Insights into the habits, ways of life, and even aspirations of the Greenbrier pioneers may be gleaned from records of early merchants, especially account books that have survived. The oldest such record is that of a store, or trading post, of Sampson and George Mathews, at or near the shallows known as Mathews Ford on the Greenbrier River, near the mouth of Howard Creek. The two brothers, sons of John, who settled on the Benjamin Borden grant in present Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the 1730s, came from a merchandising family that also had stores in Staunton and on the Cowpasture River at the time they operated the Greenbrier post.4

The records of the Greenbrier store consist of three-day books, beginning with April 8, 1771, and ending with January 26, 1773, and a ledger covering the years 1771-1779. The combined records list some four hundred customers, some frequent and others only occasional purchasers. The store served a large area, with numerous customers from Muddy Creek, the Sinks, Anthony Creek, Sinking Creek, Spring Creek, Howard Creek, Indian Creek, Wolf Creek, the Big Levels, Weavers Knob, and places as far distant as the Little Levels in Pocahontas County and New River.5

As always on a new frontier, the purchases of customers

leaned heavily to necessities. Transactions involving powder,

The first trading post, or store, within the confines of the present limits of Greenbrier, for which there is any known record, was owned by Sampson and George Mathews, and is said to have been located on the Greenbrier River, not far from the mouth of Howard's Creek, at or near the shallows in the river now known as Mathews Ford.

The full accounting ledger and customers can be at the link below.