WEST VIRGINIA BACK ROADS: The Pence Springs Flea Market

Text and Photos by Carl E. Feather

The stench of sulfur hung in the stale Sunday morning air, alternately penetrated by bursts of sunshine, fly-sized raindrops, and exhausted leaves falling at early October’s feet. In just four more weeks, the Pence Springs Flea Market would be shuttered until April; if there was selling and buying to be done this day, it would have to be conducted amid the nuisances of autumn and the market’s namesake sulfurous spring water. 

For James and Jennie Hake, vendors occupying a space near the spring’s flow, the 2021 season and market were working in their favor. Their trailer was loaded with Monroe County bounty: freshly dug beets and Yukon gold potatoes; boxes of gourds; and green, orange, and variegated pumpkins ranging from the familiar ellipsoids to squatty specimens more suitable for a Thanksgiving Day table decoration than front-door grinning greeter. Spread across the ground of their selling space, the autumnal beacons drew a crowd of gawkers and buyers who dropped a few bucks into Jennie’s treasury and walked away with a whole pumpkin and a slice of Pence.

“The mineral spring’s water was held in much higher esteem in 1904 when it won a silver medal in its class at the St. Louis Exposition. Michael M. Meador, writing in The West Virginia Encyclopedia, credits the founding and growth of the Pence Springs community to the water, which was drawing herds of buffalo and other wildlife to the region long before the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway line began delivering health-seekers in the late 1870s.”

“Mostly, we come down here to sell pumpkins,” James tells me as he takes a break from restocking the pumpkin display. “We’ve been coming here for six years and it’s a special place. People really enjoy buying pumpkins.” Retired from the state’s highway department, James enjoys raising pumpkins almost as much as Jennie enjoys seeing the faces of youngsters and adults light up when they see the gorgeous gourds. “This year, I planted about 34 different kinds of pumpkins,” James tells me. “A lot of them didn’t come up.” His harvest was large enough to justify the 4:30 a.m. departure and a trek across mountains on winding roads to reach Route 3 in Summers County, where the market is located. The Hakes began setting up their stand around 6 a.m. and were ready for business when the gates opened two hours later. “I depend on this market to sell my pumpkins,” James says. “We’ll stay here until one or two in the afternoon.”

Vendors say the crowd of buyers gets thin as the day heats up; prime spots are in the shady section of the market grounds between the highway and the spring house/parking area to the back. Amanda Bonds, a vendor set up in the grove, says her grandparents, Ernie and Jennifer, bring their 30-foot-long camper to the grounds a day early. That guarantees their favored spot and gives them extra time to set up the tables and fill them with mostly new merchandise: DVDs, clothes, and toys they procure from Amazon.

“We get good deals on things,” Amanda says while watching over the DVD section of the booth with her boyfriend, Darrell Sharp. The family has been selling at the market for at least 15 years. Jeremy Urban, another regular who’s been selling at Pence for more than 20 years, describes these long-time sellers as “just one, big happy family.” The early birds who arrive on Saturday typically pool resources for a family picnic on the grounds Saturday evening and sleep in tents and campers. Jeremy, an Alderson resident, says the family atmosphere is what sets Pence Springs apart from the other markets where he peddles his goods. 

Barbara Burdette, a Ronceverte resident and faithful vendor, describes the market as both a family reunion and trading post for goods and information. “We get so many people from so many different places,” Barbara says. “The conversations we have with buyers are absolutely wonderful. That is interesting in itself … (buyers) they just want to talk to you.” Barbara has a great deal to say, as well. A Marine and Vietnam veteran, she served as state commander of the American Legion. “I loved every minute of it,” says Barbara of her clerical military career. She loves talking to other veterans and swapping stories over the lightly used items culled from her home and those of family and Legion friends.

 Barbara also uses the market to sell loaves of banana and salt-rising breads she bakes at home. “Salt-rising bread is very old-fashioned,” she says. “This area was known for it because it was isolated and settlers didn’t have access to stores and yeast. So, they learned how to make bread without yeast.” Barbara researched recipes and tried both the corn meal and potato avenues; she settled on the latter and makes about a half-dozen loaves for the market each week.  She usually sells out, no doubt partly due to her outgoing personality, the quality of her bread (it won a ribbon at the state fair), and knowledge of her goods and their provenance.

Bertha Morgan, who has been coming to Pence for two decades, caters to those with a taste for sweets. “I make 10 batches of fudge every week, and I go home with none,” says Bertha. “The peanut butter sells best.” Bertha and her husband Willie live about 45 minutes from the market. Willie sells pocket knives and tools, the typical “guy stuff,” while Bertha makes hand-painted wall hangings and other crafts. They stuff it all in a “flea market van” that’s ready to roll to whatever destination appeals to them that day. “This is one of the better ones, with more vendors,” she says of Pence Springs. “I have seen this place so packed, they’ve had to turn people away.”

