(EDITOR’S NOTE: This exploration of Wyatt Wolffe’s role in building a vital business community in Mathews complements the story of R. Wesley Foster which appeared in the Gazette-Journal in May 2025.)

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the coming of age of a number of young men in Mathews who were interested in the future economic and commercial development of the county.

They became successful entrepreneurs and businessmen. Their businesses included wholesale and retail grocery, meat, and seafood stores, automobile dealers and service stations, drug stores, general merchandise and department stores and clothing stores for men and women, including a full line of millinery.

Their successes brought prosperity to the county and support for the agriculture and commercial fishing industries that were the backbone of the local economy. These successful entrepreneurs included such men as G.S. Marchant, E.A. and W.C. Foster, Jarvis & Pugh, Ellis C. Richardson, C. Bernard Hudgins, Herbert L. Taylor, E. Pratt Twigg, L.M. Callis, R. Wesley Foster and Wyatt Wolffe.

Wolffe was born July 18, 1881 in Mathews County to Alexander Clay (A.C.) Wolffe and Florance Emma Trader Dutton (Emma J.). He had two sisters, Emma L. Wolffe, who married William L. Gleason and lived in Newport News, and Bertha B. Wolffe, who married R. Wesley Foster, another of the county’s early 20th century businessman.

Wyatt’s grandfather, master tailor John Bernard Wolffe, immigrated from Germany, through the port of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1830. By 1840 he was living in Gloucester where he married Eliza A. Dutton. They had six children including A.C. who was born in 1844. The family home at Adner, near the intersection of Routes 17 and 14, stood until it was torn down in 2003.

A.C. moved to Mathews in 1879 and was employed by the mercantile firm of Marchant & Trader at Cricket Hill. That same year he married Emma J. Trader Dutton. She had been married in 1873 to William Dutton who died less than a year later in 1874. In 1890, A.C. purchased 39 acres just outside Mathews C.H. known as Folly Farm, which became the family home. A.C. was postmaster at Mathews from February 1890 to March 1893. In October of 1893 he opened a store in the old Barnum building in Mathews. In 1895 Emma J. purchased a lot on Main Street (between Sibley’s Store and the Westville Disciples Church) from her father, Samuel Trader. Two years later A.C. built his store on the site. In 1902, Emma J. sold a portion of the lot to the L.E. Mumford Bank for their new bank building.

According to the 1900 Federal Census, Wyatt Wolffe, age 17, was a clerk in his father’s store. Wyatt’s obituary indicated that he had graduated from Goldey College in Wilmington, Delaware. The college was opened Sept. 1, 1886 by business educator H.S. Goldey with only five students. Today the college, known as Goldey-Beacom, is still in operation. In 1906 Wyatt purchased his father’s business and formed a partnership with Howard Nelson. On April 5 they reopened the store as Wolffe & Nelson, selling ready-made men’s, boys’ and children’s clothing, shoes and fine millinery. Miss Rais was in charge of the millinery department that spring and Miss Maud Miller took charge in the fall. The following year Mrs. John Enos became manager of the millinery department. Each year Wyatt would go to Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia on buying trips for the store and usually found someone there to run his millinery department.

In April 1908 Wyatt dissolved his partnership with Howard Nelson but continued the store as Wyatt Wolffe. The first advertisement for the store appeared April 9, 1908 in the Mathews Journal. As with other successful businessmen, Wyatt Wolffe advertised in the Mathews Journal on a regular basis. Between 1909 and 1913 Wolffe had several managers for his millinery department. Many of them came from Baltimore.

While operating his successful business Wyatt Wolffe found time to marry Mattie Eoline Winn in a small wedding on Nov. 28, 1911 in Norfolk, at her cousin’s house. In the Nov. 21, 1919 issue of the Mathews Journal in the Social & Personal Section: “Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt Wolffe left on Sunday for Norfolk, where they will make their future home. Mr. Wolffe sold out his stock of dry goods and closed his store at Mathews C.H.”

On February 27, 1919 the following notice appeared in the Mathews Journal: “To Reopen Store Here. Messrs. Wyatt Wolffe and Edgar Foster will open a store here shortly in the building formerly occupied by Mr. Wolffe. Both of them have been in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore this week purchasing goods for their new business. Both of the young men are well known as successful merchants and will doubtless do a large business. They opened on March 6th with Mrs. Nora Enos re-opening her millinery establishment on the second floor.” In 1922, W.C. Foster (Edgar A. Foster’s brother) sold his business in Redart and became a member of the firm of Wolffe and Foster. The firm also purchased, in 1923, the empty lot on Main Street between Marchant’s Store and the Farmers and Fishermen’s Bank. In 1921 Wyatt Wolffe, E.A. Foster, W.C. Foster and W. Butts Morgan purchased 10 acres at Milford Haven Bay Shore. But in September 1923 Wyatt Wolffe, E.A. & W.C. Foster sold their 3/4 interest in the property to R.W. Foster. In 1925 E.A. and W.C. Foster purchased the mercantile business from Wyatt Wolffe. That same year the Foster brothers purchased the Marchant’s Department Store (corner of Main and Church streets) and moved their stock of goods across the street to the new store building.

