In the spring of 1928, Carlton Cutchin opened Farmers Produce Co. His inventory included smoked hog meat, live chickens, peanuts, corn, and used furniture. In a few years he added auto parts and a distributorship for Goodyear tires. As time passed, he discontinued used furniture and added new furniture, floor covering, paint, wall paper, and discontinued all the produce except for peanuts.

In the early sixties, he had added a complete line of hardware including plumbing and electrical supplies. ACE Hardware started moving to the east coast and his son Carlton Cutchin Jr., who came into the business in 1957, took on the ACE Hardware franchise in 1974. Carlton Cutchin III came into the business in 1987 and started looking for a larger building. We had long ago discontinued the auto parts and tire business and started handling kitchen cabinets, which took over the furniture department.

The store was in a six thousand square foot building and soon a department store with 22,000 square feet came available in the same block as the old store.

In the mid-nineties, several people at the local paper mill asked us to put in the Carhartt line of clothes. We already supplied the mill with hardware and paint and so we gave it a try and it has been moving ever since.

In 1999, Franklin had a large flood and the store had water shoulder deep in it for a week. That is when we moved to a 25,000 square foot grocery store building. At that time we discontinued floor covering and kitchen cabinets and enlarged the Carhartt department.

We now have 1500 square feet dedicated to Carhartt products. We sell Carhartt clothes for men, women, and children, as well as Carhartt shoes. All that is left of the original inventory is raw peanuts, which is still a big seller. It is hard to believe that this store has gone from live chickens to Carhartt.