The James family purchased the flea market property from O. Ashby Berkley in 2005; Van James II is the owner, and family members assist in its operation. In 2021, Chip James was manager.  Chip says the family worked hard to improve the grounds and parking area, especially since a flash flood several years ago caused extensive damage. The investments have paid off. Often described as the state’s largest flea market, Pence Springs draws between 150 and 200 vendors on holiday weekend Sundays like Memorial and Labor Day. Chip says campgrounds in the region—there’s one across the street—provide a ready source of buyers, essential to keeping vendors coming back.

“People buy their groceries here,” Chip says. “In this area, there’s no Walmart, so people around here wait until Sunday to buy what they need at the flea market. And that’s what really makes a flea market; if you don’t have the buyers to buy, the vendors won’t keep coming back.”

Keeping all parties happy and in compliance with the minimal number of flea market rules is Chip’s job. “I make sure everybody is parking right and happy, and I take care of the money,” he says. It’s not big money. Vendors say they pay $20 for a spot; buyers drop two quarters into gate worker Jack Yates’s hand. “He does his job real well,” Chip says of Jack. “He likes to talk to people.”

Vendors are free to sell just about anything, from rabbits and roosters to ducks and candy apples; from guns and ammo to car parts and computer games. Some vendors are there to buy, as well. In September and October, a buyer puts money in the pockets of diggers who bring goldenseal and ginseng to the market. Guns and ammunition are perennial best-sellers, along with small livestock.

The park is dog friendly for both shoppers and vendors—as long as the animal isn’t vicious and is on a leash. Joe Mullins of Cool Ridge brings his pooch, a black English shepherd named “Fluff,” to keep him company as he sells things he and his friends no longer need. “It’s just stuff out of my building,” Joe says. “It’s getting time to downsize.” A retired coal miner, Joe is a veteran flea market vendor who, in a pre-Covid world, had a hot dog cart that he operated at festivals. “Covid put that out of business,” he says. 

He keeps a small church pew next to his folding chair so buyers can sit and chat if they don’t mind the smell of the market’s namesake spring. Vendors and buyers alike can avail themselves of the free water if they dare. It runs 24/7 out of an iron pipe under the spring house.

“It’s surprising to me how many people come here to get water,” says Chip, who describes it as “pretty rank stuff if you smell it before you drink.” While he’ll drink it in instances when he’s working on the grounds and didn’t bring an alternative, he prefers to refrigerate it until the sulfur odor dissipates. “The taste is fine, it’s just that sulfur smell,” Chip says, referring to the “rotten egg” stench of hydrogen sulfide.

The mineral spring’s water was held in much higher esteem in 1904 when it won a silver medal in its class at the St. Louis Exposition. Michael M. Meador, writing in The West Virginia Encyclopedia, credits the founding and growth of the Pence Springs community to the water, which was drawing herds of buffalo and other wildlife to the region long before the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway line began delivering health-seekers in the late 1870s. Commercial development had begun a few years earlier and led to the construction of a hotel. Part of what was the Jesse Beard Plantation, the spring took on the Pence name after Andrew S. Pence purchased it in 1878 and began an extensive development project centered on the spring’s alleged healing qualities. The Pence family built a hotel on the hill above the spring, and the building still stands. 

Today, below where the hotel stands, shoppers experience retail therapy as they walk the rows of vending spaces in search of gifts, collectibles, necessities, and sustenance on a stick. A vendor who would identify himself only by his first name, “Bob,” tells me he’s been selling candy apples and Snow Cones at the market for 15 years. “I make them right under the apple tree,” Bob says of his red candy apples that sell for $2 each. “Granny Smith, Golden Delicious apples seem to make the best ones.” As Bob warms to my presence, he shares stories about his late father, who taught him how to make the candy apples and hawk them. “He ran away (from a children’s home) at the age of 14,” Bob says. “He joined the circus. He was a true showman.” Bob says his Uncle Benny was, likewise, a great circus performer who was relegated to working with the elephants after he could no longer perform in the big top’s ether. He credits these men for his gift of gab and ability to convince passersby that they need to spend a few dollars at his booth. 

Pence Springs Flea Market is located on routes 3 and 12 in Summers County. It is open Sundays from the first of April to the end of October. Admission is .50 cents a person or $1 a carload. For more information visit the website: https://pencespringsfleamarket.com/