Hamilton County Texas Archives History .....Fairy, Texas August 3, 1962 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/txfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Dorman Holub searchersofourpast@gmail.com May 15, 2024, 4:11 pm In 1904, Fairy, Texas had two good general merchandise stores, one operated by Sid Jenkins and the other by John G. Fort. Later, the Fort Store was owned by Nonie Leeth of Hico and later an interest sold to M.E. Parks of Fairy and the store was known as Leeth & Parks and moved to Hico. For a time, the store was known as Parks Brothers when C.C. Parks bought half interest in the store. Then came the two sons of M.E. Parks, Audie and Elzie who purchased an interest in the business as their uncle had sold his interest. Then the store was known as M.E. Parks & Sons. In 1951, the father passed away and the boys continued to operate the store as Parks Brothers. The store was destroyed by fire twice. The last time is was not rebuilt and we lost the main link of our town in the loss. Back in those early days Fairy had two drug stores, the Dr. S.W. Young and another operated by Samuel “Sam” H. Cooper. We boasted a hotel, operated by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Lee Trimmier and her sister, Miss Sallie Morgan. Another sister who made her home at the Trimmier Hotel was Mrs. Wright, who operated a millinery shop in Fairy. Fairy had a barber shop, and at one time there were two, operated by Frank Spencer, Gerald Licett, Jim Jacobs, Herman Sills, and probably others. Fairy had a confection shop operated by Tom Wilson, later by Charlie “Skeet” Hackett, Bill McGlothlin, Ed Allison, and Otto Jordan. There was a post office in Fairy with the following postmasters – A.P. Rainey, W.E. Goyne, Ed Allison. Mr. Goyne served the longest term. There were three doctors in Fairy – Dr. Samuel Wade Young, Dr. Ovee John Colwick, and Dr. Cowan. Those were the horse and buggy days. We can picture the pair of gray horses Dr. Colwick drove. Fairy had a good blacksmith shop and for a short time there were two. These were operated by A.J. Basham, Anderson White, Hovey Blakley, Jeff Newman and probably others. Fairy had four churches – Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ, and Presbyterian. The Presbyterian Church burned during the early 1930s. Members that were here at that time later moved away or worshipped at the Methodist Church. Fairy had three-room, two-story school building. The upper floor was the auditorium in later years. The upper floor was removed and an extra room built on the ground level. Fairy had three teachers and the public open tabernacle, or one of the churches was used for all public gatherings until the new building was built in 1930. We had no school water system as we have now and school boys carried the water In open buckets on a stick from the public well owned by Willy T. Newman. Those buckets sat on a bench with an old-time dipper to the bucket. Many are the times we have gone thirsty rather than drink from these buckets, as the little fellows and sometimes the larger ones would drink only a few swallows from the dipper full of water and back the rest went. Coal or wood was used for fuel, mostly coal. There was no lunch room and pupils living out too far to go home for lunch brought their lunch In mostly the old tin lunch pail Pupils sat around the building to eat when the weather permitted. Oh, those big biscuits of mothers with a slice of that good country cured bacon or ham and a piece of fried pie made with those home grown canned or dried peaches and maybe a piece of candy or fresh fruit. There were no buses in those days and many of the pupils walked three or more miles, or maybe some would ride horseback or come in a cart or buggy. The Jones boys, Alsa and Elmer and Robert Foster, all the Lanham community rode horses eight miles to attend Fairy school. At that time, Professor Ben Randals was their teacher and ours, and bless his memory. He was one of the best in our school days. All roads were just dirt roads. Later gravel was put in some of the places which were almost impassible in bad weather. There were branches and creeks with no bridges and if it came a flood and you were caught on the other side you just had to wait until the creek ran down. We live near what is called Sycamore Creek there was a night during a meeting when it came an awful rain and all the members who lived south of this creek stayed in our home the remainder of the night. We had beds and pallets all over the house. Many times, our late husband and sons would rig up a team, or in later years, get out the tractor to pull someone out of a mud hole and we had a good one here near our home. Later, came the school bus and all bus roads were graveled, but oh, that dust. Then in 1947 surveying began for the 1602 Farm Road which was completed in 1948. This reached from Hico to Highway 22 at Lanham and was later extended to Jonesboro. Then about 1952 or 1953 the 219 Farm Road was completed from Fairy to Cranfills Gap and 1961 the 219 road was completed on to Olin where it made connections with the west end of the road to Dublin. In 1938, Professor William “Will” Milton Horsley who was the superintendent of Fairy School worked hard to secure electricity for Fairy. Now most homes have electricity. In 1962, Fairy has good roads, school, churches, a service station and store, and people who love Fairy even though we are now few. Back in 1904 there were few graves in the cemetery. Since that time there have been two additions of ground, and we now have more than 500 graves. One can see where some of the population has gone. May of those gone on lived their allotted time of three score and ten years. Since has come the tractor, farm control programs which have cut down on the need of farm laborers, therefore our younger men and families have gone elsewhere to seek employment. The cities have claimed them. Mr. Parks had provided a playground south of his store where the kiddos enjoyed games of various kinds and some of the mothers went along and sat on the benches provided at the store. We had very little illness in those days and most minor cases were taken care of by the mother. /s/ Mrs. Eunice Daniel August 3, 1962 Additional Comments: The Fairy Post office closed in 1957 and the school consolidated with Hamilton in 1967. 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