Harmon Co. OK - History (William Lewis Hollis, son of George Washington Hollis, founder of Hollis) ********************************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** The submitter has given permission to Bill Cook and the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. 7/22/2002 ********************************************************************** Submitted by: Neil and Rose Hollis, rosehollis@msn.com ********************************************************************** HOLLIS OF HOLLIS By Ola C. Hopkins (Reprinted from The Daily Oklahoman, 1950) W.L. Hollis has grown up with the Harmon County city that bears his family name. Now, past 70, he's young in spirit, physically fit and still very active in the business and civic affairs of his community. When Hollis was just a house on a hill at the turn of the century, the dashing young man of the town was Will L. Hollis, who became the town's chief promoter and booster. He still is, after more than a half century, Founding a city was a far cry from "going west to get rich in the cattle business.".but that was the lure that beckoned from the Arkansas home of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Hollis and their 10 children of whom W.L. was the oldest of six sons and four daughters. When the Hollises pitched camp on that cold November night in 1898, and looked over the short grass plains there were no plowed fields, and the only evidence of the cattle country was native grass and a distant campfire or two. Once camp was set up, within a stone's throw of Texas to the south and west, the father and three elder sons including W.L., A.D. and the late Tom set out to spy out the land. They quickly decided to stay. Neighbors were few and far removed, and cowboys and cattle herds were in possession of the vast expanse. Once the decision to remain was made, the family put up a typical frontier abode with material from covered wagons which held all their belongings. A dugout was annexed for shelter while G. W. Hollis set out with his sons for the nearest railroad center. This was Quanah, Texas, 40 miles away. There they got provisions and lumber to build a house on a 160 acre plot which had been bought from Jess Watson for $600. Trips to market, which took the best part of two days and nights over uncharted prairies and across the treacherous Red River were not exactly to father Hollis' liking. The four-room frame residence was quickly ready for occupancy on the sight where now stands the Petty hardware store and across the street that is now Broadway was built the 14 X 28 foot box and stripped store building. It was on the site where now stands the Corner drugstore. Soon the house that was Hollis was bulging with groceries, drygoods, hardware, drugstore merchandise.everything the community might need. "Fact is" says Hollis, reminiscing, "It was a caf,, hotel, post office. Cheese and crackers and sardines, prize lunch morsels, were sold across the counter in such quantities that it kept us busy freighting from across the river to the Texas town. You could call our establishment a Motel, for we shared our crowded quarters with any stranger overtaken by night. But of course no charges were made for this service in the pioneer days. The post office came about through sheer accommodation which Tom and A.D. and I proferred. While attending play-parties, singings or what-have-you of the pioneer social get-togethers we offered to go to Witt post office 2 1/2 miles away, and bring the mail to our store.first rural free delivery in the county. We knew if we could get the people to the Hollis store, they would buy." W.L's twenty-first birthday coming on February 16 after the family's arrival, was an event of more than the usual importance. It meant not only that he could file on a quarter section of land adjoining that of his father, but it would secure the title, whereas it had taken all the strategy if not shenanigans he and his father could conjure up to keep homesteaders from filing before W.L. reached the legal age. No time was lost after the birthday except the day of trudging the 40 miles to Mangum, county seat for this area until Harmon was cut off after Oklahoma statehood. Soon the enterprising young Hollis was laying off a townsite by means of a 50 foot wire. He had an assistant in the late J.N. DeLamar who had experience in laying out the town of Whitney, Texas. Hollis made his first town-promoting deal when he gave DeLamar a half interest in ten acres of land on the north side of the main street if he would put in a wagon yard. The main street covered the borderline between the senior and junior Hollis' land. Now named Broadway, it is the thoroughfare of U.S. 62. From the day of its' founding until the present hour, Will L. Hollis has been a vital part of the city's growth and progress. "It did look like a shame to lay out a town right in the heart of my cotton field where I made three-fourths of a bale of cotton to the acre in 1900 and 1901.right where the courthouse and the highschool and junior high buildings now stand." Besides being the first farmer on the townsite, he has been a bank president, real estate and insurance agent, townsite promoter, groceryman, drugstore and farm implement dealer, undertaker, city councilman, mayor, chamber of commerce president, Rotarian, county commissioner, school trustee for nine years, trustee and worker in his church, chairman of the county election board."everything but a holder of public office", he admitted and adds, "came near being persuaded to run for state representative." After the death of his father, young W.L. began town promotion with a vim. He put in business after business and sold them almost at the buyer's price in order to bring new businesses to town. Thus he opened grocery stores, hardware, furniture, drugstore and even an undertaking parlor. His biggest promotion splurge came when he sold his interest in the 150 acres he had left after the DeLamar slice. He sold to a Rufus R. Conneller, a townsite promoter from eastern Oklahoma, for $1,600 in 1902 with the stipulation Conneller build a 50 by 80 foot two-story hotel, a bank and a general merchandise store. Meanwhile, Hollis had done very well by himself financially. He owns the $50,000 red brick Hollis Farm Implement store on East Broadway. Walk in. Maybe he will be reading, listening to the radio, smoking his pipe tilted back in his easy chair. Or he may be showing merchandise to a customer. But one thing is certain he'll greet the visitor cordially and if you want to see one or all of his seven farms he'll take you there-free. Looking up and down the street neither Hollis nor his brother, A.D. can recall a person there now who was living on the Hollis townsite when the city was founded. Although Mrs. Jim Vanderford, the former Miss Lottie Watson, sister of Jess from whom the late G.W. Hollis purchased the quarter section, lived with her parents on their homestead adjoining Hollis on the east and Mrs. Anna Whisenant, who lived at that time with her late husband on a homestead on the West. Married to Miss Ida Keys in 1900, Hollis and his bride became the first bridal of the city. Their residence was moved in recent years to make room for the extension of the farm implement company but still is in use as rental property in the residence section. The present newer and larger home is on the opposite corner. Hollis recalls that the honeymoon suite was in a one-room dugout with furnishings so bare they could be hauled in a small farm wagon with plenty of room to spare. "But we were happy." The bridesmaid was Miss Emma Pennington and the best man was Arthur Abernathy. This couple was married just a little while later with Mr. and Mrs. Hollis as attendants. Mrs. Abernathy died in Altus recently. Dr. E. Arthur Abernathy practices there as an eye, ear and throat specialist. It took two days by horse and buggy to get the license from the county seat in Mangum. The bridegroom-elect was accompanied by his father and brother, Tom. Life was busy in those days. Children came along, three sons-the late George, then Webb and Gale, and a daughter Mrs. Glen Nance, whose families remained to grow up here. Mrs. Hollis died in the spring of 1944. There are now seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren. When he gets a yen for a reunion with his brothers and sisters, all he has to do is give the tribal call and in will flock A.D. from across town, Dr. Edwin Hollis from Bristow, Dr. Jess from Mangum, G.C. from Altus, Mrs. Gertrude Pendergraft and Mrs. Lynn Garrison from Amarillo, Mrs. Curg Williams from Clovis, New Mexico and Mrs. Walker Hays from Lamesa, Texas, a grand total of 63 descendants from the one-house-city on the hill. A granddaughter, Peggy Hollis, is drum major of the Sooner Band at Norman and Joe Dale Hollis is quarterback on the Hollis highschool Tiger football squad. ********************************************************************** Note, William Lewis Hollis, Feb. 16, 1878-Sept. 20, 1954 Bill Cook, Harmon Co. OKGenweb, county coordinator and archivist. billcook44@aol.com 7/22/2002 **********************************************************************