by Vickie Holt
When most people think of Floyd, Virginia, they think of the charming downtown district with its shops, music venues, and art galleries. But there is so much more to be found in the wider community of the county. Floyd County contains the towns of Check, Copper Hill, Indian Valley, and Willis.
It’s in the town of Willis, Virginia, that S. Peter Willis and Silas Garrett Conduff got together to open a general store for the community. This was around 1883, and the wooden-built shop could be found just about eleven miles southwest of downtown Floyd along Floyd Highway South.
Originally, this little community was called Greasy Creek, but in 1880, the name was changed to Hylton. This was to honor the Helton family who operated a store and post office there. It was around this time, however, that the Willis family settled in the area and began operating businesses in the community. Because of their influence, and because the Hylton Post Office was getting confused with the Hilton Post Office in another part of Virginia, the name of the town was changed to Willis in 1894. S. Peter Willis was a member of that influential family, and his partner, Silas G. Conduff, was the first postmaster under the town’s Willis name.
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The structure itself was built in 1910. In the 1940’s, Ray’s father, Donald Hatcher, owned it, running the location as a grocery store and gas station. Its eventual evolution to becoming a restaurant, however, is thanks in part to Ray’s mother, who started cooking for some of the local workers in the 1940’s. After some time, Ray took the reigns of the business and it operated as his restaurant from around 1990. In 2020, however, Ray Hatcher decided to retire.
