In 1884, young Frank Wheeler Slocomb pushed on horseback into the pine-forested area west of Dothan, where he established the Slocomb Lumber Company and, with his brother Will, a naval store that produced sill, tar, rosin, turpentine, and pitch. He was active in his community and well liked. In 1901, when the Alabama Legislature designated the community as a town, it was named Slocomb. Several historic businesses helped shape the downtown as it appears today, including Dalton Pharmacy on the northeast corner of South Dalton and Slocomb Street, established in 1903; Harris Brothers Hardware across the street on the southeast corner, a mainstay since 1925; and, to the southwest, Segrest Gin and Mercantile Store, which began in the early 1940s and also remains as a historic site in Slocomb.