On Sept. 23, 1915, Eoline Wolffe purchased a lot on Church Street between Lee Miles Store (corner of Main and Church streets) and the Hotel Mathews property. In October 1921, Wyatt Wolffe purchased the Lee Miles storehouse from Ellis C. Richardson and moved it onto the property his wife had purchased to be used as a warehouse. The following article appeared in Mathews Journal, June 18, 1925: “Wolffe To Build New Brick Store: Mr. Wyatt Wolffe is placing material on the lot between E.C. Richardon’s Drug Store and Jarvis & Pugh, for the erection of a modern store building. Mr. Wolffe plans to equip his building in the most approved fashion to conduct therein an up-to-date department store which will be a credit to the community.”

“The Ladies Store” opened Oct. 17 with “Ladies’ and Children’s Ready-to-Wear Clothing, Dress Goods, Notions, etc.” Mrs. Eoline Wolffe managed the store and was assisted by Misses Kathern Knight and Virginia Dutton. Later Mattie Foster, the sister of R.W. Foster, managed the store for Wyatt Wolffe.

With the opening of his new store on Church Street, Wyatt Wolffe returned to his old store on Main Street and opened it as “The Leader – The Store For Man and Boys.” “The Ladies Store” closed in October 1932 and opened as a Ladies’ Ready-To-Wear Department on the second floor of “The Leader.”

Wolffe leased the building on Church Street to Charlie West who opened a men’s clothing store. Two years later D. Pender Grocery Company leased the building. Then, in August 1938, H.K. Klatte consolidated his Gloucester and Mathews stores into one store in Mathews and leased the Wolffe building on Church Street. In 1941 Klatte sold the business to a Richmond firm who changed the name to Colonial 5c to $5.00 Store. That business continued to lease the building until August 1959 when it was moved to the old Powell Motors building on the corner of Main and Maple streets. The name of the business was changed to Colonial Variety Store. On July 4, 1960, The Economy Store, a subsidiary of Foster, Inc., leased the Wolffe Building on Church Steet.

At the beginning of 1934 Wyatt Wolffe constructed a new building behind his store on Main Street to house a cleaning and pressing plant which he opened in March of that year. In 1936, C.A. Moore leased the Wolffe Dry Cleaning Plant.
After closing “The Leader” in 1934, Wolffe leased the store building to W.B. & R.A. Tatterson who operated a department store on the site. In February 1944, Wyatt and Eoline Wolffe signed a contract with the Tatterson brothers to buy the store for $10,000 ($1,000 down and $1,000 a year at 5 percent interest until paid off). In March 20, 1950, Wyatt and Eoline conveyed the store and cleaning plant to the Tatterson Brothers. With the selling of his dry-cleaning business, it appears that it is the last business that Wyatt Wolffe owned. The Tatterson Brothers operated the store until July 1959 when they tore it down and built a new Ben Franklin Store on the site.

Both Wyatt and his wife purchased a number of commercial and non-commercial properties in both Mathews C.H. and the county. Wyatt purchased the Mathews Lodge No. 36, Independent Order of Odd Fellows in December 1943. He remodeled the building—lowered the floor to street level, added large show windows, and painted the building. In December 1948 W.B. Clements opened a Western Auto Associate Store in the building which continued in business at this site until 1955 when the store moved across the street to a new site.

Other properties that Wyatt and Eoline purchased included a lot at Hyco Corner and the adjacent Order of Red Men Hall property. The Wolffes had a residence at Hyco Corner for a number of years. Eoline purchased a two-acre lot south of Westville Baptist Church from Mattie Virginia Sears in 1946. They lived in the Sears House on that lot until 1956 when it was torn down to build a new Gulf Service Station. Between 1929 and 1950 Wyatt and Eoline purchase a number of wood land lots outside Mathews Court House totaling almost 50 acres.

Eoline also purchased about 40 acres of land at Fitchetts Wharf because of her family association with that area. She was the daughter of Alexander C. Winn (A.C.) and Mattie Lee Hudgins. She had two brothers and four sisters. A.C. Winn had moved to Mathews County sometime between 1880 and 1885 from Lunenburg County. He married Mattie in December 1885 and they lived at Fitchetts where he was a nursery salesman. His wife died March 1918, at the age of 58, and is buried in the family cemetery at Fitchetts. By 1920 A.C. Winn was living in Norfolk, working as a nursery salesman. After a long illness he died March 1926, at the age of 73, and is also buried in the family cemetery at Fitchetts.

Wyatt and his wife Eoline were members of the Westville Christian Church. They had one daughter, Winifred, who had a son William Tayler Vrooman Jr. Wyatt Wolffe died on Oct. 21, 1953 at the age of 72. He and Eoline had been married for 42 years. Upon his death, according to his will, Eoline inherited all his property. Wyatt is buried at Christ Church Kingston Parish Cemetery. Eoline lived for 29 years after her husband’s death. She passed away on Jan. 19, 1982, at the age of 95, after a long illness. She too is buried at Christ Church.