Heritage, Spring 2005 Page: 16
39 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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These Lone r Rots Are Also Deep
hen Collin Street Bakery wanted to market a product to complement
eir existing line of cakes and pastries, they had to look no further than the
istory of the business' own hometown, Corsicana. In the history books,
bakery officials found the story of the Royall Coffee Company, a business
that was established in 1913 in Corsicana by Texas native John Newell
Royall.
Acknowledged as the state's only exclusive coffee roaster in the
Encyclopedia of Texas, published by the Texas Development Bureau, circa
1920, Royall Coffee Company employed seven sales people who covered a
territory that included Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico.
Eleven brands of coffee were sold in packages, while 12 were sold in bulk.
Descendants of John N. Royall say that the company went out of business
on November 25, 1933, but old-timers in Corsicana still remember the days
when the smell of fresh roasting coffee beans permeated the air of that Texas
town.
It was 1841 when two traveling merchants-Thomas Gibbs and Gardner
R. Coffin- arrived in Huntsville and set up a small mercantile business on
the northwest corner of the town's square. One of the store's most loyal customers,
it is reported, was Sam Houston, who named Gibbs as executor of
his will. One hundred and sixty four years after it began, members of the
Gibbs family still operate their business interests from the same location
(though the original wood frame building was replaced with the present
brick building on the same site in 1890). Their focus now, however, is on
land and timber acquisition. The company, which began as Gibbs and
Coffin, has been out of the mercantile business since 1922, and is now called
Gibbs Brothers and Company.
One store that is still in the retail business is Belton's Cochran, Blair, &
Potts Department Store, said to be "Texas' Oldest Family Owned
Department Store." Henry Mansfield Cook opened his first store in
Centerville, Texas, in 1869, and five years later established the firm of H.M.
Cook and Company with his son-in-law, Thomas W. Cochran. The pair
relocated the business to Belton in 1884.
Though it went through a series of name changes and the store's inventory
was destroyed in a 1928 fire, the business emerged in 1929 under the
management of J.S. Blair, H.T. Cochran, A.H. Potts, H.E. Blair, and Roy
Campbell Potts. The corporation was dissolved in 1938, and the business
became a partnership owned by members of the Cochran, Blair, and Potts'
families. In 1970, the company became solely owned by descendants of Roy
Campbell Potts.
The state's oldest drugstore is located in Cuero. In 1845, German immigrant,
Dr. Joseph M. Reuss established a drug store under his name in
Indianola, an old Texas seaport town.
Besides being a druggist and physician, Reuss was also a shrewd businessman.
After learning that the railroad would go through Cuero, Reuss, who
remained in Indianola, opened a branch store in Cuero in 1872 with his eldest
son, Dr. August J. Reuss, who operated the business.
Three years later, a hurricane destroyed much of Indianola so J.M. Reuss
moved the remains of his operation to Cuero. He remained there until he
died in 1908, and his business, J.M. Reuss & Son Drug Store, operated in the
same building on Cuero's Main Street for 99 years. Though the business has
op to bottom: Royall Coffee Company artifact, now been moved to another location, it still operates as a drug store, comourtesy
of Sean Royall. Potts Department Store plete with a museum that houses some of the original pharmacy implements
iaaes by Bill Holmes. and artifacts. -Gene KraneHE RITA G E I SPRING 2005
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Spring 2005, periodical, Spring 2005; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45370/m1/16/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.