goods for the week. I think it was pretty much and even trade with not much left over as the town was a company town and so was the store. People worked to make a bare existence living. They worked long, dangerous jobs in the Tannery, saw mill and in the woods lumbering.

The Tannery and Saw Mill are gone along with the rail road that carried the goods out to the world. The lumberman still log these woods and it is a dangerous job in which lives are lost every year. Other than the loggers no one is making a living in Leetonia anymore. Instead the woods are filled with snowmobilers in the winter, hunting, fishing, and recreational camp users in the summer.  When I am in Leetonia, I love to listen and sometimes I think I hear the sound of the railroad, smell the tannery and hear the stories being told by the old timers sitting on the store porch.  Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.