This photograph was submitted to the White County Historical Society in June 2007 by Billie Grunden of Jasper, Texas, who provided the following information:

PATE BROS. GROCERIES, 1915
This grocery store was owned by my grandfather Elijah Temple Pate. At first, Elijah and his brother Thomas Pate were partners in the store, but Elijah soon bought him out. The store was located across from the railroad station in West Point. When the train stopped, the passengers would walk over to purchase cold drinks and snacks. This picture was taken around 1915. After my grandfather's death, my grandmother, Mary Helen Gilpin Pate, kept the store open. The Great Depression brought hard times to the area, and she was compassionate and let people have groceries knowing they could not pay for them. In the 1930s, the store was torn down, and a home was built for Mary Helen Pate on the site. The home is still in West Point, but the train tracks are gone. Elijah and Mary Helen are both buried in the West Point Cemetery. Elijah Temple Pate was born Sept. 5, 1876, in Wayne County, NC, and died August 31, 1919 in West Point. His parents were William Joseph and Smithey Pate. Mary Helen Gilpin Pate was born September 25, 1881, in Ouachita Parish, LA, and died October 29, 1948, in Searcy. Her parents were James D. Gilpin and Rachel Lee Groves (the first wife of James Gilpin). My dad, William E. Pate, has many fond memories of his childhood in West Point. A few years ago, he recorded some of them for his grandchildren.