Today we're going to talk about a candy store in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and about how

candy stores have always played a big role in the town's history.

Back in the 1840s, a German immigrant named Frederick Roder set up a little sweet shop in

Harper's Ferry.

He sold cakes, candies, and pies and lived right upstairs for about 15 years.

But then came the morning of July 4th, 1861.

By that time, the Civil War had arrived. Union troops were moving in.

Roder ventured outside his shop to check out the scene. Some say to get a look at the union flag flying just across the river.

He was a union sympathizer himself. He was hit by a ricocheting bullet, and then he died.

Which means the town's first civilian casualty of the Civil War

was the local candy shop owner.

Today, the connection between candy and history

is still going strong in Harper's Ferry.

There's a plaque marking the site of Roder's old store.

Aunt, just a few steps away, down a street called Hogs Alley, is a place called True Treats.

It's a candy shop, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

It's also sort of an edible timeline of the history of candy.

We are not a candy store. We're a museum where you can eat the displays.

I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

And today's episode is brought to you in partnership with the West Virginia Department of Tourism.

Today we're going to eat our history.

We will meet candy scholar Susan Benjamin, who founded what she calls the only research-based historic candy shop in the country.

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