By Daerra Stull
Matthew and Tonya Oak opened Glen General Store LLC on November 10, 2015. Matthew was a former OTR truck driver and Tonya was a stay-at-home mother with five children. Matthew travelled the road truck driving for seven months. In the time being, Tonya and the children had relocated to their Glen property and started a small farm. Matthew and Tonya had dreamed about and prayed for a large property to raise all their children. They wanted a farm to supply their own food, an area substantial enough to raise a garden and a location to have their own grocery and feed store. The Glen property, which is the former Mullins’ Store location in Glen, was their dreams come true.
Matthew gave up the career of truck driving and with his final pay check, he invested into feed to stock part of the store building they were lease purchasing. It started out very small, but it’s continuing to grow as their amazing, compassionate, supportive community stands behind their decision to reopen this old store building to help serve their local and surrounding communities. In addition, there are still building repairs to be completed in the larger part of the store in which they plan to open as a grocery store and they hope to reopen the post office as well.
This year, in late spring, early summer, they are striving to hold a community pig roast and possibly an auction to help attract new customers and raise money to continue the repairs of the well-known historical building and to grow and expand their business. They are a large family making great strides to grow a business in an economically rough time to help themselves and their neighbors. They have several plans which are not limited to the grocery store, feed store, and post office business. The Oak’s family would like you to be a part of their success to help them grow by being a local patron and supporter of this once lively grocery and general merchandise business, which has many warm heartfelt memories to so many from countless years before.
