Around 1855 in Stepney, the Burr Hawley & Burritt General Store served as a gathering place where farmers assembled horse teams and wagons to bring milk to the milk station and to buy feed, hay, and grain, while residents purchased sewing supplies, groceries, and lumber. Tradition holds that Mark Twain of Redding visited to listen to local tales around the potbelly stove. The town's only motor-driven grain mill was located in the back of the store.