Ransley Birge Mallory Sr., age 20, established a general merchandise business known as the R.B. Mallory Store in 1893 in Clyo. His father Augustus Mallory deeded him the land and hired Effingham Contractor Bill Dick Flake to build the first one story building.  

The Mallory family was of English descent and originally came from Connecticut. The Birge and Mallory families hooked up in business and marriage in their extended families in the early years. Early ancestors Ransom Mallory and John Birge formed a famous clock company in Bristol, Conn. Ransley Birge and Horace Mallory left Connecticut to seek their fortunes in Georgia. Ransley Birge died relatively young and Horace named his son Ransley Birge Mallory in honor of his friend.  

Horace was father of Augustus Mallory and Augustus named his son, born in 1873, in turn, Ransley Birge Mallory Sr. This owner of the R.B. Mallory Store was always known in Clyo as “Mr. Rantz.” The Mallory family came to Clyo in the timber and turpentine business after a stint in business in Madison. Mr. “Rantz” Mallory married Ella Elizabeth Pursley. They were parents of: Rebah, Lois, R.B. Jr., Spencer and adopted Burney

Archer, niece of Ella Mallory.  
Shortly after Mr. Rantz established his business, he purchased a nearby two-story store from Joe Groover. He rolled the new building down to the store and built on other additions, including a buggy and wagon warehouse. He had a cotton gin and grist mill and storage areas for farm supplies. There was even a small shed building where a man lived there to keep watch over the inventory.  

My father remembers Harley Exley and his son living there and the boy going to school in Clyo. Practically anything needed or desired was available at the store from matches, food, dry goods, seeds, fertilizer, feed, cloth, housewares and candy to plows and horse accouterments.  
According to 100-year-old Mrs. Willie Tebeau, “Clyo was the hub of the county at one time. Men went to Mallory’s Store to buy their Sunday suits.”

The store, with all of its old fashioned departments, served the community in a business manner as well as in a civic or neighborly way, according to daughter Rebah Mallory’s article in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Springfield Herald in 1958. The building had a corner once used as a post office. A temporary room upstairs was used for Clyo Lodge No. 280 F. and A. M. until their hall was completed. The Clyo voting precinct was in the store for many years while Mallory was a member of the Democratic Committee.  It also served as an emergency apartment for one of the early S. A. L. Railway agents until a place of living was secured. The store served as distribution center for the W.P. A.  

During the world wars it served in various ways: as a Red Cross Surgical Dressing Room and as an observation post for the Aircraft Warning Service in World War II. Headquarters for the County Tax Receiver and Tax Collector were in the store during their annual rounds. The store was also the social center for Clyo where people met and visited with each other throughout its entire existence.  

Spencer Mallory took over running of the business and R.B. Jr. helped lend a hand on Saturdays after “Mr. Rantz” retired. Rebah Mallory was always active in the business as a clerk and helper for as long as the store served the public. Mr. G. Frank Zittrouer was a veteran clerk on Saturdays and other “special days.” Joe Bride was a faithful worker for the Mallory family through many years and never missed the chance to watch the trains as they went by and wave at the “hometown boys” working on the railroad.

The old horseshoe that hung over the door saw many changes down through the years. In the 1960s the store ebbed to a close. Some of the furnishings were later sold by family descendants to Tim Pratt and Betty Rule, who established a general store and online business in Tennessee in the Pigeon Forge area. Their Ole Smoky General Store, Inc. has since closed and those items have gone into storage, according to an e-mail I received from Betty Rule, who has now moved south, when I inquired about the store. Some items from the Mallory’s Store even wound up for sale on the Internet on eBay.

None of the buildings and sheds of the store are left in Clyo anymore. They became dilapidated through the years, housed many pigeons and the structures were finally removed after they collapsed. Although the place is quiet now, Clyo and the R.B. Mallory Store were once great places, centers of activity buzzing with energy. Effingham Museum has documents in our store exhibit from the Mallory’s establishment and it is kept alive in the memories of the elderly who remember it during it’s hey day.  

This article was written from information provided in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Springfield Herald by Rebah Mallory and by Susan Exley of Historic Effingham Society.  If you have comments, photos or information to share contact Susan at 754-6681 or email: susanexley@historiceffinghamsociety.org